Sunday August 28 — Almost every day, Eric spends time obsessively checking the weather forecasts, poring over the cruising guides, and seeking advice on where to take Kosmos next. One of the most wonderful things about the Sea of Cortez is that it is loaded with anchorages. The problem is that most of the anchorages only protect from wind/swell from one or two directions, and in the summer, the wind shifts directions frequently. So, an anchorage may be great for the winds predicted during day, but will be terrible at night once the wind changes direction. It’s been tricky to find suitable anchorages for the weather predicted. What complicates matters it that the weather forecasts haven’t always been accurate. 

After the very rough time in Bahia San Francisquito, Eric decided to bypass many beautiful, but questionable, anchorages and head directly to an all-weather anchorage called Puerto Don Juan, seven miles east of Bahia Los Angeles. It was an eight-hour ride from San Francisquito. 

We are pleased to report that the ride was smooth. The wind was behind us and the seas were relatively calm. We had a couple of stowaways, who made a huge mess when they sat on the boat deck by the dinghy. Can anyone identify these birds? There were tons of them in Bahia San Francisquito. 

We arrived at about 1800. Here is a shot of the bay taken as we were approaching.

Despite the strong 15-knot winds, the anchorage was calm. There didn’t appear to be any bugs, so we could leave the doors open and enjoy good ventilation. We felt like we’d arrived in paradise.  

We were all exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before, so it was an early night for us. 

When Christi went out to watch the sunrise, she was surprised to see lots of dolphins swimming around the boat.

Here are a couple of photos of the sunrise on Monday. The first is looking to the southeast. The dip between the hills is a small beach. The second is looking west at the entrance to the bay.

On Monday morning, Eric decided we needed to use the DC water maker to keep it exercised.  He also decided that this was a great time to monitor the energy input of the solar panels and wind generator vs the output we use, so he didn’t run the generator like he normally does in the morning.

Around noon, we decided that we should get off the boat. We went on a dinghy ride around the anchorage. The first stop was the beach.

The second stop was a little bay within the bay called The Bathtub. On the way to The Bathtub, west of the beach, there was a shipwreck. We stopped to take a look and noticed two coyotes there!

The tip of the little strip between The Bathtub and the main part of Don Juan was loaded with birds.

Christi got off the dinghy to take some photos. The first photo are Eric and Keith in the dinghy at the west end of The Bathtub. The second is the strip of land between the main and inner bays.

In the early evening, we went over to a neighboring boat for a little party with all of the people currently in the anchorage. The people were nice and we had a great time.

All in all, Eric had run the DC water maker for seven hours, and it made as much water as the AC unit makes in three hours. The verdict on the energy generation is that the input is enough to keep the batteries charged if we are not on board (meaning, really only powering the refrigerators and freezers), but that the battery does slowly lose charge when we are onbard and using more electricity. 

When Eric did finally turn on the generator after we returned in the evening, he also turned on the AC water maker. He was frustrated to discover that it wasn’t working quite right. We can’t remember if we mentioned this at the time or not, but when we were in Santa Rosalia, Eric had identified that the AC water maker sensor was dirty and needed to be cleaned. Unfortunately, a specialized tool is needed to take the sensor out to clean it, so he had not been able to clean it. Sigh. It isn’t a crises because we have the DC water maker, but it is an inconvenience because the DC water maker is relatively slow.

Here is the sunset, looking to the north. The low lying piece of land is called “the window” because you can see the islands located beyond the anchorage.