Day 8 - Isla San Francisco Windy

Pebbly beach north of anchorage

Don Andersen's weather report this morning was pretty dire. There was a humongous high of 1045 millibars moving down from Montana toward the south, causing steep pressure gradients over the Sea of Cortez (SoC). The middle of the USA was in for some seriously frigid weather. Don talked about "storm" conditions in the northern half of the SoC with winds of over 50 knots. The southern half of the SoC could expect 40 kt winds. However, Geary of the Sonrisa net talked about 40 kt winds in the north and NW winds of 27-35 knots in the "Southern Crossing", our part of the world. The GRIB file indicated 30 kt winds in the Southern Crossing and 20 kt winds over Pachuca. Brenda and I took the optimistic view and figured that the islands in this stretch of coastline would indeed hold the wind speed in our area to about 20 knots, and that optimism turned out to be justified.

Turkey Vulture

Brown Pelican

At 9 AM things were still relatively calm so I put Brenda ashore for bird watching. I was glad to pick her up at 10.30 AM because the wind was starting to pipe up to 15 knots. As a precaution I carried the ship's fog horn in my backpack in order to belt out a loud SOS if the engine conked out at the wrong time, but fortunately the return was uneventful. Brenda reported that the conditions on the windward side of the island were pretty good, with a steady onshore wind from the north. This contrasted with the gusty conditions at the anchorage where the wind seems to whip around over and around the hill at random. The wind will calm down to 10 knots and just as Pachuca is at the end of her sway a gust of 20 knots will hit her broadside and stretch her chain. There have been no problems so far. Everything on deck is in order and the empty Zodiac is quietly riding across the stern with ropes fore and aft. I brought down the Mexican courtesy flag because it has taken a beating in the wind. Brenda offered to sew it back to health.

Blue Footed Booby

I did some useful things during the day, starting with a 30 minute reading of Mexican history and culture. Then I turned my attention to the task of installing the "Navigator" celestial navigation software on the new computer, which has become my primary navigation and communications computer. Fortunately I was able to find the license string in my black diary book. I then ported the software to this computer, wondering if it would install in Windows 7 and fortunately it installed without a problem. I then became re acquainted with the package and dug out one of the sextants and took a sun shot. This is a navigation package good beyond words. It computes into the indefinite future the almanac for more than 33 celestial objects, including the sun, moon, and planets. It reduces sights instantly then plots the lines of position relative to the assumed position of the boat. It has a superb star finding facility which includes animation at whatever speed you choose. It has a chart producing facility that I haven't explored yet. After the navigation work I grabbed my fid and made a loop on a three-strand rope that was unraveling fast.
Brenda got busy too. She tried out Sue Hoover's beer bread recipe, which required that the captain had over one can of beer from his precious stores. I was fortunate enough to be selected as a taste tester of the result and agreed with Brenda that the bread was excellent. The big advantage of beer bread is that it requires no rise time - just mix, knead, and bake.
We went into the evening expecting a slightly calmer following day. At 6 PM I poured myself a small neat Tequila and Brenda had a Tequila with Jugo de Naranja (orange juice).
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