April 6, 2013, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Wind and stuff

Not very bright and certainly not very early the morning after our midnight arrival, we looked out to see where we were.  Not too bad.  We are at the edge of a large group of anchored boats, quite a long way from shore.  We have slept through the morning radio cruisers check in but we think we recognize several boats that we have seen before.  We can see a small town, the entrance to  the marina with the masts of boats behind the breakwater, a lovely curve of beach running off into the distance toward the large hotels at the head of the bay.  The bay itself is 20 miles across and 25 miles deep, an almost perfect U shape.  After a leisurely breakfast we plan to head for shore to check in with the port captain and look around the town.  Unfortunately, by the time we are ready to go the wind has picked up and is gusting to 20 mph.  There are whitecaps everywhere and we are a long way from shore.  Guess we will just stay on the boat today and try again tomorrow. 

During the night the wind finally dies and in the morning it is dead calm.  This proves to be the pattern the entire time we are in La Cruz.  Calm in the early morning but with really strong winds in the afternoon.  We learn to leave early if we want to go to shore or wait until later in the evening.  Once or twice we brave the afternoon gale but it is a wild ride bouncing over the waves with spray flying at our top speed of about 2 mph.  We do make one attempt to move the boat in closer but it is really shallow here and there are a lot of other boats so we end up pretty much at the same place.  Every evening when we take the long ride back across the water to the boat Alan says that he is going to move in closer and every morning it seems like just too much trouble and so we stay where we are. 

The solar powered motor on the dingy is performing nicely.  However, one memorable afternoon we had neglected to charge it.  Alan dropped me ashore and headed back to Rhapsody.  About 100 years from the boat the engine stopped.  He was out of power ad had forgotten to bring the oars.  He tried paddling with his hands but that was not going to work.  The wind was blowing, of course and he eventually drifted down onto another boat and tied on.  No one was aboard but the boat was open so he let himself in and helped himself to their radio to call for help.  Someone cane to his rescue and towed him back to Rhapsody.  It is nice to be part of a helpful community.

 Several afternoons we are entertained by wind boarders.  Standing on what looks like a snowboard and harnessed to a large sail, they fly across the waves, jumping 20 feet into the air and going for yards before they come down. Rhapsody seems to be anchored right in the wind pattern and they dodge and weave back and forth across the stern for hours. 

Apparently it is not uncommon for boats to come loose here with all of the wind.  We hear references on the morning radio net to a couple of boats that were rescued a few days ago.  One afternoon, shortly after we arrive the radio comes alive with concerns about another boat that seems to be drifting ashore. No one can locate the owner.   Dingys are launched, someone takes command.  More dingys called for and more tow line.  Alan takes our dingy and goes to help but with only a 2 hp motor he is not much use.  Despite the best efforts, it is too late.  By the time the owner is located at a restaurant in town the boat is on the beach.  A day later it is gone.  The port captain gave the owner 24 hours to clear the beach and he decided it was not worth the money to fix it, so a crew came and cut it apart and took the pieces away.  So sad.  The owner pitched a tent on the beach and offered the bits and pieces that he had salvaged for sale.  We took a walk up the beach a few days later to see how he was doing.  There was not much left but he seemed surprisingly cheerful.  He had had a rope on his anchor rather than chain and it just parted. It was his first sailboat, a small, old one. He was planning on buying another and trying again.

Once again we are glad we spent a lot of money on a state-of-the-art anchor and chain but Alan is not satisfied.  One of the projects that has been on his list since we left home is to add additional rope to the anchor chain.  We have 275’ of chain on the main anchor and 75’ on the back-up one. He wants to up that to 300 feet on each.  When you anchor you are supposed to let out at least 4 times the depth of chain.  The stronger the wind, the more extra you let out, potentially up to 10 times the depth.  We typically anchor in 25-30 feet of water.   Also, there should be rope on the end on the chain so that it can be fastened to the boat.  The problem and been how to attach that extra rope to the end of the chain in a way that will be really strong and also able to fit through the small hole from below deck and wrap smoothly around the windlass.  After hours of research he has finally  come up with an answer.  It will be a long splice, a foot long, weaving the chain and rope together.  Off we go to town to buy hundreds of feet of very expensive rope.  Back on board, all of the chain from the back-up anchor is hauled onto the deck.  The new rope is spliced onto the end and the end of the rope is secured to the boat and rope and chain are fed back down into the chain locker.  Then the back-up anchor is dropped overboard and the good anchor hauled up and the process repeated.  When he is all done, we have 300 feet of line on each anchor.  Enough to hold us in any gale.  It is not going to be us drifting up onto the beach.  Time for a  high 5 and a beer.