via satellite
Yesterday's passage from Los Frailes to Los Muertos was a long, windy, bumpy uphill slog. Intermezzo frequently launched herself off waves as punched through them, crashing down into the trough with loud bangs and lots of water over the deck. Ten hours of this was a bit wearisome. And the bashing was frequent and violent enough to break several pipe supports. This caused the fresh water pipe to our deck wash to break from its fitting, dumping 100 gallons of precious fresh water to dump into the locker and drain overboard. I suppose that's better than 100 gallons of water sloshing about somewhere inside the boat, but still not something you want to happen.
Fortunately we had about 80 gallons of water in our second tank. So it wasn't a matter of survival, it was a matter of whether or not I could take a shower, which after a day of continuos salt spray would be really welcome. Since we had motored all day, the batteries were fully charged and I could run the watermaker for a few hours. That made enough water to permit our typical "navy shower"; burst of water to wet body, water off to soap up, burst of water to rinse off. You can cheat by using shampoo and conditioner and get two more luxurious bursts!
We arrived at Los Muertos just before 4 pm and used up the rest of the daylight troubleshooting the water system and cleaning up the boat. Unfortunately, this left no time for the beautiful white sand beach or a visit to an inviting looking cantina overlooking it. It would be nice to stay another day here, but we want to push on due to a favorable weather window for getting to La Paz.
Weather conditions look good for today through Monday and then turn really ugly on Tuesday. So we'll use the next couple of days to get to La Paz. Today we'll make our way to Caleta Lobos, about a 45 nm journey. Caleta Lobos looks like a beautiful overnight anchorage and we will make brief stop to check out scenic Puerto Balandra on the way. Caleta Lobos is only 10 nm from La Paz, so we can spend some time exploring there in the morning before setting off for La Paz.
We'll take a berth in a marina in La Paz and figure on spending about five days there taking care of "business" and several boat projects. However, these "norther" weather events are really what will dictate our schedule, more than anything. When they are not blowing, it is really nice; when they are it's still nice, but arduous saling to get anywhere
