Current score

Bahia de los Angeles Village, BLA, BC, Mexico

We have been tested, and found wanting.

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out. Oh, wait a minute, that's a different story.

After 3 blissfully quiet nights in the bay at La Gringa, we finally experienced our first weather "event" of the season. In the evening, around 8PM, it was perfectly calm and we were watching a movie on DVD, when suddenly we noticed that there was a flash of light outside. We poked our heads out the companionway to find a nice light show (sheet lightning) going on just to the east of us, out in the center of the Sea of Cortez. This has happened a couple of other nights and nothing has ever come of it, so we went on with our movie, although we did make sure to stow anything that was on deck that seemed likely to blow away if the wind were to come up (in this regard we were a little negligent).

Around 8:45PM, the boat started to swing around to an east wind and the lightning was getting brighter and there was a tiny sprinkle of rain. We closed the hatches and turned on our wind instruments and chartplotter and sat in the cockpit to watch what was to develop. Within a few minutes the wind was howling at us from the east - this was definitely our first taste of the dreaded "Chubasco" (summer time convection storm). The first big gust of 40+ knot wind caught our "roving" solar panel that we had completely forgotten we had just lying on top of the dodger - it was quickly tossed away into the sea. After that, the winds kept blowing a steady 25 to 35 knots - the highest gust we recorded was about 42 knots. Since we were in the lee of a spit of land on our east side, the seas were not an issue and the boat just did its usual thing, sailing back and forth around our anchor, seeming eager to be somewhere else. By watching our track on the GPS chartplotter, we were able to confirm that our anchor was holding and we were not really going anywhere. This kept up for about an hour and a half and then seemed to slack right off. We, and apparently everyone else in the area (lots of talk on the VHF radio), assumed the worst was over and we went to bed.

Almost as soon as our heads hit the pillows, the winds came up from the south. They really never got over 25 knots this time, but we had no real protection from the waves in that direction and we were soon hobby horsing up and down as badly as we have ever experienced. The bowsprit was just touching the water when the bow plunged down, and the dinghy, which was lashed onto our davits on the stern, was dipped into the water as the stern took its turn. It was impossible to sleep with all the motion but we figured that was the worst of our problems. Then there was sudden "Bang" from outside! I surveyed the deck and found that our anchor snubber (a length of rope that we use to lessen the noise and strain on the anchor chain) had snapped in two - we were now riding on the chain rode itself. As it turns out, this was not really a big problem - just a bit noisier. Unfortunately it did mean we lost our one and only chain hook that we were using to attach the snubber to the anchor rode.

By midnight, the wind and seas calmed down and the worst was over. The final score: Sea of Cortez 2 (one solar panel and one snubber) and Sine Timore 1 (we survived relatively unscathed).

Today, after another very quiet peaceful night at La Gringa, we motored the 6 miles into BLA village where we have made a shopping run and are now sitting back with some ice cold Diet Cokes and congratulating ourselves on our mostly successful weathering of our first Chubasco. Listening to the other cruisers in the area, it appears that we were not the only ones to suffer from snubber withdrawal, and it was apparently even more exciting by the village. Lots of boats in close proximity and they recorded winds in excess of 50 knots here. They were exposed to the same south seas, so they suffered the same rocking and rolling as well. No major damage though.

As for our losses; the solar panel was not really much of a loss - it was very old and I was never able to get much power out of it. I wouldn't have used it at all except that it came with the boat and I did not have the heart to discard it. Now it doesn't take up any space on the rear berth any more when not in use. Still it is annoying that I forgot about it. As for the chain hook, it seems as though most of the experienced sailors do not use them and just tie their snubber lines on with a "rolling hitch" knot instead. I got out my book of knots and tried it and it does seem to work fine - one less item of equipment we have to worry about. We will become real salty sailors yet!

{GMST}28|57|N|113|33|W|Bahia de los Angeles Village, BC, Mexico|Bahia de los Angeles Village, BC, Mexico{GEND}