04/05/2010, Marina Fonatur, Mazatlan
Well, it's been a year since we set out from Port Townsend, Washington on our new adventure and what a year it has been. We've traveled over 6,000 miles since we left.
People told us we would never make it to Alaska but we did. More told us we would never make it to Mexico, but we did. It's been a big learning experience for us both. Not only systems but learning about ourselves and each other. Sure, we have been married for 38 years, but for the last two years, we have been just about inseparable. It's that way when you live on a boat. Where the heck can you go? Unless you are at a marina or close to shore, you must deal with the everyday events that shape our lives. The highs and lows. The good and the bad. We had to face what ever came our way and we have.
One of our strongpoints is that we complement each other. When a question arrises, we can talk to each other and one of us will normally have the right answer. When we were pulling out the black water tank in the stern head, I got stuck as to how to do it easily. Tracy took one look at it and came up with a solution. When I go crazy, she is sane and vice versa. One of us is always grounded in reality(more Tracy than me). It is truly one of our strong points. This past year has been tough on both of us. The learning curve has been extreme. Many cruisers we talk to have had their boats for years, not just the few we have had Zephyr. Many have even built their own boats so they know all the ins and outs of what is where and how it runs. We jumped from a nice 26 foot boat to a big complex 45 footer that was going through midlife crisis. But we worked at it sometimes getting frustrated and down right mad but we fixed what needed to be fixed and made it to places people told us we would never make it to.
We're now down in Mazatlan, planning to head North for San Carlos for the Summer haulout and storage while we are back in Denver for a few months. Then, back to Zephyr for more projects and travels.
It's been a fun year with plenty of ups(Juneau, Alaska & Mexico) and downs(two more transmissions rebuilds) but here we are. Still ready to go and see more of what the world has to offer.
While in Marina Fonatur, we have flushed the outboard motor, marked the main halyard and reefing lines with whipping thread, cleaned and oiled(yes, that's right--oiled) the teak on the small rail that runs around the upper section of the deck and in front of the dodger. We've washed with fresh water and lubed all the deck hardware so it will run properly once we set off again. It helps to get all the salt out of the blocks. Cleaned the cockpit and straightened up all over Zephyr and met lots of new friends here and at another marina. It's been a busy week and we expect to be here till Thursday. The winds will hopefully change to be out of the West by then. At least that is the forecast.
So the jobs continue as does the fun of the cruising lifestyle. The good and the bad. It's what makes life out here so interesting and fun.
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Comments [1]
love, K
04/01/2010, Marina Fonatur, Mazatlan
We've moved again. Now we're at the Marina Fonatur about 9.6 miles up the coast from where were in the old harbor of Mazatlan. The stink from the sewage processing plant were just a bit to much for us to handle when the wind blew just in the right os should I say the wrong direction.
We'd taken a bus through town to take a look at the different marinas on Tuesday afternoon. Marina Mazatlan was nice but the office was closed for lunch when we got there. We wandered around and found a nice restaurant for our own needs and then walked down the short distance to Marina Fonatur. It's a government run marina that have different branches along the Sea of Cortez. We'd used one of their mooring buoys in Escondido when we were there a while ago. Most of the tour books don't talk about this one as it was just built in 2006 and is still little known. Those that do talk about it tell you to not bother to go there as it is always booked up. Well, we took a shot and we got a slip. It was reserved for another boat but they won't be in until April 10 so we can stay until then. Now Marina Mazatlan charges $1.30/foot/day to stay there. That gets really pricy fast. We've paid $120 for seven days here plus water and electricity. Believe me, that is a great deal. We jumped on it like white on rice.
We upped the anchor yesterday morning and took off. There are only certain times that you can enter the harbor as the tidal current going in and out of the small bay where it is located can reach 4 knots. Plus, it is shallow in some areas. We needed to be here by just after 0900. Up came the anchor at 0730 and off we went. What we hadn't expected was FOG!!! nice thick pea soup fog. We haven't seen fog like this since we were up on the Northwest coast. Cruise ships were entering the harbor and blowing their horns. We squeezed in between the fishing boats that were going out and took off between cruise ships entering the harbor. We had the radar running so we know what was out there.
