Day 10 - Isla San Francisco

After a reasonably calm night and winds below 10 knots at breakfast time we thought that the strong winds were behind us. Shortly after dropping Brenda off on the beach for a 2 hour session of bird watching the wind picked up with patterns of quiet 15 kt winds punctuated by sudden gusts of up to 25 kt. Fortunately I had taken the precaution of removing the paddles and air pump from the Zodiac because soon the gusts were lifting up the bow of the Zodiac. Fortunately the bow line was short enough to prevent it from flipping over. I positioned the Zodiac athwartships at the stern of the boat.
The reason why I did not have a walk around the island was that the marine toilet was jammed up. This was a disappointment because I had not had any problems with it since following advice on managing the head from Alan Miell of Kangaroo Island. Fortunately most of the material had been pumped out. I prepared by clearing the floor in the head, removing the duck board, and plugging up the drain with a wad of paper toweling. Contaminated water had to be kept out of the bilge at all costs. Then I assembled the bucket, bailer, a sponge, and a bottle of bleach. I then bailed out the toilet bowl and tossed the water overboard. After this I went straight for the joker valve. There was no need to unclamp any hoses since the plastic housing with the attached hose was easily removed by loosening two screws. The joker valve is a conical piece of heavy rubber, open at one end and puckered up at the other, so that the discharge can pass one way only. I found that there was no blockage but that the joker valve had been turned in on itself so that discharge could not move out. There must have been a temporary blockage somewhere along the hose that caused enough pressure to build to force the joker valve to turn in on itself. I straightened out the joker valve, cleaned it, fit it back into position, and found that the toilet pumped well again. The next 20 minutes involved meticulous cleanup that left the head cleaner than before we left La Paz.

Charlie, Robyn, and daughter Tory

At 11 AM I picked up Brenda at the beach and was relieved to get us back on board and the outboard motor back on the rail without a mishap. The Zodiac was to spend the night athwartships behind the stern, on short lines.
Soon we had visitors. It was Charlie, Robyn, and young daughter Tory, who must be about all of three years old. My first remark was that they must be hardy souls to be venturing out in these blustery conditions. Robyn asked if I had a recent weather report and fortunately I had the wind predictions in this area through to tomorrow (Saturday) evening, when the wind is expected to be down to 16 knots. The family is from inland Alaska, north of Fairbanks, and have been visiting the Sea of Cortez for the last 4 winters. They are on a 32.5 ft Moorings charter boat. Robyn said that they were so cold last night that they crawled into bed early to get warm. I remarked that when Alaskans think that it is cold we are all in trouble. The three of them were well "rugged up", with Charlie showing me his long johns beneath his trousers. I nodded my approval as I glanced down at my bare legs beneath skimpy Australian footy shorts which I had worn on the possibly wet Zodiac ride.
Charlie and his family arrived at Isla San Francisco on the same day we did: Sunday the 30th. Since that day the same group of 6 boats has been sitting out the blow in this anchorage. There is a chance that we will be able to move on tomorrow afternoon, which will have meant 6 days in this anchorage, if the wind moderates as expected.
Our battery power has been holding up remarkably well given that in the last 5 days we have run the engine only twice briefly in order to move the boat. The house bank at present has 12.5 volts even though it has been supporting our refrigerator, electronic equipment, and lighting needs. We constantly run the refrigerator (which cycles on and off), the chart plotter, the Toshiba laptop, the wind and depth instruments, and the gas sniffer. At night we run the anchor light and of course cabin lights. Our use of the HF radio for Sailmail work at night places short bursts of demand during transmissions. Last night we also ran the external DVD drive and the boat's sound system to see the movie "Ray", the story of Ray Charles, which we enjoyed very much. In the 3 PM winter sun we are now charging a positive 3-5 amps during the long periods where the refrigerator compressor is off. The solar panels are supplying 6 amps and the Rutland wind charger must be averaging over 3 amps since during the sustained gusts it will put out between 4 and 9 amps.
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