Allan
01/31/2009, Barra De Navidad

After a 25 hour sail down the coast from Banderas Bay, we arrived in Barra De Navidad around 9am Friday. This experience was MUCH nicer than the last. We sailed all day, mostly on a starboard broad reach with medium swells on the stern quarter, making for a comfortable ride. As expected, the wind died around 8-9pm and we motorsailed under main only until 2am when the last breath of the days winds passed us by. We motored at 3-4 knots to ensure a daylight approach to Barra. This also conserved fuel and made for a comfortable ride for sleeping. Rina and I traded watches every 3 hours and we both enjoyed the clear warm starry night.

I also put a bunch of additional Barra pictures in the gallery to your right.

We came into the lagoon behind the Town of Barra with no drama, even though the tide was on its way down. We anchored just in time for the morning net, introduced ourselves, and found out that our friends Mike and Julie from Slacker, who we met on Dock 6 in Mazatlan, were down here on a road trip. We slept for a couple of hours, then went into town to explore, have some lunch and then hung out at the cruiser friendly Sands Hotel Pool and caught up with Mike and Julie.

We will absolutely spend more time here, although on this trip it will be until only Monday. We want to head down to Z-town in time for the Puddle Jump meeting and cruiser sail regatta. We plan on taking our time coming back up the coast in February to enjoy Barra, Tenicatita and many other small points of interest on the Gold Coast.

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Allan and Rina
01/27/2009, South of Banderas Bay

Warning: Long story ahead... almost one of those Mexican Novellas, without the sex, of course

We left Banderas Bay on Saturday around mid day for Ipala, which is just south of the entrance to the bay. We had a nice sail, and lots of sea life around us. Ipala is a little cove with a couple of Marisco restaurants and room for about 3 boats. We spent a somewhat rolly night at the anchorage and got up early for our 47 mile journey to Chamela Bay.

About half way there, we came across a pod of whales not 30 yards from the boat on a parallel course. I cut the engine and we coasted as the whales flopped around, slapping the water with their flippers. It was the closest we had been to the whales and totally enchanting. Rina and I looked at each other and it registered immediately... one of those moments we would not forget.

How true that statement turned out to be, but not for the reasons we expected.

I went to start the engine, turned the key and pressed the start button... Nothing. Hmmmm. Tried it again to no avail. About a week ago, the same thing happened but the second try worked.

We checked out the weather and our position. We were about 4 miles offshore and fighting a 2 knot current going up the coast on our way down. We had about 10 knots of wind on our beam so we set our sails and kept heading down the coast as I began troubleshooting. We were making about 3 knots true at this point... 5 knots through the water but only 3 knots across the bottom, given the 2 knot current against us. Our GPS unit lets us know what our true speed is.

I spent the next 3 hours methodically troubleshooting the engine with the help of Nigel Calders "Marine Diesel Engines" book. Ignition, no problem, starter button, swapped out, no problem, jumped the solenoid using the old screw driver across the contacts trick and sure enough, starter started, but engine did not. Researching further, newer starters have a solenoid that engages the starter before firing. Rather than throwing the starter gear into the fly wheel, the solenoid pivots a lever, engaging a gear, THEN starts. Easier on the flywheel and starter, but... and here's the kicker: You MUST have a working solenoid to start the engine. The old school solenoids, like on many cars, can be jumped and start the motor, but not this one. My conclusion was a bad solenoid, of which I did not have a spare. I specifically recall discussing with Rina the need for a starter and solenoid. Our conclusion was that for coastal cruising we would not need one. Guess what's on our spares list now that we are headed west!

Ok, so now what to do. Our options were to head 14 miles to Chamela Bay in dying winds against a 2 knot current and try to anchor in an unfamiliar anchorage, keep sailing south to Manzanillo where they have boat repair facilities against the same current and uncertain winds... 70 miles away. Our third option was to return to Banderas Bay with the current, where we knew they had parts, and friends who could lend a hand if we got stuck with no wind. An oh yea, BuoyWeather predicted decreasing winds over the coming days.

We decided to turn around and head back to Banderas Bay.