We were slated to come into a slip with the finger that you tie up to on the port side. Something we hate as when Zephyr is put into reverse(good for stopping before you hit the dock)she slides to the starboard side--away from the dock. The marina promised us help when we got in. Either we got in early(we radioed ahead)or the two guys got lost on the way to the marina. We came in a bit hot and we took out the electrical tower on the dock. For some reason, they have placed all of them right where the bow of the boat goes into the slip. I popped the hinges that hold it down and it fell over. Apparently, we were the second boat that day that hit the little electrical towers. A few screws and it was all fixed. We're now located at 23 16.124N 106 27.366W for you Google Earth fans.
We check in and got introduced to other people on the dock and had a nice lunch and then we started in changing the valves in the stern head. We'd ripped out the black water tank last week to fix the vent and now it was time to replace the valves that keep what is flushed out out. The walls are so close to the sides of the head that I had to rip out the entire head to change the valves. To say I stunk when we were done was an under statement. I left Tracy to clean up the "water" that had escaped the head during the rebuild and took off for the showers as fast as I could.
We had a nice dinner of left overs and settled in for a quiet evening. Well, sort of quiet. There is a bar upstairs above the marina office that was playing music till about midnight. At least it was nice music.
Today, Tracy's off with a girls group exploring the town while I tackled some more projects. I finally got the main halyard and reefing lines marked with whipping twine so we will know where to stop winching in when we engage the reef on the main sail. I washed down the deck and flushed the outboard with fresh water to get the salt water residue out again. It should make the motor last a good bit longer as long as I do it regularly.
We expect to be here for a week or so exploring the region and Mazatlan before we set off North up the coast.
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03/30/2010, Mazatlan
We upped the anchor again yesterday morning after a somewhat rolly night behind Isla Cardones. Not bad, but we wanted to be a bit closer to town. So I put out a call when the local VHF net started at 0800 as to popular anchorages and was directed to the old harbor just inside the breakwater. Good holding ground and a dingy dock nearby so we can get into town. What they didn't tell us is that it's right beside the sewage processing plant and when the wind blows just right, you know what Mazatlan had to eat yesterday(YUCK). It's not all the time, but it can be a bit strong. We're now anchored at 23 10.933N 106 25.350W for you Google Earth fans.
Once we dropped the anchor and got squared away, I took off for below decks to install more fans. It's a whole lot more humid and that makes the heat that much more intense than it was on the Baja. Even before I got started, we had visitors from China Girl, one of the boats at anchor with us. Jay and Kelly had worked their way down the coast as we had a bit later than we had last year. I had heard the name of their boat before and asked them if they were the China Girl that had been the boat people on the Amigo Net(SSB net for cruiers)had been searching for last year. We had heard a call or bulletin on the Net that Kelly's father was worried about them as they hadn't reported in and were over due. Yep, it was them all right. Nice to hear the ending of the story as we had never heard if they had been found. They clued us in on the ins and outs of Mazatlan as they have been here for a few weeks.
After a nice lunch, I started in on the fan for the stern berth(where we sleep). It has lots of good port lights and a big hatch above us, but if there is no wind, it can get real ugly back there. I tapped onto a line I had put in for a 12 volt outlet and ran extra wires to the port lights on both the port and stern sides(making sure I fastened them down every 18 inches). We bought a fan made by Caframo specifically for the stern berth that has a built in timer on it that can be set to run for 2, 4 or 6 hours. This way, it will shut off during the night when it gets cooler. A good idea that actually works. I had to remove lots of things from assorted bins along the side to get the wires run where I needed them. Out came lots of books(our library) and assorted things we had put away for long term storage. One bin had a tenant--a long legged spider that had made web all over the inside of the cabinet. He won't be a problem anymore. I drilled holes, ran the wire, attached lugs(round rings) to each wire so they could be mounted to the bus bar, and labeled it along it's run so that I will know what wire is when I look at it sometime in the future. It's a god idea to label all your electrical lines when you run them for future reference just incase something goes wrong and you need to find that line. I got the first fan done about 1700. It takes a while to lay in wire and do it right. Lots of things have to be moved and panels removed. The second fan will have to wait till we access the effectiveness of the first one to see where it should be placed. I have already laid in the wire so just picking the place and a few screws are all that are left to do.
