October 31, 2008 - Friday

This e-mail will be in two parts. The first part will likely be pretty dry to most of you. I have mentioned the morning check in and thought I would summarize what that entails. I sat at the computer and took "minutes" from today's roll call/check in so you can see the sort of things that we cover. For all of this, Richard (the Grand Puba) on the boat Profligate (the Race Committee boat) runs the show. He is the senior editor of the publication Latitude 38, which is a west coast sailing publication. The second part of the email will more or less cover what we did today...but I must warn you that there wasn't much going on.

Roll Call:

Medical emergencies

None

Mechanical situations

We mentioned our refrigeration problem - someone says they do have some expertise (but they never did come over to look at it).

Radio problems for one boat

Water in the oil for another boat

Running lights (the green and red lights that you turn on at night so that other boats can see you and know what direction you are heading - red on the left, green on the right) burned out one boat

Someone's water maker (many boats, including our boat, Serenity, have systems to convert salt water to fresh water) was broken. Stan had some expertise on the same system, so he went over to help, but they could not fix the problem.


Events of the day

Heather is going to take a shower. We have no idea who Heather is, but it was pretty funny at the time and shower jokes continued for some time. Again, I guess you had to be there. We also went over the details of today's beach party.

Weather


Winds tomorrow, high forming, so expect 15-25 knots tomorrow, slight decrease the next morning, then 18 to 20 knots, seas 6-9 feet (these are pretty big swells, so sea sickness is now a possibility - have to remember to take the Dramamine). Get preventers (rigs that prevent to boom from bashing back and forth from side to side) set. This is the most dangerous part of trip because there are canyons that funnel the wind down to the sea with 40 mph gusts. Also, there are unusual weather conditions with winds similar to our Santa Ana's. These winds will reach as far as 20 miles to sea. Maybe lighter winds off shore with 28 knot winds. 17-25 knots from aft (behind) further out to sea as we approach Bahia Santa Maria.

Take the above with a grain of salt, I was typing like crazy, but I know that the above is not 100% accurate.

Will give more weather reports/updates tomorrow.

Cover tomorrow's start/resumption of the race.

On net at 7:00 tomorrow and will keep that time through Bahia Santa Maria (ignore day lights saving time change). Start near entrance to bay.

Serious business on last leg. Charges of piracy: Will have a Captains Mast (similar to a Court Martial) in Bahia Santa Maria) with the following charges: false distress signal (to trick a second boat into changing course to come to assist), piracy with threats to rape and pillage, but failure to rape, thus leaving the crew frustrated. When the "assisting vessel came alongside, attack with water balloons. Final charge: Inadequate provisioning for the trip: no beer.

Looking for two missing boats in Margarita Division. A 37' and a 38' boat. Someone else announced that he had seen the crew of one of the boats on shore yesterday, so presumably the boat is in and at anchor. A 34' in burrito division - seen on shore yesterday. 3 others missing, but one came in at 3:00 a.m. Others then get on the radio and advise Richard when they have seen other boats. Everyone has to look outside for the missing boats, only one they can't find: Samantha. I should mention that some boats, no matter how little wind, sail the whole way. As such, a missing boat could be someone who had mechanical problems and turned back, someone who took a detour, or someone that is sailing the whole way. Richard just asks that you let him, or someone, know if your plans will deviate.

Party starts at noon. Looking for grills for the beach party, various people volunteer. Looking for charcoal. Volleyball court will be set up. For the kids, water balloons, water balloon catch, water balloon war, etc. Age dependant. Pick up the pieces of balloon when day is done. Frisbees, balls, kites, bats, etc. Be careful of hiking as they have had wet year and trails may be unstable. At least one shore concession: beer, tacos. Bring shade if you have it. At least wear a big hat. High tide now, 18" to 2' waves, as tide goes out, may increase in size. Be patient going in and out of shore. Make sure auto kill switch is on your outboard motor so you don't get cut up if you capsize your dinghy coming in. When going out, haul ass because you only have about 10 seconds between waves and you have to get out or get swamped.

