19 November 2013 | 20 41'N:105 17'W, Paridise Village
18 November 2013 | 20 41'N:105 17'W, Paridise Village
17 November 2013 | 20 41'N:105 17'W, Paridise Village
16 November 2013 | 20 41'N:105 17'W, Paridise Village
15 November 2013 | 20 44'N:105 22'W, San Carlos
14 November 2013 | 21 09'N:105 13'W, Chacala
13 November 2013 | 21 09'N:105 13'W, Chacala
13 November 2013 | 21 19'N:105 37'W, 24 long miles from Chacala
12 November 2013 | 22 16'N:107 53'W, Nelda and Al go batty 150 miles offshore
12 November 2013 | 22 23'N:108 14'W, Sea of Cortez
10 November 2013 | 22 52'N:109 54'W, Cabo San Lucas
10 November 2013 | 22 52'N:109 54'W, Cabo San Lucas
08 November 2013 | 22 52'N:109 54'W, Cabo San Lucas
08 November 2013 | 22 52'N:109 54'W, Cabo San Lucas
06 November 2013 | 23 43'N:111 06'W, 30 miles of the Baja Coast
05 November 2013 | 24 77'N:112 25'W, Bahia Santa Maria
04 November 2013 | 24 77'N:112 25'W, Half way to Cabo
03 November 2013 | 25 12'N:114 59'W, Sixty miles off the Mexican coast.
03 November 2013 | 26 37'N:114 09'W, Beach party at Turtle Bay
01 November 2013 | 27 40'N:114 52'W, Beach party at Turtle Bay
Of strings and and things
04 November 2011 | 22 53'N:109 53'W, 100 yards off the beach in Cabo!!!
Larry
Yes we have arrived in Cabo! We arrived about 8:30 last night which is well after dark. We came in with about a dozen other boats from the fleet and it was quite a sight. It reminded you of trying to find a parking space in a partking lot only all the lights were off. The beach sounded like it was about 50 feet away but if you didn't get close it was too deep. After the sun came up we are about 1,000 yardes off the beach or the lenth of 3 football feilds. No Worries. I can't say much about Cabo other than they have great lights as we haven't ventured ashore yet. Last time I wote we were crashing through the night with the spinniker up at about 1:30 in the moring. It was a wild ride. Well that lasted until after sun rise. It was very demanding as our number one goal was not to distroy the spinniker. Usually we don't run with a spinniker at night but the winds at sundown were very light and forcast to remain that way all night. What we didn't realinze was that was for boats that were a normal 11 to 15 miles off shore. That is exactly the conditions they had over night. We were with about 6 boats that took the outside route of approximately 30 miles off shore. Wow what a difference. Back to 1:30 Thrusday night; The wind ditecton was from due North but we needed to be going North East to get to Cabo. That meant to keep the Spinniker full we had to sail South but further out to sea. We ended up about 50 miles out by morning but we didn't care as both the spinniker and the boat were intacked. Some may ask; why not just take the spinniker down? It can't be that bad. Well you have to understand a little about how we have that sail setup on Diamond Girl. We have twin poles which is unusual for a sailboat. We put one pole to starboard and one to port and then attach one of the corners to each end of the sail. We then pull up the spinniker with a sock that covers it so it doesn't come open until you are ready for it. You also use the sock to pull this sail down. You have one line to pull the sock up and one to pull it down. We have three sets of control lines that run to the end of each pole to let us holed the pole right where we want it and then use the sheets or lines on the sail for the final ajustments. That means we have a total of 11 lines that set and control the spinniker and Nelda and I have to work this each of them everytime we put ot up or take it down. Wow, I'm tired just discribing how we set this up. Plus Nelda has to continually streer the boat! On a c alm day, in the sun light, it takes about a half hour to set up and about that to take it down. Since Nelda and I are the only crew each of us have to do a number of different things all at the same time. Now inagine doing this at night in big seas and with the wind blowing between 15 and 20 knots. One word comes to mind, UGLY. The number one rule (not priority) is STAY ON THE BOAT and being out on the fordeck taking this down at night in these conditions goes along way to violating this rule. So we chose to ride it out and end up along way off shore. The good news is the spinniker is fine and we started the engine and were into Cabo last night. Thats it for how we handle a spinniker, There will be a test on this later:-) Larry