03/23/2009, 18 03.1'N:108 08.2'W, 230 Miles Southwest of Banderas Bay
What a night. Weather was predicted to become a bit more intense, with a forecast of winds to 18 knots till midnight, then subsiding overnight. Instead, winds and seas increased by 8pm to 20-22 with gusts to 25 knots and seas to 10 feet on the beam. By the time dinner was served, Jan's wonderful vegitable ratatouie was blowing off our plates! We quickly gobbled our food before it got cold (yes, it gets cold out here too) and strapped on our lifevests and tethers. The boat handled the weather fine under triple reefed main and a hankerchief of a jib. We finally doused the jib completely and rode the waves at 5-6 knots.
The seas would not have been much of an issue except that about every 20 seconds a combo wind wave and 10 foot swell wouild combine and knock the boat down it's face, heeling about 25 degrees each time. We experimented with different points of sail to try to minimize the motion, finally slowing the boat down to about 4 knots so we could ride each of those mountains at a more comfortable pace. Around 5am we put back out a heavily reefed jib and boat speed immediately jumped to 7-8 knots. Meanwhile nobody got much sleep as the boat sounds like it is coming apart down below. Actually, it's mostly provisions rattling around. And Pep, little Nemo went flying from his perch, but he's safe now.
The winds and seas did not abate until around 7am this morning, and we slowly let out more sail and got the boat moving more smoothly and everyone caught up on sleep. Speaking of which, that's alyssa in the picture above on THE most comfortable berth on the boat. It's right at the center of the boat and doesnt rock much at all.
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03/22/2009, 19 21.5'N:106 57.7'W, 130 Miles Southwest of Banderas Bay
After the excitement of our departure, the crew spent today resting up from our first night at sea. A lot of emotion was expended and tension released, after such a build-up to this event. We took 3 hour watches, with 6 off starting at 1700 hours yesterday. The evening was uneventful, with only a couple of container ship sightings, and we did not need to change course, as they passed 5-10 miles away. The engine went off about 2am as the winds finally increased enough to sail, with the boat making 3-5 knots in 8-12 knots of wind. Alyssa got a little seasick yesterday but is doing better today. After a couple of days she will start to take some day watches.
We are currently sailing in 15 knots of wind, making 6.2 knots over ground in 3-4 ft seas. The water has already turned bright blue and is very clear. Not much sealife out here so far, other than a visit this morning by a pod of dolphins, who stuck around for 20 minutes.
We organized our daily chores and agreed to do them together in the afternoon after we have all woken up from our morning naps. Chores include:
- Run generator to top off batteries - new solar panels mean we use about 12% of batteries at night, recharging via genset for a short period in the morning, then the panels keeps up with our power usage all day long. - Make water while the genset is running - Clean and empty the heads - Vacuum the floors - flip the eggs - helps them last longer - Check the veggies for any spoilage - Drop long lines (ropes) in the water from the bow for 30 minutes - This cleans the undersides of slime and gooseneck barnacles, which can grow inches long on your undersides, even while underway - Clear personal items from public areas - Sweep cockpit and clean behind cushions - amazing what collects in 24 hours - Submit YOTREPS weather and tracking report by 1500 hours - allows other boats to see what weather we have and our friends boats to see where we are - Submit Buoyweather weather forecast for next 5 days - Inspect boat rigging for chafe and damage - Clean thru-hull screens for genset and watermaker - Pull 1 deferred task from task list - today it was replacing rings on turnbuckles that could otherwise snag the sails or lines
As you can see, never a dull although we still have plenty of time for reading, writing and personal stuff. None of us has our sea legs yet, and we expect the routine will become more comfortable over the next couple of day as we continue to acclimate.
The picture is our new whisker pole, deployed to port, which holds the jib out so it doesnt flap so much in light winds. It is pre-rigged so all we have to do is cleat the fore and aft downriggers, attach to the mast, hoist it up on a halyard and run a separate sheet to the furled sail. We can then furl the sail in/out and leave the pole there. This will come very handy when we start hitting squalls in a couple of days and winds increase from 10-30 knots in a couple of minutes. The pole has already made the boat faster and more quiet...
Ok, time to get back to my book!
allan
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03/21/2009, 20 41.9'N:105 26.4'W, Banderas Bay
The crew of Follow You toasts Neptune, makes an offering of reelly good champagne and crackers to the sea god and then cuts the dock lines. Currently motorsailing out to the edge of Banderas Bay where we will pick up winds from the north. Wahoo!
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Jan enjoy and keep that smile on your face!
