Deanna B Log
Bob Burton
Log 2012 April trip to Sea of Cortez
April 10, 2012
Got away from the dock in Mazatlan this morning at 8:00 AM. Even
though I pushed things a little, because I wanted an early start, and
left only 2 hours after low tide, I still had 4 ft. of water under the
keel when I went out through the channel. All the weather forecasts
called for 5 to 10 knots winds until the afternoon of the 11th and
then they were to increase during that evening and the next day to 15
to 20 knots. After 2hrs of motoring west on a course to La Paz with
no winds suddenly I had winds from the SW at about 10 knots. I set
both sails and could sail. The wind increased to 18 knots and, even
though I was sailing only 50 degrees of the wind, I was now sailing at
between 7.5 and 8 knots. During the afternoon the winds dropped
back to about 10 knots but I was still making over 6 knots so I was
very happy. At this rate I would be into La Paz on the afternoon of
the 11th ahead of the forecast 20 knot winds from the NW. I saw
little sea life. A few flying fish, one ray that did his usual jump
and flap back onto the water and one seal that startled me when he
stuck his head out of the water beside the boat and then slowly swam
off on the surface toward the mainland. I must admit that I did
wonder about these non forecast SW winds. Was there such a low
somewhere to the north that it was drawing these warm winds into it?
I dozed in the cockpit during the afternoon and enjoyed the warm
breeze. There was a lovely sunset and I even got the green flash, and
then the horizon lit up in a beautiful red. Things looked good.
April 11, 2012
Things started out this morning much as they were going along
yesterday. I was still making excellent time. I was sitting in the
cockpit thinking about how impressed Deanna would be when she got the
Spot message showing how far that I had come since leaving Mazatlan.
At 2:30 AM I was only 85km of the coast of the Baja. Suddenly the
wind just quit. Strange I thought. Then the temp dropped 10 degrees
in 20 min. Wholly s…! I furled the headsail as fast as I could. By
the time I got a second reef in the mainsail I was getting over 25
knot winds out of the NW. I was thinking of what friends said “If
there are forecast winds that you don’t want double them”. I was now
in my foul weather gear and it was foul weather. The waves were now
10 ft. with very little time between them and many were beginning to
break. This meant that I was getting a lot of water in the cockpit.
There were things starting to slide around on the sole of the cabin.
And I started to get water down the companion way. I closed the main
hatch. I must remember to put a latch on that because I had to open
it every so often to check the radar and my auto pilot controls are
down there so I didn’t want to lock it and it kept flying open in
these wild seas. I could still make way (5-6 knots) by motor sailing
because the winds were 30 degrees off my nose. This made very
uncomfortable going because of the angle at which I was hitting the
seas. The boat would come off the face of the waves half land on its
side in the trough the auto pilot would moan as it shoved the rudder
over to climb up the face of the next wave on an angle. The winds
were now hitting 35 knots at times and because they had been forecast
from the NW for the next 4 days I didn’t want to hove to for that long
to wait this whether out. By dawn I was cold and tired and still 65
nautical miles off shore. I tried to send Deanna a spot message to
let her know that I hadn’t sunk but the spot couldn’t get a fix on the
satellites because of all the pitching and rolling the boat was doing.
I wound up on my knees in the bottom of the cockpit trying to
compensate for the movement of the boat with my hands and at the same
time protect the spot from the breaking waves. If anyone could have
seen me I’m sure that they would have thought that I was preying for
salvation. I found a bay about 30 miles south of La Paz called Los
Muertos. It wasn’t very comforting to be trying to fight my way into
a place called Dead Men Bay but I have since discovered that it was
named for the dead men anchors that were used here at one time. Dead
men anchors were huge stones with holes drilled through them for
mooring lines that were dumped on the bottom of the bay with floats
above them so ships could tie up to them. The knots were slowly
ticking off. 40, 30, 20. At 10 miles off I could see the dunes
behind the beach. I was very cold and very tired. The charts showed
deep water along a 400 yd. beach with reefs at either end. My plan
was to make a pass through the bay under sail and motor. If it looked
like it could be done I would go back in with an anchoring plan. If
not I would be forced to go back out about 10 miles from the coast
hove to and try to sleep on the sole of the cabin and hope that no
ships ran over me during the night. As I came into the bay I could
see that there were other boats anchored along the beach. I quickly
dropped the main sail and hung the anchor. Anchoring was pretty
straight foreward after the last 14 hrs. I Spotted Deanna so that she
would know that I was safe because I couldn’t get reception on the
Banda Ancha to email. Before I went to bed I tried my cell phone and
got through to Deanna. It was so good to hear her voice. I ignored
the mess in the boat and fell into bed at 6:00 pm.
