Yada, Yada, Yada, We are now in Golfito, Costa Rica heading for Panama. We have been all thru Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica.. Many stories to come.
|
Comments [4]
With zero wind and calm seas we were forced to motor for more then 48 hours towards Mazatlan, crossing the Sea of Cortez. We experienced the most beautiful sunsets and awesome sunrises, caught 2 fish and the phosphorus at deep of the night was out of this world, as dolphins and other sea creatures swam along the boat, they would literally glow, as if torpedo's were racing by. The toilet even gleamed when it was flushed.
|
Ralph left a day too soon. We all had patiently waited for this moment the entire way down the Baja coast. To witness with our own eyes a Humpback Whale Broaching.
We get an eye full for sure. 300 yards away from us as we set sail for the mainland.
|
Red sky at night sailors delight.
Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.
That is how to predict weather.
This is red sky at night...So we shall prepare to set sail for Mazatlan.
|
All the chores have been completed finally.
Now we can all relax and enjoy a bit of paradise.
|
This is not Ice Cream!
But it sure smells good.
|
01/17/09, Cabo San Lucas, MX
Time to prepare for Ralph's departure; we have kept him away from his wife long enough. We explore the busy, tourist filled town as we look for the Port Capitan's office to check in and remove Ralph from our crew list.
We must do laundry and arrange for more fuel and look for ice cream.
|
01/17/09
If only this photo could speak, as this is our view from at anchor. The once peaceful shore line has been taken over by developers and beach peddlers.
What you don't see and hear is all the sportfishing charter boats, the parasailors, speed boat junkies, jet skiers...
|
This spectular site is our reward for the years/months of preparation and rugged coastal voyaging that was required to get here.
|
01/17/09
It has been 10 days 800 miles since we left San Diego. We have traveled a total of 182 hours for this passage along the coast of Baja Mexico to Cabo. (the hours sailing do not including the 2 days spent in Ensenada or the 2 nights at anchor in Turtle Bay)
We made it!
|
01/16/09
We sailed faster then expected rounding Cabo Falso in the middle of the night with no moon light. The town is now just around the corner, we can see the gleaming city lights, however we will not enter this anchorage now as it is much to dark to try and make land fall, so we wait, motoring, drifting in circles about 5 miles out to sea as we await the sun to give us a glimpse of light to navigate by. We dodged all the gigantic cruise ships as the seas become very lumpy. It was not much fun waiting and being dizzy. We kept enough speed to keep steerage, but the current and swells had control. Ralph then smells diesel. David investigates and finds about a gallon and a half of diesel draining inside the engine compartment. (Not good) Good thing Ralph's nose works. Of coarse David found the leak and saved the fuel. This night was a test of our patience awaiting the day break. Finally we can go in, and that we do.
|
01/16/09
Finally the time arrived for Christy to put on shorts and tank top and offically announce the end of winter for us. Now, David and Ralph have been in shorts the entire time except for their night watches. But now they can keep their shorts on day and night. Summer has arrived for us in the middle of winter.
The Marlin are flying out of the water this warm sunny day. Too bad we did not have the tackle to catch one.
|
01/15/09
In the middle of no where, in the dark of the night a lonely frigate bird decided to hitch a ride with us. This twin tailed large Frigate landed and glued itself to the top of our Windex on the top of the mast, 65 feet in the air. Now this is not good for us as he will not fly away and it is bending our weather instrument. David and Ralph do everything imaginable to get it to fly away.
We spun the boat in 360 degree circles several times and all that did was ruffle its feathers. They slapped halyards, shinned spot lights on him, yelled at him. Blew the air horn at him and rocked the boat. All their hours of efforts failed. It appears that we now have a 4th crew member on board. After a 4 hour tour with us, he finally flew away.
|
01/15/09
This afternoon we enjoyed our daily visit from the dolphins and watched the flight of the majestic pelicans as they steered by their feathers, wings outstretched & motionless as they seemed to catch the warm updrafts right before they would dive full speed ahead into the ocean creating a loud explosion as the caught their fish.
We were all in the cockpit, David at the helm and Ralph and I watching the wild life. One particularly curious pelican began to soar over David squawking and staring down at this sweating human through its indifferent beady eyes, then all of a sudden with its wings span of at least 10 feet, this one bird decided to aim for David as he swooped over his head almost colliding into him. We were certain this Pelican was going to catch him for lunch. Good thing he ducked. Finally satisfied that no meal was in the offing of David the pelican flew away.
|
01/14/09
The winds grew and blew thru out the night, we literally sailed thru all the zillions of stars in the deep dark night. Imagine....It is pitch black, no moon has risen yet. You're all alone in the middle of the ocean. No land in sight, water so deep like a bottomless pit. There are absolutely no boats in sight and not another sole seems to be on this earth. It is just us three, David, Christy and Ralph on board this very fine small floating piece of fiberglass, wind powered by cloth material. Our survival depends on us, our sailing skills and good old Mother Nature and King Neptune.
Now hold onto that thought for only a moment.......If you ponder longer then that you may truly freak yourself out, or not.
