Category Archives: North America

La Mona Anchorage to La Gringa Anchorage, Both in Bahia de Los Angeles

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When Eric woke up, on Sunday (September 11), a few of his toes were bruised and it was a bit hard for him to walk. Not a fun way to start the day. He is glad he did not fall farther on the stairs.

The almost full moon was visible — and magical looking — long after sunrise.

A few boats had left the Bay of LA on Saturday, but most had stayed for the party. Today, people began to part ways. One by one, people announced on the radio that they were leaving and where they were going. Even though we’d only known most of these people for ten days (some more, some less), after so much fun socializing and going through the hurricane together, we felt bonded with them. It was sad to see them go.

We weren’t going very far, just to the northern tip of Bahia de Los Angeles. Before we left, we had some of the boat kids over to play D&D for a couple of hours. 

We pulled up anchor at 1315 and headed for La Gringa, about a 1.75 hour ride from La Mona. We knew we were in the right place when we saw a giant sign on a hill that said “Welcome to La Gringa.”

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The Aftermath of Hurricane Kay

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On Friday morning (September 9), we were surprised to wake up to no wind and no rain. The storm had cleared much earlier than expected. What a relief! It did start to drizzle not long after we woke up, but the drizzle didn’t last long.

The rivers had dried up. We couldn’t believe how clear the water in the bay was! Between all the mud that had come down and the churned up water, we’d expected the water to be too dirty to run the generator or watermaker. Another happy surprise!

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Keith’s Perspective on La Mona, The Village at Bahia de Los Angeles and Hurricane Kay/Le point de vue de Keith sur La Mona, le village de Bahia de Los Angeles et l’ouragan Kay

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I liked the La Mona anchorage. Mostly, we played at the beach. I had fun with with the kids on Gen M and Double Deuce. We went to a costume party.  I liked the party at first, but toward the end, some adults were obnoxiously drunk. I played some D&D with Gen M, which was fun.

J’ai aimé l’ancrage de La Mona. Principalement, nous avons joué à la plage. Je me suis amusé avec les enfants de Gen M et Double Deuce. Nous sommes allés à une fête déguisée. J’ai aimé la fête au début, mais vers la fin, plusieurs adultes étaient désagréablement ivres. J’ai joué un peu à D&D et c’était amusant. 

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Hurricane Kay

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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!

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Continuing to Prepare for Hurricane Kay

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Here is the sunrise on Tuesday, September 6. Look at how bright the moon is despite the early morning sun.

Not long after that photo was taken, the wind picked up. We had 17-knot sustained winds with gusts to 25-knots for pretty much the entire day. Since the wind was coming from the same direction as the hurricane would be coming from, this was actually a blessing. It meant all the boats were pushed into the place that they will be during the storm, allowing each of us to more accurately judge if we are far enough away from other boats/hazards to be safe on Thursday. One boat left, deciding they’d rather ride the storm out in the Bay of LA than Don Juan. A few boats repositioned themselves into different spots here in Don Juan.

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