Waiting out a blow

We are now in Mulege, having landed here the day before yesterday. Those of you following our SPOT GPS track will see that we are staying in what looks like a little port tucked behind the lighthouse. Actually, the google image predates the last hurricane that swept thru here in October. We are pretty much all there is at our GPS location. We are camped next to what was once the port captain's office. It's a little cinder block building that clearly got reamed by storm surge. The swath of storm damage from surge alone extends well up the estuary and through town. Apparently, the surge topped the bridge by 3 ft, which is impressive because the bridge is rather lofty. Where we are, the surge was only about 2 ft deep but quite broad. We are here for a few days as the wind is blowing strongly from the north. Too big for us to be out and about. We sit and watch the herons, egrets, osprey, pelicans, and gulls feed on shrimp and crabs and minnows in the estuary. We watch the tide come in and go out. We watched the stars last night, which were bright and beautiful after the winds blew all the clouds out.

Sailing into Mulege was quite a ride. We set off from Punta Chivato the day before yesterday with a lively offshore breeze. We were flying across Santa Inez bay. Then the wind died. I started to row. We put up the sails, hopefully, a couple times. Ate lunch. Felt a puff and put the sails up again. And started beating UPWIND towards Mulege, as the wind had changed about 180 degrees. Slowly the wind picked up and pushed us south. I kept telling Tim that we should be heading on a course of about 174 degrees. He said, "You mean towards that island out there?" "No," I told him. "That's not Mulege. Mulege is more to the north." "Well, how about that gumdrop shaped point?" "OK, shoot for that for now." We sailed a course of more like 150 degrees for a couple hours. I played around with the tennis ball on a string that I made for gauging our speed through the water if I lose the GPS. And I lay on the side bench in the sun to soak up some rays. I fiddled with the GPS to see what more I could learn about all its functions. I realized that I could move the pointer to the Mulege lighthouse and it would give me a compass heading. That's cool. I watched the bearing on Mulege go from 175 degrees to 196 and then to 213. I wondered what I would see if I looked out there at 213 degrees. I looked under the sail off the starboard beam and saw a lighthouse. I said to Tim, "Is THAT Mulege?" Yup. So we hopped to and changed direction to run downwind wing and wing straight towards Mulege on a course of 213 degrees.  We were 2 miles out but got there pretty fast because we had a lot of wind behind us from the ENE. I saw the shrimp trawlers get bigger and bigger. And I could pick out some rocks near the lighthouse. Some pangas were running in and out of the estuary near the light. Finally, when we were about a half mile out I told Tim I thought we should take the whisker pole and sprit boom down and reach up towards the lighthouse. We got there pretty fast in a big sea and force 3 winds pushing us onshore. We doused the sails, fired up the motor, and realized we were getting really close to shore. I saw some barely submerged rocks and pulled out around them to get us closer to the lighthouse, where the channel was, but not before dragging the rudder on the bottom. Good thing it's a pop-up rudder. Oy! Once we got close to the light and into the lee somewhat, we killed the motor and Tim got on the oars. We rowed in to the panga beach and asked about going upstream to town. Didn't get much helpful advice. And it was really shallow. So we opted to anchor off what looked like a good beach by the light with some protection from the wind. As it turns out, this is where we have stayed for the last two days. It's a comfortable anchorage for Valdesca. She just rides the tides out there about 10 ft off the beach. On the other side of the spit between land the and lighthouse island, there is a magnificent beach where the waves crash in, bringing all kinds of shells ashore.

After Tim got back yesterday from running errands (2 gallons of water, 2 8-lb bags of ice, a qt of milk, a six of beer, vegetables, fruit, 3 packs of tortillas, 4 empanadas, two guava-filled cookies, and assorted other things), I took a walk across the puddles at low tide to investigate the area around the estuary. I wanted to find the church we can see from our camp. I finally found it, with some direction from a kid playing with a ball near the river. I took some sunset photos from up there of the church with the Golf behind, in full fury of wind-whipped waves. Then I started back to the boat. Right near where I needed to turn from the road to cross the tide zone, I stopped at a little restaurant to see if I could get us dinner to go. I ordered some shrimp tacos and some Tecates. They put it all into a bag for me. By then it was totally dark, and though I wasn't far I knew Tim would be worried because there was no moon and my knee had been hurting me the whole day. The owner, Francisco Villa, asked me if I had a light. I didn't so he lent me his. And then said he'd escort me over there. We walked down to the bank of the estuary, he picked up a paddle, and shoved an aluminum rowboat in the water and took me across. Ah, sweet! And there was Tim with a flashlight looking for me. We ate our tacos with pineapple salsa and sipped the Tecates under the stars while I told him about my adventure. Now, here I am back at the restaurant (Francisco picked me up in the boat again and hauled me and my laptop over to use his wifi!). I took a shower in the campground (I don't exactly see where it is but the sign says there is a campground). And when I pay for the shower, I'll pay for last night's dinner too. I only had a 500 peso note last night and they didn't have change. They told me to come back tomorrow and pay. Gotta love this place.