This promised to be the most challenging portion of our journey from Mexico to Puget Sound. I knew we were a month later than usual and the potential for stormy weather tracking from the West across the Pacific would pose a real hazard. Before leaving Hanalei Bay I checked Passageweather.com and did not see any significant weather that I was concerned about, though I knew that would change. I also checked where the North Pacific High was located. I planned a route heading due North out of Hanalei Bay to 42 degrees North then starting an arc that peaked at 49 degrees North just West of Vancouver Island, then sailing down the West side of Vancouver Island into the Straits of Juan De Fuca. This route would take us above the North Pacific High, my primary concern since it had languished later and farther North being an El Nino year.

Since my engine was still inoperable from water getting into the cylinder, Chris and I got underway under sail. We still had solar power, which proved to be adequate for our needs. We sailed out of Hanalei Bay saying goodbye to Hawaii and the tranquil setting of Kauai. The seas and wind were good and in the first six days we made 450 miles.

The next ten days were grueling as we made only 336 miles, with one day putting in an incredible 13 miles. Chris and I became masters of mild weather sailing taking triumphs in every inch that we gained. This became a great time to get lots of swimming in and I started to collect fishing net floats. There was a lot of floating plastic and Styrofoam. On one occasion we came across a large piece of Styrofoam with a flock of birds swimming around it, they were feasting on the small fish, mollusks, and small crabs living on and around this floating reef. We built up our own little reef eco-system under our boat. As we passed small floating debris we noticed there were pretty blue and yellow striped fish and small crabs living on and around the debris. As soon as they came close enough, they would abandon their smaller piece of debris for the safety of the Windward Star. We soon built up a school of about 80-100 small fish and this began to attract larger fish. On one occasion we caught a Mahi Mahi as it was trying to eat the smaller fish. We threw the smaller fish a small chunk of Mahi Mahi, but they weren't interested. As time passed, we also saw a shark swimming around the boat shortly after Chris had gotten out of the water and a sea turtle hung around the boat for several hours. Chris went swimming with the turtle and got face to face with it, with little concern on the turtles behalf. Soon this all passed and we started making headway again and not a moment too soon, as tensions were building having been becalmed for so long.

I had been making daily reports with the Pacific Seafarers Net and there were also several boats making passage into the Straits of Juan de Fuca ahead of us reporting significant fog North of 47 degrees and a large low from the Gulf of Alaska pushing the North Pacific High down. In order to save time and avoid the low I decided that once we reached 39 degrees North we would turn and head for the coast, shooting over the High, but below the heavy fog. As we reached 39 degrees North the wind began changing direction and was now coming from the West and we started our arc to the coast.

We were now making good time at over 100 miles per day. The water was still warm, but it was now time to put away our shorts and break out the fleece and foul weather gear. Chris had a really nice set of foulies and I had my Gore-Tex, which wasn't that great since they were old and with a few holes. The seas were definitely more lively now that we were passing 42 degrees North. The bright, sunny skies of the Southern latitudes were replaced with the gray, fast moving clouds of the North and there was no moonlight to sail with.

KNOCKDOWN

This was the first of several character-building challenges we were faced with. The seas had been building all night when Chris relieved me for the start of his watch. I went below and after getting out of my gear and warming myself up crawled into my bunk to get some sleep before my next watch. It was about 4am when the boat suddenly rolled farther than usual and all of Chris' belongs were suddenly on top of me, (his bunk was on starboard, mine to port.) I dug out from the mess and scrambled into the main saloon. Chris yelled down to me that we had gotten knocked down with the mast in the water. The dodger and bimini were taken out and he started passing the stainless frame and sunbrella covers down to me. After I got in my gear and harness on I scrambled up on deck to survey the damage and there was almost none. Chris got to work on heaving the boat to and about daybreak we finally decided the boat was stable enough. Chris stood on the cabin top looking out over a surreal landscape of 20' seas and 45 knot winds, while yelling at the waves to "take that slick" in reference to the slick formed by the boat, protecting it from cresting waves. Once we were satisfied, Chris and I went below and hunkered down in the safety of the cabin until the seas calmed.

BARE POLE SAILING

After the seas calmed we decided to get underway. The skies had cleared, but the winds were still in the 35 knot range and the seas were now about 15'. The seas were coming from our stern and we got underway under bare poles, which means no sails up. Chris took the first watch and I the second. It was quite harrowing and we could only maintain a general course by looking at the approaching waves and steering so that they would not break over the boat and making sure that we did not get broad side to the waves. It continued this way for about six hours until the seas calmed down enough that we could begin to maintain a course and not look over our shoulder constantly.