We had planned to have one of our rib eye steak we bought in La Paz for dinner, but the wind was so strong that there was no way to light the barbecue to cook them. So instead we had a classic from our stores--Tuna Helper Tettrazini. It's so old that is isn't even made any more. It may have been old, but it made a nice dinner.
Little birds are flying all around Zephyr and Blue hasn't seen them yet. It will be interesting once she does. She is the hunter aboard Zephyr. The boys don't seem to care. Snowshoe will tag along with Blue, but she does the hunting. He'll play with it once she catches it but that's about it.
Two cruise ships (Holland America's Costerdam and Norwegian Star cruised into port a few minutes ago so the town will be full of tourista. I think we will avoid the downtown section today. I'm sort of sorry I installed the fans yesterday instead of going into town. There were no cruise ships in yesterday to clog up the streets and restaurants. We've cut back on restaurant food recently. While in La Paz, we only ate out once and that was at City Club(like Costco) after our shopping. We just don't seem to be near a restaurant or we are working on Zephyr when meal time comes around.
I'm amazed at how much dew is all over Zephyr in the mornings here. We had some in La Paz, but not much and it was gone as soon as the Sun came up. It starts collecting on deck late in the afternoon and by Sun down, it has already laid down a layer. Over night, it really gets wet with droplets all over the place. Any thing left in the cockpit is even soaked at the moisture gets in and on everything that is outside.
Today(Tuesday) we are off for town to explore. We'll hit the busses and wend our way around the city(avoiding the tourista). We want to stop in and see the marinas up the coast to see what they have to offer and how much they charge. We don't expect to stay in one for a long period of time, but a few days of luxury(hot showers are a luxury out here)is always nice. Today , it is supposed to be in the 80's so nice and warm.
I'll let you know how the exploring goes in our next post.
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03/28/2010, Mazatlan
We blew into town earlier this afternoon with winds coming from the West. They had shifted earlier in the day from the Northwest. Having them come from the West made it harder as that was the direction we were coming from and that put the wind right on our stern. Not the best place for it. We had been on a port tack(winds over the port side of the boat)for the entire trip over the Sea of Cortez. I think it is one of the longest single tack trips we have ever made. From what we have read, once you are out there, most of the trips you make are that way. I guess we will see eventually.
Anyhow, we arrived at 1430 after after a slow last few hours of the trip. The forecast had been for winds from the Northeast. So much for accuracy. In total, we covered 238 miles in 54 hours and 55 minutes or about 4.33 nautical miles per hour. A big improvement from the first day where we just limped along with darn little wind. We're now located at 23 10.97N 106 24.326W. We've crossed the Tropic of Cancer again so we are officially back in the tropics again. We also lost an hour of time as Mazatlan is on Central time and will loose another hour this weekend as Mexico goes on daylight savings time. One hour change is bad enough to try and get used to. Now, we will have to get used to another hour loss next weekend.
We saw a few more whales during the last part of the trip and had our first hitchhiker join us. A large bird(Booby we think) landed on the stern rail and stayed with us for quite a while. I approached him with crackers(about 6 inches away) and he wasn't interested at all, nor was he afraid of us. He just sat there and slowly walked along the rail and over the life raft and the seat we have on the stern rail. He'd take off every once in a while and circle Zephyr and then find a new place to land and check out. He was very interested in all the different lines on board and picked up each to see if it was edible.
We finally started the engine about two miles from the anchorage to get us safely past the shrimpers and fishing boats that were coming and going. All in all, an enjoyable trip. Especially with no sound of engine running day and night as it has on some of our previous passages. We only ran it for two hours(if that) to get us past the one lone island we had to get by.