April 12, 2012
I didn’t wake up until 7:40 this morning. It is funny but the boat
looked in far better condition today. It is something what a good
night’s sleep can do for one. Spencer Boat Works mad one hell of a
boat. I even got enough of a Banda Ancha signal today to check my
email and send a couple of emails to Deanna. But no skype. I have
spent the day cleaning the boat up, checking oil and fuel and reading.
And typing this Log. It looks like I will just hang here on the
anchor until at least Saturday waiting for the winds to drop a bit
before going on to La Paz. Hope that my beer holds out until then/
April 13, 2012
Today was a great day. The weather was fine. I probably should have
gone to La Paz today but I didn’t know how nice it was going to be
when I got up this morning and the weather forecast showed tomorrow as
the best day so who knew. I spent the day sitting in the cockpit
listening to 60s music on Sirius radio and reading. Another tough day.
April 14, 2012
Well I was up at 5:00 this morning and ready to go. Of course the sun
did not come up until 6:20 but I was waiting in case Deanna called.
She was to call if the weather forecast changed for the worse. My
internet reception is so poor here that I cannot count on being able
to get the weather so Deanna was to call if there was a problem. No
call from Deanna so I send her a Spot message so that she would know that I
was leaving. I start the engine and am about to haul in the anchor
when I hear a sound coming from the engine. When I check it has
shredded another fan belt. There is an over sized alternator so when
it first starts it can easily be putting 80 amps into the battery
bank. This puts so much strain on the belt that if I don’t over
tighten it then it slips and burns out, but when I do tighten it until
it does not slip then it shredds to pieces because it is over tight.
Guess that I will have to put double belt pulleys on everything. More
money. For the first couple of hours after leaving the bay the wind
is aft of my beam so I make between 6.5 and 7 knots but after a while
it shifts to 30 degrees of my nose so I am down to 5.5 knots and motor
sailing. I have prepared myself to go through the San Lorenzo Channel
to get into Bahia de La Paz. The channel is named after one of the
ships that ran aground and sunk there. The sailing guide is full of
warnings about this channel. Don’t attempt it in bad weather. Make
sure that you go between the lighted towers in the middle of the
channel and stay closer to the south one because the north one cannot
be trusted. And watch out for the Rocas Suwanee reef that may not
even be marked at all. I get there and there is only one tower in the
middle of the channel. Sweet, that gives me a 75% chance of running
aground and sinking. I look at my charts and except for the reefs
there is a minimum of 30 ft. of water if you stay in the middle of the
channel. There are not a lot of sailboats out there that draw that
much water. The Deanna B draws 6 ft. There would have to be some
pretty wild seas out there before you would bottom out. Who writes
these guides? So through I go into the bahia. The Bahia La Paz is a
very pretty bay. At this point I am running back south so the NW wind
is doing it for me again. When you enter the harbour at La Paz there
is a 4.5 km channel that leads behind the sand bars into the harbour.
It would have been a simple thing to find it except someone has parked
his ship in front of the entrance. I drop my sails, hang my anchor so
that I can drop it from the cockpit in case of an emergency and motor
towards the ship, where according to my chart, the channel entrance
should be. One eye never leaving the depth gauge. Sure enough as I
get close to the ship I can see the channel entrance. So I’m off
again down the channel with the dolphins playing in my bow wake. One
has to come down this channel with a fair amount of speed if you want
any steering what with the wind and current. Full keeled boats like
the Deanna B need to be moving in order to steer. Other wise they
like to go straight which is not a good thing in a winding channel. I
did notice that there were about three other boats behind me after I
started in but that must have been a coincidence. Mind you I hung
around out in the bay for awhile hoping that someone would go in first
and show me the way. There are a lot of sailboats in this harbour so
finding a spot to anchor can be a challenge. I first drop anchor
right near the channel but as my boat swings I only have 5 ft. under
the keel. I go on the radio and ask what the tide is like in the
harbor. The answer comes back about half way. Hum, I decide to move
back to the back of the harbor where there is a little more room and
more water. I am anchored about 4:00 pm. I’ll go ashore in the
morning.
April 15, 2012
Was up this morning at 7:30. It is a beautiful morning. I have
coffee in the cockpit and launch the dingy and motor into shore. I
have breakfast at the marina where I dock the dingy. Then I wander
around La Paz for a bit. On the way back to Deanna B I see a
beautiful ( about 45ft.) Sloop laying on her side where she settled on
the bar as the tide went out. Or maybe they ran aground and laid her
over. At any rate I am glad that I moved anchorages when I came in
yesterday. I just looked out a couple of minutes ago and a tug had
dragged the sloop off the bar and she was upright again and back into
deeper water. Tonight will be another quiet evening. Tomorrow I’ll go back
to shore to check in with the Port Captain and see what the charges
will be for leaving the dingy at the marina.
