Famous Last Words..."Looks calm to me"

Red sky in the morning.....

First thing the next morning on January 2nd,  Lazr came over in his dinghy and asked if we wanted to head to La Paz with him. I looked at him with startled wide eyes and over to Rick with a lump in my throat. I wanted to go but not in the crazy conditions we’d been hearing about. Lazr took a look out of the anchorage and into the Sea and said, “Looks calm to me!” So I figured that if he thinks it looks good since he’s been cruising in the Sea of Cortez for the last 15 years, he knows what’s what. As we were prepping the boat to go, I was feeling anxious and fighting back tears. Rick kept assuring me that everything would be fine…the boat can handle whatever comes up and he promised to keep me safe and feeling comfortable. Against my gut instinct and better judgement, I agreed to go. Throwing caution to the wind, as they say.

Pulled up the anchor at 8:11 a.m. and sailed out with the jib and the mainsail up in 10 knots of wind.  Things were off to a reasonable start and the winds weren’t anything crazy for a couple of hours. We were keeping in contact with Lazr by VHF.  While communicating with him on the radio, I decided to ask him which heading he was on so that we could be on the same course. He told me he was just headed towards the islands and not on any rumb line. So I said we’d do the same.

Just as things were getting squirrely... 

Two and a half hours later, the winds started ramping up…up to 26 knots and the seas were about 6-8’ high. Not a comfortable ride. The only thing good about it was that the winds were behind us and the swells were sort of pushing us along, but sloppily. Around noon the winds grew even stronger, just like the forecast had predicted…up to 30 knots and seas 10’ high. It was a wild ride!  The boat was rising up from the large swells and as it would come back down it would rock side to side. It was moving around so violently, things from inside the boat were literally getting thrown around. A few items actually broke which we found later on the floor after the storm. A lot of the waves looked so big, and then…there was a wave that looked like it was the Perfect Storm wave that looked like it could break. As we dredged along, up and down, side to side, I was a little nervous, but not terrified, I was still able to help with sails and take a few pictures. Sometimes I retreated back under the dodger where Harley was curled up. I was petting her feverishly. I almost rubbed a bald spot on the top of her head. But she needed lots of comforting.  Ok, so I was the one needing the comforting.  

My rock

Halfway into the trip, we decided to see how Lazr was doing and radio’d in. He was doing good he said. I asked if he wanted to continue on this ‘ride’ or did he want to stop at one of the islands instead of going all the way to La Paz. He said sure and we ended up meeting him at Isla Ballena around 1 p.m. Once we got inside the anchorage we were protected from the waves and the winds were a little less intense as well  and we anchored successfully.

Isla Ballena

Close to where we anchored at Isla Ballena

Lazr anchored between us and the cliffs

I know from being out in the weather on this day with very  high winds and big seas that Rick was right…our boat can handle probably anything. I took comfort in knowing that.

Captain Rick telling me, "see it wasn't all that bad."

After we anchored, we went down below and read books and took naps. Later, around 5p.m Lazr came to dinner again for pretty much the same meal as the night before….still enjoying the fresh Dorado he caught the day before.  Lazr stayed just before dark because he wanted to get back to his boat before it was totally dark and wouldn’t be able to find his boat. Before he left though, he gave us all of his contact information, phone & email. He also drew us a little map of the anchorage where he will be staying in La Paz. 

Next morning, before sun-up, Lazr decided he wanted to head back to La Paz. Rick and I said that we would let the seas calm another day and head out on Friday.  We plan to anchor out with him for a bit, then get to Marina de La Paz for maybe a week to do a little work on the boat, provision & do laundry etc.