Although Cueva Valdez was the intended destination with plans to explore Painted Cave, the swell drove Scott Burns and his three crewmembers on S/V Benchmark to Lady’s. Steve Young, soloing on S/V Quiddity, also left on Friday, but not until early afternoon so enjoyed 15 – 25 knots of wind the whole trip and didn’t go below 6 kts at all – very exhilarating! He’d planned to join S/V Benchmark at Cueva Valdez but missed them as they headed for Lady’s. S/V Libertad received the message that S/V Benchmark had anchored at Lady’s so when we (me and a fellow Rotarian) left on Saturday morning we knew we were headed for Lady’s with some trepidation because I had had a bad experience there once before. My crew had not been to the island in 20 years and was hoping to see some marine life during the passage. Motor-sailing over I expected to have dolphins on the bow but no luck. Then about three miles from Santa Cruz I spotted a whale spout, then another and another. No less than 15 whales were feeding just off Cueva Valdez and we cruised very near several of them. There was no breaching so I can only guess which types they were –most likely Minke. Nearing Santa Cruz I radioed S/V Benchmark to confirm they were there and Steve on S/V Quiddity came on to report he was staying at Cueva and was not interested in moving. Lady’s is a well-protected but tight anchorage and two anchors is a must. Even on two anchors, the anchorage is pretty small for more than two boats. Many boats like to launch their dinghy to help set their two anchors but S/V Libertad has a 45 pound stern anchor with 35 feet of 3/8” chain. Try lowering that into your dinghy and then lowering it from your dinghy. So we’ve developed an alternative method which involves dropping the stern anchor from the bow and then maneuvering to drop the bow anchor. It works but we need a lot of room to maneuver and of course Lady’s doesn’t offer that. Fortunately, Scott was in his dinghy and he acted like a tug and helped push us around until we were in a good position. Safely hooked, we all enjoyed the occasional sunshine and agreed that we’d convene on S/V Libertad for the evening happy hour. S/V Benchmark brought appetizers and adult beverages and S/V Libertad provided the BBQ. After burning through the appetizers accompanied by plenty of enjoyable conversation, the main course of BBQ ribs and steak was served. Finally the evening was capped off by homemade cookies and as 9pm rolled around we were all sated and ready for bed. Anchors were up without incident by 10am the following morning and everyone was headed for home. Visibility was quite good and we noticed quite a bit of traffic in the shipping lane but the freighters were observing the slower speed requested and we had no problem timing our crossing. There was wind enough to sail through windy lane but then it slacked off and some of us had to motor-assist our way home. S/V Quiddity was in no hurry and sailed all the way back.