Finally the stars start to glow and twinkle. The milky-way is bright as ever. Now, you may say; oh what a beautiful world this is, as we are not with a million other people going thru life at a thousand miles an hour, sitting in traffic and listening propaganda on the T.V. Our survival is truly up to us. No police, no hospitals, no dentists, no jobs, no stores, no cars, no money needed. At least not yet. A sense of patience, adventure and commitment are all required.
Apparently we still have that.
|
We left Turtle Bay at 15:00 (3:00pm) the next day. The winds were blowing nicely. Right away our GPS Chart plotter lost our fix. No worries, we have another hand held and our paper charts which we always use.
|
We were walking into town asking were we could find an internet café not having much luck, then a group of young boys riding bicycles had heard we were looking for the internet. (Boy how news travels) The kids told us to follow them. Now imagine (we) three gringos are following a bunch of kids on bicycles thru their village of dirt roads. We did as we were instructed and the group of young bike riding children grew from 2 to 8, all showing us the way thru their neighborhood. Of coarse they all wanted a tip or candy, anything really. Good thing we had some small coins with us.
Our night at anchor was restless for us all as the wind was howling thru the mountains down into the anchorage, another Santa Ana East wind blowing, so we were all constantly checking our position and making sure our boat was not dragging anchor or that the other 5 boats in this anchorage were not dragging towards us.
|
After 56 hours and 325 miles later, which included being off shore (away from land) as far as 96 miles out to sea with the depth of the ocean being more then 11,835 feet (as tall as Mt. Hood) we decide to head for Bahia San Bartolome (Turtle bay) the best all-weather harbor on this part of the coast to anchor and take on fuel, sleep and to find internet service to make contact with our families. We are now ½ way to Cabo San Lucas anchored in Bahia San Bartolome (Turtle Bay).
We became victims of the fuel saga here in Turtle Bay. We too were shorted diesel as we had read about.
We asked the price first. (In broken Spanish) $2.55 gallon we are told. We asked for the exact amount in gallons that was needed. (They spoke good English) So the owner left to bring to us the fuel. All is good so we thought. The ponga boat comes out with our fuel. We asked once again about the price as this is a different guy on the boat. He says $3.00 gallon. Here we go. David reminded him we were quoted 2.55. We go like this back and forth a bit more. Finally he agrees. Now we can let them fill our cans. Guess what?.....they did not bring us all that we asked for either. They shorted us diesel and charged us for all the gallons we asked for. Our mistake was not going to the pump with them and looking at the gauge. We were warned about this by others. Another lesson learned.
Turtle bay has all dirt roads and fewer then 1,000 people, mostly fishermen living their. This town is isolated on the end of a huge peninsula. There are only a few tiny stores with meager selection of staple and produce. Some canned goods are sold from front rooms of private homes. Local eggs, honey, avocados, oranges, tortillas and Baja Buns are abundant, but all else is trucked 400 miles with out refrigeration. (so no thank you to purchasing any food here).
|
01/10/09
We have been sailing with a speed between 5-6 knots. The ocean swells are fair and the wind a bit shifty. For safety reason "our rule" is to reef (shorten the mainsail at night, every night no matter what) which has already been done. The wind and seas pick up in strength unexpectedly. Another reef is put into the main and our head sail is put away. David, Ralph and myself are all now on deck. Our sailing speed is picking up. The swells are from one direction pushing the boat from behind which is fine, but the wind waves are coming from the NE causing a VERY confused ocean. The wind picks up quickly to 35 knots; we are now hand steering due to the lumpy sea conditions. The wind is going up even more and the seas are growing larger. The moon is full and bright which is good for us as it is like a light has been turned on as we surely are in need of it now. The bright moon light is actually allowing us to so see the cresting waves and swells coming for us. (I'm not so sure we really wanted to see this, but it did help us in being able to maneuver the mother ship in a safe direction). Soon David and Ralph took the main sail down completely as to not have an accidental jibe; we now have only a tiny bit of jib (head sail) out to help balance the boat & we decided to use the motor so that the big following seas would not swamp us. Winds are now at 46 knots. (Strong Gale) and the seas at huge ?? feet.
We have changed our watch schedule to 1 hr. watches, and 2 hours of sleep. The seas are almost cresting over the free board into the cockpit, and Kailani is rolling about, and doing fabulously I might add. I myself am a bit nervous, ok the truth. Very un-easy. I know Kailani has seen far worse seas, after all she has been around since 1974. We are all safety harnessed to the boat. The 47 knots of winds and confused seas lasted for 11 hours making this a very long night. The sunrise brought us a calm sunny morning and we are back to our regular watch schedule wondering what this next night is going to bring to us.
|
Our watch schedule is 2 hours on (Monitoring the automatic pilot or hand steering, navigating, plotting our course, watching for ships etc.) and 4 hours off, usually to sleep or do as you wish. Rotating between us all.
We are now out to sea about 18 miles from land. The full moon raises in the East at the exact time the sun sets in the west. This was a spectacular moment in time to be able to witness and enjoy this beauty as we all watched for the elusive green flash in the sky. (We did not see it).
|
