Rover

We'€™ve got fuel!

17 April 2020 | Bahia Tortuga, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Eric
We started the leg from Bahia Asuncion to Bahia Tortuga at 11:30 on
4/15, after the wind started to build. We had a great sail around
Asuncion Island and then headed offshore in the building wind. Linda was
on watch and I was hanging out in the cockpit when we saw a large whale
blow and breach about a hundred yards ahead of us. "Large"€ may seem
redundant when describing whales, but by this point in the voyage we'€™ve
seen enough that we can judge size, and this one was bigger than the
average whale. He was going the same general direction we were, and we
got to see him breach another four times before we tacked and headed
back toward shore.

The wind built through the evening and we reduced sail, and then when it
started coming down overnight the reefs got shaken out until we had all
working sail out. In the middle of the night, the wind suddenly dropped
to almost zero. The engine came on, the jib came in and we motor sailed
through the rest of the night.

Linda had a dawn watch, and I kept her company then went to bed when the
sun came up. We have two people on watch during darkness but only one in
the daytime, so she was the only person awake. She decided to do a
little fishing and put out her handlines. She caught about a 15 lb tuna
within 10 minutes of putting the line in the water and landed it
herself. When I woke up and came to the cockpit, I could smell the fish
and she was getting ready to clean it. After a picture (for her brother)
she started cleaning it and since we were motoring with the autopilot I
went forward to take down the stays'’l.

While I was moving to the bow, Linda called "€œDolphins"€ and I could see a
pod of a dozen or more all around the boat. I went forward to the
bowsprit and a few came over to ride the bow wave. One dolphin in
particular would swim sideways and look up through the water at me. I
tried to encourage him to jump by telling him "Jump!"€ and making arm
motions. It worked with our kids when they were toddlers. He watched me
intently, but didn'€™t jump. He stayed in the bow wave for about 10
minutes. His friends would come and swim in the bow wave for a while,
but he stayed right there and kept watching me. Eventually, he must'€™ve
gotten bored by my arm motions, and the fact I didn'€™t jump in to play
with him, and swam away. (photo)

After anchoring in Bahia Tortuga, a panga came out and asked if we
wanted fuel. We bought 50 gallons and filled up the tanks. Now we have
enough fuel that we could motor all the way to San Diego and still have
30 gallons left over. We were at half tanks, so if we hadn't gotten fuel
here it would have been a lot tougher to get back. We weren't sure we'd
be able to get fuel here, so we've been sailing a lot to conserve fuel.
Prevailing winds are right on the nose, so it's slow and we've been
sailing even in very low or high winds. Having full tanks gives us some
flexibility.

We did the transaction with the panga at arms-length and wearing rubber
gloves, and they disinfected the cash when they got it. They made very
clear that we weren't welcome ashore, and the "policia, militares y
capitan del puerto" would all intercept us. We weren't interested in
going ashore, so that was OK with us.


We had tuna on the grill for dinner last night and will have tuna cakes
tonight. The fish was the biggest one Linda has caught, and was big
enough for about 12 person-meals.

Today we had a crew meeting to discuss the rest of the trip. We decided
not to sail or motor continuously offshore directly to San Diego (4-5
days), but to continue to harbor hop our way north. With plenty of fuel,
we’ll have more flexibility to motor when the wind drops rather than
drifting or creeping along. We'€™ll probably do about 5 24 hour legs,
taking opportunities to sleep and recuperate as weather allows.

--
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Comments
Vessel Name: Rover
Vessel Make/Model: Valiant 42
Hailing Port: Seattle. WA
Crew: Eric and Linda
About:
We're making a big change to a cruising lifestyle. Eric retired in 2012 after 32 years in R&D (mostly) at HP. Previous passions included flying and bicycling. Linda will retire in 2013 from Oregon State University. She's been active in Zonta, was a Scoutmaster, and is a champion baker. [...]
Extra: Linda was barrel master and Eric participated in the Jackson Street Vintners; a group of friends that made wine from 2000 to 2013
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