We sailed close hauled at 5 knots through the water, 7 knots over the bottom for a couple of hours... things were looking good. We took this opportunity to head further out to sea in case the wind died. Worst case we would ride the current north. Sure enough, the wind died after dark. We spent the next 10 hours ghosting up the coast. Rina was freaked by the fact we could not keep the boat pointing towards our destination. We would see between 2-4 knots of wind and keep the sails up to see what we could do, only to have them flap against the shrouds and rattle the deck hardware so we were guaranteed to not sleep off watch.

Imagine this: The boat is dead stopped in the water. GPS says we are doing 2 knots, sometimes only 1.5, but that is just the current heading up the coast. A sailboat needs water crossing the keel and rudder to steer. No movement, no steering. We try to steer, but turn the wheel lock to lock with no effect. The boat slowly turns, and keeps turning. and turning, and turning... we do 360 degrees, not once, but 3 times over the next couple of hours. The 3rd time we were being overtaken by 4 other boats motoring up the coast. We can only imagine what they were thinking as our navigation lights showed red, then green, then white as we spun around. Trying to maintain steerage and monitor the sails takes lots of concentration. We could not use the auto pilot, as it uses a compass and knot meter to decide how to steer. No speed registering on the knotmeter? 360 degree turns? The autopilot is smart, but not that smart... We turned it off and lashed the wheel hard over. At one point we were able to keep the main sail pointed into 3-4 knots of wind for a couple of hours, losing it now and then for no apparent reason. The log shows several hours with no progress at all through the water, and only 1-2 miles per hour based on lat/long changes registered via GPS. We changed the watch every 2 hours, but sleep was difficult with the racket of the boat in the 2-3 foot swell. At one point it sounded like I was inside a maraca, with every cabinet's contents rattling back and forth at different frequencies.

Around 5am an inversion-based wind picked up to a consistent 5-6 knots from onshore. The warmer air over the sea rises, drawing air from the colder air over land. Unfortunately this only lasted for a couple hours until the sun equalized the temperatures. By this time we were about 12 miles from Cabo Corientas, the southern point of Banderas Bay. Cell service is pretty scarce in these parts, but Rina got 1 bar, so we called Dietmar on Carinthia after the morning VHF net, which we could barely hear, and asked if he could stand by, given the winds were forecast to stay light. He was already planning to head to Yelapa, so we had help if needed.

The winds remained light through the morning so I decided to rig the dinghy on the stern to get us further up the coast. On the way down the winds at Cabo Corientas were strong, so we were hoping to catch a ride north into the bay. I rigged a bridle using the davit blocks and tackles, a dock line from the bow of the dinghy between two low stern grab rails and two dock lines from the stern of the dinghy to the port and starboard cleats on the stern of the boat. That held everything steady, along with my weight, as our little 9.9HP mariner pushed us forward at 2 knots. With the 2 knots from the current, we were doing 4 knots for about 3 hours, good for 12 valuable miles. This used about 2 gallons of fuel. I left the last half gallon to help us maneuver later on if needed. It was the smoothest ride in the last 10 hours and the smooth drone of the outboard lulled me to sleep for an hour.

When the wind did not build, we hailed Carinthia and arranged a tow back to La Cruz. The trusty autopilot told us that it would take 30 hours from Cabo Corientas under sail and 4 hours with a tow. Pretty easy decision. We continued to ride the current at 2 knots until Carinthia arrived, by which time we were about 6 miles into the bay. We rigged dual bridles using a 200 foot line from our two bow cleats and a 100 foot line off Carinthia's stern. 4 Hours later, under cover of darkness Carinthia uncleated the bridle in the La Cruz Marina fairway, Rina hauled in the heavy 7/8" lines and I again pushed with the dink into a slip at the marina in La Cruz. The crew of Carinthia was there to help us dock, but by that time it was a non-issue. Carinthia invited us over for a much desired cocktail, and while we were exhausted and ready to crash, it would be seriously ungracious to decline. A couple of drinks and a wonderful dinner later, we fell into bed and slept for a good 11 hours. We can't thank Dietmar, Suzanne and Kurt enough for their assistance.

It's funny how sea stories work. While it is happening, you deal with it, much of it sucking hard, but, similar to child birth, it improves during the retelling, even just a few hours later.

