We left Turtle Bay expecting the worst. The 50 miles above Turtle Bay, including Cedros Island are notorious for creating washing machine conditions, but instead we had a smooth ride for about 24 hours to the west of Cedros including a 1 knot counter current that curled up from Bahia Viscaino below and to the west of the island. By going west of Cedros we hoped to get a better angle on the expected afternoon winds forecasted at 14 knots.

Things were peachy until around 11am when the autopilot drive stopped. All our normal troubleshooting failed us again and we hand steered for 2 hours contemplating our options as the winds built from 10 to 20 knots on the nose. We decided to head for Bahia San Quintin about 65 miles northeast of us to further troubleshoot and potentially swap out the autopilot for the backup. We turned towards the bay and for the next 6 hours bashed in 20-22 knots of wind towards our destination. Irony of ironies, I turned the autopilot on after a couple of hours and it worked flawlessly all the way here. No matter... our trust has been broken and our go forward plan must consider that it could go out at any time.

Hand steering during the day, while tedious, is reasonable for both Rina and I to handle. At night it's a different story. We have no moon so we can't see the waves at night and with just a compass to steer by it can become downright dangerous and highly fatiguing. And we are out of practice too... Most cruising boats use their autopilot to steer 95% of the time, and we are no different.

For these reasons we have decided to harbor hop for next 3 days to San Diego. 41 miles to Colonet Bay, then another 50 miles to Ensenada, and finally 49 miles to San Diego, arriving Tuesday.

This schedule has been lauded by both the Admiral and the puppies, who in what must be a record, did not go forward to do their business for 24 hours until our anchor was down in this bay.