Bob kept a log while he was away. What follows is Bob's journal. I left the boat on May 11 and returned home.
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13-5-2013
Left Puerto Escondido at 8:30 am this
morning and headed to Puerto Ballandra on Isla Carmen (16 nm). The sea was like a mirror. No wind.
I was forced to motor. I was
able to make 4.7 to 5 knots by only running my little Yanmar diesel at 1300
rpm. I am trying to conserve my fuel
because I don’t know when I will be able to find more. I have never sailed this part of the Sea of
Cortez before. While I was motoring
over I passed a fish boil on the surface, which is very common. What was interesting was that this one had a
little shark (about 3-4 ft. long) passing back and forth through it,
feeding. His fin was just out of the
water. I passed close enough to identify
him as a shark but not close enough to distinguish the type. I arrived in Puerto Ballandra at 12:30
pm. There were 12 other boats already
anchored in the bay. The bottom is a
mixture of sand and rocks and drops off to the center. In order to get 80’ of anchor chain out I am
left with only 4’ of water below the keel.
I was sitting on top of the cabin trying to get a Banda Ancha signal in
order to send emails when a friend from Mazatlan showed up in his dingy. He recognized the boat but not me. It is funny how after having very short hair
and being clean-shaven for years, people
have no idea who I am with hair and a beard.
I am getting used to saying “Hello, it is me Bob” as people look at me
in disbelief. Puerto Ballandra has
millions of bees at this time. I tried
the old trick of putting a dish of fresh water on the bow of the boat to
attract down there away from the cockpit. That just attracted more of them to
the whole boat so I threw that over board.
There are still a lot of them. I
keep killing them in the cabin and throwing them out.
14-5-2013
Left Puerto Ballandra shortly after 8:00 am
this morning and headed for Caleta San Juanico. The trip is 24 nm. The
winds were very light but I tried sailing twice. Both times I lasted abut an hour but even I am forced to start
the engine when my speed drops below 2 nm/h.
I arrived in Caleta San Juanico shortly after 3:00 pm. Of course shortly after anchoring I started
getting 10 and 11 knot winds out of the east and they have held pretty steady
for the last 3 hrs. When one considers
that I was sailing at over 5 nm/h when I got 8 knots from that direction
earlier I would be doing just fine if I were sailing now. There is something to be said for those who
get up later and catch these afternoon winds for sailing. The problem is that when I try that, I
usually wind up getting 25-30 knot winds on the nose in the late
afternoon. Caleta San Juanico is a very
pretty bay. And there don’t seem to be
any bees. The bay has a number of
beaches between rocky points. The sand
bottom lightens the water. I am
anchored in about 20 ft of water so that gives me about 14 ft under the keel,
which makes me feel a little better.
Mind you I have already set the drag alarm even though I am hoping that
the winds will drop after dark. At this
time they are just keeping the boat cool below. There is certainly no Banda Ancha signal here. I notice that the few houses on shore have
satellite dishes. This is a bay that
one could easily spend a few days in.
Checked the fuel today and even though I am having to motor a lot the
engine certainly isn’t burning much fuel.
That will be because I am able to run it at such a low rpm because the
seas have been so flat.
15-5-2013
Well last night the winds did drop but
during the night they shifted from the east to the west. They must have shifted fairly quickly
because the boat rolling before she swung her stern around into the seas didn’t
waken me. Of course the winds died at
7:30 am just as I was heading out of the anchorage at Caleta San Juanico. I had a 0 to 2 knot reading on the
anemometer until I was turning into Bahia Concepcion then I suddenly had 13 to
15 knot, and of course I only had 2 nm
to go to my anchorage at Bahia Santo Domingo where I arrived at 3:30. It was a very quiet motor over with very
little to see other than a couple of rays jumping and one other sail boat that
looked to be heading for San Carlos.
Hope that they found some wind off shore or they would be motoring
across the sea. I just heard someone on
the radio calling a boat called “You Rolling Bitch”. I can only imagine the sleepless night that earned the boat that
name. I was able to call Deanna with my
cell phone after arriving. It is only 6
nm across the bay to Mulege from here and there must be a tower there. No luck with the Banda Ancha though. The Banda Ancha works great along the
mainland coast but it is kind of useless here on the Baja. I will go further into the bay tomorrow
because this anchorage is quite open but it was the first one coming in and
after the 47 nm motor boat ride from Caleta San Juanico I was ready to
stop. I went for a swim after arriving
and I believe that the water is warmer here that it was further south. Heard on the SSB net this morning that this
is the first day of the official hurricane season and the Hurricane Center says
that it looks like the first one could already be forming down south. Go figure.
