With the motor rebuild finished our two new tasks became to fix the charge regulator and to put 20 hours in break-in time on the motor.

The regulator has remained a mystery but we wired up the spare "dumb" regulator that will fry our batteries over time and we actually pointed Estrella out of the harbor for a trip to Bahia San Pedro.

With the mandated top break in speed for the motor of 1800 RPM we headed out of the mouth of the bay. Amazed that nothing adverse had happened yet I engaged the autopilot while Kristina continued to stow things down below and prepare for a passage. The seas were a little lumpy, only a couple feet but we havent been out in any seas for years. This was the first time we left a harbor bound for another harbor since October 2007. This little 18 mile jaunt was a major event for us. The autopilot steered beautifully as we passed punta doble and marina real. Kristina came outside and remarked that it was a beautiful day for a motor. As usual the cat was urinating on herself in her cage because she is terrified in the extreme of the diesel. The rebuilt motor is really no quieter than it was before it was rebuilt.

It does run like a clock though and as we got into the 2nd hour of the trip it almost seemed like we might make it to Pedro without any excitement. We were delighted with this prospect since we've really had enough excitement to last us for a long while. But just then as I looked back at the hand line trailing behind Estrella I noticed that our little faded mexican flag lure was now much larger.

"Fish ON!" I yelled as I started to pull expectantly on the line. We havent caught a fish in a LONG time so I was hoping to finally get our Dorado. Everybody we know cant stop catching Dorado but we arent so lucky. What we did catch, however was a beautiful Sierra. We would discover later that the Sierra is as delicious as it is attractive.


This fish was delicious.


No bloodthirsty beatings for this fish. Nice clean death from alcohol poisoning the gills.

The last time we left the harbor on Estrella was when we went outside to test the new furling reacher and the recut "Turbo Genoa" with Tony. Sadly that time I had no time to enjoy the sails or their shape because our high temperature alarm was buzzing at us due to an overheating issue and we were reaching along toward some hard piece of rock in 15kts of wind.

Not having really enjoyed the reacher yet made me incapable of resisting the urge to unroll the furling reacher as we motored in the slight seaway at 3.4 knots. I havent instaled the stanchion blocks for the reacher furler yet so this process involves one person in the cockpit working the sheet while the other handles the furler line. Kristina pulled the sheet while I let off the furler line and by pure chance the sail sheeted itself perfectly. We had telltales flying all the way up the luff.

The Sail Tony made us is a gorgeous tri-radial 4-5.5 oz dacron reacher with a spectra luff. I checked the new bowsprit extension to make sure it wasnt tearing itself off of the bowsprit and all was well. Nothin was breaking and we were now motorsailing at 4.6 knots.


This thing might significantly reduce my spinnaker usage.


Krissy hiding from the sun, Yemayah approaching and the reacher pulling nicely.

In fact the loads on the sprit were pretty negligible. Just as we began motorsailing we saw that Yemayah was evidently on their way back to San Carlos from bahia San Pedro. We took many pictures of them as they passed and seeing them reminded us of better times. They had us over to dinner on their boat in the anchorage at Isla San Francisco in 2007. They didnt remember us, but I hardly expected them to remember one dinner 2 years ago when they've been cruising around and meeting new people this whole time while we've toiled in the salt mines.


Yemayah reaching happily along toward San Carlos


Entrance to Bahia San Pedro

Upon arriving in San pedro Bay we dropped the hook and I jumped in to get clean. The lack of running water in San Carlos for the last week had left me pretty stinky. I should have noticed from the roll that a risk of jellies existed. Once I had rinsed the soap off I could feel the stinging on my legs and jumped out. I offer my apologies to the nice couple on the Nordhaven that was anchored behind us if they managed to see through the covers on their windows as I scraped nematocysts off of my nude body and doused them with white vinegar. Apart from some vinegar I was still WAY cleaner than I had been in days. Shortly thereafter we celebrated the sunset in our first remote anchorage in 2 years. We grilled up a nice Sonoran Ribeye steak with some mashed potatoes and ate dinner on the foredeck while the Generator fed power to the batteries and the air conditioner simultaneously filling the batteries and cooling our berth.


Sunset behind Punta San Pedro

That evening we were reminded what the stars look like on a moonless night anchored in the middle of nowhere. It hardly even seemed to matter that our Cellular Broadband had no signal.

The following morning I decided to head back to San Carlos so we could get some more hours on the motor and sort out a few things in town.

This time the water was exactly like glass. We must have had a tidal push because 1800 RPMs pushed us along at a remarkable 5.8 knots. At this rate we'd get back to San Carlos too fast to consume the hours of motor time we wanted. We monkeyed with our partially completed cockpit awning and tried to find a way to hide from the sun as we trailed our hand line and chatted away the miles. when we arrived in San Carlos I could hardly believe that we had actually left and come back without a single catastrophe. On our way into the harbor we caught Gemini coming out, they were headed to Bahia San Pedro to catch up with us but were unaware we were coming back that day. We were going to try and get back up to hang out with them that weekend but we ended up staying in town to fulfill some other obligations.


Gemini, heading out to meet us.

We had achieved my number 1 goal of this leg of the trip. We pushed a button to raise the anchor. We motored effortlessly across calm seas to a destination without steering by hand one bit. and we dropped the anchor using the other button. We then repeated that process the following day. It is a dream come true.

A few days later we went for a daysail with Tony, our favorite sailmaker, and he insisted that we figure out some of Estrella's idiosyncracies. he insisted we fly all 3 sails and work on figuring out the balance. Despite the white caps all over the water when we left the wind was all but non-existant.

The white caps were a weird tide driven anomaly and the actual wind was around 3-6 knots. That said Tony accomplished the goal of producing lee helm for the first time ever on Estrella, and we even had the reefed mizzen up at the time. Of course its easier to do such things in light winds, I'll believe if when I see it in 15 knots or more.

Just the same sailing with Tony was, as always a privilege and a pleasure. I hope he enjoyed getting out of his sail loft and back onto the water again as well.

The current plan is to sort the boat out and head up to SanPedro or Las Cocinas tomorrow morning first thing. When we return from there we'll have the horus we need on the motor to change the oil, filter and adjust the valves. We'll triple check the alignment as well and then we'll be ready to go explore the northern Sea of Cortez.