Yesterday we left the marina in Barra to head north back to Banderas Bay. A weather window opened up so we took it. Heading north usually means bashing upwind against a northerly swell and it's not fun at all. We had a southwest wind of about 5-8 knots and very flat seas. It was like a milk pond for hours. Typically the most difficult part of the journey is rounding Cabo Corrientes which is similar to Point Conception. The wind funnels around the point and the currents make for very confused seas. It can be nasty and usually you plan to round in the middle of the night. But we had none of those conditions. We were able to stay close to the point due to the light winds and flat seas and considerably reduced the total trip distance from Barra. But as soon as we rounded Cabo Corrientes and entered Banderas Bay we ran into a heavy marine layer. It was like June gloom in SoCal. And it was cold. Fortunately we had a full moon that cast a little light through the clouds and made night anchoring at La Cruz in Banderas Bay uneventful.

We motorsailed almost the entire distance and saw over 20 turtles. It was amazing. Usually we are lucky to see one or two turtles on a passage.

Last year we made the trip in 19 hours and thought we did great. This year we made the trip in 16.5 hours. We cut about 12 miles off the distance (it was a total of 126 miles) and averaged 7.6 knots. The anchor was set at 10:30pm and we weren't tired like we normally are on a long passage.

We also hit a major milestone on this leg. Sirocco has now traveled 2,000 miles since leaving Oceanside on October 22nd. Wow!