Sunday, September 4 – The alarm went off at 0500. Outside, there was no wind or rain, and the skies were partly cloudy. Eric did a quick weather check to see is the forecasts had changed. They’d both worsened. One model said the sustained winds were expected to be 29 knots with gusts to 55 knots. The other model said sustained winds of 52 knots, with gusts to 66 knots. The storm would hit on Wednesday morning, peak on Thursday night and die down Friday around noon. There would be .25 inch of rain every hour. Fortunately, the eye, which would bring 87-mph winds, would stay over the Pacific, so we would miss the worst of it. 

We determined that yes, we really did need to go to Don Juan. We did a few last minute things to finish getting Kosmos ready for sea and pulled up anchor at about 0600. Oddly enough, there were tons of dead termites all over the exterior of the boat. 

Our first stop was The Village, which was a short 45-minute ride. When we pulled into the anchorage, the panga fishing fleet was there. We anchored farther away from shore than we had initially intended to so that we could stay far away from the fishermen.

However, the pangas surrounded us as soon as we dropped anchor. Eric said it is because they all want to check out our cool trawler. Here is another picture f the town that is not obscured by pangas.

We went to a restaurant called Guilermo’s Hotel and Restaurant for breakfast. The restaurant portion is a flagstone patio covered by a palapa, with the edge of the patio right on the sand beach.

While we were eating, a conga line of cruisers landed their dinghies in front of Guillermo’s and went into town. 

After breakfast, we headed a few blocks inland to the grocery store. The bummer about not having a car is we can only buy what we are able to physically carry, so we couldn’t get all that much. But we have enough to last until the storm passes. It was roasting hot and super humid, making the short walk back to the beach while carrying groceries painful. 

We dinghied back to Kosmos, pulled up anchor, and by 11:20 were on our way to Puerto Don Juan. When we arrived an hour later, there were 12 boats in the anchorage, with plenty of room for more.

We chose a spot slightly north from where we’d anchored the last time, and put out 300 feet of chain. We knew there was no way we’d drag with that much chain out. 

We got the dinghy down. Eric went to all the nearby boats to find out where their anchors were located and how much chain/rode they had out. Eric confirmed that no one would crash into us (assuming their anchors held). He arrived back at Kosmos feeling calm and peaceful about riding out the storm.

Two families that we’d previously met were here. In the afternoon, one of the families hosted a kid get together. Here we are on our way back to Kosmos at sunset.