Trip report Paz to Cruz
11 February 2014 | La Cruz de Huanacaxtle
Dan- warm to hot
That’s La Paz BCS to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle Nayarit (that is a mouthful)
We were determined to get out of La Paz and pretty much figured we would leave when we got everything ready, no matter the time. 10 AM goes by, Noon, 2 PM, and finally after busting a lot of ass and shuffling our stuff around, we hit the La Paz channel at 4:30 PM.
Not particularly thrilled about that as it put us in the San Lorenzo channel just after dark, but it is a 4 mile wide channel so we figured it was going to be fine.
Now I just love boats, the components that make up a modern cruising vessel are complex yet simple at the same time. And I do have a pretty good grasp on how things work aboard.
So we were heading up into the channel under power and holding steady on the Comnav autopilot, until the Crazy Ivans started. WTH? The autopilot started doing this random right turn and we were unable to get it back working in the dark.
So we are going to handsteer- this is not a easy thing on Papillon while under motor- with the slight offset to the shaft (makes it possible to pull since our skeg is in the way) and a Max-Prop our boat does not like to hold a straight line for long, even with the steering locked. And there is enough force on the rudder to make it a bit of a chore. Kelly did not share my enthusiasm for the possibility of that as she may have felt it to be just a little too much of a bitch. But I had faith!
Kelly crashed out about 10 PM as we were nearing the top of Cerralvo passage and we rounded the Tip of Isla Cerralvo about Midnight. We started getting enough wind as we worked our way south along the Island and I opened the jib and we were off and running. Under jib only I was able to put the Monitor to work and was relieved of the drudgery of being lashed to the wheel. Bopping along at 5-6 knots, wind off of the aft port quarter. And the sea state getting better as we trundled along at 125 degrees, the exact rhumbline we need to round Punta de Mita in a couple of days.
This lasted for about 30 hours- absolutely fantastic sailing and a mechanical helmsperson we have come to really enjoy- TikiBob the Monitor!
In the meantime, during my idle time in the daylight hours I was able to get the autopilot working again. It still needs a little tweaking but I do understand how the parts work, so that helped me chase it down. A minor success, but still a chalk mark to the good.
After being landlocked for so long it was an absolute wonder again as I stared up into the night sky- looking at the smear we know as the Milky Way and then beyond to galaxies that only show to us as white lights- wondering what kind of sailors on other worlds are looking up and seeing our little speck and maybe even thinking the same thing!
It really is humbling to sail at night, under those conditions, thinking those thoughts.
Dinner on the first night consisted of sandwiches and other hand foods as I am famously subject to feeding the fishes. Dinner the next night was interesting.
Under the false impression that I was feeling fine, I dropped below to make some Panko encrusted Pollo Milanesa with a veggie accompaniment. Pretty simple dish. Trim the green beans, chop up some mushrooms, take some slivered almonds, red peppers, etc. and mix it up in a fry pan. Now take the raw thinly sliced chicken, slather some mayo on it and coat with bread crumbs. Scoot the veggie s off to the side and add a little olive oil, drop in the chicken, cook for a few minutes a flip the cover the chicken with the mix from the sides.
Now which part of the above process would be toughest on someone with Mal de Mar? I had to take several breathers to get through the prep of the chicken- head down, facing backward in a rather rolly and pitching boat, handling raw chicken and mayo- yes I felt a little bit “icky”. I’ll give you a minute to think things through.
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OK , I feel better now as well. And it did turn out to be pretty tasty.
Onward we hurtle and as the wind started dying we raised the asymmetrical spinnaker to try and maintain some speed. Naw, back on the motor with the main up. But now the autopilot was working ok and it was just sitting and checking things while it was your turn on watch. And more of that gazing at the stars, not a bad way to spend the evening.
A lot is discussed on just how people split watches, What we have found that what works for us is, for the 12 hours of real night, Kelly is on from 1900-2200, I come on at 2200 and go until 0400 and Kelly comes on for 0400 to 0700. I really don’t mind those hours at all, once I get used to being up at night like that, it just turns into a different shift and Kelly gets a good nights sleep and I sleep well in those morning hours and during the day as needed.
During the last day we had a little bit of adventure. First it was all of the speed bumps. There were a bunch of Turtles basking! All around us! And even one with a Blue Footed Booby standing on it’s back! Very funny really. And then not so funny.
We were toddling along under power and a bit of sail, doing about 6 kts and all of the sudden the engine seemed to choke and die. We have been having fuel issues, and I first thought that may be the case once more, but it was puzzling the way the engine stopped. Normally (it sucks to know what “normal” is when talking about engine failures) when an engine dies from fuel starvation it will rev up then quit, this actually seemed to bog and die.
As I was setting the Monitor to take over steering chores, I noticed what I first thought to be a fish trailing the rudder by about 5 feet- it wasn’t.
Longlines here are nearly impossible to see and particularly so when they decided to float them with empty plastic water bottles. Yes we wrapped one. The fisherman running the line were happy I didn’t get in the water to cut us loose, because if I had it would have not enable them to salvage anything and they don’t have much. I felt it was easily worth the 200 pesos I gave them for one to dive under the boat and disentangle the mess.
OK time to restart the engine. I had already swapped the fuel filter out as I tried to restart before we figured out the whole fishing line thing and after the lines were bled, bang she started right up, and just as quickly I shut her down as the was no lube oil running!
Crapcrapcrap, what now? Deep breath, get the boat moving under sail and cope with that issue in a few minutes. No land anywhere close, we can reassess after the engine cools down. Oh double crapcrapcrap, there another Panga with some fisherman waving at us like we are going to run over their line as well. This time they were proactive though and signaled for us to sail right towards them- they cut the line once they saw where we would cross and through the pass we rolled, with them picking up the ends while waving and smiling.
Suffice it to say we have had nearly enough drama, but we were not finished yet. While troubleshooting the oil pressure issue, I found the levels to be very low, so I added some, started the engine and it still showed low pressure. Thinking it may have been a filter issue, I change that out and restart. This time that extra oil ended up being Way Too Much as all of the sudden I have oil flow and now oil detonation and a runaway diesel! I am really happy with the oil change pump as I was able to drain out a lot and get things back on an even keel so to speak. That was fun.
By now we are booking along on a beam reach in 15-20 knots of wind and sailing at 7-8 kts with an occasional bump over that. The seas are now rollers and realy comfortable right on the stern as we round Punta de Mita and head for the barn (Marina Riviera Nayarit).
Welcoming us to this area were breaching humpback whales to port and starboard and ahead, a beautiful sunset and the prospect of coming into a strange marina (well we have been in once before in the day) at night with an engine we don’t have full faith in but which was running like a sewing machine now.
Almost done with the drama for the day we found our way in and promptly headed into the wrong fairway. Oops.
Papillon has that odd offset shaft and while I cannot back her up in any predictable way, she does spin like a top if I handle it right. And that I did, she spun around and got back on track with the only drama left being the actual docking. And how anticlimactic it was, slipped into her new home with out even a touch on the dock and.
We.
Were.
Stopped.
More later on the area.