On Tuesday, July 14th, we left the anchorage in Bahia las Ánimas and went up around the corner to a well-known hurricane hole known as Puerto Don Juan. We weren’t planning to stay there, but we wanted to get an idea of the anchorage in case we needed to get there quickly. Puerto Don Juan looks exactly like a smallish volcano with steep sides nearly all the way around and a narrow entrance from the East. In previous hurricanes there have been up to 100 boats anchored there with little damage, although hurricanes are nearly always winding down significantly by the time they reach this far north. We couldn’t see how 100 boats could be shoe-horned into this smallish bay. We took a look around, measured the depths completely around the anchorage, and decided which of several locations we might prefer if we had the choice. Then we sailed on into Bahia de Los Angeles, anchoring in the roadstead opposite the town.
We had been advised that the tide ranges were quite high in this bay, up to 10’ from low tide to high tide, so we made sure to anchor in deeper water than the 20’ depth we usually look for. At a 20’ depth we need only about 100’ of chain to give us a safe 5:1 ratio of scope to depth. In this case we anchored at high tide in 30’ of water and let out 150’ of chain to give us the same ratio. By early the next morning we noted that our depth at low tide was about 20’; so we’re glad we gave ourselves some added depth.
We had no wind the entire day, just sweltering heat, which we kept at bay by the use of several fans in the boat. In the evening we went into the small town of Bahia de Los Angeles for dinner with Ed and Cornelia of ‘A Cappella’ (yes, I know we spend a lot of time with them) at Guillermo’s Restaurant and Bar on the beach. The prices were above average due to the fact that this is a tourist town, just 386 miles south of San Diego or approximately a 10-hour drive, with several air strips and a reputation for good fishing in the local waters. The food was fairly good, and then we found that tax had been added on top of the prices we thought we were paying – most of the restaurants where we have dined usually include the tax in the price of the meals. We had forgotten that the added tax is fairly common for tourist-oriented restaurants.
We did a little grocery shopping and returned to the boat for a completely windless night of sweltering heat. The next day we went back into town for internet work and some lunch and then decided to get away from the roadstead and find a cozier anchorage with a bit of a breeze. We motored about four miles to Isla la Ventana (the Window Isle) and found another volcano center to anchor in. That night we had a good warm breeze that helped dissipate the humidity. We were the only boat around, and it was extremely calm and peaceful. The almost-full moon came up just over the top of a peak, looking like the eyeball at the top of the pyramid on the back of the U.S. one-dollar bill. The entire anchorage was illuminated by the moon, as we rocked lazily at anchor and slept out on the cockpit lazarettes.
We woke up to find that the tide was down at least 10’ and it appeared that we were a lot closer to shore than we had thought. The sides of this volcano are at about a 45° bank; so a 10’ loss in depth brings the edge of the volcano 10’ closer. We got in the dinghy and went to shore, where Sheilagh did some shell hunting along the edge, while I followed a trail up onto one of the hills that defined the volcano top. This anchorage is about as devoid of life as I have ever experienced, and I have done a lot of travel in the Nevada desert as part of flying gliders there. Here there was a lot of rock, several varieties of dried-up-looking cacti, and a few lizards. I kept my eye out for rattlesnakes, since several of these islands are supposed to have them, but saw none, nor did I see any small rodents, rabbits, or prairie dogs that might have fed a snake population.
The climb was a steep one on rough rocks that had a tendency to want to slide down the hill. This was not your classic volcano with a rim around the top. Instead it had a number of hills of various sizes that surrounded it, and the peak I had chosen to climb turned out to have higher peaks around it; so I did not have a view of much when I got to the top. The one moment of excitement I had was almost stepping on a foot-long lizard lying right on the path. As I jumped back the lizard didn’t move a muscle. Its skin was in the process of peeling off, its body was a dull black and brown, and it appeared to be dead to me. Then it blinked its eyes, and I decided to give it a wide berth in case it was hungry enough to take a bite out of a human leg.
‘A Cappella’ followed us into this anchorage that same day, and we got together for Mexican Train dominoes that evening on our boat. Once again Ed and Cornelia killed Sheilagh and me at the game, and Sheilagh was definitely responsible for my running up the largest score (large scores are bad) just to make sure she wasn’t the big loser. One would think after all these years that my own wife would help me out, but she seemed inclined to care only about her own score. She maintains she isn’t smart enough to cheat or to know what domino she should play to assist me, but I think that’s just an excuse. She is definitely getting back at me for some wrong she thinks I have inflicted on her in the past. In the future I’ll make sure she doesn’t sit to my right, where she can sabotage me with a move immediately prior to mine. And to think I have devoted myself to this woman for over 38 years! Where is the justice?
That night we had very strong winds and waves coming at us from the Baja peninsula nearly all night through the entrance to the cove. In these conditions we are always worried that our anchor may not hold. Therefore we leave the GPS and depth sounder on all night, and periodically get up to check on our position and our depth. I don’t think Sheilagh got much sleep, but I just woke up at the usual times to relieve myself and found that we hadn’t moved at all and that our depth was still good. So there IS a benefit in having to visit the head several times a night.
This morning we woke up to see what appeared to be a dead and bloated sea creature drifting into the anchorage with the tide, while a dolphin kept trying to push it back out of the anchorage. We finally decided that the dead creature was probably the mate or offspring of the active dolphin, which was unwilling to let it go. The carcass was in such bad shape that it must have been dead for several days, but the mate kept pushing it back against the incoming tide for several hours until the tide turned and the carcass floated out of the anchorage. It was sad to see this scenario play out, suspecting as we did that the active dolphin was doing its best to stay connected to its mate or child.
Russ and Debbie brought their boat, ‘Zephyra,’ into the anchorage today, and we got together with them, Ed, and Cornelia for a BYOBAA (Bring Your Own Booze and Appetizer) cocktail party that we might have had in a dinghy raft-up if it weren’t for the strong winds and swell that started up in the late afternoon. As it was, we had the party on Zephyra, and had to fight our way in our dinghy through some strong swells and spray to get there. The strong winds are continuing, as is usually the case here during the summer. As the land cools off in the evening the air on the hills rushes down to the warmer sea and can bring winds of up to 60 knots. So far we have only experienced 25-knot winds and are not eager to experience the higher speed winds.
In the middle of the night we had our first thunderstorm with a lot of lightning and thunder, but only a few drops of rain. It appears that it is so hot here that the moisture evaporates before it hits the ground. This marks at least 9 months without rain since we started cruising. When we first saw the lightning we quickly put our two portable GPS navigation units in our oven, along with a hand-held VHF radio and Sheilagh’s portable computer. We’ve been told that the stove oven (or a microwave oven) is the best place to protect the electronics on a boat in the case of a lightning strike. It may or may not be true, but the items we were trying to protect are essential to both navigation and safety. With GPS and the radio we could get by even if all the other electronics on the boat get fried.
We will be starting our trip over to the mainland side early next week to park our boat for a two-month visit back to the U.S. during August and September. Now, if we can just find enough relatives to visit during that time, we can forego the need for our condo in San Diego, which is still being rented to one of our nieces. The secret is to visit a lot of relatives and friends for only a few days each in order to maintain good family and friend relationships that could disintegrate if we stay longer than the three-day limit – the time it takes for visitors and fish to start smelling bad. More later . . .
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