Ramada Inn

La Ramada, BCS, Mexico

Today's journey was sent to make us feel humble again.

We left Puerto Ballandra around 8:30 AM with a brisk SE wind blowing. This made taking the anchor up more challenging than usual but promised some nice downwind sailing to our next destination at Caleta San Jaunico, some 26 miles further north.

As soon as we got out of the bay, the winds dropped to less than 7 knots making sailing pretty much a no-go for us - we need at least 10 or 15 knots of wind to get any speed out of our old tub. Just to add insult to injury, once we were out of the lee of Isla Carmen, we encountered some large short-period swells that made for a very rolly ride. We had gotten lazy over the last few passages and did not bother to bring the dinghy up on deck. Instead it was hoisted in our less than perfect davits. With the lumpy seas, we managed to dip it in the water a couple of times, something we have not done since our shake-down cruise in northern British Columbia.

We had the main up the whole time to try and deaden the motion and we did try to sail for about a half hour when the winds did peak at close to 9 knots, but this just made it worse with the sails flogging from side to side with the rolling of the boat.

The winds remained light until we were closing in on Caleta San Jaunico. This is a rather large bay that looked as if it might have some shelter from the south winds. Unfortunately, once we could see it, it did not appear to have any shelter from the large seas that were now rocking us about. We elected to go on for a couple more miles to a small, better protected, bay called La Ramada. Getting the mainsail down with the boat pounding into the waves and wind was a bit of fun, but we managed OK - we are just a bit out of practice.

La Ramada proved to be everything we were hoping. Great protection from the SE winds and seas and only two other boats here so we were able to find room to anchor without any problems. If this weather persists, we may just stay here another day. The weatherman was predicting some let up in the winds and waves for Monday. So for now, we are checked into what we cruisers call the Ramada Inn.

{GMST}26|22.82|N|111|25.83|W|La Ramada, BCS, Mexico|La Ramada, BCS, Mexico{GEND}