Thursday, September 9 – We were all up very early. In good news, the forecast had improved to only 30 to 40-knots of sustained winds with gusts to 50. Also, the worst of the storm would hit in the late afternoon, not after dark. Taking the storm at night was scary because it meant we wouldn’t necessarily be able to see a problem arise and head it off, so having it hit in daylight was very comforting. While Kay was a category 1 hurricane out in the Pacific, it was merely a tropical storm strength here in the Sea of Cortez.

In the early morning, there was light rain and no wind at all. This was taken at 0715.

At 0730, the wind started. 1000 is when it started to get strong. We actually had a relatively normal morning until 1100. At that point, Eric and Christi stopped everything and did nothing for the rest of the day but watch the storm from the pilothouse while Keith played video games.

At 1150, there was a 39-knot gust. Kosmos moved 60 feet closer to shore. Eric freaked out, thinking that the anchor had dragged. He did some quick math and realized that the chain was now as streched out as it could be and the anchor was holding firm. That was a relief!

At about 1245, one of the boats announced over the radio that a large piece of debris had broken off the sunken sailboat and was floating through the anchorage, and warned everyone to watch out for it. 

A few minutes later, another boat reported that the debris approached their boat, but the dogs aggressively barked at it and, in the dogs’ minds, scared the debris away from their boat. The dogs were proud of themselves. A little while later, a second piece of debris, wood with nails sticking out, also floated off the sunken boat. 

By 1245, we had sustained winds of 20+ knots. The biggest gust at that point was 39 knots. 

The sustained winds slowly but steadily crept up. The big gusts became more common and bigger. At 1330 we had a gust at 42.8 knots. By 1425, the sustained winds were at 30 knots and we had a gust of 54-knots. Some birds had been flying near the boat when the gust came, and one of the birds lost control of its flight and was blown away in the gust. Poor bird!

At 1445, we had another big gust. Our speed over ground registered that our speed over ground was 0.6 knots.

Waves at 1500

Here is a shot of another large gust at 1730.

By 1600, the sustained winds were about 35 knots, with many, many gusts over 40. The wind generator overheated and shut itself down. According to the forecast, this was supposed to be the peak.

Only 15-minutes later, we were at sustained 40-knots with a gust to 61 according to one boat that announced the speed on the radio. However, our boat registered that gust as only in the 50s, which made us start to wonder if we were more sheltered from the wind than some of the other boats.

At 1730, Kay was downgraded from a category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm.

This video was taken at 1745. We think our neighbors were heeling more than we were.

That video was taken as fog/rain was starting to roll in. Within a few minutes, the moisture was so thick that we couldn’t see anyone but our closest neighbors. The rain intensified significantly.

By 1815, the sustained winds were down to the 30s. This was taken at 1830, as the rain was starting to thin.

When the rain lifted some more, we noticed that a river had formed along the mountain, making the water muddy. We decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to run the generator or make water given the muddiness.

By 1930, the sustained winds were down to 25 knots, and it felt calm to us. We guess it is all relative, because this morning when it was up to 25, it felt bumpy and rocky. Christi felt like things had calmed down enough that we were safe at went to bed at 1930. Eric watched the storm until 0130.

Given the circumstances, we felt like everything went really well. The anchor held and Kosmos handled the waves fine. No boats dragged and there was no major damage to any of the boats in Puerto Don Juan.

The great anchorage made the tropical storm not seem that bad. We feel like we had some much rougher and scarier times during our circumnavigation, such as the passage from Bali to Singapore.

We were also glad that we didn’t have to go through storm alone. It was comforting to be near other people, especially because these were especially nice people. We were chattering on the radio all day long, offering one another helpful advice, feedback on whether something was a good idea or not, moral support, and making jokes to lighten the mood. It would have been a lot scarier if we were by ourselves.