16-5-2013
Last night, at about 12:30, splashing out
side of the boat awakened me. There was
no wind and no seas so out of curiosity I went on deck to see what was going
on. I found that jumping fish
surrounded the boat. I had seen this
happen once before last year off Isla Gallo but what made this different was
the florescence that they were making in the water. When I looked to seaward the water seemed the same as the star
filled sky. It was an amazing feeling
because the sky seemed to wrap beneath the boat. It was as if I were at the
center of the universe and the boat was a planet unto itself. And no I hadn’t been drinking. I went back
to bed and in the morning I was in dense fog, which surprised me on the dry
Baja. By 8:00 am the fog was gone, I
had breakfast and waited for wind. By
10:30 am the flag would slightly move but nothing on the meter. The very slight breeze was coming from the
north so I decided that I might as well be drifting with this breeze as waiting
for wind. I raised the anchor and ran
up my 130 Genoa and left Bahia Santo Domingo.
I was off at a breathtaking 1.5 knots.
At times I was making 2 knots.
This was actually nice as there was just enough speed to steer and I
could sit in the cockpit in silence and watch the shore go by. There should be a song in this “Drifting
Down Bahia Conception”. I enjoyed this
until about noon when the breeze completely died and my genny hung from the
forestay like a wet noodle. I was once
again forced to start the engine. It
was that or drop the anchor which I could have done even though I was a mile
from either shore I had less that 10 ft beneath the keel. I idled along at 3.5 knots at 1000 rpm. Bahia Concepcion is not like deep-water
sailing. You learn to jump onto the
cabin roof to watch for shoals then jump to the helm to steer around them. I don’t know who drew up these charts but I
am sure that they must have been somewhere else when they did it. Good old C-Map. I arrived in Playa Santispac at about 2:00 pm. 8 nm in only 3.5 hrs. Not Bad!
This is a very pretty spot. I
unloaded the dingy and went exploring.
I checked out the next couple of bays down and decided that I like this
one. I think that I will stay for a
couple of days. There is even a
restaurante on the beach. I found that
as I skimmed along in the dingy at 15 mph
and I felt as though I was
floating on air. The water is so clear
that over the sandy bottom it is very difficult to judge the depth. I decided to hook the engine kill switch to
my wrist. I didn’t want to hit bottom,
be thrown out and have the little bugger come back and run me over. I had a nice lunch at the restaurante
Camaron Papa Gallo. Very good. I am now
back relaxing on the boat. It is 6:45
pm and it is 35.5 C in the cabin with a
breeze blowing through. Life is great!
17-5-2013
I was up today at 7:15 am. As I wasn’t going anywhere I spent a
leisurely morning. Made coffee listened to the SSB net out of habit. At about 10:00 I started doing some
maintenance on the boat. Topped up the
batteries, checked the engine oil, found a couple of 2.5” hose clamps were
broken on the exhaust system. I had to
put a couple of smaller clamps together to replace them. Tomorrow I will try hitching a ride into
Mulege to see if I can find the right size clamps in stainless steel. I fired up the compressor and went over
board to clean the hull. All that was
on there was three little barnicals, which came off very easily. The hull was even clean of plant growth at
the water line. The hull has been
staying very clean this trip. Not even
anything growing on the prop. I am
anchored in 35 ft. of water so I thought that I might as well go and check the
anchor while I was in the water. I went
down the anchor chain and followed the track of where it had sunk into the soft
sandy bottom. I followed it along for a
while and suddenly I was back where I started where the chain went back up to
the bow of the boat. When a boat has
been at anchor for awhile and the wind has come from different directions
without the last direction having been a strong enough wind to pull the boat
straight away from the anchor then the anchor chain can be snaking all over the
bottom. I must have followed the chain
in the wrong directions at one of the spots where it crossed over itself. The visibility wasn’t great maybe only 10
ft. I thought I had better pull the
chain out of the soft sandy bottom if I was ever going to find the anchor. Of course this reduced the visibility even
worse. I swam along pulling the chain
out of the bottom hand over hand trying to see ahead. Just as I thought that I could see the anchor ahead I almost
grabbed a snake that was wrapped around the chain. You would be surprised how quickly one can drop an anchor chain
when your hand is about a foot from an irritated snake that you are about to
grab onto. As I try to retreat, not
being able to see where the snake has gone, I think the anchor is fine no sense
worrying about it. I went back in to
the restaurant for a late lunch today.
Pescado al ajo. Again it was
very good and cost only 90 pesos.
Eating good food in the restaurant is far better then checking
anchors!
18-5-2013
I was up this morning at 7:00 am. Listened to the SSB net, had breakfast
finished and and the dishes done by 9:00 and was ready to head for the town of
Mulege. I took the dingy into the
beach, asked some nice people who are camping there if I could leave it beside
their camp sight and walked to the road to catch a ride. The first vehicle that came along stopped
for me. The man driving the pickup
asked if I could help with the gas, which I have read is common, so I gave him
a few pesos and we were off to Mulege.
Mulege is a small town at the mouth of the Rio Santa Rosalia. According to the man that gave me the lift
about 5,000 people live there, which makes it quite small for a Mexican
town. I was hoping to find stainless
steel hose clamps but no such luck.
Even after trying both hardware stores.
