When last I left off, it was getting bumpy and hard to type.  As the night progressed it got even worse.  The wind in this area is supposed to blow from either the North or the East.  We anchored where we would be protected from both directions.  However, “our” wind was out of the West and unrelenting (usually they die down at night) and was full on down the middle of our anchorage.  Neither of us slept really well.  I set the GPS anchor alarm to 100 feet and it went off at one point.  I think because we were bouncing so much, it “thought” we had moved.  Despite the alarm, I still got up three or four additional times to check on the anchor but it didn’t budge.  Fortunately for my peace of mind, I “dove it” when we dropped anchor the day before and saw that it was fairly well dug in.  A little tipped on the side, but not bad.  Had about 5:1 all chain scope, so as long as the wind didn’t go above 20 knots, it theoretically should be fine.

OK, I’ll spare you all the angst and such that I had all night bouncing around worried about breaking loose and being driven on the rocks a hundred yards downwind, other than to say that since the wind stayed for the most part, below 15 knots in our cove, I wasn’t ready to bail out.  Also fortunately, it was dark!  In the morning when we looked out, we both about had an attack.  I knew Charisma was bouncing a lot-we both were hanging on to our berths all night, but to see three plus foot waves rolling through our anchorage and the bowsprit going under water about every fifth or sixth wave was to get religion.  0600, coffee or no coffee, it was time to go!  Since it was too rough the night before to take the dinghy out of the water (we thought!) we still had that chore before we could leave.  Imagine lifting a 60 lb engine out of a rubber boat bouncing up and down three or so feet and trying to secure it to the side of Charisma.  Whew, we were glad to get that done and the rest of the boat cleaned up and were out by 0700.

Other than that particular local weather that we had at Espiritu Santo where just outside our cove it was gusting to over 20 knots, the rest of the day was blue sky, 15-20 knots following wind back down to Bahia Los Muertos, some 40 miles South.  A really stunning sail in blue sky, blue seas and we used almost every sail we had.  Spinnaker, 130 jib, main and stays’l saw use at some point during the 10 or so hour sail.  On the way, got a call from our friends in Black Pearl who were beating up toward La Paz.  They had stayed in Los Muertos for some boat repair and they saw us and called on the VHF (the benefits of tanbark sails are many and one is you are VERY identifiable).  Had a nice chat and wished them well for the rest of their voyage.  Garrett and Ruth are in Black Pearl, a 1960’s era Cal 30.  Garrett just turned 19 or 20 a week ago and I think Ruth is of a similar age and they are just “heading out”.  I hope to hear lots of good things about them in Latitude 38 as the months go by.

Oh, and I have to mention today’s food don’t I?  Well, it was another amazing fish taco with the last of the now mystery fish.  We determined that the two “tuna-like fish” we caught earlier in the week were Pacific Bonito, but we now don’t really know what the “wahoo” was.  We’re pretty sure it wasn’t a Wahoo, but it was by far the most delicious fish either of us have ever had, so we’re interested in finding out what it was.  It had a pointed nose, sharp teeth, about 30 inches, tuna-like body, although slimmer and the most distinctive spots on its side.  Let us know if you have a clue.

Got here (Los Muertos) around 1600 and am sitting in the cockpit right now at 1730 watching the most incredible, full, harvest moon rising over the water.  Huge, bright, perfect.

We’ll leave first thing tomorrow for the more picturesque Los Frailes where we’ll spend a day or so rigging the tiller pilot to Wilson the wind vane so hopefully, we’ll be able to have some amount of auto-steer under power for the trip back up the coast.