Friday, March 29, 2013

Day Eleven - 7N 124W - The Land of Tradewinds, Flying Fish, and Squalls.

The wind has finally become more consistent from the Northeast.

When the boat is moving fast, such as during the day, with the big spinnaker pulling it, the wave action is not too bad and the tripled-up rogue waves don't slam us, much.

However, it is not really safe to leave the spinnaker up at night because it is not a fast and easy thing to raise or lower in the dark if conditions change. So we put out the jib with a preventer line which keeps if from backwinding up against the mast and spreaders if the wind should shift. The jib is smaller and we don't go as fast. No big deal in calm seas, but the waves have been building for the past few days and the rogue wave slamming is fierce at times. The boat is handling it better than the crew. Last night we only got a few naps between us.





Since you can't change external events, our only control exists over things on or in the boat. So today we have shifted all the gear out of the aft cabin and we are moving in there for the rest of out time underway.

The slamming will continue, it just won't be coming from below us. (The engine room is beneath the aft cabin)

Cheers, Dave and Booker



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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Day Nine - The Giant Whirlpool at 12N116W

Last night, we ran into a hundred mile wide whirlpool with arms extending out 300 miles.
I knew something was up when the waves were getting all peaked up as I described in the prior post.
Then we started to lose speed on the GPS even though the speed through the water was normal.
Then the winds picked up to around 20 kts and the seas built like we haven't seen since the Atlantic.
We were getting bounced all over the place, wave slapped, and going nowhere.
What happened was that we ran into the north flow from a giant clockwise rotating current.

When the winds, which were from the north, oppose the current, it pushes the waves together and they get high, steep, and closely spaced. This is what happens to the Gulfstream in the Florida Straights with a north wind. Nobody goes out there.

I tried to download the ocean current chart prior to leaving Mexico but didn't get the attachment. Too busy to investigate. However, I now needing this information badly. I checked emails and found out the error was "Filesize too Large".
So I trimmed it down and resent it. It was still a big file but it came through.

We had several options. Continue Southwest, Go West, or Go South.
After plotting, setting sail, trying headings and speeds, and doing calculations, None of the options were going to be pleasant.

After getting beaten up trying Plan C, at 1AM, we put up all sails, started the engines, and headed East. Directly into the middle of this giant whirlpool. Our angle to the wind was better than expected and we came out the bottom of it around 9 AM.

Except for costing us some diesel, sleep, and geting smacked around alot we are no worse for the wear and glad we're not 100 miles further to the west. Will post the file when we get internet.
Cheers, Dave & Booker



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Monday, March 25, 2013

Day Eight - Wind, Waves, and Exercise

12 37.9 N 116 31.6 W

The wind is back with a vengeance and so are the waves. The waves are really not nice and even rolling things. They are more like 6 ft hills, thousands of them. When we have wind, the boat slices through them and it is quite comfortable. When the winds go away, they forget to tell the waves, and now we don't slice through anything, they bounce us randomly around. You end up using every muscle in your body just to sit still. I am sore from just sitting. This could be the next workout craze. Booker brought a yoga book to work out on this passage. I don't think we need it.

1847 Miles to go to the Marquesas.

Cheers, Bave and Booker



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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Day Seven - 14 06 N 115 08 W - Moving Again

Had a good spinnaker run yesterday. We're down to 1966 miles to go.
We've listened to 30 hours of Comedy Central standup. and now we are down to Audiobooks. Hope we can stay awake. They are so boring. We saw nothing yesterday. Just sky, ocean, clouds, and what are these birds doing way out here?
Cheers, Dave & Booker



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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Day Six - Passed by a Sea Turtle 15 20N 113 36 W

We have had no wind for 2 days. It has been nice for sleeping but it's really not getting us to our goal very fast.
If we were within striking range of a marina, the engines would have been on and we would have been moving. Instead, we still have 2080 miles to go and 600 miles of doldrums to cross. Then once we get to French Polynesia, fuel is not so easy to come by.

