I woke for the sunrise and after getting my morning dose, I got to swabbing the deck. The morning dew worked well to clear the salt from our crossing. Getting that checked off we fired up the engines and made our way south. There was a motor vessel anchored with us and they led the way.
It was a very mellow day motoring. At times the jib helped us and other times we would lose the wind and furl it in. The only bummer of the day were the lack of fish biting, not one bite. Just a half mile from the anchorage the port engine died. Huh, no bueno. Turns out we blew it on fuel calculations and ran the tank dry. The mistake came that we fueled up while still twenty miles from Refugio but did our fuel calculations from the anchorage in Refugio. No biggie we filled the tanks and we headed in.
We stopped for the in a “new for me” anchorage (Cabo San Miguel), it is almost never visited but was listed in a very old cruising guide. It called for sandy bottom in 18 feet of water. What we found after searching bay were some large boulders, areas of kelp, and some sand. We tried anchoring twice before we got a set on the third attempt. Bridle on we jumped in the dinghy to explore the area around the boat and the anchor. Well the area was pretty clear, just one boulder 190 feet from the boat but looking at the anchor we found it jammed in a rock. So we made the plan that should the wind pipe up we would bail and move out in the middle of the night.
With that checked off, everyone jumped in the dinghy for some beach combing, exploring, and shell collecting. Some fisherman had attempted to burn huge whale bones – in case you didn’t know they do not burn.
Back to the boat for a late dinner of pre-made baked Ziti. The fun came around 9:30pm when the wind started gusting from the opposite direction that we set the hook. As the boat adjusted to the wind and curved around, we watched closely and ultimately it held about 50 feet from the anchor (with 100 feet of chain out) so it must have wrapped on another rock. Lowell took the first anchor watch from 9:45pm to 11:45pm when I took over. Thankfully around 1:30am it settled down and with two anchor alarms on at 2:00am I headed to my bunk. That is cruising for you, folks.
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