360 DEGREE ROLL

Two or three days had passed since the knockdown and I was on watch in the late night. The seas had been building and it had been getting harder to maintain our course. We were sailing with only the storm jib on our staysail. I was about 3 hours into my watch and having the time of my life. We had been hit by multiple waves, several of them filling the cockpit with water. I was fairly dry and the constant white foam surrounding the boat as the waves crashed around us was beautiful. Even though it was a tough night on the tiller, it was also amazing. I heard a wave hissing for a long time from behind me. Possible 20 seconds when I got blasted by a crashing wave, but like all the others this filled the cockpit with water and posed no threat to the boat or me. About 2-3 seconds after this first wave I got pummeled by a second wave. This second wave tossed me across the cockpit and into the lifelines, I saw swirling water all around me and my right side was hanging over the boat. I climbed back into the cockpit, grabbed the tiller and started grabbing all the stuff that was trying to escape. Chris yelled up to me asking what happened and I responded that we had gotten pounded. He thought we had rolled 360 degrees and by the looks of the cabin, I believe it. He quickly put on his foulies and came up to secure the boat. As he was on the foredeck, I felt my head throbbing and I put my gloved hand up to my forehead and only saw darkness, which I knew was blood and suddenly felt faint. I yelled to Chris the situation and he yelled for me to hold on. After the boat was hove to, he and I went below climbing over cushions and gear adrift. He poured two buckets of cold seawater over my head and I stripped down getting into my sleeping bag. Chris grabbed my medical kit and put a compress over my wound. Blood was everywhere and I thought I might have a concussion, broken nose, and split my eyebrow open. We had lost 2 out of our three winch handles and one of the cockpit doors, the use of the primary GPS, our jerry jugs had been ruptured losing all our drinking water stored topside, we also had water in the fuel tanks which affected the diesel heater keeping us warm off watch. I stayed out of commission for a day, finally relenting and taking some painkillers, and while Chris was on watch, cleaning all the blood off my face and scalp with baby wipes. I did have a pretty good laceration to my forehead and a noticeable bump on the bridge of my nose. I looked like hell. At our 0300 GMT check-in with the Pacific Seafarers Net, I reported our situation and they asked if we wanted a drop of provisions. I declined and stated that we were collecting rainwater to drink and had food. Amazingly there was no damage to the boat, other than a tweaked stanchion. I am not sure if we did roll the boat a full 360, but it sure seems likely by looking at the interior. Chris also said he bounced off every wall and the ceiling.

We still had several more days of rough seas, but nothing like we had experienced. On one occasion we decided to heave to rather than put the boat and ourselves at risk and stayed that way for an entire day waiting for the seas to calm. When the boat was hove too there was still considerable rocking and we had several instances where waves pounded the boat, but did not break over the boat, though the seawater did hydraulic past the port hole hatches or come down through the dorade vents, the first time right on top of my head while I was sitting on the port seatee.

US COAST GUARD

We continued checking in with the Pacific Seafarers Net everyday and they continued to ask if we needed a drop. After several days, we missed a check-in. I could hear the net on the radio, but they could not hear me. The following morning, 355 miles from the entrance to the Straits of Juan de Fuca, the US Coast Guard hailed us on channel 16 asking for our position. We respond and several minutes later a USCG C-130 is circling overhead asking about our situation and if we were in need of assistance. They told us the Pacific Seafarers Net had told them of our situation and they wanted to make sure we were doing ok. We told them that we were able to hear the net on the radio, but they couldn't hear us, which I attributed to propagation issues and that we were only several days from port and had enough supplies to make port. While the C-130 was flying overhead I noticed a ship in the distance, the first we had seen in 32 days and an harbinger of more to come. We needed to be more vigilant now that we were approaching land and coastal shipping lanes. We thanked the USCG for their concern and wished them a safe flight.

BECALMED AGAIN!

It took us another three days of sailing to approach the coast and once we were within 40 miles and just outside of the shipping lanes got becalmed again. This was frustrating since we were in a large triangle between the shipping lanes and we could see ships coming and going in all directions, one passing less then 500' to our port, but couldn't move. It was dead calm and it took us another two days to reach the entrance to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Once we reached the entrance the winds picked up and we started to make large tacks between the US and Canada as we worked our way Eastward.

About seventeen miles West of Port Angeles, I was off watch and sleeping when I felt the boat calm and I asked Chris what was going on. He said the winds had died out and we were becalmed again. Since I knew we had been doing large tacks across the shipping lanes between the two countries, I asked what our position was and we were just South of the outbound lane in the traffic separation zone. Chris asked what he should do and I said radio Puget Sound Vessel Traffic System, (VTS) and let them know our position and our situation. VTS was incredibly helpful and they notified every passing ship of our position and notified us of all inbound and outbound traffic. We were becalmed at this position for over 24 hours, staying in the traffic separation zone. The following morning with food dwindling and our propane having run out, (we still had some cans of tuna and several cans of vegetables), I radioed the US Coast Guard and asked for some assistance. The command center in Seattle called me on my cell phone and when I informed them that we were the boat that the C-130 had done the flyover several days earlier, they dispatched a patrol boat out of Port Angeles with some MRE's and water for us. They offered us a tow to Port Angeles, but I turned them down. It was another 18 hours or so before we passed Port Angeles.

The winds picked up a little and we started to make reasonable headway, passing Port Angeles around dawn and then onward rounding Dungeness Spit and pointing toward Point Wilson separating Whidbey Island from the Olympic Peninsula. I was on watch when we rounded Point Wilson at 2300, about an hour before max flood, which I figured would give us a good push South into Puget Sound, but we had strong winds from the South working against us, plus we had two passing tugs with tows and an outbound freighter at 20 knots moving in our direction. I let VTS know that I was coming across the shipping lanes and then tried pointing us South to parallel the shore of Whidbey Island. The winds were pushing us hard and we were getting pushed up against the shoreline. I yelled down to Chris and he came up about 45 minutes before the start of his watch. We let out the jib and cranked down on the backstay allowing us to point higher into the wind, but we were still getting pushed up against the shore. I radioed the outbound freighter and spoke to the pilot letting him know our situation and that we needed to tack back across the lanes. Chris commented that those trees were getting awfully close. As soon as the freighter was abeam of us we tacked and came across the shipping lanes and headed towards Port Townsend. Chris continued tacking like this through the night making our way South through Admiralty Inlet. I came back on watch at 0400 and we were just outside the Hood Canal. I tacked again, heading South along the West side of the inlet heading for Point-No-Point. At reaching Point-No-Point the tide changed and suddenly I was getting pushed backwards. I tried to maintain position, but couldn't. I was on the edge of the inbound lane and with shipping traffic approaching I relented, tacked the boat around and let the current carry me North and towards shore. After gaining the safety of the shore outside the main channel I again ventured to tackle the current. Chris came on watch and it took another four hours battling the current to round the Southern end of Whidbey Island. As we turned North between Whidbey Island and the mainland we had the wind and the current in our favor and we started to move at about nine knots speed over ground. I called the marina security and let them know I was coming in without an engine and asked if they could have a boat standby in case we needed assistance. We rounded the Mukilteo lighthouse in no time and headed straight for Everett. After rounding the breakwater under a reefed jib we met the patrol boat who shadowed us to the dock, but we didn't need assistance. Right as we were sailing up to the dock, Chris jumped onto the dock and checked the forward speed of the boat. We tied her up, grabbed our gear, and headed for home.

An incredible journey, I can't wait for the next one.

I am finally sitting down and updated my blog for the passage from Hawaii to Puget Sound. I was asked to include this story about a barracuda that Chris and I caught just prior to our arrival in Kauai.

We were heading North along the East side of Kauai, just Southeast of the Kilauea Lighthouse about 3pm in the afternoon when our fishing line when taught. This was almost daily occurrence, either catching a fish about 2 hours after dawn or before sunset. Chris and I started in pulling in our hand line and soon we had the fish along side and ready to flip in the boat, but this was no ordinary fish, it had HUGE teeth. We pulled it quickly up into the cockpit floor as we both stood on the cockpit seats avoiding those big teeth, waiting for it to take its last gasps. I decided we should take it into Hanalei Bay and see what it was and if we could sell it, rather than eat it.

After getting anchored in Hanalei Bay about 2-3 hours later, and just at sunset, we got the fish loaded in the dingy and rowed over to a neighboring sailboat where some ladies were watching the sunset with a glass of wine, (this was a daily activity for them.) We showed them the fish and they thought it might be an Ono, also known as a Wahoo. They were going to be heading back to shore soon and offered to take us to The Fish Market a restaurant in Hanalei that might buy it. We rowed to the dock where they met us and drove us to the restaurant. I walked in the back door of the restaurant carrying the fish and the cooks told me to put it on a table and the manager would be right in to take a look. He took one look at it and laughed, it wasn’t an Ono, but a Barracuda and, though edible, not considered a delicacy. I carried the fish back out to the ladies truck and they chuckled too and gave us a ride back out to our dingy.

Chris and I decided to make a bon fire on the beach and cook the fish. We rowed back to the boat to grab our gear and prep the fish. I gutted the fish and packed the carcass with lemon, onion, garlic, herbs, and some olive oil, leaving the head on, then wrapped the whole fish in several layers of aluminum foil so it could bake in the fire. We loaded our gear and the barracuda into the dingy to camp overnight on the beach and headed to shore. As we approached the shore we didn’t time the waves well enough and our dingy got overturned and capsized we grasped everything that we could and dragged the dingy up onto the beach, but we had lost the fish. Our Barracuda was gone! We walked up and down the beach hoping it would wash ashore, but all we found were a few lemon wedges. The crabs ate well that night, though we went hungry.

We gathered some wood, built a nice fire and slept the night on the shore. Sleeping on the beach become an almost daily occurrence while staying in Hanalei Bay.

Mazatlan to Hawaii

In regards to the concerns regarding boat preparation and our timing of departure during the hurricane season I want to put some concerns to arrest.

First, my friend D**** expressed some concerns about not seeing the boat set-up like he would expect. At his request I posted multiple pictures of the boat just prior to our departure. Those pictures show my jacklines rigged and multiple items lashed down on deck. Also shown is a picture of the storm jib rigged to the staysail and stowed on deck in it's bag ready to deploy. Prior to departure Chris and I rigged the storm tri-sail and stowed it in the first position of the starboard lazarette with the ditch bag underneath. I am sure there was more that I could have done beyond the nearly $12,000 in boat prep including replacing much of the rigging, but no boat is ever fully prepared, you can only do the best you can.

Second, concerning our departure date. I had been monitoring the storm patterns for months prior to departure and there were several things I noticed.

1) All storms tended to take between 7 - 10 days to roll up the coast after the National Hurricane Center, (NHC), issued a probability rating of a low becoming a tropical depression, and then a possible tropical cyclone, aka Hurricane.

2) All early season storms headed out to sea South of the Sea of Cortez and then would dissipate approx 200 - 300 miles West of Cabo San Lucas. Once a storm entered the cooler waters it could no longer sustain itself.

After careful discussion between Chris and I we made a joint decision to leave when we did. We knew that if we were caught in a storm we would be on the un-navigable North side, but that we could also head North into cooler waters where the storm could not be sustained. We left Mazatlan on the heals of Hurricane Calvin which was just beginning to arc out to sea South of Cabo, comfortable that the storm would track well West of Cabo and considering that it would take us three days to cross the Sea of Cortez. One day out of Mazatlan the storm had dissipated, was downgraded and no longer being tracked by the NHC. We stayed in Cabo for about 36 hours and prior to our leaving checked the 11:00am PST Eastern Pacific Tropical Weather Outlook, which showed no storm formation expected in the next 48 hours. Knowing that it would take 7 - 10 days for a storm to come up the coast and head out to sea once there was a predicted storm, we left knowing that we would be 700 - 900 miles offshore, well outside the normal 200 - 300 miles that early season storms track West. This was a sound decision and we had good seas during our entire passage to Hawaii.

Concerning storm probabilities, according to the Storm Tactics Handbook by Lin & Larry Pardey, the accuracy of the National Hurricane Center to predict a storms track out 72 hours is exceptional and based upon Lee Chesneaus' storm models. These show that over a 10 year period of time that in a 72 hour period the NHC was able to predict a storms track within 300 nautical miles. The NHC reported that they were able to predict Hurricane Dora's track within 250 miles, five days out, considerably better than average prediction.

I had more than one person suggest that we take a more Southerly route perhaps at 18 degrees North Latitude. If we had done this, it would have placed us on the navigable side of any storms and in theory less danger. The problem I saw with this approach is that we would not be able to seek the shelter of cooler waters. This worked to our advantage. If we had taken the Southern route Hurricane Dora would have been on our heals since we would have lost 2 days of Westerly travel heading to the more Southern Latitudes. As it is, the closest a downgraded Tropical Storm Dora came to our position was 600 nautical miles and from the first warning on July 18 of Tropical Depression Four - E, (what Dora was called prior to being designated a Tropical Storm) it took six days before it crossed our track from Cabo San Lucas. There is no doubt that Dora was a fast moving storm, but it never posed any danger to us. During our 27 day passage there were storms that tracked out to sea, but all started at a more Southerly Latitude then dissipated as they arced North off the coast once hitting cooler waters, exactly as the models predicted and I saw in other early season storms.

Each day we were reporting our position to the Pacific Seafarer's Net http://www.pacsea.org/index.htm and listening to the US Coast Guards High Seas Forecast. The good people at the Pacific Seafarers Net were more than happy to read the NHC forecast to me and report Hurricane Dora's center until I was satisfied that the Windward Star was not in any trouble. Another good reason to have a single side band radio and your general class amateur radio license.

You can see our plotted position on a daily basis at http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=N9SUB

NOTE: I will not start reporting our position again until we have left Kauai on approx September 1st.



July 8th, 2011

It was another beautiful Summer afternoon in Mazatlan. After taking our last showers and saying our goodbyes to the marina staff and Don, Chris, my crew member and I, walked down to the Windward Star, two adventurers about to set sail on our first ocean passage. I started up the trusty Farymann diesel which roared to life making its usual chugging sound as the single cylinder swept through its rotation. Chris readied the lines and after several minutes of allowing the engine to warm up I put the transmission in reverse, brought up the RPM's and Chris started walking the boat out of her slip. As her bow swung out of the slip, Chris hopped aboard and began stowing her mooring lines and fenders as we would not need them for several weeks. The winds were light as we motored out of the marina and moved smoothly through the water at a good pace after getting the prop re-pitched. We passed by El Cid Marina and then slipped out of the breakwater. There was a slight chop, which Windward Star took with ease. We motored out to Deer Island, turned her into the wind. Chris raised the mainsail on a port tack as we unfurled the jib. I idled the engine as we took off into the wind. Chris raised his hand and we gave each other a high five on our adventure across the Pacific. We shifted our clocks to UTC

The winds were moderate and we made good time for our first several hours heading in a Northwesterly direction. The day before we had bought steaks at the Old Mazatlan Market, whose tile floors are stained with blood and the sharp smell of slaughter is in the air. Chris fired up the BBQ and I brought out two huge, thick steaks, which I had selected the day before from a clean and reputable butcher. Chris cooked the steaks to perfection, making sure there was no red meat after seeing their source. Each steak overflowed our plates as we sat down to our first meal afloat, two happy sailors. After dinner we started our port and starboard watches, each of us taking 3 hours on, 3 hours off. I took the all balls to 0300 watch.


July 9th, 2011

We were becalmed with light winds and flat seas the weather was warm and we decided it was birthday suit sailing weather. Chris dropped his board shorts, unhooked the starboard lifelines and dove into the light blue water of the Sea of Cortez. He came up letting out a holler in excitement and pleasure, beaming from ear to ear. He swam alongside and around the boat basking in the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez. After a bit he climbed aboard and I enjoyed my turn. The water was warm and inviting, a beautiful light blue color. It was invigorating to swim alongside the Windward Star as it made a knot in light winds. Soon I had had my fill and I climbed up the stern ladder I had fabricated and installed in Mazatlan, one of the most useful upgrades I made to the boat.

Crossing the Sea of Cortez

Crossing the sea was great with beautiful blue, warm water we saw countless turtles, porpoises, false killer whales, and just before arriving in Cabo San Lucas, stingrays leaping out of the air welcoming our arrival. We ran the engine for about 30 hours during the crossing due to light winds. We entered Cabo to update our weather information and attempt to repair the starter, which was fruitless.

Passage to Hawaii

We left Cabo San Lucas on a beautiful day and weaved our way past the water taxis jutting every which way. We made our way under motor just past the infamous arch, then turned West towards Hawaii. As we past Cape Falso the seas built to 15' as we were beating against the wind. The boat took quite a pounding over the next three days and faired well. The alternator went out so during this pounding I took the old alternator off and put on a spare, but it didn't work either, (I later found out in Oahu that the negative terminal was incorrectly marked.) We relied completely on solar power during the passage and had a few problems, but with good power management were able to keep the navigation lights on except for that last day before arriving in Oahu, due entirely to charging cell phones and laptop for navigation.

The passage was great and took us 27 days. We caught three tuna after leaving Cabo, then caught another 11 Mahi Mahi the rest of the trip. It did get a little stale eating so much fish, but it was better than digging into the ships stores. During the passage we saw lots more turtles, whales, porpoises, and unfortunately lots of lost fishing nets floating by. During the entire passage from Cabo to Oahu we only ran the engine 3.5 hours which included leaving and entering port. We were becalmed about 1100 miles East of Hawaii and decided to go for a swim. We dropped the sails and I lashed the tiller and Chris and I both jumped in the Pacific Ocean over 1000 miles from the nearest land. The longest we went between ship sightings was 17 days.

Gung holing around Hawaii

We spent a week in Oahu making repairs to the starter and alternator. I put in a new 90 amp alternator and had the starter rebuilt. I put the batteries on charge and after four days load tested each one. I found one was bad, one weak, and two good. Chris put the two good ones in battery bank two and I bought two new batteries for bank one. Chris invited some of his friends over, (Matt, Levi, and a girl) and we went day sailing out to bouy R2 off Diamond Head. We reprovisioned at the Commissary at Pearl Harbor after a weeks stay. I would like to thank all the friendly sailors at the Hawaii Yacht Club who often took us on errands to pick up supplies or lent us equipment. The Hawaii Yacht Club is an awesome place to stay if they have space for you.

After a week we left Oahu under sail and made our way to Lahaina on the Island of Maui. We tied up to the courtesy moorings ball of the Lahaina Yacht Club and spent the next three days hitchhiking around the island. Just before the start of the road to Hana, we got picked up by a flat bed truck carrying a bagged pallet load of manure. This guy drove the road like a bat out of hell and we held on for dear life in the back. Multiple cars either honked or flipped the guy off as we weaved through the narrow road with its one lane bridges. He pulled in to a place called Hana Farms which is a hippyish farm just outside Hana. They had lots of fruit for sale and were making clay oven pizza where you could sit around a fire. It was lots of fun and we stayed until around 11 before getting a ride to a local state park which has a black sand beach. We camped on the beach over night before continuing our trek around the island. We saw beautiful waterfalls and were fortunate to get picked up by two 20'ish Swiss girls in their rental car. The insisted on having us travel with them to take pictures and later on invited us to dinner.

After three days we made it back to the boat and sailed down to Little Beach and anchored just offshore and swam to the beach we spent two days there before pulling anchor and heading to Molokini for an afternoon. Molokini is a small atoll where lots of tourists snorkel boats go. We grabbed one of the mooring balls and went snorkeling ourselves. Chris swam over to one of the tourist boats and announced that he was a pirate. He procured some beer and swam back with his booty.

We left Molokini after several hours and it was a two day sail to Hanalea Bay, Kaua'I, which has a nice pleasant anchorage that we can sail in and out of easily. We spent most of our time entirely around Hanalea and camped most nights on the beach. We met several people who were interested in going out to a beach about 15 miles West of Hanalea and they offered us $100 to take them there. We left about noon and took 2 ½ hours to sail down to the beach, but it took us another 16 hours to get back to the anchorage. It was a beautiful sail, but all our passengers got sea sick, with two vomiting over the side.

Kaua'I to Puget Sound

Today we are departing for Puget Sound. Please wish us luck and good seas on our passage and I will have an update once we arrive. I expect the passage to take 35-40 days.

Cheers,

Nick

July 8, 2011

Setting Sail

Nick's Perspective

Windward Star is all rigged for sea and loaded out with groceries for our voyage. All the extra stowage from the work on both settees really paid off. With over $500 in groceries and all of our gear stowed, all the berths are free and clear.

We were planning on setting sail yesterday, but I spent over 5 hours on the phone with tech support trying to get the data communications working on the Iridium satellite phone. One tech support person said I didn't need a user name or password, the other said I did. It does work with a user name and password, but very slow, so they opened a trouble ticket and hopefully the issue will be solved in a couple of days so I can update the blog and check my e-mail from the high seas.

Well my friend D**** thinks I am nuts for setting off with a tropical cyclone to the WSW of Mazatlan. The cyclone is predicted to continue heading in WNW direction and about 500 miles South and forward of our planned track. Yes, there could be some good swell and spinoffs from the storm, but it is not predicted to reach hurricane force and wind speeds are predicted to reduce to under 25 knots as it moves into cooler waters over the weekend. Of course all of this is a prediction and predictions can be wrong. We are waiting until the 11am National Hurricane Center update before pushing off. Over the last 36 hours each successive update has showed the storm with an increasing Westerly course. Once underway we will monitor the storm and if shows a strengthening trend or moving to the North, we can pull into Cabo. Perhaps my friend D**** would be so kind to call me on my satellite phone if he sees it moving to the North.

Cheers,

Nick


Chris's Perspective


Chris here coming in live from Mazatlan, MX! Local time is 0945 and we're almost set to depart for Hawaii. The trouble with the data transfer on the sat phone yesterday delayed us but no worries; we'll just have to sail faster! Yesterday was a scorcher! I'm just not a hot weather person I have learned very well since I flew here. Sweat runs like a faucet off my face and Nick gives me the whole "you think this is hot?!" line. But you know what? I'm not going to wait 'til I shrivel up before setting course for cooler climates. Cynthia did I say Hawaii was hot? I'm sorry I meant Mazatlan! Enough of that nonsense, time for a weather update.

As of this morning, Tropical Storm Calvin was centered in the vicinity of 16.2N 107.6W with a heading of WNW at 13kts according to the NHC. It is projected to intensify throughout the day to 70kts sustained with gusts over 80. By tomorrow evening, it is expected to settle down to around 50kts sustained and by Monday July 11 be dwindling with 25kt sustained at approximately 19N 116W. It is heading straight for water in the low 70's which we all know doesn't yield much energy to tropical cyclone development. Omitting other factors the weather forecast is looking semi-favorable for us.

It doesn't look like the blog will be updated underway, do to incompetence somewhere in the sat phone tech support department (I have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll just leave it at that)

The first days out we should have an excellent menu including but not limited to bbq steak, marlin and an assortment of fresh veggies. With plenty of onions and garlic on the boat I don't see how we can go wrong. It's amazing that so much food when properly stored in a boat can seemingly disappear. After the first week or so we'll have an assortment of potatoes and canned meat dishes still with fresh veggies and the works of spices. Sure beats maggoty hard tack and watered down beer!

Cheers!

June 29, 2011

Most of the day was spent working on the rigging. Several pieces of rigging were missing from the initial shipment and they arrived yesterday. Bob rigged the main halyard to the stern and took a strain to remove the backstay. After the backstay was removed and laying on the dock I noticed it had several broken strands and a good kink. The split parts of the backstay are the wrong length so they will have to be re-installed, but they show no signs of wear or excessive corrosion, as compared to the backstay.


June 30, 2011

Several days ago I arranged an English speaking tour of the Pacifico Brewery and advertised it to the cruisers. Four of us met up at Calypso and shared a taxi to the brewery, we enjoyed the tour and free cervezas that followed in their tasting room, on the top floor of the brewery with 360 degree views of old town Mazatlan and the old harbor. Afterwards we had lunch at Panama, walked to the Cathedral, and walked through the farmers market before heading back to the marina.

Bob finished up my rigging and ran a new antenna for the SSB. With the new backstay I opted to not get insulators installed in the backstay, they are way too expensive. Bob, and the whole crew at Total Yacht Works did a great job on my boat.


July 1, 2011

Sightseeing around Sinaloa

Today I visited to a small town called El Quelite it was very picturesque and quaint with a population of approx 500. Several youth were riding around town on burros. After walking around town and hiking up to a small knoll with a lookout and Christian shine we had lunch at a beautiful historic home turned into a restaurant and bed & breakfast called Mesón de los Laureanos. The food and atmosphere was wonderful. If in Mazatlan, I would highly recommend traveling to this small village 20 miles NE of Mazatlan.


July 2, 2011

Sailing under strong winds

With the remnants of tropical storm Arlene passing over Mexico the wind shifted direction and grew stronger here in Mazatlan. I needed to take the boat sailing before the final rig tuning. After stowing gear and checking the lines and rigging, I started the motor, tossed off the lines, and headed out for a day of singlehanded sailing. The winds and seas were from the South so I took a wide berth going around the breakwater, the sea had 3-5 foot waves with whitecaps. Spray was coming over the gunwales and with no sails up, she had about a 10 degree heel. After motoring comfortably away from shore, I turned her into the wind and decided to only put out the jib 50%. The wind kept pushing her off and it was very difficult to keep the jib under control and at first I lost control of one of the lines and had to go forward get the line in hand. After about 30 minutes I rolled in the jib and headed back to the dock. If I had the tillerpilot hooked up it would have been easier to keep her pointed in the wind as I unfurled the sail. I will also run the lines for the jib through the cleat with a figure 8 knot so the lines can’t get away.

Once getting back in the breakwater I called Singlar Marina via channel 67, but no one answered. Tommy, on Toroa, heard me calling and gave me a hand with the lines. Later on several people commented that they were surprised I went out, especially singlehanded. I have to be comfortable on the boat in all conditions because once I leave shore, there won’t be a save harbor to pull into.



July 3, 2011

Provisioning

This past week I was very fortunate to be active in the cruising community here in Mazatlan. Nancy and Warren of S/V Yah-Tah-Hey had planned on doing the Baja Bash up to San Diego, but circumstances suddenly changed and rather quickly they put their boat up for sale and made arrangements to fly back to San Diego. They graciously gave me all their provisions, which filled up two large totes. Some of the provisions I don’t have a use for or can’t provide the refrigeration for, I gave to the Mexican crew at Total Yacht Works. They asked me to make a contribution to a food bank once I return to Seattle and start working again.

I made a list of all the provisions I now had onboard, and added another page of items to procure. I am concentrating on making one hot meal a day largely consisting of a base of rice, beans, or lentils, with dried or canned vegetables and meat added. Pasta is also a good choice and I have found small boxes of pasta sauce here in Mexico. Since I don’t have refrigeration my choices are limited and I have found very little dried meats here. Herbs and spices that I am accustomed to using have been impossible to find. I have not been able to find Italian Seasoning, though I did find oregano, parsley, and curry at the farmers/meat market in old town Mazatlan. Late this afternoon I am going to Soriana or Mega to buy more canned goods.

Since purchasing the boat I have added bottled water to the water tanks, but not drank from the tanks. Last week I changed the water filter and drank a glass of water from the tanks with no ill affects, but the taste was slightly off. I am going to add several tablespoons of chlorine bleach to each tank, let it sit for a day, then pump the tanks dry. Monday bottled water is being delivered dockside to re-fill the tanks. Each 5 litre jug only costs 20 pesos, about $1.80, so it will cost about $20 to fill up the tanks. I will also carry another 10 litres on deck in 2/3 filled jerry jugs, (which will float in case I need to abandon ship).

The winds have calmed and it is overcast, today will be another day of sailing before the final rig tune tomorrow or Tuesday.

Happy sailing,

Nick

Now that Windward Star is back in the water and fumigated, I checked out of the hotel and moved back onboard.

Opening her up this morning, she didn’t smell like she had been fumigated, but time will tell. I spent most of the day scrubbing the cabin. I wiped down/scrubbed every surface in the main salon with pine sol. I also took apart the stove and scrubbed every last inch of it with a green scotchbrite soaked in pine sol to de-grease it. It looks great now, almost brand new.

Bob and Rafael came down today to repair my dingy. It has a leak at the end cap of the port pontoon that has been particularly challenging to repair. Unfortunately someone snagged my repair kit out of the dingy overnight and the dingy is PVC, an uncommon material for dingies. Bob thinks he can use 5000 to repair, but it needs to set-up for a couple of days. I am going to put out a call on the cruisers net in the morning to see if anyone has a PVC repair kit.

Rafael later returned to measure and look at the fittings for hooking up the diesel heater. He is going to come down tomorrow and hook it up with copper line for the first several feet, then after the line goes through the settee back, shift to hose. The pump is going to be mounted in the engine compartment.

Pedro came down today with his assistant about 3:30 and installed the dodger, bimini, and seatee cushions. They look great! The pictures don’t show how much the new canvas and cushions changed my boat. It is really a lot cozier and more home like. Everyone on the dock was really impressed with the new look and said my boat looked ‘bueno.’

Tonight I decided to christen my new sea-b-que by making a steak and baked potato with a glass of cheap cabernet from Chile. It’s nice to sit here in the cockpit, on a warm Summer evening with a cool breeze, watching the sunset. I know I probably won’t be able to use the bbq underway, unless it is calm, so it is nice to use it now.

On a sadder note, one of the guys here on the dock, Don, is in really bad shape. He has been a fixture here for many years and the quintessential ex-pat cruiser alcoholic. Marina staff and other cruisers are coming by every 2-3 hours to check up on him. He took a fall about two weeks ago and broke a rib, since then his health has gone down hill fast and he can barely walk anymore. Everyone here, including himself, thinks he is seeing his final days. I spent about an hour chatting with him today and he is talking about putting his boat up for sale. He has started selling off all his gear and extra supplies.