March 27, 2010 - Isla Coronado

Our plan was to buzz north quickly to Santa Rosalia, 225 miles from La Paz, which we should have been able to do in three long days. Small problem called weather. When we left La Paz on the 24^th, we found a short steep chop that would have done Cook Inlet proud. Obviously the boat can take it, and actually so can we, but we don’t want to. I had hoped for a long run to Evaristo, but instead we stopped after 20 some miles at Partita. At anchor we watched our wind gauge showing gusts of 35. We checked the Ocens weather and it sounded okay, so we took off early the next day and pounded into it again and once again stopped after 20 some miles at the hook at San Francisco. Yesterday, the Ocens forecast was better than okay, and it was a lovely ride. The sea was glassy and we had nice cruise to Agua Verde. We considered running a little further north, but we had a companion boat, Holiday, a 60 foot Nordhavn traveling with us, and they had never been here. So we are tucked in and enjoyed this beautiful spot. Earl had good luck fishing on the way north, so the dorado was immediately made into ceviche that we brought to the Holiday. They had come over the prior night for dinner – burgers- and invited us to dinner in return. Wow. Fabulous boat and fabulous dinner! Instead of burgers we had fresh lobster on the grill along with delicious spiced rice and grilled veggies. We left Agua Verde today at dawn. I had hoped to go 60 miles to Juanico which would have put us 60 miles from Santa Rosalia. By noon, the weather which had been okay started acting up. We stopped about 20 miles short of my goal and tucked in behind the Isla Coronado, about 6 miles north of Loreto. Although it is just a roadstead, not a cove of any kind, it is an excellent anchorage. The wind has been blowing a steady 30 with gusts of almost 40 and we are quietly rocking at anchor. We can see the lights of Loreto and have internet, but we have the place to ourselves.

Weather has been an unexpected issue for us down here. We miss the US and Canadian marine forecasts. I had never realized what a luxury they were – relatively reliable and always available on the VHF. We are struggling to find a good substitute here. There are several sites that are available on the web such as buoyweather, bahainsider etc. and some of them will send text forecast to our sat email. In addition we have Serius weather on our Furuno and Ocens weather which is available on our sat phone. However, none of them seem perfect here. Part of the problem is that the Sea of Cortez has lot of local weather which does not get forecasted by the computer models. The other problem is that the forecast will say 12- 15 like today and be twice that. One of our friends said just to add 5 to all the forecasts – maybe ten would be better. After several nights which started well and ended with the anchor being pulled and the boat moved to a completely new location, we now try to anchor in the best possible anchorages with an expectation that the weather may well change overnight.

The forecast is for 20 to 25 tomorrow. If it is correct, we will stayed tucked up here and explore the Island on foot. If not, we will be off. The wind has gone down to 20, so we will see.