On our way plus jobs
22 November 2009 | Ensenada, Mexico
Bill Hudson
We changed the diesel filters(three) on Sunday. A job I had been putting off for quite a while. We had the fuel "polished" while we were in Port Townsend and I felt the filters should be changed even though they had been done while we were in Shearwater, BC.. Now they are properly changed and we can continue.
We are currently about 36 miles off the coast quite a bit South of Ensenada after leaving there about 0900 yesterday morning. We'd been hung up for an hour or so as the marina's credit card processing machine was on the blink. Once they got it fixed, we were under way. Darn little wind of course though three weeks ago during the Baja HaHa(a gathering of sailboats that head down the coast and party along the way) ran into the worst weather they have had in all the 16 years they have been doing it. We on the other hand have been in winds of 3 to 5 knots so the sailing has been slow. We started the engine about 2200 and motored the rest of the night. This morning, the winds were a bit better and we hoisted the spinnaker(for the first time) and we are still moving slowly, but at least we are moving in the right direction--South.
Our planned destination is Turtle Bay, about 300 miles down the coast from Ensenada. This will be our longest uninterrupted cruise yet. We have already covered 143 nautical miles. Not sure what that translates into in statute miles.
The main and spinnaker are up. The furr people are resting in the stern cabin(God help them if they leave us any surprises back there if you know what I mean) and the two of us are on deck(ok, I'm actually at the nav station typing this. We've been passed by numerous freighters and the Norwegian Star cruise ship that we took two years ago along this same passage. I called them early this morning as they passed and got an updated weather report.
Tracy tries something new last night for dinner--packet meals. She put all the ingredients for the meal--chicken, curry, carrots, onion, soy sauce and garlic and closed up the packet and stuck it in the oven for an hour. It was great. Easy to make and easier to cleanup afterwards.
"James", as in "Home James"(our Hydrovane steering system) got used yesterday and is in use right now. He steers the boat in the direction we want to go(as long as the wind cooperates) and uses no electricity. Yesterday was the first time we used him and he worked flawlessly for the four to five hours we had the sails up. The Duogen(makes electricity by being dragged in the water) was down doing its job. No name for him yet. Since we aren't using the main autopilot, our energy demands are quite minimal and the DuoGen can keep up with our needs.
Well, I've got to close. If this works fine, it will be our first post off shore using the SSB. We dropped our Verizon phone and internet service once we left the USA. Once farther South, we will look into another company and see what they provide.
Stay tuned for more as we go.