I had to settle for standard hose clamps, which will work, for the trip
back but I must make myself a note to replace them with stainless ones as soon
as I get back to Mazatlan. If not first
they will rust on solid so that they will have to be cut off and then they will
continue to rust until they fall off in a couple of months. I did find that it was interesting that the
bigger the clamps were the less they cost.
I asked the clerk why this was and she answered in Spanish “Who
knows”. I had breakfast in a restaurant
on the main street and phoned home. It
was very nice to hear Deanna’s voice. I
thought that I would catch a bus back to Playa Santispac, but none were going
for three hours. I walked to the
highway and tried to catch a ride but no luck.
After about an hour a taxi came along.
I asked the driver the fare back to the boat and when he gave me the
price I told him that this was very expensive.
He showed me his official fare list, which was a typed list. I said that I would wait for the bus. He gave me a lower price but said that he
could get in trouble for not following the “Official” price list. It was still high but it was almost noon and
the temperature was nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit so I took it. When I got back I decided to dingy over to
Playa El Burro to see if there was room for the boat over there and to check
out the water depths on the way over.
The Plan was to bring Deanna B over in the morning. But when I got back I thought why wait until
tomorrow so I motored on over while the route was still fresh in my mind. I was worried about one spot between a point
and an island. It is very difficult to
estimate the depth of clear water over a white sand bottom. But as I edged into this area I found that I
still had 8 ft under my 6 ft. keel. All
was good and I made it over here and anchored off of a very pretty beach. I went into the local restaurant and had a
hamburger for dinner. Not very Mexican
but I just felt like eating a hamburger.
I met a couple of guys that live here full time, but not together as
they explained to me. One was a
Canadian who lives with his wife and his dog and the other an American who lives on his own. We had a nice conversation and I am now back
on the boat watching the stars come out.
Another day passes in paradise.
19-5-2013
Today was a very quiet day. I was up before 7:30 am to listen to the
net. I made breakfast and coffee and
sat around on the boat. About 10:00 am
I went swimming. The water is very
clear. As I said yesterday I am only in
about 12 ft of water. The bottom is
white sand with patches of grass here and there. I look back at the dingy floating on the surface and you can see
its shadow perfectly on the sand 12 ft below it. I showered and spent a couple of hours reading. This is the hectic life of a cruiser. At times it’s hard to keep busy. Mind you I have been at sea in the middle of
the night with 45-knot winds where I have been very busy. But that is the other side of a sailor’s
life. At about 2:00 pm I took the dingy
to shore to look for the store that is supposed to be across the road. I never found the store but found another
little restaurant. There were some
other cruisers there that I that I know so I stopped and had lunch with
them. It was very nice. Good people. I am now back on the boat about
to start reading again. It’s a hard
life!
20-5-2013
The water was very calm last night. There was little to no wind in the
anchorage. In fact it was so calm last
night that I was awake a number of times during the night. We all get used to our boats moving when
they are on the hook. When they don’t
move at all it tends to bother us. At
least it does me. It seemed that every
few minutes I was out in the cockpit to have a look around. One time when I went out, there was a
pelican sitting one the push pit rail.
I don’t know who was startled the most.
The pelican when a naked man appeared from the hatch or me when he took
off. This morning I was up at my usual
7:30 am. Had my breakfast and coffee
and listened to the net to get the weather forecast. I then installed the hose clamps that I bought in Mulege the
other day. I put a wrap of blue masking
tape around them before installation so that I will be able to find them when I
replace them with stainless ones in Mazatlan.
I then took the dingy and explored south along the shore of Bahia
Concepcion for a few miles. I am
planning to start back tomorrow. I’ll
see what the weather forecast is for tomorrow and decide whether to stop at
Santa Domingo to wait for better winds or head out into the Sea of Cortez. In a sailboat it always depends on the
wind. I hope to be stopping at
different places on the way back south but that may be difficult for the first
couple of stops. We’ll see. I went into the beach restaurant and ate a
late lunch. It was a mixed seafood
plate and it was very good. Said adios
to Alfredo, a man that I had met here.
Came back to the boat and loaded the dingy. It feels like another still and hot night. There were even bobos (little non-biting but
very irritating flies) for the first time since I got here. Time to move on.
21-5-2013
Plan B!
Well I got up this morning and was ready to go. Then I listened to Garry’s weather and he
forecast moderate winds out of the SE and basically the same forecast for the
next 3 days. Well I want to go SE. And I didn’t want to sit in Santo Domingo
for three days. Santo Domingo is nice
but it is a very remote and quite an open anchorage. Everyone won’t agree with me but I see Santa Domingo as more of
an overnight anchorage if you have just arrived late in Bahia Concepcion or if
you have pulled up to the entrance of the bay preparing to leave the next
morning. Anyway I decided to move about
a mile further into the bay to Playa Coyote to wait for a change in the
forecast. I don’t have a shortage of
time and I would rather sail than motor.
