Watching the Weather

We left the dock yesterday. Somehow every time we do that, it feels like a bit of a milestone. Which I guess it is. We now have a functioning head, a new water tank, a few more freshly painted bulkheads, several clean lockers and a myriad of other little tasks completed.

A grib file showing a norther blowing down the Sea of Cortez

 The next step is to decide where to go next and then wait for the right weather window to get there.

We’re actually not in a huge hurry to head south—even though it’s getting cooler (I had to wear socks and close the hatches last night). But the season up here is winding down. The anchorage has dropped from a high of eight boats to two, and the marina and boat yard are both emptying out. There is still a really nice group of people here though and the marina is throwing us a Thanksgiving party on Thursday. Which is sort of ironic considering about 75% of the boats here are either Canadian, or some other non-US nationality…

Despite the longer than expected stay in Guaymas and the fact we had zero expectations for the city, we’ve consistently enjoyed our time here more than any other period so far.

Part of it has been the endless celebrations. There have been so many that when it came to the lovely parade commemorating the 1910 revolution on the morning of November 20, we only watched it in passing--admiring a few of the floats as we headed up to the movie theatre to catch the new Harry Potter movie on opening weekend. I think I enjoyed the post-parade period more than the parade itself. There was something vaguely surreal about watching everyone wander through town doing errands—still dressed in period costumes and sporting bandoliers and toy rifles.

I’m not entirely sure what else accounts for our contentment. But a big part of it is we feel no pressure to be anywhere else. That realization brings another epiphany: the understanding that other than the dictates of weather and season it’s been our own impatience that’s made us miserable at times.

So here we are—happy to be in Guaymas, but ready to carry on. So we’ll watch the weather and wait for a good moment to head out of the harbour and go.

Somewhere…