Two Days on our nose. Hard sailing to San Carlos..No joy :(
Thursday May 10th
Excellent weather for relaxing and sleeping with a blanket overnight. Our next anchorage is only 12 miles south giving us a relaxing morning with time for a little beach walk. The picture above shows the conditions as we head out of the anchorage destination Bahia San Pedro. Our plan was to sail around Isla San Pedro and into our anchorage. Plans soon changed. Calm water quickly turned into tight 4’ seas with 25kt winds out of the SE exactly where our next anchorage sets. Plans to sail around the island were abandoned and we focused on getting to our anchorage. Sea state and wind direction is the absolute worst case for Gato Loco. It’s not unsafe but the tight seas and pointing hard toward our anchorage kills our boat speed requiring motor sailing to keep our speed up. Larger swell sets wash over the cabin and all in all not fun. We finally made our anchorage 5 hours later pretty exhausted.
Happy crew resting and celebrating our arrival in Bahia San Pedro
Friday May 11th
The San Pedro anchorage offered pretty good protection for the high gusty winds during the night. We had 2 other boats with us in the anchorage for the first time. Swirling winds pointing us in every direction and the other two monohulls were getting rolled a lot. I did meet Virgil on the 40 foot boat anchored near us. They had been resting in the anchorage for 2 days waiting for better weather. He’s from Scotland and is readying to head for the canal and east bound back to Scotland. Spending the last year in San Carlos he meet Juanita who is sailing back to Scotland with him. Another sailing love story 
Leaving the anchorage for San Carlos’s Marina Real wind is still gusting mid 20s and on our nose. Seas are even higher today but further apart making things much more manageable. Dave steered Gato Loco smoothly through the waves making good progress to the marina. The last 5 miles turned into a nice beam reach giving us welcome relief and getting us into the marina mid day. Ellen, Deb and Terry wanted to arrive early enough to arrange a taxi to Hermosillo 70 miles north where they will grab a express bus back to Puerto Penasco tomorrow, Saturday. It’s been years since we’ve been to Marina Real and there’s big changes. Beautiful new homes completely surround the marina. Isabelle is still the manager of the very friendly staff and quickly gets the taxi arranged to Hermosillo and gives us a nice end-tie dock for $22/night. Marina life is good after the past two days.
More happy faces as we finish our 2nd tough day of sailing. Cool cloudy weather followed us into the marina.
Crew member down
Getting ready to wash the salt water off Gato Loco, Deb went forward to help with a wet deck and fell. We soon determine her arm was broken. A quick radio call to the marina office they arrange a taxi that takes Deb, Terry and Ellen to a nearby very small medical office. A young doctor trained in the States x-rays and yes it’s broken. They set it, cast it and write her some prescriptions which they pick up at a pharmacy on the way back to the boat. 2 hours later she’s back on the boat and in great spirits impressed with the whole ordeal. Ellen’s comment we heard a few times was how cute the doctor was??
The taxi driver that drove Deb earlier in the day came back with his wife in a second taxi and drove us all to dinner at the classic Charlie’s Rock restaurant. You can see Deb’s cast and her smiley face. We’re so happy that if this had to happen “thank goodness” it was here near medical and quick attention instead of 2 day north.
Saturday morning their Hermosillo taxi arrived 20 minutes early and they were off for Penasco. Deb had a pretty good night considering her fresh cast.
Rick’s on his way flying Phoenix to Hermosillo and then taking a taxi on to the marina.
All good on Gato Loco. Fun week with a great crew. Dave and I will somehow carry on without them. Safe travels home. I hope to see you again soon.
Until the next update
The chart below shows our 2 day slug south.
Wow, not a fun day! Sorry to hear about Helen’s boo boo, not the first one to fall down that little hump. Take care girl and go easy on the margaritas and pills. Hopefully the seas will calm and the winds switch. The Rally awaits!
Debbie, you are a trooper, I hope you have a speedy recovery!!