With these last few posts, you have read what it is like while out sailing on a passage. It had it's good and it's bad times. A much closer look at how we did it. I hope you enjoyed our story.
Tomorrow, we expect to go over the the Mazatlan Marina and see if we can get a slip there for a short time so we can explore the town. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow. Meanwhile, it's about time for bed. We've each had maybe 6 hours of sleep in the last 60 hours and are both beat. Good night.
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03/27/2010, Somewhere in the Sea of Cortez
1040 hours Day 2
We're moving right along in 15 knot winds from the Northwest. It's pushing Zephyr on her way to Mazatlan.
After Tracy came on watch, I went below and got our breakfast--cereal and then tried to get a bit of sleep after having only 3.5 hours the previous night. It just wasn't coming so I got up after an hour and a half. Tracy meanwhile had been playing with a pod of dolphins that came by to visit and stayed as long as she was at the bow clapping for them. When she left the bow, off they went. Apparently, they kept bumping the hull to scratch their skin as they passes us over and over again. The weather forecast is for 15 to 20 knot winds for the rest of the day. That's about what we have now. Tomorrow is for winds from 25 to 30 in the afternoon. With luck, we should be in Mazatlan by late morning or early afternoon at the speed we are doing now. With these winds, we are in the mid 5 knot range and will climb to the 6's in gusts. The DuoGen is spinning around off the stern making lots of electricity for us. Unfortunately, not enough to keep our batteries full with the electronics we are using. The Garmin chart plotter, Robertson/Simrad autopilot(not engaged), Data Marine wind, depth and knotlog, plus the Cool Blue refrigerator all use a good bit of energy when they all run at the same time. I may have to run our little generator on the stern for an hour or so later this afternoon. We will just have to see. More as the day passes.
1400 Hours Day 2 We passed the halfway point at of our journey at 1237 at 23 53.206N 108 22.779W with the wind still off the stern Port quarter at about 10 to 12 knots. We've tried to keep it at about 150 degrees so that we aren't going straight down wind. We've found you go faster and uner better control if you do it this way. We've still seen no other boats since Sun up. The higher winds that are forecast for tomorrow have probably kept boats in their harbors. With luck, we will be at or near Mazatlan before the 30+ knot winds crop up. If not, in with the Genoa and up with the forestaysail(much smaller) and a reef taken in the mainsail. One thing I did get accomplished while were were making our way South a week ago was to mark the main halyard(line that pulls the mainsail to the top of the mast)with majic marker and later with whipping twine where it exits the sheet stopper(keeps the line from going back out when fastened down) in the cockpit. This way, when Tracy pulls on the line with our Milwaukee 90 degree drill, she know where to stop as the sail is at the top of the mast. I still need to do it for each of the reef points on the sail plus where the lines that holds the main taught along its foot with each reef. I can't see to the end of the boom to know when to stop pulling on the line. If I put too much tension on the rope, it could rip the main and that would not be a good thing especially since when you need to reef a sail, normally the wind and weather really suck and it needs to be done quickly and properly. Another job wfor when it is not windy and in port. Tracy is catching some ZZZZ since she goes on watch at 1500 for four hours and that is just 45 minutes from now. When you don't get a full night sleep, you grab what you can when you can.
As to the Bonito that we caught, well, Shadow LOVES it! He'll pass over all the rest of his food and gulp it down. Blue and Snowshoe pass on it. Amazing. I thought all cats loved fish. Guess not. We still haven't tried it but dinner is still a few hours away. We may just pass on it since it is so bloody and smells really fishy. And heck, Shadow loves it. More in a few hours.