Besides Coyote is very pretty and it gives me a change of view. I am trying to teach myself more
patience. If I don’t have a reason to
be somewhere up wind then wait until it becomes down wind. I set up my diving gear went snooping around
under the boat for a while but found nothing of interest. It is not as easy to be a successful
treasure hunter as one may think. Well
I sat on the boat most of the day and the wind has come out of the NE at 8-14
knots, which would have made for good sailing.
They may have been local winds but they were from
the NE.
That means that tomorrow I will move up to Santo Domingo and see what
happens with the wind. Yes I will
listen to the forecast in the morning but I will also be
ready to go if the wind starts blowing my
way. That’s the plan at this time
anyway. Maybe I will end up in Santa
Rosalia. Who knows? At least in Santo Domingo I can use my cell
phone so that I can call home.
22-5-2013
Well today there was another change in
plans. First I was up at the regular
time and listened to the weather on the SSB net. Garry forecasted winds from the ESE for the next three days. I weighed anchor and headed north up Bahia
Concepcion at about 8:30 am. As I
neared Punta Concepcion my cell phone came to life. It was picking up the tower at Mulege. I called home and Deanna caught me up on what was going on back
in Patzcuaro. It was very nice to hear her voice. As I neared the point the wind started
picking up from the east. I ran up my headsail, the main was already
up, and headed out into the Sea of Cortez.
If the wind stayed to the east I would be able to sail south. But as I sailed out from the bay the wind
was coming from the ESE as forecast.
That would have been the direction that the wind had been coming from
all the time but it would have been distorted as it came around the point. I pulled down the headsail and thought that
I would motor south until I reached Punta Santa Teresa. There my course would change a little
further to the south and I may be able to use the wind to sail. Wouldn’t you know it as I rounded Santa Teresa
the wind seemed to shift further to the south.
Also. I am sure that it was
still just the effects of the coast. This happened to me again as I rounded
Punta Pulpito where I altered course a little further to the south and the wind
seemed to do the same. It is a good
thing that I am not religious because if I were I would have to take this as a
sign that God hated me. The apparent
wind reached 22 knots on my nose. As I
was motoring along at between 4 and 5 knots that would mean that the top winds
were 17-18 knots out of the ESE just as Garry forecast. I tried sailing by tacking back and forth
into the wind for a while but I was making next to no headway. The seas were building with the wind as time
went on to about 4 ft. 4 ft. wind waves
are usually nothing but on the Sea of Cortez they tend to come very close
together. And, in this case they were about every 4 or 5 seconds so I
was getting nowhere. I finally gave up
and fired up the diesel again. I motored
into Caleta San Juanico at 7:30 pm.
This gave me about one hour to anchor before it got dark. I anchored in the south end of the bay where
there were about 10 other boats trying to get out of the seas, which were
already subsiding. I had made the 56 nm
in 11 hours. That was an average of 5
knots/hour. When you consider the time
that I spent attempting to sail and that I spent the last 46 nm going directly
into winds and seas, that isn’t bad but I would rather have sailed.
23-5-2013
Well after yesterday I decided to stay here
in Caleta San Juanico until the winds start up so I can see if I can use
them. Last night was a very nice night
with a full moon. The seas were a
little rolly early in the evening but they settled down later on. About 11:00 am today the winds started
picking up but once again they came out of the ESE and commonly registered 22
knots on the anemometer during the afternoon.
These would be good sailing winds if you didn’t have to sail straight
into them. At 7:00 pm the winds were
hitting 27 knots and still out of the ESE.
By 9:00 pm the winds had calmed right down but this allowed the boats to
go abeam to the seas so they did roll a little during the night. Not enough to keep one awake though, at
least not this one. This afternoon and
evening there was a party on the beach.
It was to start at 5:00 but it was postponed until 5:30 in hopes that
the wind would die down. When people
realized that the winds were increasing they went anyway. Cruisers are a hardy lot. From what I could see there was a very good
turnout. I would have gone but it was a
potluck. Everyone was to bring a salad
or a dessert. I have a rule about
potlucks when I am on my own. If there
is not a store where I can buy something to take or a restaurant where I can
have something made up to take, I give them a pass. With my skills in the kitchen, or lack there of, I don’t want to
be responsible for poisoning a lot of innocent people. If I should die when I am on the boat on my
own, chances are that it will be from eating something that I have made for
myself. Anyway the party went on until
after dark and it looked as if everyone was having a good time.
24-5-2013
Well I was up this morning and gone. I didn’t even wait for the weather
forecast. After yesterday I wasn’t
going to wait for the afternoon winds to start blowing from the direction that
I was going. These damn winds have to
change direction soon. I arrived in the
southwest anchorage on Isla Coronados shortly after 12:00 noon. I was also able to reach the tower at
Loreto, by standing on the boom, so I was able to phone home. Once again it was really nice to be able to
talk to Deanna. This is a beautiful
cove with a white sand beach and turquoise water because the white sand extends
out under the water in the cove. I went for a swim here. The water is not as
warm as it was in Bahia Concepcion. The
winds are blowing again this afternoon.
