**pic is of me…oblivious to next 17 hours!!**
I slipped the lines Saturday morning at 0630 hrs, silently ghosted out the breakwater…waving goodbye for now to the town of La Cruz, a crimson orange wallpaper against an otherwise normal morning…random silhouettes of early morning dog walkers and stoic palm trees…listless in the morning calm before the storm….ignorance is bliss, I was all jacked up to get underway…motoring with the main up for stability.

Now, please understand, I am diligent about everything weather. Watching patterns, downloading the absolute most current predictions (what a croc that is…please read on) and making sure my yar little ship is in fine tune. I decide to motor sail to the cape in order to get clean air before trimming the sails and engaging my Monitor self steering vane (thanks Howard for tuning it in) (see aforementioned pic) I was just plugging along expecting to see maybe 20-25 knots of wind MAX according to my weather sites which are not free…no sir, you pay for their theoretical top notch algorithm….it was only blowing 12-15 NW…fine by me!

Before reaching the cape (outermost point of Banderos Bay) the thought occurred to me, hmmm, can’t believe I haven’t seen any whales or dolphins…so strange, then like someone waved a magic wand, yup, you guessed it, POOF! massive whales 3 of them! 5 minutes later a huge pod of my favorite mammals were jumping in my bow wake…squeaking and clicking like they do, my world is right.

Round said cape, reel out the headsail, dial it in, douse the main, engage the Monitor who I named “Marcus” after my Broski…and we were off to the races!!! Wades Aweigh was in her element…as was her captain…probably wasn’t a good idea to put out to the universe I was expecting more wind….OOPS!….

Readings were nearing low 20’s, no biggie….then I could just see it; conditions changing rapidly. Though I had no basis relative to clouds and their changing demeanor because it was clear! It started getting gusty. My inner alarm went off when my knot meter went from 22-35 knots in an instant…then back down, waves still nominal, a freak thing? Don’t overthink it dude, it’s the ocean, she’s an unpredictable task master…chill man, go with da flow! Ok right said Fred, pull your head out…things are building. So, did first reef (bring in some sail area for better handling) and things quieted down at my helm, but not the water under and around me….within 45 minutes wind readings were nudging 40 mph….that ain’t nothin! Ok Neptune, you have my attention. On went my harness and line, clipped in I did, yes Mommy as I promised (insert smiley face here)

Now about 2 hours later sustained winds were over 42 mph…this is serious sailing! Fun? you bet! Am I alert and aware? Bet ur ass! Totally calm and in control, we just hunkered down and enjoyed the ride….until -

Waves are building, 10-12’ at 5 second intervals. Boat is yawing back and forth so much autopilot wont recover, I go to task hand steering, winds now gusting to 50! Oh, sorry predictwind.com…YOU LIE! 20-25 knots max my ass! I digress.

Now headsail is nothing but the size of a handkerchief and we are still raging downwind at 7-8.5 knots with bursts to 10 knots while surfing down the face of now 14-15’ seas with ugly white frothing breaking tops…sometimes directly into the cockpit: FUN? be real! Experience? Hellz yeah, all that came to mind was,
‘this will make great content on my blog!!”
too bad my action cameras weren’t charged up.
I can’t believe my eyes….60! yes, 60 freaking mph gust!

Howard was following my tracking and pinged me just as I was thinking about dousing what sail I had left up…all text says is this, “bare poles?”. meaning…did I douse all sails and running under bare mast…answer was,
“doing it now” Started up the engine for stability for autopilot but still had to hand steer. Talk about exhausting! Waves are now breaking all around me but boat is fine. There is a major garage sale going on down below, deal with that mess later. Kinda busy.

At about sunset as the land mass cooled down a bit, so did the wind and seas, autopilot finally engaged again, cold beer in hand, I just collapse in the cockpit, everything engulfed in caked salt water including self….now winds are sustained at 30-35 mph…and I laugh at myself thinking…wow! winds really lightened up! Normally that would be big winds for sailing south.

Oh, almost forgot! During the mayhem, I hooked a MARLIN!!! thankfully he lived to bite another day, caught & released a Jack Cravalle & killed a nice Bonito and made fresh ceviche…my GOD! so delicious.

Due to my unexpected speed, my arrival estimate to next anchorage went from next morning to 11:30 that night. Arriving at night is not my favorite for safety concerns but no way to slow this ship down that much…so with all nav aids glowing including my new LED flood lights on the bow, in I came, one wore out mariner, dropped the hook, stowed the boat, downed a shot of tequila and literally passed out.

10 hours later I woke up to the same view I enjoyed for 2 days, hello Chamela!

Hope you enjoyed my story, and no, I wouldn’t recommend those last 17 hours to anyone!