Good morning! I’m having coffee in the cockpit of Aiyana, anchored in the small cove off the southeast side of the volcanic island of San Martín. It really is picturesque, with the tiny fisherman’s village made up of maybe five huts peppering the beachfront, the pangas (little boats) anchored just off the beach and the pangeros (fishermen who drive the little boats) zipping back and forth checking their traps. The rim of the volcano sitting just above us all and it’s sister volcanos just visible on the Baha peninsula across the water at San Quintín.
The sail here was incredible! The wind was perfect, a downwind run all the way here. The night was warm compared to Ensenada and pitch black - no moon! The bioluminescence in the water was magical. Every wave that slapped the side of Aiyana’s hull created a field of stars across the water. The wake the propeller created just beneath the stern made Aiyana look like a rocket blasting through the cosmos.
I was exhausted when I arrived and anchored around 9am yesterday. I had tried to sleep periodically through the night, but was unsuccessful. With alarms set for every hour, I would just start to drift off and then have to wake up again, scan the horizon for traffic, check the wind and our course, then quickly try and resume sleeping. I never quite got in the rhythm. Another night or two and I bet those little hour long naps would have come a lot quicker.
I tried to rally and go to shore in the afternoon, but i ended up swamping the dinghy in the surf getting everything wet. Then the wind went from almost non-existent to blowing 15 knots. So back to the boat for a nap and a movie and stand anchor watch.
I’m going to give landing the dinghy another shot today. If anyone has any tips on beaching the dinghy in a little bit of surf without getting soaked, please let me know. Maybe i need to find a better place to land.
My plans after San Martín - it looks like there will be good wind again starting tomorrow afternoon (Sunday). If I leave in the morning, that would put me in Islas Benitas around noon on Monday. It’s a bit longer of a sail, 130 miles. If the weather forecast for next week persists, I’ll be wanting to depart the tiny islands of Benitas pretty quickly and head toward the harbor on Isla Cedros or the protected cove of Bahia Tortugas and wait out the storm. It’s mostly the 2.5 meter swell at 10 second intervals I’m worried about. I’ll be checking the forecast daily. It seems like these little storms sometimes dissipate before they get this far south.
Cell service here on San Martín is spotty. I’ll get a few bars for a few minutes, then nothing for hours. It’ll probably be like that until I get to Cabo.
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