It is calm and Sunny.
As expected the wind died down overnight and it became quite calm in the bay at Isla San Francisco. This morning there is hardly a ripple in the bay. After pumping up the dingy we eventually decided not to go ashore and instead left for San Evaristo with is about nine miles north of Isla San Francisco up the San Jose Channel. As we motored out into the channel, the wind picked up to a nice 15 knots but it was on the nose which would have meant tacking a number of times up the channel. Instead we continued motoring all the way to San Evaristo arriving there at 1:00 pm.
The San Evaristo bay makes a wonderful anchorage surrounded by hills. It has good holding over sand and a nice backdrop of the Sierra Gigante making it a very pretty location, much prettier than Isla San Francisco. The beach has a number of fishing camps and Pangas come and go quite frequently to these camps. There is a small notch in the cliff to the North of the bay which can protect about 5 or 6 sailboats from the north or northwestern wind. However, as the weather was now good, we chose to anchor in the main portion of the bay in about 16 feet of clear water.
Frank and Cheryl, new sailing friends from a Hans Christiansen 38T came by Hilbre. We were hoping that we could all go ashore and have fish tacos for dinner at a small restaurant on the beach however it was closed. Instead, we spent the afternoon drinking G&T’s on Hilbre and swapping sailing stories. The weather continued to be calm and the anchorage secure, so we spent a peaceful night with five other sailboats. San Evaristo certainly deserves a longer stay than just overnight.