1940 Hours Day 2 We're now 36 hours out of Playa La Bonanza and located at 23 42 444N 107 5.348W with 152 miles down and 79 to go. It's been an active day since I last wrote on this post. We rolled in about 50 percent of the Genoa once the winds started into the high 20 knot range. It helped some but we just kept surfing the swells. We're getting 6 foot plus swells at regular intervals of about 6 seconds so it's quite rolly with the odd rogue swell slamming into the port side. Surfing the swells has allowed us to hit 8.3 knots with regular swings of from 4.9 to 7.2 on the average set of swells. We fight our way up one and coast like heck down the steep side. ZOOM!!! About 1815, we decided to take a reef in the main since the Sun was about to set and we didn't want to get caught out here at night with too much canvas up. To do so, we had to roll in the Genoa and then start the motor to get the bow into the wind. Down came the main till I could attach the first reef to the gooseneck and then back up it went. Then I winched in the line that pulls the outer end of the sail tight against the boom and we were set. Off the wind we fell so that it was hitting us on the beam and out came about 50% of the Genoa sail again. We fell off the wind until it was hitting us back at 140 to 150 degrees off the Port stern quarter. Off we went like a bat out of hell. Surfing all over again. We'd hit 8 knots before. This time we made it up to 8.3. Even faster with less canvas out.
Once we were set, Tracy went below to heat up dinner. Leftovers are the normal bill of fair when out cruising. You make a casarole and and freeze the leftovers for the trip for an easy, hot meal. It's been a good bit cooler today than yesterday, but we have had a lot more winds. When we left La Paz, the forecast had been for moderate winds for the next 4 days. OOPS!! Guess not. I don't see 25 to 30 knot winds as "moderate". But what the heck. We're all set for what ever comes. I've got on my sailing gloves and inflatable life jacket with a safety harness and line to keep me attached to Zephyr should I get swept over board(God forbid). We learned a long time ago. Nature wins all the time. Don't take chances when it's not necessary. It's a rare time that I go out on deck with out a life jacket. Even in calm weather. We have a long journey ahead of us and I want to see all of it. Being the "deck monkey", I'm out on deck a lot more than Tracy is so I intend to play it safe.
Well, the night is just getting started. Tracy is below trying to get some sleep as she is back on watch at 2300. Meanwhile, I watch the wheel and direction of the wind and waves and we press on through the night. Sure am glad the Moon is up. Really bright out there.
0400 hours Day 3 The moon is full as it prepares to set behind us as we continue our way across the sea of Cortez. We've logged 195 miles and have only about 37 to go. Last night winds were forecast to continue from the Northwest at 15 to 20 but came in at only about 10. The winds that caused us to reef the main petered out about 1100 and I rolled out the rest of the Genoa. So now we are moving along with the main still reefed and the full Genoa out making 4 to 5 knots with the wind still off the port stern quarter. The same place it has been since we left Playa La Bonaza Friday morning. We're now located at 23 22.820N 107 04.034W for those of you folowing us on Google Earth. A ferry boat passed us about 1100 last night and that is the first boat we have seen other than the last ferry the night before. Not much traffic out here with the weather forecast for big winds(25 to 30) for this afternoon. They have forecasted 40 for just South of where we took off from. Tracy is catching up on some sleep below and I expect I will do the same after we get in and drop the anchor. It's the norm after being out for a few days. You miss a bit of sleep or at least the feeling of a good nights rest when it comes in 3 to 4 hour intervals. The swells as I went to bed at 0000 were upwards of 5 feet every 5 to 6 seconds, throwing Zephyr and her crew all over the place. You hang on to what ever you can find and brace yourself in the cockpit. Our Hydrovane--James-- has steered us right along never missing a beat. No food or electricity required. A great extra crew member. Never complaining and always getting the job done for us. Sure am glad we added him last July while in Port Townsend.
That's about it for now. I'm sitting in the cockpit with the sides up on the dodger so I'm protected from the wind blowing across Zephyrs deck. Long pants and a jacket are the apparel of the night out here. The decks are wet from the dew every morning. The sun is due up in a few hours and so will start another day.
