On Thursday, October 25th, we finally reached the bomb proof anchorage of Puerto Don Juan. And not a moment too soon. For the previous few days, we’d been hearing forecasts of 30+ knot winds in the northern sea, and those winds on top of an already steep and lumpy sea would make for a very uncomfortable ride if we were still out and about.

As predicted, Friday brought winds of at least 35 knots inside the bay, giving our ground tackle (anchor, chain and line) its first real test. We were buried well in sand, and we had 210’ feet of rode let out in 24’ of water. Everything held, nothing chafed and we had a few nice breezy, bug free days.

The height of excitement came when Bojangles tried to make an escape yet again. We were getting big gusts, and even though we were in a bay with only 500 yards of fetch (the distance the waves have to build up), we were still getting two footers. Selkie barely felt the waves, but Bojangles was getting bumped around a bit. I was below and I heard from above “Bojangles got swamped! She’s upside down!”

Her beam was high and exposed on top of a wave and a big gust hit at just the right time to flip her over. There she lay, upside down, but still afloat. She has positive flotation glassed in her stern and bow, so in theory she cannot sink.  We went to work flipping her over, and then bailing out all the water with a bucket.

Someone once said that there is no better bilge pump than “a frightened man and a five gallon bucket.” I understood this all too well five minutes and a few hundred gallons of seawater later.

 

Email followers click here to see additional fishing, hiking and Wylie photos in Puerto Don Juan.

%d bloggers like this: