Pretty good winds (15-25 knots) were forecast for Sunday and Monday with a possible crossing window Tuesday. Wanting to get a good spot to hop off to the Mainland the plan was to head for Punta Bonanza where Jean and I crossed from last year. We wanted as early a start as possible since the winds would be on our nose but we had fall back anchorages closer if it was really ugly. Avis opened at 8:00am, which turned out to be 8:10 but still let us off the dock by 8:30 – not bad. We got clearance from the port captain and motored out of the bay. The first couple hours were not bad. Some waves and bridgedeck slaps but much better than I anticipated.
Coming up on the Balandra anchorage it got a bit rougher with larger waves while still manageable. My hope was that the turn through San Lorenzo channel would settling things a bit with some wind blockage from Isla Espiritu Santo. And that was somewhat true. With our turn the waves were more on our beam and they might have been a tiny bit smaller, however the wind picked up to 22 knots.
Once through the channel we had about 8 miles north into the anchorage. And this time we took the full brunt of the winds and waves. Not fun. For 45 minutes we motored with both engines. The wind was whipping the double kayak and twice I had to bring the engines to idle to strap them down better. We ground it out and finally we got in the lee of the wind with the waves subsiding. Thankfully on the hook it was comfortable with 17-20 knots blowing off the beach.
Jean made lunch and filled out bellies before it was nap time. I pulled off an almost two hour nap and felt much better. The winds kept up but our anchor held tight. For dinner Vicki made a spicy Asian inspired fish dish and we played some Mexican Train. The ladies must have felt sorry for me since I was able to win all five rounds and end the game with a perfect score of 0 – which I would have said was impossible beforehand. And with that I retired while Vicki and Jean stayed up talking.
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