0800 hours Day 3 We've just finished day two covering a total of 213 miles for both days and 122 for yesterday or just over 5 knots per hour. We're located at 23 16.808N 106 46.530W at the current time and still heading Southeast for Mazatlan. We just saw our second boat of the past 24 hours, a car ferry on it's way to Mazatlan. I expect he will beat us there. We maxed out at 8 knots last night under our reefed sails so that shows you that we did have some good wind during the night even though it died back a good bit as the time progresses. We shook out the reef this morning in the mainsail and now it's doing it's job. We have jsut 20 miles to go before we reach Mazatlan. Maybe time enough for a quick nap, but I doubt it. More after we anchor.
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03/26/2010, Somewhere in the Sea of Cortez
We're going to try something new for this blog. I'm going to do mini posts to this blog as we go across the Sea and then have it post at it's regular way.
We upped the anchor at 0745 in about 8 knots of wind. Surprisingly from the West and Southwest. The forecast had been for it to come from the North to Northwest. Oh well, Mother Nature must have gotten the memo that we were out again. Yesterdays winds would have been perfect for the crossing. Fifteen to twenty from the Northwest and decent small swells. Perhaps we should have just kept going. We pulled up the main sail and then rolled out our Genoa and off we went doing almost 4 knots. Dolphins came by the 100s to flock around Zephyr. Unfortunately, we were going so slowly that they just came, saw, got bored, and left. On we pressed with the wind slowly dying. By 1100, we took in the Genoa and lowered the main and pulled up the spinnaker. The wind was down to maybe three knots. Out she(the spinnaker) went and there we stopped. Once it was out, the wind died. It's now 1300 and we have gone 9.6 miles since we left at 0745. At this rate, we should be in Mazatlan by next Tuesday(maybe).
Ok, that's it for stage one of the trip. I'll write more as the day passes. Heck, not much happening above decks right now.
Part 2 1600 hours day 1 At 1330, the winds picked up to almost 8 knots and our speed went up to about 4 knots. Over the next few hours, it went up and down and is now at about 5 knots with us doing 3.3 knots. Not really that bad unless you consider that we haven't even done 20 miles for the day so far. In 8 hours=less than 20 miles=2.5 miles per hour. Wow!!! At that rate--228 miles to Mazatlan, it will be a few more days before we get there. We are considering continuing to use the spinnaker through the night. That will be a first for us. A few months ago, we had barely ever used one and now we are looking at using it at night. At leat the moon is cooperating being about 80% full so it will be nice and bright till about 0330 when it sets. We'll just have t evaluate the conditions through the night. I'm on watch from 1900 to 2300. Tracy then takes over till 0300 and I'm back on watch till 0700. It makes for a long night. We figure at least two solid days plus more if the wind continue at this rate. We've seen no other sailboats this trip and only a few pangas(fishing boats). For it being high season, it's really quite empty out here. More in a few hours.
1730 hours OK, we tried. We so wanted to sail the entire way to Mazatlan but it was not to be. By 1700, we were about a mile from the tip of Isla Cerralvo with it's reefs and that is not a good place to be as the Sun is getting ready to go down and there is just about no wind. So we bit the bullet and took down the spinnaker(wasn't doing anything any way) and started the engine. We'll run her for a few hours to get us away from the island and shut her down for the night and put up the sails and see what the night brings. At the worst, we sit and wait for sunrise and some much needed winds. At the best, we get some West to Northwest winds and make a good headway through the night. We've gone barely 22 miles of a 228 mile trip and had hoped to do much better after the winds we had had yesterday. Oh well, there is always tomorrow, and the next day and the next day. Eventually we will get to Mazatlan. I'll write more as the night progresses. We'll see what happens next.
