Thursday, December 22, 2011

At anchor in Ensenada de los Muertos

I arrived at Muertos yesterday morning at 5:45am. I left Los Frailes Wednesday morning at 7:30 wanting to sail to Muertos. The forecast looked favorable for sailing, given enough patience. I got away and sailed until 11:30 when the wind died to 2-5 knots and with the waves that were out there, that wasn't enough to make any progress. I waited for wind to arrive until 11:30pm when my patience ran out. I calculated that if I started motoring I could make up the 30 miles remaining out of the initial 46 by dawn which would be a good time to arrive and anchor. So I started motoring...and the wind started to arrive. My course was NW and so was the wind. By this time I was getting tired - I can't sleep as well when close to shore as I can when further away. I continued motoring toward my destination looking forward to a few hours of solid sleep...and the wind built and built. The forecast for his time was NW 10-15 and by 3am I started seeing NW 20-25. By the time I arrived at anchor the wind had fallen to NW 10 or so.

When I pulled into the anchorage I spotted Sockdolager (Jim and Karen) who I keep crossing paths with. Cool. I saw them in Cabo San Lucas as well.

I spent my first day here doing some head maintenance, and I won't go into details as its a little messy. The end result was that by around 5pm the head was working much better again.

There is a Norther (strong north winds) expected to arrive here over the next four days, so it looks like this is where I'll be spending Christmas. There is a restaurant on shore which is open Christmas day and there is some exploring here to do.

Its 8:30am, 72 degrees, the water is 70 degrees, there is a patchy blue sky and I have a new area to explore. Its too bad you all can't be here to enjoy it with me! Not all at once of course.

Take care y'all.

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4 comments:

  1. Muertos was one of our favorite places. Make sure you try the nachos at the bar onshore. And when we were there, the super swanky resort would let you hang out in their bar/pool/train room (seriously, you have to see this train set) as long as you bought some drinks.

    Happy sailing!!

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  2. Hi Craig,
    I'm glad you are finally in a place where you can get some rest. This battling headwinds does not seem like a sailor's dream. But look at the experience you're gaining! 72 and the water 70! sounds like a nice place to be. I like that Jason shared his reckoning of the place. Gives you more reason to explore and see the sights we'll miss you at lot over the holidays. Wish we could be be together, too, but understand all at once would be a burden! I wonder what the mexican dish is for Christmas. You'll have to find out and let us know. Turkey still reigns supreme here in Canada. I made some mincemeat tarts too. Yum! We'll keep in touch.
    Love, Mum PS thanks for sparing me details of the head repair! :-)

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  3. HI Craig
    That picture of "ME" looked pretty happy.
    Merry Christmas
    Chuck

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  4. We're at Marina Vista Coral in La Paz. Say hi at some point when you are in town.

    Livia (& Carol)

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