Here are a couple of posts I wrote while underway.
June 24, 2011
We left yesterday (6-23) at about 10:30 am from Mazatlan. Although technically we had a great sail with good winds, we made very little actual progress as we had to tack north and south due to wind direction when where we really wanted to go was west-northwest. But it was so nice nobody cared. We had literally hundreds of dolphins following us for hours - some came right up to the boat so close I could almost have touched them. They had sort of leopardy-ish spots, and there were all sizes. They swam in front, behind, and on either side of the boat. They jumped out of the water and made some chittering noises. We did not motor at all, even though we could have motored into the wind and made more progress. And this is because isn't the whole purpose of having a sailboat to sail? We think so and at this point are not in any hurry.
I stood the 2 am to 6 am watch - it was nice and uneventful. No slatting sails. In fact, no problems at all except I got a little sleepy. I took a brief nap today (6-24) and hope to sleep some more after dinner. It is about 2:30 pm and Mike is sleeping. Walt (the nephew) is here in the cockpit with me, mesmerized by the ocean and the motion of the boat.
I made banana pancakes for breakfast. For dinner we are having chicken machaca burritos unless we catch a fish. We have two lines out along with a "psychedelic fish lure" that Mike devised using a plastic soda bottle filled with glitter, coins, and beads with hooks tied on the back attached to a hand line tied to the stern rail. IT is quite impressive but no bites yet, although the sea birds are quite intrigued.
Today we saw several big sea turtles, as well as a big shark and lots of shearwaters, boobies, and other sea birds. The water is a deep sapphire blue. Last night there was bioluminesence (no idea how to spell that) - flashed of light in the water. Dolphins swimming through it look like light sabers.
Here is an interesting thing that happened. We have a LOT of fancy electronic navigation and measuring instruments on board, and truth be told, even Mike does not know how to fully utilize them. But today he accidentally bumped into one of the buttons on one of the displays with his butt, and we discovered that it tells us the wind speed AND angle. Now we don't have to guess at wind speed, which I have always thought we overestimated, and we can use this information to more accurately trim (adjust) the sails using the wind angle, and it also helps me to helm better. We are ashamed it took us so long to discover this - and we now wonder what other marvels await our eventual discovery. I knew we spent all that money for something!
June 26, 2011
Back again after a wild night. I'll start at the beginning. I got up for my 2 am watch on 6-25. After a great day of almost perfect sailing in the right direction, there was suddenly no wind at all. Mike told me to just do my best to keep us pointed north and went to bed.
Now this is hard (difficult) sailing. Low to no wind means low to no speed, which means no ability to steer the boat. Walt was up with ME and did great - he seemed to really catch on to the steering dynamics way better than I have. But we poked along all day, at times having to make a less than desireable course change to keep us moving at all. It caused me and Mike to be very cranky. Later the wind picked up so we could sail again, but we broke down and did some motoring so we were at least making some headway.
Then, right in the middle of me making dinner, which included boiling water for pasta, the wind came up hard and fast. I immediately lost my appetite. The wind was screaming, and the sound of the wind power generator made things seem much worse (although in truth the sound of the wind power generator working hard is a good thing). Mike put the boat into a "heave-to" which is where you set the sails and the rudder to work against each other so the boat basically stands still. It is a good way to handle things when it is too rough or windy to sail or when continuing on would simply beat the holy crap out of you. You just bob around like a cord and go nowhere. That is what we did and we all just made the best of it, bouncing around uncomfortably yawing and pitching all at the same time. But we all got some sleep, and if we had tried to sail, Mike would have had to hand steer all the way, which is exhausting. However, nothing was broken, and the only things that flew loose around the pitching cabin were a few books that I immediately re-secured. I thought the whole thing was a little scarey, but Walt handled it like a pro, even sleeping the whole night in the cockpit instead of hunkering down in the cabin like I did.
This morning the winds are at 13 knots, which is a pleasent sail. We have taken reefs in and out, and Mike fixed a leak in the exhaust. Tonight we will put into Isla San Francisco and I will try and write some more.
Back to June 28
This is enough for now. We are at Isla San Francisco - it is beautiful and we are the only boat here. I will post pictures in a few weeks when I have internet again - this is going through the radio. Walt has been camping on the beach at night, although last night the bugs got bad and he will likely sleep on board tonight. The first night we got here the wind came up hard - and we discovered we had not chosen a good anchoring spot. The seas were so high we worried the anchor would not hold, but it did. Then we had to get up several times to re-attach the dinghy, and finally had to haul it up onto the deck by hand, which was very hard in all the wind and rollicking waves. IT was, to say the least, a bad night for me and Mike. Walt was smart to sleep ashore!
We moved the boat yesterday and last night had a relaxing sleep as we were more protected from the winds. We hiked around the island, and went to a beach on the other side that had a lot of agates and shells. Today Mike and Walt are hiking around up some ridges - and I am going to allow myself some much needed alone time with a book in the shady, breezy, cockpit. If I get hot, I will just jump overboard and cool off in the clear ocean water. Then on to make some chili out of a jack cravalle that Walt cooked - the meat is so dark red we are treating it like beef. People say it is not at all good to eat - they are wrong. It made great spiced fajitas the other night, and will be great chili today. That's it for now. We will be here for a couple more days, then on to a new anchorage.
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