Whale of a Sail
15 February 2018 | La Cruz Marina
Helen
It was a long bumpy ride all night long. Lots of fishing boats passing us and crossing our path during the night. We saw many sailboats heading south this morning. Took turns trying to sleep. I succeeded but Mark not so much. The waves turned bigger as we got to the start of the Banderas Bay. Mark spotted some whales during the day, but we saw many when we got to Cape Corrientes. With the wave action and the movement on the boat, it's pretty tricky to get a good picture of a whale as they only surface for an instant. We had been motoring all morning and with clanking of the boom, we dropped the main sail. Finally, we felt some wind and Mark hoisted the main sail. The wind came around to a good angle to sail, so we unfurled the jib. The winds were over 20 knots and our speed reached 9 knots. We were moving fast. I tried to take some pictures standing in the cockpit but the wind was pushing me off balance. We kept reefing the jib and each time we decreased the amount of sail, we still pretty much kept 7-8 knots. We sailed all the way across the cape, along with several other sailboats. The whale sighting was amazing. We arrived at the La Cruz marina around 5 pm but the marina office had already closed. They pre-assigned us to share the outside T dock with a Canadian sailboat. Just past the water beside us is a walk way with a small amphitheater and tonight is the rock concert. At least, they aren't blasting the music. We enjoyed sharing a table at the local restaurant with fellow sailors, Peter and Jacquie, from Calgary. Neither of us had a reservation and they had only one table available. After dinner we walked over to the amphitheater and listened to a few songs before the band took a break and we walked over to the cruisers' lounge to use our wifi password. It would not work, so we will have to get a better password tomorrow. We are both beat and it's past our bedtime. We will enjoy the stillness of our marina slip for the next week.