Of course, that short trip came with drama. What started as a calm sail quickly turned into a full-on retrieval mission when our dinghy wheels went overboard. Of course, the wind decided to ramp up to 25 knots just as we tried to fish them out. Yes, we had all the sails up. After 45 frantic minutes, we managed to retrieve the wheels—along with the realization that if either of us ever goes overboard, we’re probably not getting rescued.

We may have lingered in town a bit too long. By the time we got back in the dinghy, the wind had picked up and the bay had turned… sporty. One of us bailed water as waves poured over the sides, while the other tried to steer around the worst of it. We arrived back at the boat soaked and salty. Lesson learned.

We left our anchorage the morning after a lively carnival celebration—slightly hungover but eager to sail. A nine-hour, 30-mile trip south sounded like the perfect hangover cure.

“Apparently Cabo Corrientes can be a little sporty,” I said, reading from the cruising guide while we sat at anchor in Chacala. The bay was calm and still, with hardly a ripple—hard to imagine anything “sporty” about it. “Tomorrow looks like a good time to go.”