On Friday, November 18, the crescent moon was still shining brightly even as the day dawned.
Oceananigans in the glow of sunrise
Eric was eager to refill the tanks and dive again, so he spent some time in the early morning working on the dive compressor. He took apart the part he believed to be broken to the best of his ability to see if it could be easily fixed, lubricated it and put it back together. Still not working. He gave it Mike on Oceananigans, who also took it apart to look at it. It sounds like Mike didn’t do anything much different than Eric did, but after he returned the part, the compressor was kind of working. However, there seems to be an issue with another part.
The wind died in the morning, and the tiny flies came out to the boat. The tiny flies didn’t bite, but they were super annoying as they tended to gravitate towards the eyes, ears and nose. We got Kosmos ready to go to sea and pulled up anchor at 10:45.
Tonight’s forecast was heavy winds from the west, and this anchorage had no western protection. Since it was already an uncomfortable anchorage with the wind coming from a direction that the anchorage was protected from, we knew it would be intolerable once the wind changed. There weren’t many anchorages in the area with good protection from western winds. The most protected was San Evaristo, and we happily decided to go back there.
Over the last few days, the strong winds had been blowing from the north. Even though the wind had died, the swell from the sustained winds was still strong. The waves were small and rapid, which was called “square seas.” We were going north, so we were in head seas. Kosmos was hobby-horsing like crazy. Keith and Eric both got sick.
The uncomfortable conditions only lasted about 3 hours. Once we got into the shadows of Isla San Francisco and Isla San Juan, the ride smoothed out considerably.
We arrived in San Evaristo at about 1630 (4:30ish). We anchored in the same nook. We were delighted that it was flat as a pancake. After all the rocking in Ensenada del Candelero, we were grateful for the calm. We laid low in the evening. Here is the sunset
After dark, Eric went outside. He noticed that there was bioluminescence in the water on the side of the boat. In the past, when we’ve seen bioluminescence, the water lit up when moved. This was different — they were glowing spots of light in the water, with some spots bigger than others and some spots brighter than others. At first we thought they were jellyfish, but Eric turned on a spotlight and saw only regular fish. We’re speculating that the fish were eating whatever was glowing.
Sunrise on Saturday. Christi thinks the golden cloud looks like a cat.
It was the perfect day to do chores. The anchorage was flat as a pancake and the temperatures were idyllic. Eric was a chore machine. He changed generator oil, changed the impeller, changed fuel filter, cleaned a sea strainer, and worked on the dive compressor. He adjusted the part that he suspected wasn’t working and took the final pressure valve off and adjusted it. He got the compressor kind of working. It looks like it can partially fill a tank to 1,500 PSI. That is enough to meet our bottom cleaning needs.
In between his chores, we went to the restaurant for breakfast. We got our huevos rancheros! Fried eggs smothered in ranchero sauce, served with beans, a piece of cheese and tortillas.
We haven’t talked about trash much. Eliminating trash can be a problem in rural areas. This restaurant took out trash for a small fee. After breakfast, we stopped by the green store and saw that they had eggs and tortillas in stock, though no produce.
Yesterday, Oceanangians had opted to go to Isla San Francisco. At about 1330 (1:30 pm), they called and said it was calm and there was no bugs in the anchorage. They encouraged us to join them there. As happy as we were in San Evaristo, and as leery as we were of Isla San Francisco, we couldn’t resist the draw of playmates for Keith.
We got Kosmos ready to go and pulled up anchor at about 1500 (3:00 pm). We ran a little faster than normal to get in while the sun was still high in the sky for good visibility for anchoring. The seas were mostly calm, though there was a bit of motion near the end of the ride. In the post where we arrived in Isla San Francisco, we mentioned the perfect crescent bay, but hadn’t posted a photo. Here is the bay from the distance.
We arrived at about 1630 (4:30 pm). The anchorage was packed! We anchored on north side, close to where we were last time.
Oceananigans picked up Keith as soon as we dropped anchor. Eric and Christi got Kosmos situated, then headed over to their boat to visit. Here is Kosmos in the sunset.