*Very* long story short(er) the solenoid was NOT defective, and instead we have a short across one of the Yanmar wiring harnesses that was corrected by pulling it apart, cleaning with contact cleaner and scoring. In later versions of this engine a relay was added to keep the voltage and current up at the solenoid even when it deteriorates between the starter switch and the solenoid through the connector. I spent the last day riding a chicken bus back and forth to PV for solenoid parts only to have "Teapot Tony" the diesel guru, show up late in the afternoon to provide the pivotal insight that fixed the problem. Tomorrow we will install the relay to address the problem long term.

We will take Wednesday to ready the boat for a dash down the coast to Barre Navidad to see Corey's brother and some other friends. Talk about live and learn....humbling experience indeed but extremely valuable for us both.

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Allan
01/23/2009, Banderas Bay

And the winner is Sarah-Jane Tarr!

We knew we could count on SJ's attention to detail.... well done! Pick your port, We'll tell you when we're there... share the provisioning expenses and were all in!

For you slackers, let me disect our cockpit mess, from 12 oclock...

1. Hydration! We go through a gallon of water and ice tea daily when on the water. It's easy to dehydrate and headaches quickly follow.

2. Sweatshirt from the morning chill. Yes, even here in Mexico we still get a chill. Of course it's all relative.... 88 down to 65 degrees.... BRRRRRR!

3. Binocs with the international orange floaty. For spotting whales, dolphins, fishing nets, pangas and other cruising boats. It's amazing how many boats we recognize up and down the coast now....

4. Spinnaker sheets - The thick white lines on each side of the cockpit trim the spinnaker, and between them and the preventers, mainsheet etc, makes for quite the mess sometimes. I wish we would have gotten some lighter lines for these sheets, as in light winds, these heavy lines help collapse the sail sooner than it otherwise should have.

5. Milwaukee drill battery - actually the end of our "winch buddy" Traditionalists will cringe, but both Rina and I have bad shoulders and the thought of winching the mainsail in by hand makes us cringe. The winch buddy is a milwaukee 28V drill with a 90 degree angle and a winch bit. Saves us big time... Of course we still trim all the sails by hand, but it was either this or a 3K electric winch....

6. Cruising cushion - great for long stints in the cockpit or cocktails on the foredeck at sunset. Rina covered a couple of cheepo target folding cushions with sunbrella and added more cushion material... The most coveted seats on the boat.

7. The obligatory furling line tangle. Still havent figured out how to reliably stow this line so it doesnt tangle without feeding the whole thing out. I'll figure it out some day.

8. Cruising guides - we always have 2 open while entering an anchorage, just to make sure we have a good idea of what to expect. Better safe (and cross-referenced) than sorry.

9. Green Boat Log (under cruising guide) Logs our position every hour, all maintenance schedules, water maker log, etc. THE most important document on the boat. (bonus points if you know why!)

10. Tool bag - Allan gets bored easily. Tools allow him to play around with stuff, fixing two things and breaking one. Unseen on the console is the other boredom fixer - metal polish.... There's ALWAYS something that needs polishing.... funny thing.... I found out that LOTS of cruisers polish while underway.... I thought I was the only one with ADD out here LOL

11. Zip lock bag with sunflower seeds - keeps the mouth busy without the calories (see boredom above)

12. Book of the week - Currently reading "Following Seas" by Beth Leonard, author of the best book on cruising preparations... Beth's an X-McKinsey Sr. Manager who blew off the partner track to go cruising 10 years ago and talks about her decompression from that life into the one she has now. Insightful...

13. So who's steering? Our good german friend Otto. Yes Phil, I checked the keylock and it's holding great. Thanks for making that one thing we don't have to think about any more.

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Allan
01/23/2009, Banderas Bay

Over the past couple days Rina and I have been busy laying the groundwork for some enhancements to Follow You for our jump to the South Pacific. We found a local importer that can get major components into Mexico from the states. Our Viking 6 man liferaft was ordered today and will be here in a couple of weeks. We will be installing 2 solar panels above the bimini to help preserve batteries and diesel, reducing the need to run the generator, especially during our crossing. We have sized the panels to handle the major power draw - fridge and freezer. This will mean the genset or engine only needs to be run every 3-4 days for a couple of hours, rather than daily. Unlike our Mexico cruising experience, we will be waiting for the wind whenever it arrives rather than just motoring when we feel like it. With this approach, we can make the Marquesas with the 200 gallons of diesel we carry aboard. Of course, that should not be a problem once we catch the trade winds a couple of hundred miles off the Mexico coast. Then we hit the ITCZ, or intertropical convergence zone, 5 degrees each side of the equator, where the wind usually dies. We'll motor across that, then pick up the south easterly trades on the other side and ride them into the Marquesas. By the way, stainless steel work down here is a bargain , less than half of what we paid in the states and great quality.