Open topic

This is "open mike" time for anyone to talk of anything. If people connect on something they need or are able to help on, they get moved to channel 72. For instance, Stan and the guy who needed help on the water maker changed over to 72 after roll call.


Richard mentioned this was the warmest first leg in recent memory. Also, best fishing in memory.

"Third Day" is a boat and the crew is filming things and will post on You Tube. It won't be on yet, but you might check after we get to Cabo.

On a somewhat scary note:

Apparently a local woman was walking in town (such as it is) last night when she heard a Clump, Clump, Clump from behind her. She turned around and there a coffin chasing her! She ran to her home, locked the door and stood back, only to have the coffin come crashing through. She ran to the bathroom, and again locked the door behind her, only to have the coffin break through that door as well (poor Mexican fishing village, inadequate building material). Desperate, but with nothing to protect herself, she felt behind her on the counter and all she could find was a bag of cough drops. Out of desperation, she threw the bag at it, and, of course, the coffin stopped.

Happy Halloween.

Part II

Really not much to report. You must think this is the most boring trip in the world as there really is never much "going on." You know what the best part is? We are only a few days into the trip and I already have to hunt down a calendar or really concentrate to figure out what day of the week it is. You have no idea how much days and the week stop mattering and things like sunrise, sunset, moon rise, moon set, barometric pressure, wind direction and things like that start to matter. It is really refreshing.

Anyway, just did some work in the morning and then Stan and I went to town (when he got back from trying to fix the water maker) and I ran ashore real quick to pick up some ice so we don't loose our food in the broken refrigerator and the freezer. Again, the industrious kids were at it and I did not even have to go all the way into town (not that "all the way" is more than 150 yards or so) to get the ice as there were a couple kids selling bags near the dock. One final note: despite their obvious attempt to make money, there was not one single kid (or adult) who just out and out asked for money - they all tried to figure out a way (no matter how lame it may have been) to earn a buck. It was pretty impressive.


We got in the dinghy and headed over to the beach party around 12:30 or so. It was pretty windy so there were little swells that the wind would blow over and splash onto the boat. We were all pretty wet by the time we got to shore. It would not have mattered for me anyway: My job was to jump off the front of the dingy when we got to very shallow water and pull it as far out of the surf as possible to prevent it from getting swamped. All was going well as far as waiting for waves to break and then charging into shore. But then it got too shallow too fast and although Stan had turned off the outboard motor, he had not yet tilted it out of the water (it is swivel mounted so that it can tilt out of the water and not hit the sand) and it hit the sand and the boat stopped. This happened about the time I jumped off, then a second wave came and hit the back of the Dinghy about the same time Stan got the outboard tilted up. Between the outboard getting tilted up and the additional buoyancy provided by the wave, the dinghy, which had now turned side ways (parallel to the wave) broke free and ran my butt over. I recovered and the dinghy didn't flip, but I was soaked. Oh well.

We got set up and bought a couple $2 Pacifico beers from the local vendor and enjoyed the pot luck lunch. Alison flew one of her kites and I took a 2 hour hike along the bay. The water was much cleaner at this part of the bay (the party is not right in town, but off to the east of town in the fairly large bay.)

We got back to the boat and I showered - sort of. Although Serenity has a shower on board, I hate the process of wiping the head (bathroom) down after a shower, so I had rigged up a "sun shower" bag before we left. If you are not familiar with that, it is basically a big plastic bag that you hang in the sun and let heat up that way. I had wanted to experiment with that so I put about a gallon of water in the bag and was able to shower completely with that on deck (I wasn't naked, but it was a full on shower and I can only imagine what that must have looked like from adjacent boats). You tend to loose your modesty out on these long cruises so...what the hell.

I made pork chops, mashed potatoes, and fresh asparagus for dinner, we played some card games, and called it a night. We start at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow and we hope for the forecasted wind to materialize.


Paul.