On Saturday morning (November 5), it was still rolly in the anchorage. The wind had calmed down some and the rolling had also improved improved a bit, so it wasn’t quite as bad as it had been the day before.
Eager to get to dry land, we skipped our morning chores and headed out on a hike right away. As soon as we got to shore, Christi sat down on the beach to put on her shoes and socks. Lola came running and jumped into her lap.
Sunrise on Friday, November 4
We woke up to ominously grey skies and strong, cool wind. It looked like it was going to rain, though it never did. The anchorage was rolly and uncomfortable. Eric put out the other paravane first thing in the morning. The paravane helped, but it was still uncomfortable.
Anxious to get a reprieve from the rocking, we got ready to go to shore as soon as we were done with our morning chores/school. It was the coolest day we’ve had in Baja so far, with temperatures in the low 70s. It was the perfect day for a hike!
We were shocked when we were about to get into the dinghy and saw that there were several inches of water inside. Ugh. We quickly bailed out the water and took it to the big sand bar to inspect the bottom for cracks. In good news, nothing was wrong. The drain plug had gotten loose. Eric tightened the drain plug and all was fixed!
In the Agua Verde Day 3 post, the 8th photo was of the Sea of Cortez side of the sand bar. It was flat as a pancake that day. Today, there were waves crashing on the shore.
Q: What is the difference between paravanes and flopper-stoppers? You guys seem to use the words interchangeably in your blog posts.
A: Paravanes are a stabilization system designed to be used while the boat is in motion. It involves lowering weights into the water to add more resistance to the motion of the waves. Our “fish” (weights) are 45-lbs on each side. More details can me found here and here. Unlike active-fin stabilizers, the paravane poles/fish can also be deployed at anchor to help dampen the roll in anchorages.
Flopper-stoppers are light-weight (2-lbs) flat, rectangular plates that can be hooked to the end of the paravane polls (instead of the “fish”). They are meant to be used only at anchor. They can be pushed down by a wave pretty easily, but they are resistant to coming back up, which dampens the motion. At anchor, flopper-stoppers work better than the “fish.” Since they only weigh 2-lbs each, flopper-stoppers are significantly easier to deploy and retrieve than the “fish.”
We didn’t buy real flopper stoppers until after the blog went inactive. In our old posts, we did talk about deploying the flopper-stoppers, but we had been mistakenly using the word incorrectly. What we’d meant in those old posts was “utilizing the paravane ‘fish’ while at anchor.” Sorry for the confusion.
In the recent posts from the Sea of Cortez, we’ve been careful to use the two terms accurately. When we first arrived in the Sea of Cortez, we were using flopper-stoppers at anchor. But after two failures (first, second) we’ve given up on flopper-stoppers and are back to using paravanes at anchor.
Sunrise on Thursday November 3
After we finished our morning chores, we went snorkeling along the rocks behind the boat again. Eric and Keith also donned wetsuits for extra jellyfish protection. The spot was still nice and we got to enjoy it more fully this time.
Sunrise on Wednesday November 2. As the sun rose, a massive number of birds flew over to the rocks islets.
Christi was pleased to report that she was feeling better. The day of rest did the trick! After we finished our morning chores/school, we went snorkeling along the rocks directly behind the boat. It’s always nice when we are close enough to good snorkeling/diving that we can go straight off of Kosmos. The water had cooled down; Christi wound up putting on a shortie wetsuit.
Sunrise on Tuesday, November 1
One of the sailboats left early in the morning. That boat had been on the edge of the most protected waters. We immediately picked up anchor and moved about 200 feet north into the spot where it had been. Even though we’re still not completely protected waters, this new spot was an improvement over the last spot. It’s amazing how much of a difference a couple of hundred feet can make.
Christi woke up feeling horrible. She did drag herself out of bed for a few minutes to help move the boat, but she went right back to bed and didn’t get up again until mid-afternoon.
The men got down the dinghy and went to shore. They checked out the big sand bar between the land and the big rock, then went and checked out the village. View of the shoreline looking northwest.
