Our week thus far...

Tuesday: Anchored at Isla San Francisco, around the back side of the 'hook'. This is the anchorage we mentioned in our last blog post. A beautiful night.

Wednesday: The morning brings a building SE breeze, right into the anchorage. We decide that it's a good time to be going, not to push our luck at this little bight. We motor over to the western side of Isla San Jose, which provides good protection from the SW through to NNW. Absolutely beautiful anchorage, but a light NW starts to build, bringing some chop, but not enough to be a big concern. �We'll keep an eye on it.�

Thursday: Tao and Scheherezade are anchored on the East side of Isla San Jose, and are reporting calm winds and a beautiful anchorage. We are still getting NW wind and chop into our anchorage, so we decide to duck around the back and join them. We sail on and off our anchor as we move to the new anchorage. Winds stay light all night, but a rolling swell from the ENE keeps us awake a good portion of the night.

Friday: In the morning a SE breeze kicks up, sending some chop and wind into our anchorage. Scheherezade leaves first heading for San Evaristo, an all-weather anchorage about 5 miles NW in order to wait out the Norther which is forecast to bring gale force winds to this area in the next several days. We and Tao leave several hours later, with a stop back at the west coast anchorage for a dinghy excursion into the mangroves. After our exploration, we up anchor and head for San Evaristo, where we also plan to wait out the Norther. Unfortunately, we talk with Scheherezade, and they report the anchorage is packed. Very little room, and more boats continue to pour in...looks like we weren't the only ones with the San Evaristo plan.

Instead, we scope out Punta Salinas as a possible hiding place, set up some GPS waypoints, and then return to the western anchorage in calm winds. Dinner, and then we settle down to watch a Battlestar Galactica DVD before calling it an early night. Midway through BG, the boat spins, and we start hearing wind across the deck. Pop up topsides for a look and...great...we are on a lee shore again. Over the next few minutes the wind picks up into the 15-20 knot range, and by the end of the episode, we are pitching in 3-4 foot wind waves. We wait a few extra minutes for the moon to rise, and then at 10PM out into the wind to up anchor, follow our GPS track back around the other side of the island to the Eastern anchorage , where we get the anchor set at about midnight, and sit out a night of (un-forecast) 20-25kt NW winds.

Saturday: So here we are, currently we are getting a moderate ESE wind, again putting us on a lee shore, but we've decided we are going to try our best to dig in here at this anchorage for the Norther (that should arrive anytime between this afternoon and tomorrow morning). We are hoping that the Norther has a westerly component, in which case we should be well protected, however if it swings at all East, we won't have much protection. In that case we can either: 1) Bail to the 'hook' on Isla San Francisco and hope it is not too crowded and provides protection, 2) Head to the Western anchorage and hope that the channel effect isn't bending the winds towards the west in there 3) lose some ground and sail 20+ miles South to Isla Partida where there is better protection.