75 hours north from Mazatlan, Sinaola to San Carlos, Sonora. 383 NM
Magic Carpets trip north turned out a little lumpy the first day out with light winds from the west and seas from the south west. We sailed in the afternoon breezes and motored sailed in the early morning and threw out the night. As always working shifts of three hours on and three hours off watch. Little Z hates the first few days at sea suffering through the agonies of finding her sea legs. But soon the wonders of Mother nature fascinate her. We never tire of the dolphins playing in our wake & charging the bow, or watching the birds forging for their meals and being spied on by turtles and being entertained by jumping manta rays. And O' yes we get teased by fish leaping out of the water. These all help our watches pass with ease, it's peaceful quite and great to be back at sea. EXCEPT We could of got run over, at the 3 am change of watch we had a large tanker showing on our AIS tracking screen 4 miles. At the time it looked like she would cross Magic Carpets bow in 30 minutes, with 2 miles clearance, at that time our alarm would sound off. Well she did cross our bow & set off our warning alarm system, but she did it in 20 minutes! Except for a few panga's & a shrimp boat all was clear. Magic Carpet was flying to her home berth. When suddenly the alarm went off, the admiral on watch could see nothing - she pushed the acknowledge button to quite the alarm & kept looking trying to see what was happening. The alarm sounded again the admiral pushed the acknowledge button again & this time altered course 20 degrees, still nothing showed on the screen or with a visual search. When the alarm sounded again it was time to wake the Captain and get him on deck! He pushed a few "Magic" buttons and the screen reported a 603 foot tanker 100 ft. wide on a collision course with Magic Carpet 15 miles away. The 20 degrees course alteration was nothing with a 100 ft. wide tanker heading our way. Captain Gregory immediately turned on all deck light and called the tanker Luna and requested they acknowledge Magic Carpet position. The Luna acknowledged our position and altered course to the west & we altered course to the east. Soon the tanker Luna came into site and passed 3 miles in front of us to port. We can't help wondering what would of happened if we did not have AIS on board or if know one was on deck monitoring it. For years we have read about little boats that just disappear. We know that a 603 foot tanker with a 39 foot draft & 100 foot wide could easily wipe out Magic Carpet at 36 feet, 12 feet wide with a draft of 7 feet. Adrenalin was flowing high that night, only little Z slept through it all on top of her pink poke a dot PFD. We often heard it said "all is well that ends well". Magic Carpet is now tucked in her berth Bravo 17 Marina San Carlos.