Tossing about

Bahia de Tortugas, BC, Mexico

Not much to report.  We were apparently more tired that we though after our passage and spent a lot of the time sleeping, dozing, cat-napping, etc. while confined to the boat because of some rather windy weather outside.  Winds during the day got up to 15 to 20 knots in the bay, occasionally kicking up white-caps, combined with a bit of surge that kept the boat rocking gently back and forth most of the time.  In some ways, the motion was worse than when we were out sailing, but we were quite snug inside.  Sue made one of her famous pizzas last night - yum!

We are sharing the anchorage with a few boats that look like they have been here a while, and one other obvious transient who was here when we arrived.  Two more sailboats showed up this morning, so we know we are not the only ones making this journey at this time.  This is a big bay and can handle a lot of boats but we still wonder what it must look like when the Baha-Ha-Ha fleet goes through here at the start of December, with 156 boats this year.

Most of the time the skies have been clear except for some overcast this morning, letting our solar panels do their thing.  They are not quite up to the task on these short days though - we are losing about 5% of our battery capacity each day, which means we would have to run the engine every 10 days to make up the difference if we were sit here at anchor for that long.  Still, not too bad for running a fridge, freezer, numerous lights in the evening, listening in on the SSB nets for a couple of hours each day, running this computer and watching a movie on DVD each night.  Temperatures during the day are in the mid 20s, lows at night probably around 17.  Not bad but still not tropical.  Actually feels a little cool with the wind blowing.

We topped up our fuel this afternoon using the excellent service of the "Servicio" Anabell Fuel Barge.  Call them up on the VHF and they come to the boat with a metered fuel barge and very friendly service.  The price is about 2/3 of what it was in San Diego, where they really rip you off.  Too bad we didn't need all that much here - we bought just 80 liters for 794 pesos (about 83 cents Cdn per liter).

We will be off tomorrow morning, bound for Bahia Magdelana, about 250 miles further south.  The swell on the ocean has reportedly been a little higher the last couple of days so we have been waiting for it to subside a bit before we venture out again.

{GMST}27|41.3|N|114|53|W|Turtle Bay, BC, Mexico|Turtle Bay, BC. Mexico{GEND}