Blowin' in the wind

Puerto Refugio, BC, Mexico

We are still here in Puerto Refugio. It seems as though the winds don't want to let us go.

Having made the decision to head south, the SW winds have come up with a vengeance. It has been blowing now for 3 days, with a short period off during mid-day yesterday. Typically we are seeing West or SW winds in the 10 to 20 knot range with occasional gusts of 25 knots. From what we are hearing on the SSB and Ham nets, we are not getting the worst of it, probably because we are located on an island about 10 miles east of the Baja peninsula coast, and we have reasonable protection from the SW in this spot.

 Apparently they are getting winds of up to 40+ knots by the BLA village, south of us, and the same thing up north of us, along the coast as well. The problem is that for us to go south, we really don't want to have a 20 or 30 knot headwind if we can help it. So here we sit, biding our time, waiting for a shift in the winds - maybe tomorrow?

At this time we are now sharing this anchorage with 5 other boats, 3 that just arrived a couple of days ago, and the other 2 that are, like us, awaiting a north wind to start heading back south. Our most likely destination will be back to Puerto Don Juan, about 40 miles south, where we can ride out the remainder of these stiff winds, no matter what direction they are coming from. From what we hear, there are already 6 or 7 boats holed up there right now, having been chased out of other nearby anchorages.

Just to add some drama to the situation, there are a pair of developing cyclones off of the southern coast of mainland Mexico, either of which could head our way. At this point it is too early to get any accurate predictions of their potential tracks - just something to keep an eye on.

With the winds we are also experiencing a definite cooling trend. Our daytime temperature yesterday failed to reach 30 degrees, for the first time in over 2 months. At night, we have had to resort to closing our hatch over the bed and huddling under a sheet and blanket, as the temperature plummeted to as low as 23 degrees. Believe it or not this feels really cold to us now. Yesterday was the first day that we actually put on more clothes than just a bathing suit - it is back to shorts and T-shirts again. Life can be pretty hard sometimes!

{GMST}29|32.33|N|113|33.4|W|Puerto Refugio, BC, Mexico|Puerto Refugio, BC, Mexico{GEND}