Insomnia at sea a case study
Coolrunnins
Thu 12 Aug 2010 15:57
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15:39.896N 96:29.651W
Thursday 12 August 2010 10:40
AM
Hello All,
Set off from Acapulco after an amazing visit to the
Cliff Diving which more than lived up to the hype. 175 miles none stop
after filling the tanks with diesel we left at 10:00 AM. Not much to
report other than wind current and everything else you can think off right
on the nose making for very slow progress under engines only.
Hit in the early hours next morning by a nasty
squall and had to quickly drop the sails as sideways rain put visibility to
zero, and the wind increased to 29 knots. A wet soggy night and weather
deteriorated to the next day. Arrived into Puerto Escondido at 8:30 PM
after 34 hours all exhausted and here "the fun begins"...
Discribed in the guide books as a decent anchorage,
we found a tiny pocket rammed with 100 pangas and an underwater canyon
absolutely preventing any kind of anchoring. Might have been ideal 15 years
ago, but not now. We chugged around for two hours with a noodle
soup wishing for a solution. The only conclusion was to head back
out at sea for another 10 hours down to the next possible location at Puerto
Angel. Awfull weather through the night, big seas, thunderstorms,
torrential rain and general exhaustion and misery.
Arrived in Puerto Angel next morning at 9:30 AM and
dropped anchor in this pretty little cove. Kids went fishing we went
for breakfast and a check of the weather forecast indicated worsening
weather (if that is possible).
We turned in for the night after an anchor dragging
event, but it held well until 6:00am when due to a wind shift we had a small
collision with a panga. Wind increased again and numerous attempts to set
the anchor through to 9:00am
Wind now at 19 knots, weather grim, but anchor
seems to be holding and surely looks more inviting than out at sea.
Anticipating bad weather next two days, and not
moving voluntarily till Saturday AM.
Puerto Angel seems a lovely little village and I am
sure in the sun it must be delightful, however at the moment we cannot leave the
boat due to anchor watch. At least we are sheltered, however it has been a
slightly grim 3 days and Jasons cabin was turned into an aquarium due to an
unsecured hatch which is now all nice smelly and damp.
As you can imagine there have been a few terse
exchanges of opinion over the last 3 days and Marina Chahue with laundry and
dryers lies enticingly close just 25 miles down the coast but unreachable
in the weather conditions unfortunately.
It is all we can do to hang on in here and re set
the anchor every few hours always a good test for any couple whose opinions on
anchoring tecnique can differ at times...... Boardman's weather forcasting
expertise has also being brought into question by the "almost" revolting
crew.
Some pictures of the boys with his
new fishing "buddies" yesterday when we had a bit of sun and other pics of
the bay without sun today between rain. As we speak the fishing fleet are
"beaching their boats" due to e bad weather and the playing cards are
out.
By for now
Friday the 13th tomorrow, What can possibly go
wrong?
Paul and the almost revolting
crew.
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