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.
On Sunday, October 16, Christi was feeling back to normal. Eric and Keith were not. Christi stayed onboard and cooked for most of the day. After lunch, Eric and Keith went to shore for the playdate with the family. They played Risk and swam. The water was still very green, so snorkeling was still off the table for us.
Eric and Keith went back to Kosmos for dinner. After dinner, the three of us went to shore for another quick visit with the family. Here is a sunset photo
We keep forgetting to mention that there is a bug here that floats on the water. The cove is full of them at night, and the fish go crazy gobbling them up.
On Monday, Eric and Keith still weren’t feeling good. We didn’t venture out until dinner time, and it was only to go to Ana’s to eat. Does anyone know what kind of bird these are? We are not sure if they are buzzards or vultures or another scavenger, and we’ve seen them frequently in Baja.
