At Anchor Southeast of La Paz--The Christmas Gale

We're safely at anchor in a spacious bay called Ensenada de Los Muertos, about 40 miles southeast of La Paz as the crow flies, further by water.  But boy is it ever blowing like stink!  Winds are alternately singing and howling through the rigging, but at least they're not roaring or screaming.  The forecasts range from 35 (gale) to 50 (storm) force winds, and it's supposed to last into Christmas Day.  Jim used his hand held anemometer, and the readings he's getting seem a bit low.  Neither of us has ever been pushed from standing to sitting (as we both just were) by a 23-knot wind.  Best guess is 30-35 steady and 40 in the gusts so far, but the wind is still rising.  Who knows what the wind speed is until the weather folks weigh in on the afternoon radio nets.

With the approach of this gale, we decided to stay with a sure thing (good holding, good protection from the winds, lots of room) in this bay, rather than continue on to La Paz, where we'd heard the marinas are full, the anchorage is much more crowded, and we might have been one of the last boats in before the storm, which means not as much choice of location.  However, as soon as this gale is over we'll head over there.  Also anchored in here are Luckness, Clover, and Three Sheets.  

We're reasonably comfortable, and it's exciting to watch this spectacle of nature.  Best of all, it's not cold and rainy.  BTW, the name Ensenada de los Muertos (Bay of the Dead) is about all the huge old anchors laying buried on the bottom from its silver mine-export days.  These old anchors are called "deadmen," but local developers didn't cotton to the colorful name and re-christened it "Bay of Dreams."  Yawn.  And no, we can't tie to one of those deadmen because they're all buried in sand.

You can see sand blowing off the dunes in this photo.  The seas are 1 - 2 feet high with less than 1/3 mile of fetch to the shore.  There's a lot of grit in the air, which we can feel and smell, and the boat's getting covered in it.  In the photo you can see Sockdolager heeling to the wind but pulling nicely to her two anchors, which are keeping her fairly well aligned with the wind and not rocketing off sideways to it.  This is one reason why we like two anchors with lots of scope out, in a Y configuration.  The other reason is in the event another boat drags into you and you have to cut one anchor away to quickly free yourself, you have a backup.  (This has happened to Karen.)  

If the storm had been forecast to be hurricane-force winds, we might have done more - strip the sails and canvas off the boat, probably put two anchors in tandem on one rode, and deploy the other two anchors in the direction of highest anticipated winds.  But wind directions in this gale are all steady from the north and northwest, and with two anchors well-set and chafe-proofed with old canvas hose from the Port Townsend fire department, we'll just thank our lucky stars we're not out at sea right now!