We will be buddy boating to the South Pacific with Carinthia, our friends from the haha, and Rich and Suzanne from Kaumoana, New Zealanders on a new Hunter 49. Today Dietmar and I spent all day copying a local SSCA members charts of the South Pacific. Over 100 charts, for 17 pesos each.... Would have cost over 1000 bucks in the states, here only about 115.

There are a bunch of other smaller items we have been taking care of, from ordering electronic charts, riding sales, extra poly line for tying to palm trees in anchorages, restaging anchors for stern ties, building provisioning lists.... on and on and on.... but fun stuff. A special thanks to John Papadopoulos who is making a whisker pole for the boat and providing one of his old lido mainsails for a riding sail. The whisker pole will hold the jib out to catch more wind, especially in light airs, and the riding sail holds the boat more or less in a single position at anchor, which apparently is a big deal in the smaller anchorages of the south pacific.

Tonight we attended a routing seminar here at the Yacht club to help us newbies understand how best to traverse the wide open spaces of the South Pacific. Not a ton of new information, but useful nonetheless.

After a couple of weeks here in Banderas Bay, we will be headed South to the Gold Coast tomorrow, the most tropical area of Mexico. Our float plan looks like this:

Saturday - Ilapa
Sunday/Monday - Chamela Bay
Tuesday/Wednesday - Tenacatita
Thurs/Friday - Bahia Navidad
Saturday/sunday - Manzanillo
Monday - overnighter to Zihuatanejo

It's a quick itinerary but necessary so we can get down to Barre to meet Corey's brother Shaun and then to the Z-town sailfest and Pacific Puddle Jump Party. We'll then take our time coming back up the coast during February, stopping at more places on a more relaxed pace. That will place us back in Banderas Bay for construction of our solar panels and installation of the life raft cannister amidships. It's better to head west from here rather than further south anyway, as you hit the tradewinds about 200 miles out here, whereas they are about 600 miles offshore off Ztown... kind of counter-intuitive from a distance standpoint, but the kind of insights we learn daily from the vets here on dock 3 in La Cruz. We are very much enjoying soaking it all in.

The pic above is on the 3rd story Sky Bar at the La Cruz Yacht club that overlooks the marina and anchorage, taken just after our route planning seminar today.

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Allan
01/19/2009, La Cruz, Banderas Bay

After much research and discusssion, Rina and I have decided to alter our cruising plans. Rather than head through the Panama Canal and Caribbean later this year, we will be heading west to the South Pacific and New Zealand.

Why? After much discussion with seasoned cruisers who have done both passages, it became very clear that we were in for quite a bash, that is, winds on the nose for over 1000 miles in the lower Caribbean. In addition, we have constraints on when we can sail the area due to the Hurricane season (June-Nov) Lastly, there has been a recent increase against cruisers in Venezuela which gave us pause. Both Rina and I are also looking for the adventure that comes along with this new itinerary. It will also be a challenge for us, and that gets us excited as well, pushing our personal "comfort" envelope. Mexico offers fantastic anchorages, a great cruising community and great weather during the winter. We were not looking forward to summer however and dodging the hurricane season down here.

Instead, we will have a mostly downwind sail across the pacific (2900 miles worth) to the Marquesas and then hop islands for about 6 months. Rough itinerary is:

April 1 - Depart for Marquesas
May - Marquesas and Tuomotos
June - Society Islands (Tahiti, Bora Bora, etc
July - Southern Cook Islands, Samoa
Aug - Vava'u, Vanuatu
Sept - Fiji
Oct - Minerva Reef
Nov - New Zealand

In December we might rent a house and bring the family down for a Christmas down under as flights are surprisingly affordable.

Rina and I are very excited about the new plan and are currently working on the specifics of outfitting Follow You for the additional demands of a blue water passage. While we could rationalize no liferaft for our coastal cruising in Mexico, it is an absolute requirement for our crossing. We will also be outfitting solar panels, updating cruising guides, charts and some additional navigation redundancy.

