The wind picked up in the early morning and it was hard to hold back and not pull anchor. The problem was that if we left too early from Asoncion, we could potentially arrive in the middle of the night in Santa Maria Bay or Magdalena Bay 30 hours later. Arriving in the dark is not fun. As much as we have radar, crab traps, oyster cages, buoys, and small boats are always a concern. It’s hard to distinguish seals and sealions from other items in the water. We calculated that if we left around 1700 and sailed at 5knots on average, we would arrive at sunrise, so we waited, listening to the wind howl. In fact, the wind was so strong that I decided to attach another snubber on the chain to eliviate the strain on the windlass. I believe it was gusting 26 knots at our anchorage. At around 1400, we couldn’t wait any longer and decided to sail off, but keeping only main sail and staysail (smaller headsail) up and not go too fast ensuring arrival in daylight.
Our neighbours (Outmeal Savage) from Powell River decided to wait a few more hours and go to shore one more time. We waved goodbye.
Another reason, I’m feeling antsie to go is the BAJAHAHA Rally are on our tails. They consist of 120 plus sailboats that left from SAN Diego, on Nov 4th. These boats are sailing to Cabo San Luca as a giant “party-flotilla”. Many of them go on to La Paz and will need anchorage. Needless to say, I’m hoping to get there first.
So, we pulled anchor at 1400 and sailed within minutes, at a pleasant beam-reach at 5.5 knots. Big smiles, warm winds, low waves and blue sky as far as one could see.
Sailaway Sarantium 