2008 Baja Ha Ha
11 November 2008 | Bahia Frailes
partially sunny, a little cooler, WINDY
November 11, 2008
We got up at 6:30 this morning and got the boat ready quickly and then got underway. We motored for about the first hour and then the wind picked up nicely and we were able to sail for several hours. The wind was about 20 knots and we were able to go in about the direction we wanted. At times we were screaming along at as much at 8 knots, but consistently were in the high 6 knot range.
Warning: We just sailed all day, so this is going to be pretty boring stuff for most of you. Remember I described the first part of the trip when had a "following" sea? That is, the swells were coming up behind us and helping us along? Well, now that we are heading back, at least partially, in a northerly direction, we are going INTO those swells, the result is a "bashing" effect where you pound into those swells instead of ride down them as we did on the way south. In addition to the rougher ride, the bow buries into the water and cause huge splashes that spray back across the front of the boat and as far back as the cockpit. I don't want to make this seem rougher than in it was so, in all honesty, the spray was not bad in the cockpit and not constant: maybe 5-6 times every 15 minutes.
You may also remember that I said you can't sail straight into the wind? The closer you point the boat straight into the wind, you are sailing "closer" to the wind. If you sail real close to the wind, you are sailing as close as you can to the direction the wind is coming from. If you "fall off the wind" a bit, you are moving the front (bow) of the boat further away from the exact direction the wind is coming from. You may ask yourself, why would I want to sail straight into the wind? Because without fail, wherever you are trying to get to is in the exact same direction as where the wind is coming from! It is one of the rules of sailing. Another is: whatever you are looking for in the refrigerator is at the bottom.
Of course, today was no different (actually, the first hour or two were great sailing, but then once we cleared the point (of land), we had to steer in a more northerly direction and into the wind) in that Bahia Frailes was straight into the wind (of course).
To fix this problem (your destination being in the same direction as the wind), you sail as "close to the wind" as possible. This gets you going in about the right direction, but at an angle to where you want to be. For example, you may have to steer to starboard (to the right of where you want to go). Going back to our clock example, assume you are at 6 and the wind and your destination at 12. You can't sail right to 12, so you might have to sail toward 1 or 2 (every boat is different in terms of how "close to the wind" you can sail). Obviously, if you keep going, you miss your target. At some point, you "tack" (change direction) toward, say 10 or 11 on our imaginary clock. In this fashion you can zig zag up to the target. There is much, much more to all this, but that is the simplest, quickest explanation I can give. Any sailors reading this are probably cringing, and with good cause, but...
Our problem in getting to Bahia Frailes was that when we tacked (zig zagged up toward our destination) there was a very strong water current moving from north to south (contributing to the bashing effect we were experiencing). Now go back to your clock, when we sailed as close into the wind as we could, we may have been going from 4 to 10 on the clock you have pictured (or, after we would tack, from 8 to 2 on the clock). Although we were steering to 10, the current was carrying the boat to 9 or even 8:30 on the clock. The same thing would happen in the other direction. The net effect of all that was that although we were making our way north, we weren't making much progress. So, although we had a great sail day, we were making great time, but getting nowhere.
We had to turn on the motor and then we DID sail into the wind and eventually go to Bahia Frailes.
Bahia Frailes is much as I remember it. The opening of the bay faces (more or less) south where as the weather comes, more or less from the north. That is what makes it a good, calm anchorage. When we got in there were only about 20 boats at anchor, including a bunch of sailboats, catamarans, and powerboats. It is a big, but not huge, bay and there was room for more boats, and they came. As we went about readying the boat for the night and as we sat out on deck, the boats continued to poor in.
Alison and I went for a swim and, sadly, the water is already cooling down, having dropped to about 87 degrees. Obviously still very comfortable while at the same time a reminder that we are in fact heading north, albeit now too quickly yet. Reality is already, albeit subtly, encroaching.
After dinner, we all sat on deck and enjoyed a Baileys on the rocks, compliment of Stan. After a game of Quidler with Alison, it was time to call it a night. After getting into my bunk, I realized that the boat was rolling a little more than I had anticipated and I was in danger of rolling out of my narrow berth, so I put the lee cloth (see prior entry) back up, took a Dramamine, put in my earplugs and immediately fell into a sound sleep.