The Neverending Norte

Winter in the Sea of Cortez means there are short periods of strong winds of 20-30 knots from the Northwest, called Nortes, or Northers. The Nortes necessitate hiding out in an anchorage with good protection from the northwest for a few days. The wind isn’t necessarily the problem, it is the sea state, the Sea of Cortez is 600 miles long and relatively skinny, and therefore has a lot of fetch for waves to build from wind blowing over it. The waves are steep and close together and no fun to be out in. We are certainly no experts, but we’ve dealt with a few of them since we’ve been in the Sea. It blows hard for a few days, we hide out in a good anchorage, then about 24 hours after the winds calm down, the seas flatten out and we have several warm, calm days perfect for travel or to hang out in the warm sunshine on the beach.

Enter the current Norte. If hurricanes and tropical storms get names, this Norte deserves a name too, Neverending*. There is a local guy named Gary on the Sonrisa net who has been forecasting the weather in the Sea of Cortez and broadcasting it daily via ham radio for something like 25 years. He actually said on a recent broadcast that these are the strongest winds he has ever seen that aren’t associated with a hurricane. This one is a doozy. We are on day 4 and the winds aren’t supposed to calm down for another 3 or so days and the weather predictions everyday seem to push the end off yet another day, so who knows.

Fort building!

We are safely moored in a great and safe anchorage called Puerto Escondido, about 14 miles south of Loreto. Puerto Escondido is such a great harbor for storms that it is used by boaters as a hurricane hole for the summer hurricane season. The Mexican government has put mooring buoys throughout the bay and we are tied up to one at the far northwest corner behind a big hill for a little more protection from the NNW winds. We’ve been safe, but we haven’t been particularly comfortable. Highest wind gusts that we’ve heard from other boats with anemometers have been 34 knots, but it is sustained 20-25 kts for the past four days with no end in sight. Puerto Escondido is huge, and we are moored about ½ mile from the dock to get the most NNW protection. Since we only have a rowing dinghy for getting to shore, we knew when we tied to that mooring that we would be stuck on the boat, but the NNW protection seemed worth it.

A LONG way to the dock...can't even see it in this photo, it's
behind the boats that just appear as specks.

On the first day of the event, Tuesday, when the winds hadn’t even reached their peak speeds, the mooring for a boat named Allora failed. The owners weren’t aboard and it was frightening to watch the boat drift across the bay toward other boats and eventually toward the rocks. Fortunately fellow sailors were able to reach the boat and sail it, under bare poles alone, away from the rocks so a dinghy could tow it to another mooring. Amazingly, about 2 hours later, when the owners were back aboard, Allora broke free again. None of us in the harbor were feeling particularly confident in the moorings and both Tor and I had consistent knots in our stomachs. Just before dark, yet another mooring line broke on a big catamaran and only one small line was holding it to their mooring. All boats have since been re-secured and seem to be okay, 3 days later. Fortunately the broken moorings allowed us to really think about how we were tied to our mooring and we made some big changes to avoid chafe. We also used our cockpit sunshade to rig a riding sail to keep our bow pointed into the wind more consistently so we didn’t get broadside to the gusts and get rolled 25-30 degrees.  Once everything was all set with the boat, all that remained was waiting it out.

Anchor watch track for a few hours one night. the green circle is
30 meters, so we are secure, but we sure have moved around alot!

Fortunately we aren’t alone. We have friends in the anchorage (Moon and Kialoa), and have made new friends (Inkatu). The generosity and friendliness everyone has showed us is amazing. Lisa on Moon has offered and given us rides to shore (which is no small favor…you get soaked in a dinghy when going against the wind), and I got a ride into Loreto with Scott and Tanya on Kialoa yesterday to get groceries and cash. Casey and Ineka on our closest mooring neighbor Inkatu even stopped by on their way to shore and brought several kid movies and asked us to give them a shopping list so they could get stuff for us at the mini mart ashore. Equally important is just knowing friendly voices are on the other end of the VHF for commiserating and friendly chit chatting.

Ineke on Inkatu sent the boys a note in a bottle! See the speck in the
water just ahead of our white mooring buoy? She tied it
to a long spool of fishing line so she could retrieve her water bottle!

The contents of the message in a bottle, actually getting the bottle
 to us proved challenging, so some ballast was needed.
The lime was a perfect addition to rum and cokes for Tor and me :)

The boys have done great not being off the boat for 5 days. We have been doing school, an absurd amount of Lego building, a few movies, fort building, card games, and in general lots of family time and it all has been really terrific. When Tor and I were both nervous as cats after the boats broke their moorings, and we couldn’t really focus on anything other than listening for new sounds that might indicate a problem with our mooring, Lars and Odin were amazing and just played together and kept each other entertained. We couldn’t be present as parents, and we didn’t need to. Amazing.

We did however get very tired of hearing the wind whistling in the rigging. Knowing the end of this weather is still several days off, and feeling confident in how secure our boat is now that we’ve been through the highest period of winds (we hope), we got off the boat this morning and took a taxi into Loreto. We plan to be here for 2 nights in a quiet hotel (no wind noise!) with a pool. Life is grand. Back in the land of internet, and glad for the chance to reconnect!

  

*Compliments to Scott on Kialoa for naming our storm.