I had coffee some of the group then said my good byes to Mac his son Neil who now runs the marina, and Joel, the man who installed my new engine. I got a pleasant surprise when I visited the marina office to square my accounts. I had forgotten that I had posted a bond to cover a full month's lease of the slip so the net result was a refund of $420 USD which will be electronically deposited into my Aussie bank account. At the last moment I remembered to get two more locks of ice for the ice box.
Bob, Don and Rick helped me with the lines and at 12.15 PM I was on my way. After days of calm winds a 17-18 kt northerly wind started at mid morning and I was forced to motor into an apparent wind of 20-22 kt. Amazingly I was making 7.3 kt over the ground which meant that the ebbing tide was providing much help. At the end of the channel I was down to 6.8 kt and in the open water the speed got down to 4.8 kt at times. Nevertheless as Bob had predicted I arrived at Caleta Lobos in 2 hours and dropped anchor at the northern anchorage in 8 m of water because there were already two boats at the eastern end of the bay. I recognized the spot as one that Brenda and I had visited once before. Bob had given me good advice to anchor at Lobos rather than Balandra, which is larger and has an easier approach but is too exposed to the north. At Lobos I was getting 15 kts of wind at the top of the mast but the boat was in calm water due to the good protection from the hills ahead. The first thing I did when I confirmed that the anchor had bitten was to record my exact position, set the anchor alarms on both the chart plotter and David's "GPS Logger", then note the compass bearing to take me out of the bay if I was forced to exit in a hurry.
After a cup of tea I stowed the mooring lies, cleaned and stowed the fenders, and ran the safety harness jack lines along both sides of the deck. At 5 PM the mobile phone rang and I had a chat with Brenda and Stephen. Brenda had recalled that there was a telephone tower in this area and sure enough is a tower visible and the reception was excellent. As the sun began to set I prepared a meal of boiled rice with an onion and a carrot then poured a can of sardines in tomato over the result. While the rice was cooking I had a minimalist salad of fresh tomato and bell pepper (capsicum). I enjoyed the meal. (Just as well because it will be on the menu many times over the next three months.) For desert I had yoghurt and banana.
The moderately strong northerly wind worked to my disadvantage today, but if it holds up tomorrow I'll have a fast sail down the Cerralvo Channel to Ensenada de Los Muertos, saving precious fuel. I ran the engine 2.4 hours today at 2200 and 2400 rpm, for a total of 81.5 engine hours to date.
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