High seas drama, I mean it is cruising so that goes with the territory… The day began with a hike. I’ve explored the area behind the beach before, but only about a mile inland. This time, my goal was to cross to a beach on the west side of the island (I’m anchored on the north side). The hike was easier than yesterday, though the brush made it tricky to avoid getting scratched while pushing through the brush. I skirted the peaks of a chain of hills before dropped into an arroyo that I followed for the last 1.5 km. In total, about 4 km to reach the beach.
With low tide, I was able to walk along the shoreline and around a point where I spotted another smaller beach in the distance. Doubling back, I crossed halfway across my original beach and rested in the shade of a cliff before heading home. On the return, I followed arroyos to avoid climbing hills, though it meant six or seven short down-and-ups through each one- I’m not sure which path was better. A solid start to the day.
Back on the boat, I tackled a few projects (they never end), took a nap, and later joined a cruisers’ meet-up for sundowners on the beach. Geraldo kindly gave me a lift in his dinghy. As we arrived, Gary from SV Sea Rover II flagged us down, Mark from SV Infinity had been stung by a ray while beaching his dinghy. The drama began.
The beach gathering was enjoyable, with easy conversation. It was my sober day, so I stuck to coco-piña and water while others enjoyed tequila and beer. As the sun set and the wind picked up, we broke down the party. Because of Mark’s sting, his wife and the Sea Rover crew needed a lift. Getting into the dinghy I noticed Geraldo’s boat, SV Cigano, was adrift. Not good.
We dropped off SV Sea Rover and Jenna then Geraldo, Joe and I raced in the dinghy to catch SV Cigano. Shrimp boats anchored nearby flashed laser lights to warn us, it had drifted 1.3 miles but miraculously avoided collisions. Once aboard, we scrambled, quickly installing the wheel (needed for steering), or so I thought, and then I hollered to Geraldo to fire up the engine. It was a relief to hear it start. I headed to the bow with Joe to raise the anchor. But of course the windlass didn’t work. Ugh. Back and forth I went trying to reset the breaker. In the middle of one trip realized we were still drifting and found Geraldo was struggling to get the wheel attached. Fuck, fuck, fuck – we didn’t need this drama. I helped him while getting close to a shrimp boat, finally we got the wheel partially attached and then got motoring forward. One more reset of the windlass as the sun was about gone, and the windless kicked into life. Joe and I got it raised, yelling over the wind back to Geraldo to let him know and to go full power.
I was feeling better at this point, but we still had to get the anchor reset in the dark… At this point I also realized the cause of the drag, over the past couple of days the chain fouled the anchor wrapping itself around one of the anchor tangs. That took a little effort to get corrected. The engine was underpowered for the boat, so it was slow going but we made progress and finally twenty-five minutes later reached a good anchor spot. Anchor down, alarms set, and chartplotter watched, we tested the anchor and it was holding well. I let out the remaining chain and I suggested Geraldo keep the engine running for another 15-20 minutes just in case and to rig up his backup anchor in case of emergency over night.
Joe and I then shuttled Jenna back, picked up my dinghy, returned Geraldo’s dinghy, and finally made it home. The whole ordeal took about 75 minutes. Exhausting, but all boats were secure, radios on, everyone listening in case of more drama but thankfully that was it for the night.
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