Wow, what a day for a sail. It started out slow with just a breath of wind. But first, we had to get out of the anchorage. We upped the anchor a 0750 and started out of el Gato. Right away we ran into a problem. The house alternator started acting up again. I had changed the belt yesterday afternoon and when I had started the engine(yesterday) it had read 14.2 volts on the volt meter. This time, it came on at 13.3 to 13.5 volts and wouldn't get above it. I went below and opened the engine room door to a puff of smoke. We had a problem!! I told Tracy to shut down the engine so I could check out the situation. I checked the new belt and found it a bit loose, so I re-tightened it all over again thinking that it may have worked itself loose. Even tight, it would only get up to 13.6 at the highest. Normal is 14.2 volts during the initial charge. Oh well, at least it stopped smoking after I tightened the belt the second time. If you have any thoughts as to why it is doing what it is doing--putting out less volts than it should, please send me an email (WDE4653 @sailmail.com). I'd love to hear your thoughts. I'm a bit stuck but plan on taking my voltmeter to it tomorrow to see what it is actually making at the source.

The wind was freshening so up went the sails--main, genoa and forestaysail and off we went, heading South for either Evaristo(if we ran out of time) or Isla San Francisco. We'd been to both on our trip up so no big surprises were in store for us no matter where we ended up. The wind was up to about 7 knots coming at us from the stern port quarter(that's the rear left side of the boat for you landlubbers). Even with all that canvas up, we were not making much headway. So, since the wind was from behind us, we decided to put up our spinnaker sail. In came the genoa and down came the forestaysail. I raised the spinnaker but didn't put up on the sock it is enclosed in. Down came the mainsail and we were ready to pop the big girl. Up went the sock and boom, out she went in all her glory. She is made up of all the colors of the rainbow in big vertical and horizontal stripes. We took off, climbing to 4.5 to 5 knots. We had been doing just 2 knots with all the previous sails up. We engaged James(our Hydrovane steering system) and let him do most of the work. Tracy was at the wheel(where she belongs) while I was out on deck playing with the sails(up and down and all around). We just kept on heading South with not a boat in sight. We didn't see another boat(2 actually) till a pair of shrimpers came past us early in the afternoon. Since they fish at night, their day was over already. As we reached Isla San Jose, the winds started to grow into the mid teens and our speed started to increase. Into the mid 5 to 6 knot range. On we pressed having a great time. I'd laid in a route for us to follow that would take us the shortest route to get to our new anchorage. We realized that we were going to end up too close to Isla San Jose so we were going to need to reset the spinnaker. We had to gibe the sail. I had to disengage all the lines to the sail at the bow, and physically pull it around the bow and reset all the hardware and lines necessary to let it fly. We've use the sail so much recently, that I've gotten much better at changing the sail orientation. It took just a few minutes to get her set. Meanwhile, we were toodling South under bare pole(no sails at all) and still doing 3.5 knots. The winds were growing now that we were between Isla San Jose and the Baja. This time, when I pulled up the sock, it jammed. The sail was bunched inside the sock and didn't want to come out to play. I hauled the sock back down and after a few tries, I finally got it to go up and allow the sail to pop open again. Unfortunately, as the sock took off for the top of the sail, the ropes that control it went so fast that they burned one of my fingers and even burned a hole in my leather sailing glove. That rope can get hot, let me tell you. Even with the rope burning my hand, I refused to let go as that would have made a big problem later getting the sail back down. The wind was now in the mid 20 knot range with gusts into the mid 30 knots. We were flying, eventually hitting 8.9 knots!! For a boat this size, that is really fast!. Much faster than Zephyr is meant to go. The spinnaker was being pushed to the max, swinging around the bow back and forth as the wind shifted and Zephyr repeatedly changed course with the pull of the sail and Tracy kept us on our course. We blew right past Evaristo in all our glory. Not that many boats will fly a spinnaker, let alone in the winds we were in today. We were lucky we didn't rip the sail wide open with the winds we were in. Another sailboat passed us heading North getting slammed by the waves. She was really getting punched and was going up into the air and slamming down into the water. Not a fun ride. We could tell by looking at the boat that she was a rental from the Moorings company. You rent their sail boats (for LOTS of money) and then sail(or motor) around for a week or so. Many of their charters can easily run $9,000 for a week! Evaristo was full of boats(even a big tourist boat and a mega yacht) waiting for the big blow that was scheduled for tomorrow(it came today instead). We were skirting the western shore of the channel hoping to not run aground as there are lots of rocks just off shore South of Evaristo. I was at the bow getting ready to pop the lines holding the spinnaker when our depth came up to 6 feet. Bang went the line and down came the sock. I let it just stay up in the air like a giant snake blowing around Zephyrs bow. I returned to the cockpit and we rolled out our genoa sail. We turned to port(left) and headed over toward Isla San Francisco, about 4.5 miles away. Even with just the genoa out, we were hitting over 6 knots. The swells and wave were not impressed and slammed into Zephyrs port side time after time. We had sailed down the channel with the waves going with us and now we were cutting across them and they were not happy about it.

Once we neared the cove at Isla San Francisco, we started the engine and turned into the wind and started rolling in the genoa. Here is where a problem cropped up. The spinnaker was still up. As we rolled in the genoa, it started to roll in the spinnaker with it. The genoa was not happy and was about to jam. We stopped and reversed what we had done. We rolled out the genoa again. I ran forward and undid the line that holds up the spinnaker and pulled it down to the deck as fast as I could. The winds were still in the high 20 knot range and we were getting pounded. I let the spinnaker just sit on the deck(hoping it didn't fall overboard) and took off for the cockpit. Tracy had brought the bow(pointy end of the boat) into the wind and now we had to get it back so Zephyr could fall off the wind. The genoa was on the wrong side of the boat and the wind wanted to keep it there. Tracy gunned the engine and we SLOWLY changed course and finally the genoa sail was on the right side of the boat. We used our big Milwaukee drill with the winches and in came the genoa. We were set and with out a sail up and could motor the last few yards into the anchorage. There were 10 other boats spread out in the anchorage getting blown by winds over the pass to the other side of the island. The wind was now out of the East instead of the North as it had been all day. We picked a space that was empty and dropped our anchor in about 15 feet of water(24 49.237N 110 34.125W). We were in! It was just after 1600 and we had covered 39.4 miles since 0750 this morning. Nine hours of sailing to cover 39.4 miles. Some of it slow(obviously) and a lot of it faster than we should have. We spent the better part of the next hour cleaning up the mess on Zephyrs deck. Sails, lines and assorted equipment all had to be stowed. We'd used a lot equipment to get to Isla San Francisco and it all had to be put away. Once everything was stowed, we took off for below decks for a much needed and anticipated shower. We worked up a lot of sweat during the day plus we were covered in grit that had blown all over the place by the winds.

The winds have died some but are still making the DuoGen's blade go round and round. Tomorrow, off to the beach for more exploring and hikes.