WINDY DAYS ON THE HOOK

Our first two days in Bahia Tortugas were spent aboard Tino Pai; the strong winds forecast arrived the night we did, and we sat out 20-25 knots of wind through the anchorage with regular gusts up to 35 knots. We’ve become comfortable with our 73lb (33kg) Rocna anchor and with 5:1 scope out in 20’ (6m) of depth over a sandy bottom; we felt rock solid as the wind blew. We took the opportunity to catch up on a few things, including finally getting our first video completed (check it out here) and catching up on this blog!

As our third day at anchor arrived we were determined to explore town. The wind remained sprightly through the anchorage as we lowered Smuggler (our ship’s tender, a bright orange Portland Pudgy) and motored into town, hunkered down against spray from the crosswind and waves. We have ponchos for conditions like this aboard Smuggler, especially when it’s chilly. Beaching the dinghy just west of the jetty, we wandered up into the ruined cannery buildings surrounding its base. It was an odd first impression, the rubble and few standing walls giving the appearance of a war zone, or the aftermath of an earthquake. Making our way around these ruins we entered the town and started to explore this famous cruising stop.

Working our way up the hill through dusty streets, the town was largely closed and quiet with most of the small businesses shuttered. We weren’t sure if it was because we were visiting in the offseason; with only a few yachts at anchor the cruising business was obviously quiet. Nevertheless, we were a little disappointed at first given that Bahia Tortugas had loomed large in our imaginations for a long time. We did find a charming restaurant open for business and were welcomed by two small Chihuahuas – Bridget and Maddie – and the proprietor Johana. Though she spoke little English we were able to practice our Spanish and had a pleasant lunch chatting with her about her business and the town. We learned that the high winds were unusual, as much of this year’s weather has been, and that she got a lot of tourist business from word of mouth. We could see why and absolutely recommend Restaurante La Torre. Apart from a few small markets, a couple of restaurants and the Pemex gas station, little else was open so we returned to Smuggler to make our way back to Tino Pai.

Though initially forecast to drop, strong winds continued to blow and while securely hooked, Tino Pai was bouncing around in the constant whitecaps. We’d anchored on the southern side of the anchorage hoping to dive the reef on that side, but the blustery conditions were prohibitive. We were also close to the path the fishing pangas took to and from town, which added noise and rolly wakes to the already unsettled anchorage, so by Wednesday night we decided that we’d use the weekend’s weather window to move on to Asunción, a 55 nm sail to the south. Forecasts suggested Asunción would be clear of the strong north and northwesterly gusts funneling through Bahia Tortugas. In the meantime, looking for a more sheltered spot we moved to the north side of the anchorage, closer to the northern hills. This proved to be a great decision; it had more shelter and was a favorite fishing area for the local dolphins, who constantly swam around the boat and seemed to particularly like the lobster pots shoreward of us. We weren’t sure if they were stealing lobsters, or if the lobster trap bait drew fish in for an easy meal. We were happy with their company, and the puffing of their spouts during their evening fishing added an enchanting effect to our nightly sundowners.

We returned to town each of our last two days, for an early evening meal and to provision for Asunción, in case we couldn’t make it ashore there. Prepped and ready, the anchor came up at 7:45am on Sunday 12th February and we motored out of the bay for our southeastward turn. We knew we’d been making a lot of south, but it still seemed odd to think that we were now well east of our old home in Tahoe.

We sailed for just over an hour before the NW wind dropped enough that we lost sufficient apparent wind to fill our sails, and reluctantly the engine came on. Catching some Bonito made up for that, as we pulled in the first just before 10am, and dinner was sorted. Over the next couple of hours, we pulled in another six Bonito and a fish we couldn’t immediately identify, all of which we released, before immediately kicking ourselves for not keeping the UFF (unidentified food fish) as we think it was a blue fin tuna! We had two handlines out and on three occasions had two fish on at once, including the UFF. The cedar plug lure worked nicely, but the day’s winner (by one fish) was a blue & white straight runner, a type of tasseled lure Shan fondly refers to as her “squidly” or “squidgy things”. We did then get another hour or so of sailing, but fluky wind and waning daylight saw us motoring into Asunción, anchoring just before 5pm. There was a 20-knot wind gusting up to 30 knots through the anchorage, which we shared with sea lions, hundreds of pelicans, myriad other fishing birds, the usual pangas and just one other small sailboat.

The plan had been to spend a day exploring Asunción, however the strong wind continued to blow making for a dicey dinghy landing through the surf, and we were eying a nice two days of north westerlies for the 185 nm passage down to Bahia Santa Maria before the arrival of Coromuel winds around Asunción later in the week. Coromuels are strong nor’easters like California’s Santa Ana winds, best avoided or sat out in harbors with appropriate shelter. We spent the day readying Tino Pai for a longer passage, preparing meals, restowing gear, checking the engine, lines, etc., and watching pelicans divebombing into the water after fish. With roughly 36 hours under way to Bahia Santa Maria we were up early on Tuesday 14th February, and exited the harbor in pre-dawn darkness with Andy on the bow spotlighting for lobster pots. We were looking forward to spending some time at our next destinations, Bahia Santa Maria and Bahia Magdalena, which are famous whale sanctuaries, and we’d be arriving in calving season. We’d had this stop highlighted for a long time!