On Tuesday morning (August 9), we left Puerto Escondido at 0830 to go to Loreto to get our park pass and do some more grocery shopping. We went to the park office first, arriving right before it was supposed to open at 0900. It was a good thing we hadn’t started the process yesterday; what we thought would take five-minutes took 1.5 hours to complete.
As part of the process, we had to go to the bank in the historic town center to pay for the pass. As we mentioned in the last post, Loreto was the first Spaniard settlement in the Californias, and was the capital until 1777. This is the Capital building.
Here is a shot of the town center plaza
Some of the streets surrounding the plaza have tree canopies
Eric spent the morning working on the dive compressor. The first order of business was standard servicing: changing the oil, filters, and hose. The hose completely disintegrated, so it is probably safe to say it was time to change it.
As he started up the compressor, air was not coming out of the final hose. He spent some time trying to troubleshoot the source of the problem, but at noon, he had to put the project aside. It was time to pick up our rental car and play tourists!
On Friday morning (August 5), the water was again calm and clear when we awoke. We got Kosmos ready for sea first thing in the morning. This included bringing up and securing the dinghy, bringing in and securing the flopper stopper plates/paravane poles, bringing in the snubber line (which is basically a shock absorber for the anchor chain), securing all loose items on board, etc. We weren’t leaving early; we just wanted to have everything done before the tourist pangas started roaring past us, creating wakes. Then we went for a swim around the boat and saw a lot of fish, including a pair of puffers sitting on our chain at the bow of the boat.
We set off for Puerto Escondido a little before noon and arrived around 1500. It is less stressful for us to go someplace we’ve been before. This time we were assigned to a different dock. We spent a couple of hours at the pool and had dinner at the marina restaurant. In the evening, we got to know our new neighbors.
Here is a picture of the sunset, looking at the north end of the bay. The topography of this picture is important for the next part of the story. While there are taller mountains to the west and south, the east and north parts of the bay are protected by low hills with gaps.
On Saturday (August 6), in the wee hours of the morning, Eric was awoken again. He saw that wind picked up to 23 knots. There was lightning, thunder and later a heavy rain. Eric was shocked to see that the waves were big enough that they were splashing over the end dock where the big boats tie up.
I liked Puerto Escondido. On Friday, Dan and Drake came over and swam with me. Dad ordered pizza from the marina restaurant. J’ai aimé Puerto Escondido. Vendredi Dan et Drake sont venus et ont nagé avec moi. Papa a commandé une pizza au restaurant de la marina.
On Saturday, we went to Dan’s house. Drake and I played lots of video games. Then we went out to eat. Samedi nous sommes allés à la maison de Dan. Drake et moi nous avons joué à beaucoup de jeux vidéo. Après nous sommes sortis manger dehors.
On Sunday, Dan, Drake, and the kids from a boat named Whirlwind went to the pool. Then Russell and Josie from Whirlwind came over. Dimanche, Dan, Drake, moi et les enfants d’un bateau appelé Whirlwind sommes allés à la piscine. Après Russel et Josie de Whirlwind sont venus.
On Wednesday morning, Eric was woken up at 0400 by some noise. He went up to check to see if all was okay, and found that we were in the middle of a quite a bit of wind and the boat had moved a lot. There was also an occasional bolt of lightning, but no thunder. In the summer, it is not uncommon for windstorms to hit the Sea of Cortez between 0300 and 0500.
On the wind gauge you can see the wind picked up speed from almost zero knots to over 20 knots in 45 minutes. Christi and Keith awoke not long after Eric did. On VHF radio Eric heard a call out to boats in the anchorage saying that it looked like one of the sailboats was dragging. Eric responded, but the sailboat that was possibly dragging did not. Eric blew a portable air horn 5 times towards the sailboats, but the other sailboat boat nearby said the wind was too loud and could not hear it. Eric turned on the radar and monitored not only our boat, but all the boats in the anchorage for dragging. Fortunately after the initial movement from the wind, no one dragged. This picture is blurry, but it shows how much and how fast we moved when the wind kicked in. Usually it is small movements around a spot after we anchor, this was a big continuous move as the wind really picked up.
The winds calmed down at dawn, but the swell caused by the winds persisted for most of the day. The swells were exacerbated by the pangas (little fishing boats) speeding past us with the tourists. We met the person on the boat who Eric talked to. He was glad we were able to monitor the boats with our radar. His name was Nick, and we decided the next day we would go do the hike up the volcano together.
