Looking for a Catamaran Cruising Blog?

If you found this blog via a link from a cruising site ~ we did cruise Mexico on our Ocean 49 cat for a season. See the first text box on the right for links to our preparations, trip down Baja, life in Mexico, cruising and trip back up to SoCal. Unfortunately we are back to the grind in the USA...

Saturday, May 24, 2008

La Paz Waltz (Not a Dance You Go To...)

This is why I never slept while we were anchored in the bay on "Thistle"...

The wind will come from one direction and the tide will be ripping by at a gazillion several knots.
Normally the boats should all have their bows headed in to the wind.
With the tides blasting through, the boats will head in all directions, as the tide is stronger than the wind (or something).
The boats will also slide along with the tide, the abruptly turn and slide along in another direction.
The wind was blowing 15-20 this day and these boats were all over the place.









Theoretically the bows should all be lined up in the same direction.
In this one (kind of hard to tell), they were all completely opposite.The boat on the left kept sliding sideways, then would stop, head back up into the wind, then slide again.It's called "The La Paz Waltz" because these boats really do dance around the bay.
Kind of scary when you are anchored, as you never know "for sure" if you are dragging your anchor or just doing "the dance" unless of course you find your boat on the beach or 12 miles away, then you were definitely dragging.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How I remember the La Paz Waltz on Beamy Star Song - What fun we had. I love to read your blog and think of the "good old days" Love - Star Songers