The family is already coming out of the woodwork and excited to join us in the South Pacific and New Zealand. We can't wait!

Oh yea, I went up the mast yesterday to lubricate sheaves and inspect the rigging and adjust the wind instruments, which the local frigate birds have been bending. What fun.... Rina gets to go up next!

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Allan
01/12/2009, La Cruz, Banderas Bay

We arrived Sunday from Chacala Bay and got a slip at the very new Riviera Najarit Marina in La Cruz. Fantastic facility, with great rates (18 bucks a day) as they try to fill over 200 empty slips.

We reunited with Dietmar from Carinthia who we last saw around thanksgiving. He arrived with replacement parts for our freezer, which I spent all monday installing, only to have a pinhole leak open up in the pressurized evaporator plate. Talk about a bummer. Luckily Kurt is coming down from the Bay area Friday and will be able to carry a replacement. Hopefully this time I don't screw it up. Oh well, live and learn. I guess this qualifies as stupid boat trick #6.

Today we helped Carinthia haul out. Pretty amazing lifting 30 tons of catamaran out of the water. 3 weeks sitting in the marina resulted in a bunch of barnacle and other critter growth, especially on the sail drives, which had no protective bottom paint.

Otherwise we've been taking it easy, checking out the little village of La Cruz, with sidewalk taco stands, a couple of cruiser bars with open mic's and lots of musicians. Also met Doug Vaghan, a fellow crew member from the Alaska Eagle HaHa trip in 2006, down here vacationing. Big thanks to Doug for taking the defective compressor back to the bay area for us.

Rina and I are also spending a bunch of time plotting our itinerary over the coming months. It's possible there may be some surprises ahead. More to come as we figure it out.

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Allan
01/10/2009, Chacala

Hey Dave, we've got a real fixer upper for you here in Chacala. This is your kinda place. Kinda like Sayulita 10 years ago. Check out the gallery for pictures from our hike around town today.

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Allan
01/10/2009, Chacala

Nice blog babe!

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Rina
01/10/2009, Chacala

Well, I bet you guys thought I fell off the boat or something, the way Allan keeps blogging and I don't....I just can't get a word in edgewise...just kidding. I'm just not a blogger like he is....but here I go...

I think that I've seen more whales in the last two days than my entire lifetime. Pods of 6 or more each time...When trying to take pictures, surely they don't surface...then while sitting with one eye closed for a long time through the lens, finally, got them! Then they kept showing up, one pod after another, breaching, diving, and flapping their flippers. Seemed like they were playing with each other like kids play steamroller....ha ha! Got a few more breaching as we approached Chacala Bay! The series above was shot from about ½ a mile away.

On the way out of Mazatlan we encountered dolphins, dozens playing, we were going really slow so they were cruising with us at a delicate, relaxing pace, unlike the fast moving boat with the racing team of dolphins. It seemed as if they could talk to you when they turned sideways to swim and watch you through the water. When I whistled, or squeaked, they seemed to get more excited and played more. They stayed for a long, long ride.

This island of Isabela was quite a treat. There were so many birds flying about, feeding and breeding. They are very territorial, the frigates swarmed after these little white birds with long tails....then caught them with their claws, shook them, and dropped them in the water...it was a territorial freak of nature. The white birds (I'm going to google them since I don't know what they are called)...Flying in groups of 6+ and squawking like Sue and Gene's parrot PEPE!!! Boy was that annoying!! The frigates didn't give them a chance. I think they are stealing eggs from the frigates on the island. I was trying to imagine National Geographic magazine taking pictures since they were here along with Jacques Cousteau exploring this area several years ago. It was beautiful to watch waves crashing on the cave-like rock formations. The anchorage was a little rough, but well worth the stop.

I'm trying to figure out what this lifestyle is for me...it's halfway between a vacation and a working boat...a little of both, really. Things break...this frustrates me...the boat and its systems are new, but stuff still breaks ...but why does it break? I guess it is Murphy's Law of boat ownership. The clichéd definition of cruising consisting of fixing your boat in a series of exotic ports seems to be true in some cases for us.