03/20/2009, Banderas Bay
After topping off our water tanks and cleaning the bottom, we headed out to sea to see how Follow You handled with the additional weight aboard. As we departed the marina, several boats hailed us, thinking we were headed West. We just explained that we were taking our bloated pig of a sailboat out to see how she handled. They chuckled.
We also took the opportunity to continue the education of Alyssa, showing her the ropes, figuratively and literally. She is picking it up just fine, learning points of sail, line handling and some basic nav.
The boat does handle differently, but mostly in a good way, which was a surprise. Hunter 466's are lightweight cruisers and act as such under sail, with a fair amount of porpoising. With full fuel and water tanks, 50 additional gallons in jerry jugs, and provisions for 8 weeks aboard, she acts like a heavyweight full keel cruiser. Interestingly she has not lost a bunch of speed. If you look closely at the pics above, we saw 8.1 knots through the water in 15 knots of wind on a beam reach. We saw 9 twice as the winds built to 20 knots downwind. Our clean bottom helped greatly of course, but it's nice to know that this bloated pig of a cruiser will still get up and go with almost no waterline left.
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enjoy,
MIke & Julie
03/20/2009, La Cruz
An exciting day on Follow You, as final preparations are underway. The diver is cleaning the boat bottom as I type, removing 3 weeks of barnacles and slime. The local alhambra guy showed up with 100 gallons of fresh water to replenish our tanks and take the load off the watermaker for a bit, and Rina, Alyssa and Jan just returned from Mega with 4 weeks supply of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Jan and Rina have planned our meals around the lifespan of our fresh fruits and veggies, and stocking 4 bins, one for each week. We have learned a bunch about how to preserve food... for example, NOT refrigerating your eggs makes them last alot longer, as long as you turn them weekly and they have not been previously refrigerated. Storing certain fruits together helps them keep longer, and making sure certain fruits are NOT stored together also preserves them. Each week we will use up one bin, which will allow us to collapse and store it. Amazingly, other than 3 bins under the settee (dining table) and 3 bins in the garage, the boat is clutter free. Not bad considering there are now 4 aboard. Credit also goes to Rina for thinning out her clothes, providing room for Alyssa in her cabinets, Alyssa for packing very light, and Jan for travelling with only a backpack's worth of stuff. We also stuffed every void in the boat we could find with stuff we don't use often. It usually works out well, although the lovely butt shot above is due to us having to dig out a fuzzy blanket for Alyssa, as the nights have been a cool 68 degrees.
We'll take the boat out this afternoon for a shakedown sail now that she is fully loaded to see how she sails, not that there is much we can do about it!
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03/19/2009, La Cruz, PV
So, I finally made it to PV to join my parents. It's funny how all of these plans weren't in existence until about 2 weeks ago and, boy, was that a surprise. With the quarterly system at UC Santa Cruz, you lose track of time. Classes go by so fast; you start the quarter and immediately after, you have 2 midterms and the final 2 weeks after that. In other words, these past two weeks have been hell preparing for my last midterm (oddly only 1 week before the final), finals week, moving out of my dorm, and planning a trip to cross the Pacific with my parents, not to mention the little knick knacks I had to pick up on the way for the sailboat. As exhausted as I sound (and am), I cannot wait for Saturday. Saturday is the beginning of my journey. It is dad's birthday and our departure from Mexico; it is, as dad said, "This is the beginning of Alyssa's education." Down time to me these next few weeks is time away from school, away from the pressures to succeed in something I'm not sure what yet. Down time is time spent with my family learning to sail, relaxing, and setting my goals for when I get back. I cannot fathom the adventures to come in my life, but I am entirely grateful for this opportunity. It is a lifetime experience...
You will hear from me again very soon:)
Love always, Alyssa
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03/19/2009, La Cruz
Quite the adventure today with the Mexican bureaucracy trying to check out of the country. The horror stories are legion over the years of boaters trying to get out of Mexico, getting the run around at all phases of the process. It's supposed to be simple: Get the local port captain to start the Zarpe process, give him 30 bucks, check out at immigration, then go back to the port captain with your stamp from immigration and get your zarpe.
Last week boats that tried to check out took 4 days to go through this process. The port captain was gone, then out to lunch, then immigration was closed, then they were on a field trip, etc.
