The past few months have been very busy for us. James has completed two deliveries to California, one to San Francisco where he got to spend a few days with family, but not nearly enough time! and the second one he just finished in San Diego, due to poor weather windows they were not able to make it all the way to Humboldt county as originally planned. I was not complaining that he was home early…I'd only spent 4 days with him in the last two months.
We are currently in La Paz, anchored right off the Malecon. The weather is getting warmer every day. We've gotten to where all chores, and errands ashore are completed by 1pm, and we're back on the boat with fans blowing and all shades pulled for the afternoon sweat bath.
Yesterday….no lets go back to Thursday the 24th. About 1pm a sudden wind picked up, blowing about 25 knots with gusts up to 38, causing the largest wind waves we've seen in the area. Two boats drug anchor, a large power boat and a white ketch. They had been anchored near the Magote, quite some ways from us on the Malecon, but after watching closely for a while, we realized we were directly in the path of the white ketch. We set out fenders, got out our poles so we could fend off, and started the engine, just in case. Just in case was the case. We had about 2 minutes to get Nomatia out of the way of the ketch who was headed for our bow with it's stern. We managed to steer Nomatia hard to port so the ketch did not get hung up on our anchor. We were lucky. Our friends anchored in front of us were in the path of the blue power boat, which did get hung up on their anchor, but they were able to float it with a fender an release the anchor. They sat the rest of the storm out on their back up anchor, and the blue power boat stayed put. The same day this occurred, we heard on the radio about another boat in San Everisto who was not lucky in any way. His boat was blown ashore, the keel broke off and the boat began to take on water. Though it's a 4 hour drive on roads that could wash away any time, a group from the fleet in La Paz drove to the assistance of this poor boater. (I do not have permission to use names of people or vessels) They were able to salvage a good deal off the boat, but not the boat itself. It made us feel good, knowing that there are people out here that will jump to assist at any time.
Yesterday, we saw it coming. We pulled down the boom tent, secured all hatches and watched and waited. We got hit with gusts up to 38knots again, and rain coming down sideways. We stood in the cockpit anyway, watching for any wayward boats headed in our direction. Everyone in the fleet made it thru unscathed. The Thursday incidents had most of us on high alert, and honestly today I keep checking the sky, looking for hints of a storm. So far, it's a beautiful day.