Otherwise, we've gotten into pretty much a routine, late breakfast...dishes, a little cleaning boat, boat projects, then fun. Reading has been a lot of my new routine. I love it. More quiet time if under sail, or in port...doesn't matter, love my books. I've gained a new appreciation for books since the girls are all grown, house is rented, dog is taken care of, family is doing well.....I now have my own time.

Short book review: Sue & Josie, I finished Annie Freeman's Traveling Funeral....Great Book!!! Sad, but has a lot of realizations that we need to look at life with open arms and not as a closed book or a schedule to live by. Live NOW! Take chances, love life, Love you FIRST!! I Love you all! --Rina

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Allan
01/09/2009, 21 50.6'N:105 52.9'W, Isla Isabela

We left Marina Mazatlan early due to a minus tide expected by noon. Having bounced over the bar on the way in, Rina was in no mood to repeat that adventure. Unfortunately, this meant that at normal cruising speeds we would arrive at Isla Isabela, a nature preserve with rare birds like Blue Footed Boobies, in the middle of the night. To kill time we headed for the main Mazatlan port, where there is a small anchorage for cruisers, and prepared to eat a light breakfast. We hung out for a couple of hours before heading out, just as the wind began to build from the Northwest. After an hour, we were seeing a consistent 10-12 knots so we (I) decided I wanted to put the spinnaker out. It's "I" because Rina has learned from her new cruising friends that few of the wives like running with a chute. Darn, I almost had her convinced. I rigged the whole thing and launched it and boat speed went up to 6-7 knots. We spent the next 4-5 hours surfing down the north swells. picture per fect sailing.

Rina made it clear she did not want to run the chute after dark and I reluctantly agreed. Just as we (I) began to take it down, winds gusted to 18-20, leading to another farcical dousing session, with my butt bouncing off the foredeck several times before I wrestled the sail in. Rina begrudgingly assisted with the spinnaker halyard, otherwise I would still be hanging off the clew trying to stuff the sail into its bag. I'm going to have to put some lanyards on the tackline shackles to make it easier to blow the sail, which will release more air pressure and make it easier to douse (yes, we blew the spinnaker sheets). .Duly added to the growing list of little boat projects.

I came back to the scene you see above, a classic picture of the cruisers cockpit. I'm sure some purists out there will scoff at the seeming disarray, but I'll tell you, the picture tells a story, at least for those who have spent entire days at a time in their cockpit. Of course, 30 minutes later it was much tidier, but that's no fun! So here's the game. Name all the stuff you see in the picture and explain why it's there. You sharp eyed lurkers out there will get most of it I'm sure. yea, that's you Corey, Phillip, Larry, SJ, Doug, Gene, Melanie, Karen, Mom, Devin, Stark. Leave a comment on the blog telling us what you see and why it's there.At the end of a week I'll explain it all. A week's passage on Follow You Follow Me to the winner! (see small print for prize rules ;-}

Anyway, because we made such great time, we actually had to slow the boat down overnight so we would get into the anchorage at dawn. We pulled the jib in and de-tuned the main to get us down to about 4 knots and pointed the boat to the Southeast to ride the swells comfortably. What a strange feeling, trying to make the boat go slower! Rina made awesome Ceviche for dinner from octopus and shrimp we got in Mazatlan and we traded 3 hour shifts until 5am, when we turned on the engine and headed towards the anchorage due to decreasing winds. The anchorage here is known as an anchor eater due to the underwater rock formations so we rigged a trip line and marker buoy to the head of the anchor and set it in about 40 feet of water. Just as the anchor sets, I notice that my trip line is about 100 ft, meaning the polypropylene line floats on the surface for about 60 ft. Hmmmm, that could be a problem. Forget it, time for a nap.

After 2 hours of wonderful catch up sleep Rina mentions that the panga fishermen are playing chicken with the anchor marker line. I watch as two more come blasting out of the fishing camp within 5 feet of my marker and exposed line. Oops, guess I shoulda made that line taut so it didn't present an unseen target. I jumped in the dink and pulled in all the slack line, hopefully presenting less of a target to the pangas, who have a reputation for running into cruising boats, dinks, and each other all the time.

Rina's down for her catch-up nap, and I'm going to hang out in that cockpit some more, this time watching the gray whales breaching and flapping their flippers on the water not 300 yards away from us. Amazing.

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