2016 hours Oh, the last few hours have been exciting!!! We actually caught a fish!!! We tossed the line in the water to drag behind Zephyr early in the afternoon. Our speed was so slow, there was no way a fish was even going to look at it and if they did, all they would do was laugh at our pathetic try at fishing. Well, once we started the engine, it was a different matter. Just as Tracy was handing up dinner into the cockpit, she looked back and there was a fish on the line. We had passes Isla Cerralvo about an hour before and will all it's reefs, the fishing is supposed to be good around it. We had seen at least 6 panga fishermen all day around the island. Dinner was put on hold and we scurried to the back deck and I started pulling in the line. Tracy grabbed the net we keep along the rail. We had originally bought it to snare one of our furr people should they fall over board. In came the fish--big with blue stripes. Our book says it is a Bonito and is supposed to be good eating. OK, now we have a fish. What the heck do we do with it? We pulled out our big blue bucket and tossed him in it. He had already bled all over the back deck(Yuck). I got our filet knife and went at him. Tracy was reading what to do in one of our fishing books. Well, our fileting knife was about as dull as could be. So out came another and in I went. Along the top and along the bottom till I got to his back bone and then off with the filet. Blood was everywhere!!! I looked like Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street. Side one and then side two and back into the water with the carcass. We had our first edible fish!! The book says his meat is supposed to be white but not the fish we caught. Oh well, I guess we will see what he tastes like tomorrow. Shadow sure liked what we gave him. He lapped it right down. The other two turned up their noses at it. Now back to a now cold dinner of tacos on flour tortillas from the tortilla factory in La Paz. Even cold, Tracy makes a great taco. We used more of the meat we bought at the local market where the local shop. It cooked up with just about no grease. Now that is lean meat.
At 1930, we turned off the engine after two hours and put back up the main sail and rolled out the Genoa sail at the bow. The winds were our of the North north west at about 5 to 6 knots. With the sails up, we started moving again at 2.7 to 3 knots. Not fast, but our chart plotter says we will be at Mazatlan in just 91 hours and 8 minutes. That's just shy of 4 more days. Now that's slow sailing. The forecast is for more wind over the next two days so that should help our speed. We'll see if they are accurate tomorrow.
I'm on watch till 2300 while Tracy tries to catch some sleep below. Strangely, all the furr people are back with her and not out on deck checking out the night life out here. Oh well, maybe later.
0530 Hours Saturday morning The hours passed quickly till 2300 when Tracy came on watch. The winds had stayed in the 6 to 8 knot range and we were moving along at 4 to 5 knots headed toward Mazatlan. The sky was clear and the moon lighted the seas. It was a pleasant sail. I sat in the cockpit and watched a movie on my IPod to pass the time. I stopped every 15 minutes or so to scan the waters around us. I briefly saw one ship far off our stern but it was gone in a few minutes. That was it. No other boats. Tracy came on deck right on time and I headed below for a few hours of sleep. The furr people joined me in the stern cabin. With the winds over the port side(left) I got to sleep with my head in a slightly downward angle. With no engine running, it wasn't much different from sleeping at anchor. Just a bit more noise from the water as it passed the hull.
Tracy, ever the sailer, went out on deck(in a life vest and safety harness clipped to our jack lines) and adjusted the sails to be as much out of the winds as possible. The winds are still blowing at 140 degrees off the port stern quarter(rear left side). The boom with the mainsail is let way out to catch the winds and the genoa is getting some also so she kept us moving along at a good clip. She got us up to 6.6 knots. We're now running along at 5.6 knots on a course of 106 degrees in 10 knots of wind. A big improvement since yesterday afternoon when we limped along at barely 1.5 knots. James, our Hydrovane wind steering system is doing well maintaining our course but our hydraulic steering sometimes heads us a bit to far into the wind so I have to correct it. The Sun if starting to light up the eastern horizon and it is expected to rise at 0613 so not that far off and another sunny day will be upon us. Tracy is due back on watch at 0700 so I can get a bit more rest. Meanwhile, the miles tick off and our new estimated time of arrival is now just 30 hours away. It helps to make some speed through the water. Not a ship to be seen around us. We've covered 80 miles of the 229 to Mazatlan.
0800 Hours Saturday morning We've just hit the 24 hours since we left Playa La Bonanza and here are our stats: Currently located at 24 02.991N 108 45.414W. We've covered 91.2 miles and have 138 to go. Our max speed was 7.0 knots-just a short while ago. We've seen several whales this morning and a few yesterday afternoon as we limped along North of Isla Cerralvo. And that's our first 24 hours.
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