Last night we got just a little taste of the edge of Hurricane Paul. Yesterday found us hunkering down and preparing the boat for hurricane force winds, just in case Paul veered from its projected path and decided to come our way. As it turned out, we experienced gusty winds in the 30 knot range and a pretty good swell all night long.

We stayed up all night in shifts, constantly checking chafe gear on our mooring lines, trying to figure out where Selkie’s creaks and groans were coming from and watching our neighboring boats to make sure they weren’t  drifting towards us. It was just an uncomfortable, rolly, gusty night on Selkie, but we were never afraid for our safety or for Selkie’s welfare.

We awoke to a different scene. One sailboat was laid up on the rocks getting thrashed by the surf and the cliffs, and another was aground on rocks in shallow water across the bay. Our night was uncomfortable and sleepless, but our vigilance had paid off. These two unfortunate boats did not have anyone aboard, an all too common story for most boats that go aground.
While I was walking Wylie, Katie was enlisted to free the sailboat from the rocks, and three hours and many bruises later, the crew of about 10 good Samaritans, an amazing mix of Gringo cruisers and Mexican fisherman, managed to free her and return her to a mooring ball. During her drift, however, she smashed into another boat, damaging the hulls of both. We were lucky that our neighbors stayed put (we did, however, check all of our neighbors’ ground tackle the day before).

Just another day in paradise.

Now that Paul has passed, we are in our final days before heading off. The food is bought, the tanks are filled, and now we wait for the seas to settle out. We’re planning heading north and west, first towards Bahia Kino, then through the Midriff Islands, and finally to the village of Bahia de los Angeles. We’re expecting at least an eight day journey before we arrive at civilization again.   We have some posts written on our preparations over the last few weeks that are scheduled to appear while we’re in the cyberspace black hole of the Northern Sea of Cortez.

“Luckily we made it safely through the effects of Hurricane Paul, but a few other boats here in Bahia San Carlos did not…”

From The Aftermath of Hurricane Paul, posted by on 10/17/2012 (17 items)

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