In our case, we budgeted two days to complete the process. We started bright and early this morning, got to the port captains office at 9am... nobody there.... oh yea, he's on Nayarit time, the rest of the place works on PV time (an hour earlier) We start the Zarpe process, pay our money, then head to PV for immigration. Before we do, we check in with the local harbormaster to see if immigration is coming out to La Cruz, which they had done earlier in the week. With an air of authority he says no, we have to go to PV. Road trip! All 4 of us pile into the kia and headed to PV. When we got there the guy with epaulets on his shoulders said the immigration officer had.... survey says? GONE TO LA CRUZ! He said he would wait 30 minutes for us to get back to La Cruz to stamp our paperwork. Problem is, with traffic it takes 45 minetes to get from PV to La Cruz. We race back, with Rina's fingernails in my thigh the whole time. When we arrive, he stamps our paperwork, then we head back over to the port captain to get our final stamp. Rina proceeds to start the process, then the immigration officer comes into ream the port captain for not organizing all the checkouts and we get stuck in the middle of the argument. We sat for 30 minutes waiting for the port captains signature, not saying a word, as the look on the port captains face said it all. He was not a happy man. Bottom line is we are checked out and ready to go as far as Mexico is concerned.
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03/19/2009, La Cruz
Last night we were excited to be joined by daughter Alyssa, fresh off a plane from Santa Cruz where she wrapped up school for the year. She will join us on the crossing to the Marquesas and stay with us until June, in Tahiti, when she will return for summer school.
Work is pretty much done on the boat, with all systems ready, the boat fueled up, and fully provisioned except for presh produce, which we will pick up tomorrow. We decided to buy some additional insurance and add 30 additional gallons of fuel for the crossing. We added a board across two stanchions and secured each can, then filled them. Once we arrive in French Polynesia we will trade them with locals, with or without fuel for hard to get supplies.
On Friday the bottom of Follow You gets cleaned, and boy does it need it. Sitting in the marina over the past 3 weeks has allowed barnacles to form and they are getting pretty big. I dove on the bottom earlier this week to clear the watermaker thru-hull and got scratched up pretty good feeling my way under the boat.
Our crew is getting a little anxious given the 2800 mile 25 day journey ahead of us. We noticed a little tension with Carinthia as their departure day approached, and we are now feeling it... is the boat ready? are we ready? how will we deal with rain squalls, the larger seas, etc... The lesson from Carinthia is a good one, as we received word from them today that things are well after 7 days at sea. They have fallen into a daily rhythm, dodging squalls from 5-11pm, using radar to find the cells moving toward them from astern. They have blown out their screecher, but otherwise the boat is performing well. They suspect it blew due to the fact that they are much heavier than they were. See the gallery for pictures of Carinthia's departure, where you can clearly see the waterline low in the water at the bow.
In our case, we are indeed heavy, but still have 2 inches of waterline showing. It will be interesting to see how she handles with the added weight.
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03/14/2009, Puerto Vallarta
After a week of intense boat preparation, Rina and I decided to get off the boat for a day and play tourist in PV. We rented a car and headed to PV for lunch, to hit the big mall for some sandals, attend the boat show and hear some music at a La Cruz club.
We found Le Bistro down near the river in the Romantic District of PV, enjoying wonderful food and a great bottle of wine. We then headed to the mall, which was dead, falling prey to the same economics inflicting the U.S. Fortunately a Nike store and Liverpool Department Store had what we coveted. Then it was off to the boat show across the street. Boat shows have been a twice a year pilgrimage for us for 5 years, so we (I?) was pumped. What a let down. 10 bucks to get in, and there was 4 booths, a bunch of lame power boats and cars on display. Took all of 20 minutes to see the whole thing and then we bailed. Then it was back to La Cruz for a nap and then dinner and music at Octopus's garden. Tatewari, a 4 piece Flamenco-Rumba band wowed us for 2 hours. 2 awesome guitarists, a bass and percussionist filled the house with intricate rhythms that we will not soon forget.
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03/13/2009, La Cruz
Living on a boat sometimes requires the abililty to improvise solutions to problems. West Marine and Home Depot are rarely close enough to help. Case in point. We forgot to turn off the watermaker before coming back into the marina. We got settled back in our slip after a nice sail and quickly sucked up some seaweed into the watermaker inlet. The watermaker pump started squealing and we quickly turned it off to investigate. After finding a veritable seaweed salad in the sea strainer, we also noticed that the screen had fallen apart. No Problemo! Rina gets out her heavy duty sewing kit and proceeds to sew the screen back together. Meanwhile I go diving under the boat to figure out if I have more seaweed stuck in the thru-hull. Diving in the murky water of the marina is a challenge, and I have to feel my way to the thru-hull, cutting up my hands on the many barnacles that have grown onto the bottom. I fortunately find no blockage, and after showering the muck off, start pulling hoses apart to find the problem. Remember our encounter with a little fish? This time no fish but lots of seaweed stuck in the 90 degree elbows of the intake. After 30 minutes of coaxing the green stuff out of the plumbing, we finally restore good waterflow.
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