Last night at anchor...

I just dropped the hook in Melaque, near Barra de Navidad... it's 8 pm.

Melaque is about 20 nautical miles west of my last anchorage at Santiago Bay, and should be the proverbial "three hour tour." The morning was beautiful and calm, as I motored out at 8:30 am.

The seas were flat, turtles floating around everywhere, three fast looking warships anchored off Manzanillo and a lovely day.

I took a course to the south that would allow me to reach in front of the lone rock that sits about a half mile off the Barra headland.  A single port tack once the sea breeze fills in, I think. Barra in three hours, I think. So confident. So competent. Life is good.

Six hours later, I'm battling to keep my footing on the stern of the boat as I try to lift the 23 foot ham radio antenna out of the water, after having the brackets shaken loose. The PortaPotti has flipped onto its face in the head, but fortunately, is not leaking. All the books on the boat have come flying from their storage places and are piled with numerous other articles on the cabin sole. The fresh water jug has escaped its restraints and is caroming across the floor. The sunbrella cover I made for the generator is missing, as is my cell phone. There's a reef in the main and the jib is furled in half. All the water and coolant has boiled out of the heat exchanger/radiator of the diesel engine and the motor registers over 200 degrees... very bad. I've pulled up the hatch and the engine room doors in the cabin, having removed and cleaned the sea water strainer, the cover for the sea water pump which is now being held together by one screw and a visegrip. It leaks like crazy... but the bilge pump is taking care of that. The radiator cap was probably the culprit after all. Just not fitted on correctly. Once the engine is running, without overheating, I turn the boat for the third time toward the Barra headland. Twice before the high, steep waves have turned me away... stalling all forward progress toward Barra, which is only two miles away, on the other side of the headland. The wind screams at me, throwing spume and foam off the thousands of whitecaps that surround me.

It takes what it takes.

So, here I am, in Melaque. My last night at anchor for this season.  Tomorrow morning I'll take Bliss up to her slip in Cabo Blanco. And in a few days, I'll lock up the boat until November, get in the Westy camper and drive back to San Carlos.

I'm good with that.