They don’t seem to be blowing as hard as yesterday but it is also more
protected from southeast winds so it is hard to tell. I’ll see what the weather forecast is tomorrow morning. These winds have to change direction sooner
or latter. I plan to break out my
diving rig and see if there is anything to find beneath the boat. As I said before people would have been
anchoring in these same spots for hundreds of years for the same reasons. Waiting for the damn wind to change
direction. So who knows what could be
down there. I’ll leave the anchor chain
alone though.
Well I had to give up my diving after about
half an hour. This beach is very
popular with the people from Loreto.
They hire pangas to bring them the 6 nm. The pangas were roaring in and out very close to the sailboats
and I was afraid that they would run over my air hose, which was floating, on
the surface beside the boat. The hose
is bright yellow but with a panga cutting past at 35 mph with its bow 5 ft in
the air who knows. From where I was on
the bottom a couple of them seemed to be very close to my hose, which is a 100
ft long and when you are only 25 ft down, can drift a couple of boat length
from the boat. Still haven’t found
anything down there. Maybe I need a
metal detector?
25-5-2013
Well I was up this morning at 6:45. There was heavy dew during the night, which
is rare here in this dry climate. It
gave me a chance to mop off the boat with fresh dew water. Or maybe I should say that it gave me a
chance to dance with the dozens of bees who were trying to drink the fresh
water off the deck. I listened to the
weather forecast and guess what “southwest winds at 16 to 18 knots”. I decided to motor on south back to Puerto
Escondido. Why not motor another 19 nm?
With all this motoring I hope to be
able to top up my fuel tanks there.
When I left Isla Coronados at 9:00 am the seas were flat with no wind. At 1:00 I was getting anemometer readings of
22 knots on the nose; the seas were white capping and I was getting spray off
the bow in the cockpit. When I subtract
the 4.5 knots I was making Garry was pretty well right on with his
forecast. As I rounded Punta Coyote
just outside of Puerto Escondido the seas calmed. This is a very protected area.
I would love to have these winds come any direction other than straight
on the nose. They would be great to do
a beam reach with or run with but they are such a grind to tack into that you
sail 20 nm to gain 5. At least it was
still flat when I passed Loreto so I was able to call Deanna on my cell.
I got into Puerto Escondido and guess
what. No fuel. They were out. They took the name of the boat and how much fuel I wanted, put me
on the list and said that they can get it for tomorrow. I know I’m in Mexico and that is what they
always say but maybe? My fuel tanks are
full but the 5-gallon jerry cans that I carry on deck are empty. If they were full I should be able to make
it back to Mazatlan without refueling even if I have to motor the whole damn
way. Oh for the trade winds where an
acquaintance, with the identical boat to the Deanna B, told me that he sailed
for two weeks without once changing a sail and averaged 160 nm a day.
It
was sure nice to have a real shower, even with cold water, eat at a restaurant
and catch up on my emailing. Life is
good and besides every one-day spent on a boat is worth ten on shore.
26-5-2013
Today was a quiet day. Of course no fuel came. But I am still enjoying the fact that I can
shower whenever I feel like it. It is
also nice to be able to get onto the internet regularly. I am still planning to leave in the morning.
27-5-2013
Well I was up and into shore this morning
at 9:00 am. No fuel. As I wait for the email I see a pick up
truck show up at the fuel dock with 45-gallon drums in the back. I know that I am on the fuel list so I will
go over with my jerry cans after I get my email. My email comes in at 11:00 so then I go over to the fuel dock and
find that they have given my fuel to someone else. They say that they didn’t think that I would mind because there
will be another load of fuel arriving in a couple of hours. I am not impressed. I tell them to forget about the fuel because
I don’t have another couple of days to wait.
I go back to the boat and get ready to leave. By the time I get the dingy loaded and everything stowed away it
is after 12:00. I motor out of the
harbor and there is wind and it is blowing out of the southwest and I am going
southeast. I can’t believe it. I run up my sails turn off the diesel and I
am off. As I come out from behind Isla
Danzante I am getting 18 to 20 knot winds right on the beam. I am doing between 6.5 and 7 knots. Life is good. The boat is doing what it was built for. An hour later the winds are hitting 23
knots. I am actually forced to furl
three turns of my 130 genny headsail because of the angle that I am running
on but I am still doing 7.2 knots. When I am 2 nm out of Agua Verde the wind
suddenly drops to 9 knots. I don’t mind
because I have had a great sail. I am now anchored in Bahia Agua Verde. Will I have the same luck tomorrow? Who
knows?
