Returning to Isla Angel de la Guarda

A mere 22 hours is all it took to start us back into a groove we have long missed; being out at anchor. Following the 110 mile overnight sail (our 23rd night at sail), which consisted of only 4 hours of actual sailing, we arrived at Isla Ángel de la Guarda at 4am in a pitch black anchorage. Only one other anchor light was visible well off from where we planned to anchor.

We chose our spot based solely on the fact that we have been here before. We spent our final days before summer here so we knew that we can come in blind and anchor exactly where we anchored before. The only issue was a somewhat-charted rock in our path. We knew about it, but lighting it up with a hand held spot light only added some serious confusion. Although our navigation software said we were hundreds of feet from it as we approached, the use of a spotlight in total darkness sweeps away any and all depth perception. The rock appeared to be 30 feet from us, and only the tip was showing. It is a big rock, so we steered away to give it a wide berth, but the shore was now coming up quickly. Very quickly, in fact. There is a half mile of sea between the rock and shore, but we felt we were threading the needle between the two. It took a few minutes, but eventually we figured out that the rock was still large, just much further away from us then our eyes were telling us. We eventually aimed the spot light at the shore we would be anchoring off, still a quarter mile away. Over the headset I could hear the nervousness in Kerri’s voice as she stood at the bow, projecting a wide beam of light forward. “We are too close to the beach”, she kept saying. I repeatedly reassured her that Meriwether had been the to exact spot we are headed towards. I have our track on the navigation screen. I can see exactly where we placed our anchor some six months back and it was our eyes playing tricks on us again. We continued forward, dropped the anchor without beaching our precious boat, and immediately went to bed.

After only a 4 hour nap, we were both refreshed. The sun was up, so we immediately poked our heads up on deck and were immediately assaulted by the barking of the sea lions on the small island just two miles from us. It was damn nice to hear those beasts once more.

We knew we would be here only a single day. This new day was forecast to blow a fair wind from the south. We had no care to sail upwind for 12 hours or more, so a rest day was the plan. It was spent cleaning up ourselves and the boat after the overnight. A few small projects would be taken on, as well as a full engine check in which no additional loose hose clamps were found. Otherwise the day was relaxing and easy on us both as we day-dreamed of our adopted pelican who’s home was in the very next anchorage over.