I left San Juanico at 0700 on Thursday, November 9, still in the company of sv Eagle and crew, Tom Wordell. Set both sails, first reef still in the mains'l, and sailed in a generally south easterly direction, steering mostly to keep both sails full with the wind dead astern or off the port quarter. We made 5-6 knots with a 10 knot apparent wind using the autopilot to steer. Around 1130, Anna Marie caught a breaking wave on her port quarter (seas were high and short), causing quite the surge aboard. The boat suddenly steered hard to starboard, gybing both the main and the Genoa. Both sails backed now with the wind over the starboard quarter (my boom brake held the main over to starboard and for some reason did not ease it across as is usually the case). It took me some moments to realize the autopilot had malfunctioned and another few moments to get the latching mechanism disconnected and control back to me. As luck would have it, I was able to force Anna Marie back across the wind and back onto a port tack. I had no luck getting the autopilot to work again, so gave up on that and while hand steering furled the jib. My hope was to figure out a way to get the main down and the jib back out, thereby giving me more control as I approached landfall. Too windy and too rough to do that without bringing Anna Marie into the wind so I continued on towards Isla Carmen and our night's anchorage in Puerto Ballendra. The point guarding Puerto Ballendra from the north gave me the protection I needed from wind and seas to get the main down, engine started and a safe entrance to the protected cove of Puerto Ballendra. On Friday morning, I weighed anchor and motored in calm seas the few miles to Puerto Escondido, where i took a mooring ball, registered at the Marina Escondido Marina office, and settled in. We stayed two nights in Escondido. On Saturday I was able to fix the autopilot.. Seems it was only a loose rudder feedback wire in the Alpha Spectra CPU. Probably caused when the breaking wave pushed the CPU too hard against it's restraints. I could breathe a big sigh of relief with that problem fixed! I am still faced with a rapidly fading house battery bank (two 300 amp 6v AGM Lifeline, in-series batteries in this case).

On Sunday, November 12, I cast off the moorage line and tied up at the Puerto Escondido fuel dock, taking on about 18 gallons of diesel and 20 gallons of fresh water. By 1000 I was on my way in Eagle's wake with a heading towards Bahia Agua Verde. I spent a very rough night off the beach in Agua Verde with very little wind and a nasty NE swell rolling in all night. On Monday, November 13, we made our way here to San Evaristo, 45 nautical miles down wind. We were able to sail nicely with jib alone for some of the trip, motoring the balance. We stopped briefly in Puerto Los Gatos so Tom on Eagle could fix an autopilot problem that he had just experienced.. Spent a gusty but secure night tucked into the little northern cove in Bahia San Evaristo, and we plan on staying here until tomorrow, Wednesday, November 15.