28-5-2013
Well today I was up at 6:30 am. I made coffee and listened to the net at
7:30. I left Agua Verde at 8:00. What a mixed bag of sailing. I motored out of the bay and then hit the
perfect winds out of the southwest (directly on my beam) and I was sailing at
speeds up to 7.6 knots. Then the winds
would die down to nothing and I would start the motor. Suddenly the winds would be back out of the
southwest and I would be off again and then they would be gone again. By noon I was back motoring into ESE winds
again. I motored all afternoon and
wound up in Bahia Amortajada (Isla San Jose) at 6:00 pm. I have anchored about ½ mile off shore to
escape Steinbeck’s jejenes. These are
little biting bugs that Steinbeck described, in his book, when he was
here. I sat in the cockpit and ate my
dinner and never noticed anything but I await their arrival. I have even lit a dodo coil but I have seen
no sign of them but why take a chance.
If I am not eaten by these little devils tonight my plan is to sail to
La Paz tomorrow. I will top up my fuel there and head further
south. Well that is the plan at this
time by who knows what will happen?
29-5-2013
Well I made it through the night with no
jejenes. Maybe Steinbeck wasn’t using
the right dodo coils. I was up and off
this morning before 8:00. The winds are
coming from the southeast at about 20 knots and I am going almost southeast but
I am determined to sail. After tacking
back and forth into the wind for 5 hours I made a grand total of 10 nm in the
direction that I want to go. I must
have sailed close to 50 to make these 10.
The seas are now about 5-6 feet and very square so I am also getting
wet. When I tack over in the lee of the northern tip of Isla Parida I decide to
give up and motor along Isla Parida and Isla Espiritu Santo where the seas are
a little easier to get along with. As I
know that it will be dark before I can reach La Pas I decide to stop in one of
the bays on the west side of Isla Espiritu Santo. I decide not to stop at Ensenada de la Raza because I have stayed
there before so I decide to try something new.
I decide to go no to Bahia Santa Gabriel because it should only be a
short 18 nm run into La Pas in the morning.
When I arrive in Santa Gabriel I am not impressed with this big open
bay. It is not like Ensenada de la Raza
with Isla Gallo to protect it. But it
is late and I am tired. I tuck in
behind Punta Prieta so that I am kind of protected if the Coromuel winds should come from the west during the
night. Even though I am only anchored
in 25 ft of water I am at least a mile off the beach so I should be ok. I discover that I can get cell phone
reception from here so I call home to speak to Deanna. The winds have now shifted to the southwest
and are still blowing at 20 knots. The
boat is rocking at a good rate because of the waves wrapping around the
point. I sit in the cockpit for a while
watching the wind speeds. By about 9:00
pm they have dropped to about 16 knots so I set my anchor drag alarm and go to
bed. Even though the boat is rocking I
am tired from a long day so I go to sleep.
About 10:30 I am hit by a wave.
Not just the boat but me inside it.
A wave has broken ahead of the boat and broken onto it. Water has come in through the forward hatch,
even though the dingy is over it, has come in through the open ports and even
the vents in the cabin roof have water dripping from them. I am on deck in one jump. The winds are howling at 36 knots and there
are waves breaking all around me. I
start the engine and by using every trick that I know and having a lot of luck
get the anchor up and fight my way out of the bay. The winds are now coming straight out of the south at 35
knots. The seas are running at about 6
ft and breaking over the bow constantly.
I am totally soaked because they were also breaking over the bow while I
was up there fighting with they anchor.
Now I am 18 nm down wind from La Paz and it is 11:00 in the evening and
I don’t want to attempt the La Paz channel in the dark with 35 knot winds. I motor into the winds trying to adjust the
throttle so that I won’t arrive at the entrance to the channel before 6:00 am
in the morning. I put on my foul
weather gear but I am very cold. I find
that if I sit in the companionway on the steps beside the engine cover I can
get the heat off the engine. Because
going up the bay from the San Lorenzo Channel usually has heavy traffic I have
to go back into the cockpit, in the spray, every 10 minutes to check for
traffic and check my gages and chart plotter.
Other than that I spend the night sitting on the steps staring at the
radar screen.
30-5-2013
Even with my best throttle control I arrive
at the channel entrance at 5:00 am. It
is dark the wind is still hitting 30 knots and I am very tired. I also haven’t seen another boat all
night. No one else is stupid enough to
be caught out in this damn Coromuel.
Coromuels are winds that blow over the Baja from the Pacific. This happens when there are fairly strong
northwest winds blowing on the Pacific (west) coast of the Baja and they cross
over the land to the east coast attracted by the warm Sea of Cortez. They usually blow at night and are stronger in
the spring and summer as the water temperature in the sea rises. I find that if I get the throttle set just
right the Deanna B holds her bow into the wind without moving. There I sit on my step watching my radar
screen shivering and waiting for daylight.
At 6:00 am it is not really light but it is not really dark. The 4.5 nm channel is supposed to have
lighted buoys marking it but about ¾ of the lights don’t work. I have been in this channel before and have
it on my chart plotter but because the winds are still running at 26 knots I edge my way in. Only the red lights are working as I can only see one side of the
channel but if I keep them close to my starboard side I should be ok. I am also motoring at close to 6 knots so
that the wind can’t blow me out of the channel into the shoals. As I work my way down the channel it is
getting lighter so I can now also make out the unlit buoys. This was the plan because I need to see the
other boats in order to anchor especially in these winds. I find an open spot, drop anchor, find a
relatively dry spot in the boat and fall asleep.
