//WL2K San Juanico, Windy Oasis

We are currently at anchor in Caleta San Juanico. We motored about 4 hours on a glassy, calm sea from Isla Carmen only to arrive and find easterly thermal winds blowing through the anchorage at 10-15kts. At least we were able to cool off a bit.

We spent the previous two days at Isla Carmen doing a few boat chores and some snorkeling, too. We got invited to triggerfish tacos with Rich, Rebecca, Thomas, and Sachi on Mandolina.

Boat Chores:

– Overhauled the sheet winches in the cockpit. Both pawl springs had broken in the starboard winch, rendering it useless, and when I disassembled the port winch, I discovered one spring had broken in it as well. It’s a good thing I brought a little bag of spare springs 🙂
– Scrubbed the waterline. I should have taken the advice of just about every cruiser I talked to while preparing for this trip and raised the waterline on Stormy. There was a nice crop of barnacles growing about 1-2 inches above the bottom paint on the aft third of the boat. I’m sure we’re going to find some nice little blisters in the paint in that area too.

While at Isla Carmen, I finally got a chance to try out the speargun that Mario gave us and discovered a new way to feed the crew on Stormy. I thought it was going to take lots of practice, but I nailed a triggerfish on the first shot. It’s more reliable and less random than fishing with a pole.

On our way from Isla Carmen to San Juanico we trolled a green and silver spoon and a blue and silver rapala with no takers. Just as we reached the entrance to San Juanico, Heather noticed some movement in the water about 200 yards from us, and we changed course to take a closer look at what turned out to be a pair of orcas making their way south along the 300ft. line—probably feasting on all the fish we didn’t catch along the way.

Now at San Juanico we are anchored between two small, rocky islets. These strong afternoon thermal winds have kicked up quite a chop, and we’ve put off snorkeling until later this evening. We have already done a bit of hiking, though, and discovered a cave going back into one of the cliffs. I carefully worked my way inside watching the ceiling for bats and discovered—a green lawnchair. It did seem like a nice, cool place to escape the direct sun and read a book.

There is a small river that we heard is deep enough to explore with the dinghy. We might give this a shot in the morning.

Position:
26 22.09 N
111 25.79 W

Fishing Report:
No luck trolling offshore. Catching them faster than we can eat them with the speargun.

All is well on board, but we did just run out of ice.