{"id":5754,"date":"2012-04-27T17:51:28","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T22:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/?p=5754"},"modified":"2012-04-27T18:00:37","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T23:00:37","slug":"blown-out-of-bay-of-la-a-4-am-4th-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/?p=5754","title":{"rendered":"Blown out of Bay of LA a 4 AM (4th update)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thursday April 26th 4 AM.. Gato Loco shutters as a 45 kt wind gusts blasts off the Bay of LA shore. We\u2019re up as the anchor drag alarm sounds. Not the way to start a day..<\/p>\n

Yesterday was an awesome day and our first day with wind to sail without motors. Our entire leg from the south end of La Gurada to the LA Bay was windy with a north breeze at 15 kt . It\u2019s always a pleasure to have nothing but the sound of the boat rushing through the water. Doug was smiling ear to ear. Entering the Bay, north islands shadow winds but having 4 hours of great sailing make the final push motor sailing just fine. Anchor down by 2:30 in front of Guillermo’s and time for margaritas before we begin our chores. Next, off to the internet cafe to send 2 updates from the past days and to the mercado just across the street from the cafe.<\/p>\n

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\"IMG_6579\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Exploring the east shore of Isla La Gurada, we\u2019ve used most of our gas with the light winds since leaving Penasco. That means two runs to the Pemex for gas. The drill for gas is to stand out on the highway with your cans until someone stops. This doesn\u2019t take long since locals know there will probably be a tip for the ride. We scored  with one of the village seniors stopping with lots of information and history. Gillermo Smith is from here in Bahia de Los Angeles, 64 years old and has 9 bothers and sister here. The second largest island in the area is Smith island and he jokingly said it was his. His USB thumb drive music was great and we had him blast it to show off his stereo as he shuttled us for our gas. <\/p>\n

Hey, notice in the photo of me and the gas cans. The dock behind me is the one that holed our dinghy last year. Looks like the Sea took revenge and destroyed it. We used the ramp this year with no problem. <\/p>\n

While truckin our gas we kept hearing great 60\u2019s music (Doors and such). We had to stop and chat. Scott Thibodeau, self proclaimed videographer, photographer and vagabond had a video production on wheels. That is a 73 VW bus poptop fully equiped. He\u2019s touring Baja writing a travel guide and feeding is blog www.wanderglobe.com<\/a> with photos and video.. Another interesting evening. Thanks Scott for the internet. Sorry we were gone when you awoke this morning.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_6582\"<\/a>\"IMG_6584\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\"IMG_6598\"<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Talking with Scott we were late to dinner. Clouds loomed over the Bay at sunset making for a colorful sunset. Suspicious light breezes blow through Guillermo\u2019s while we had dinner. Guillermo\u2019s was busy with big group of motor cycle riders that had rode over the mountains and were ready to cut loose. We finally finish our vera cruse fish well after dark giving us a dark ride back to the boat. A quick game of Bitchin Rummy (Doug wins) and lights out after an awesome day.<\/p>\n

12:30, Gato Loco shutters as a wind blast from shore hits and the anchor alarm sounds. We\u2019ve drug a distance before winds lighten allowing the anchor to get a bite. Not sure how strong the gust was but it startled me awake before hearing the alarm. After a little inspection we have a problem being near a large steel buoy. Doug\u2019s up and we haul in the anchor with wind blast still coming at us. Time to move out clear of everything in case we drag again.. <\/p>\n

Bay of LA is known for very strong winds created by a pressure spill over from the Pacific. There\u2019s a low pressure in AZ and probably making for windy conditions. Winds calm and anchor is stable with all 200\u2019 of our anchor chain out in a new clear location. Time to get some rest.<\/p>\n

4 AM.. A blast stronger than early and the alarm fires again. Doug and I are up quickly watching the GPS screen and see us drag as each blast in the 40-45 kt range cycle at us. Now we\u2019re in 50\u2019 of water and our anchor scope will never work. Time to reset. Life jackets on, safety now is the main concern. We\u2019ve got to get the bridle off the anchor to haul it. Doug braves the bow to get it removed. 200\u2019 of chain takes forever to reel in these condition. Anchor up and motoring toward shore we begin thinking it\u2019s time to get out of here. This is probably a local wind and there\u2019s a great anchorage just outside the Bay. A little light showing on the east horizon by now and it makes sense to use this wind in our favor and \u201cget out of dodge\u201d. We have a GPS track from our arrival yesterday to ensure we can clear the island channel. Looks like we\u2019ll have enough light by the time we reach the channel anyway.<\/p>\n

Clearing the channel leaving, the Bay winds are down conciderbly. Screacher headsail out and we\u2019re running down wind at 8kts with a 15kt breeze behind us. Looks like we made the right decision and we\u2019ll have the wind at our back all day as we head for San Francisquito with a very early<\/u> start.. Another Bay of LA wind adventure is now just memories. Unfortunately we\u2019ve had a few of these.<\/p>\n

Until the next Update<\/p>\n

BTW: Doug has become a great crew mate. Our night in Bay of LA was a true test.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re send this from Gato Loco approaching Santa Rosalia..<\/p>\n

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\t\t \t\t\"\"<\/a> \t\t  <\/span> \t\tSend article as PDF<\/span> \t\t  <\/span> \t\t \t\t \t<\/form> <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Thursday April 26th 4 AM.. Gato Loco shutters as a 45 kt wind gusts blasts off the Bay of LA shore. We\u2019re up as the anchor drag alarm sounds. Not the way to start a day.. Yesterday was an awesome day and our first day with wind to sail without motors. Our entire leg […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baja-2012"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqi7b-1uO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5754"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5761,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5754\/revisions\/5761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gatolocosailing.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}