I slept from 6:45 am to about 9:45am and
then phoned home to tell Deanna that I was ok.
She thought that I was still in San Gabriel and before I had fallen
asleep I had sent a message out on my satellite messenger showing me in La
Paz. After explaining why I was where I
was, I started cleaning the boat.
Everything was wet so I spent the day hauling everything out on deck to
dry it until I got some tidiness back in the boat. I then hauled fuel to fill my tanks, had a shower, a nice meal
and was back into bed by 8:30. The
winds howled again at up to 30 knots during the night but the waves haven’t
gotten too big here in the anchorage.
31-5-2013
The winds were still blowing pretty hard
here in the anchorage this morning so I
waited until about 9:00 to go in to the restaurant for breakfast. By that time they had dropped to about 18
knots so I was able to make it across the bay in the dingy without getting
wet. I again spent the day tidying up
the boat and rigged my inner forestay with my storm sail so that it will be
ready if I need it. I hope to get
underway again tomorrow but as I sit here tying this at 10:00 pm the winds are
howling at 30 knots and the boat is rocking back and forth. I have once more set my drag alarm. My plan is to get up tomorrow, wait for the
winds to drop to about 20 knots and then head out. That is the plan at any rate.
1-6-2013
Well I was up this morning at 6:30. Made coffee ate breakfast and phoned Deanna
for a weather report. She said that the
winds would settle down once I made it out through Canal de San Lorenzo. I weighed anchor about 8:00 am with 20-knot
winds blowing. It wasn’t bad going out
through the La Paz channel when you can see all the channel buoys. When I got out of the channel there were
still 6 ft seas running as a result of the 30-35 knot coromuel winds that had
blown all night. But for once I was
going in the right direction. The winds
were coming out of the south and I was heading north. I was able to sail at about 6-7 knots and at times ran at over 8
knots as I surfed on the waves. I met
sailboats motoring into the wind as they made their way towards La Paz. Of course I met the Star of Mazatlan (ferry)
coming in through Canal de San Lorenzo as I was going out but there was plenty
of room for both of us. Many people on
the decks of the ferry waved down as we passed. Deanna was right on with her weather forecast because the winds
lightened right up after the canal and then started blowing out of the ESE
again. With this and the fact that the
south winds had about a 1.5 to 2 knot current flowing against me through Canal
de Cerralvo meant that I motored most of the 28 nm down the channel. I was able to sail again after leaving the
channel and rounding Punta Arena de la Ventana into the anchorage in Ensenada
de Los Muertos. I had covered the 56 nm
in about 10 ½ hours. My plan is to head
for Bahia Los Frailes in the morning.
2-6-2013
I was up at 6:30 made coffee and breakfast
and phoned Deanna to see if there were any major weather changes. The weather forecast hadn’t changed so I
weighed anchor and headed for Bahia Los Frailes. Again the winds were out of the ESE all day. The highest apparent winds that I recorded were
about 23 knots. If you subtract my 5
knot speed then they were about what was forecast. By the time that I arrived in Los Frailies at 4:00 pm there were
about 5 ft. seas coming out of the south.
With these winds and seas Frailes is a very open anchorage so the wind
and waves were running directly toward the beach. I considered just heading for Mazatlan because the conditions
would be good for sailing due south.
But I was tired from the 46 nm trip from Muertos to Frailies and the
idea of starting out on a 160 nm passage without sleep wasn’t all that
inviting. On the other hand I was still
a little gun shy about open beaches and onshore conditions from my experience
at Bahia Santa Gabriel. There were no
other boats in Bahia Los Frailies. So I
motored through the bay along the beach to decide whether or not to
anchor. I kept the mainsail up so I
could use it to tack away from the beach if anything went wrong. Bahia Los Frailies has a strange underwater
topography. There is a deep under water
canyon that runs up to the center of the beach that gives a depth there of
nearly 200 ft. almost into the beach.
The water is much shallower on either side of this canyon and that is
where you can anchor. There are a few
mooring balls to the north of the canyon but these were empty. On the second pass down the beach I steered
off shore between the canyon and the mooring balls and when I was back into
about 35 ft. of water I dropped the anchor.
By the time that I laid out 120 ft. of chain and set the anchor I still
had about 17 ft. of water under the keel.
I also had the underwater canyon about 100 ft. off the starboard side,
which extended far closer to the beach then I was. The plan was that if things turned bad on me during the night I
hoped to slip off to the starboard into the deep water of the canyon to get
back off shore. I was surprised that I
got cell phone reception so I was able to call Deanna. I sat in the cockpit until dark and the
winds dropped back to about 10 knots and with this the waves also decreased to
about 3 ft.
3-6-2013
I was up this morning at 5:00 am. I didn’t get a very good sleep last night
because it was pretty rocky all night and I was up in the cockpit checking
around even though I had my drag alarm set.
I was not surprised to find the bow of the boat facing due east the
direction that I wanted to go. Maybe
the wind direction changed as it entered the bay. I called Deanna again to see if there had been any changes in the
weather forecast and there wasn’t. I
finished breakfast and was out of the bay by 6:00 am. I set a course of due east, straight off shore, towards
Mazatlan. When I got out of the bay the
wind did shift back to ESE. It was
still too close to the nose to get my Genoa up without altering course but when
I set the main and the inner forestay sail I was able to get 5.5 to 6 knots by
running the engine at 1600 rpm. By noon
the winds had shifted a little further to the south and increased to about 20
knots. I was able to get the 130 Genoa
up and so I was able to shut the engine down and run between 6.5 to 7.5
knots. Once in awhile it would hit 8.5
knots when I would surf off the front of the 6 ft. seas that were running to
the north. The seas were also about 11
or 12 seconds apart. It was nice to be
back into the open Pacific seas and out of the box wind waves of the Sea of
Cortez. The sea size increased slightly
and the winds dropped to 16 to 17 knots as the afternoon wore on but by
adjusting the sails slightly my speed stayed pretty constant. The Deanna B crashed on through the sea with
the water running down the port deck.
One quickly gets used to living on an angle like this when it comes with
speed. About 7:30 pm I heated my dinner
but decided to just take the frying pan out in the cockpit and eat out of it
because it was easier than attempting to put the food in a dish when the boat
was heeled over. By the time I sent
out my location on my Spot and did the dishes it was dark. The wind had shifted slightly back towards
the east and dropped to 12 to 14 knots so I furled the Genoa back up and
started the engine. At night when my
solar panels aren’t getting the sun I must either come up with an alternate way
of recharging my battery bank or shut down either the frig or the auto pilot,
which both take a fair amount of energy.
I have a Monitor wind vane steering system but to use it I have to crawl
down in the hold and disconnect the hydraulic steering ram from the
quadrant. I found that by sheeting in
my mainsail and staysail I could run the engine at 2000 rpm and still maintain
speeds of from 6.3 to 7.4 knots. There
was no moon and the night was so dark that I literally could not see my hand in
front of my face let alone where I was going.
And the boat always seems to be going twice as fast when it is this dark
with the rolling back and forth and
the grinding of the hydraulic autopilot
and the odd wave banging against the hull.
The Deanna B is a fairly well equipped boat. It has an AIS transponder, which picks up the positions, speed
and course of the larger ships around and transmits our same information about
us back to them. The radar constantly
scans the sea around and an alarm is sounded if there is any danger of
collision. This means that I should be
able to sit down below and work on the computer or read a book and only go up
on deck every 20 minutes or so for a look around. I know of people who sleep for stretches when they are making
overnight passages and not in heavy traffic lanes. No matter how often I do this I can never completely relax. I am poking my head out at least every 15
minutes and peering into the darkness trying to see something. I always feel that I should have more
control of all this weight hurtling through the night. In my mind,
it is the same as driving down the highway, at night, and leaving the
steering wheel, to jump in the back seat for a rest. Somehow I feel that if I am not literally at the helm controlling
the boat then I am not doing my duty as skipper; especially on a dark
night. On this total passage I never
saw one other vessel. I picked the
Mazatlan Star, the ferry, up as we passed at a distance of 30 nm during the
night.
4-6-2013
I brewed some strong coffee at 1:30 am to
help keep myself awake during the night and I did succeed. I was passing through the channel into
Marina Mazatlan at 9:00 am and tried up in my slip by 9:30. I sent out my Spot message so that anyone
following me will know that I am back home, I phoned Deanna, had a shower,
checked in at the office, went to Gus y Gus for breakfast and was asleep in my
bunk by 11:00 am. I will spend the next
few days getting the boat ready to leave for the summer before I return home to
Patzcuaro. I usually return to the boat
for a couple of weeks every 6 weeks or 2 months. This allows me to check on the boat, do any maintenance and I
also just like spending time on the boat even when it is in the marina. Mind you it can get pretty uncomfortable
there during the summer with the heat and humidity.
I have to do some real serious thinking
about my plans for next year. I was
planning to sail down the coast to El Salvador and then head out into the open
Pacific for the trip back and see if I could get permission to visit Isla Las
Cocas, Clipperton Island and Isla Socorro before returning to Mazatlan. I do like the idea of making such a trip but
that would call for spending an extended time away from home, which I really
don’t know that I want to do. When I am
away on the boat by myself I do miss Deanna and our dog Patches a great
deal. So I have to decide how to do a
trip like this in sections so that I can make it home once in awhile, or put it
off. I could sail to Hawaii and back
and spend less time away from home. I
will spend some time this summer studying charts and guides and talking to Deanna.