Yesterday we were passed by a sea turtle. We were doing about a knot and saw him floating in the distance. We turned to head/drift in his direction. When he saw us, he started swimming. But, he was swimming the same direction as we were, and beating us. Can't really blame him since he probably thought we were sitting still. The water was so clear that we saw his whole escape. Then he figured out that we got farther away if he turned, and off he went behind us.

That was the excitement for the day except the Boobie Birds that keep trying to hitch a ride and use the boat as a bathroom.

At 1AM last night, the wind picked up, so hope it continues.
Cheers, Dave and Booker



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Friday, March 22, 2013

Day Five - Slow Going

We have had light wind last two night and yesterday. It looks light until Sunday night. Then we will be far enough south for the tradewinds to kick in and they should be around 15. I hope.
The boat is doing well. Boat speed is usually 50% of wind speed.

The AIS is an excellent thing. We have crossed all the Panama Canal shipping lanes and now there is nobody to ping. We can still see them 200 miles behind us with it. Watch standing is now every 2 hours, pop your head out to see if anything is going on, and go back to sleep. We saw nothing today all day. Just a few birds, sky, and ocean.

Ran the little Honda generator. Works great. Charged batteries and made water for 3 hours. Real quiet when lightly loaded but sounds like a lawnmower when pulling 90 amps out of it. Still quieter than the Westerbeke.
Will let you know when we get some wind.

Cheers, Dave and Booker


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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Day Four - Fast Days - Slow Nights

We left Socorro Island and picked up some great winds. We cranked out almost 100 miles at sunset but then the wind died and we didn't do much during the night. The boat was rolling alot but the waves weren't slamming the hull so we did get some good sleep. A few Chinese freighters passed us in the night. Hoping for fast days to return today.
Cheers, Dave and Booker



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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Day Two - The run to Socorro

We did't plan either way to come here. If the winds were favorable, we would go. They were, and we did.
We didn't have much wind last night and it was noisy but had a fast run today under spinnaker all day. We saw the island about 30 miles out. It was in a hazy, foggy, horizon. Kind of reminded me of the island in Jurasic Park.
The afternoon winds picked up and we were doing a sustained 9 knots.
When we stopped to douse the spinnaker, there were 2 whales about 30 ft in front of us. As soon as the chute came down, we stopped, and the whales just kept swimming by. There were other whales flapping, blowing, and breaching right in our backyard.
We were inspected by the Mexican Navy and will be leaving in the morning after a FULL night's rest. Cheers, Dave and Booker


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Monday, March 18, 2013

Day One 21 41 N 109 18 W

We went to get fuel in Los Cabos yesterday and still there was no wind so instead went 25 miles further to Cabo San Lucas. Filled up and left at 1600. Headed around the corner and got slammed by 30 mph winds from SW. Headed 140 for the night to keep things calm. Went 80 miles but gave up 50 to the east. We are under full sail slight broad reach heading 210 averaging in the high 7's in 3-4ft. seas. We are outrunning the chop so it is really not so uncomfortable. Don't know if we'll stop in Socorro. Just depends where we are and where it is. Winds still need to go more north.
Dave and Booker


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Friday, March 15, 2013

Windless

Hi All,
We were heading down highway 109 under spinnaker doing 4 kts in 8 kts of wind, which is not much and then the winds started to get lighter. Then nothing. We downloaded the winds and sure enough, they changed the forecast which now showed 5 days of calm. So we were drifting to the southwest with no sails up, using up water and supplies, and nowhere to motor to to find good wind even if we had extra fuel. If this happened at the equator, we would drift and deal with it. But seeing as we were 40 miles from Cabo San Lucas, we fired up the engines and 8 hours later we were anchored. Here we will wait until Sunday, go get diesel and water, and head down Highway 110.5. In the meantime, we are fixing noises and watching stingrays jumping out of the water. Cheers, Dave and Booker

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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Highway 109

We motored alot to get out of La Paz. Probably used 7 gallons. Almost did a takeoff divert to top off fuel in Los Cabos but the wind filled in light and made the plan to go east to 109W. The gribs show decent wind down 109 for a day or more. The area around Cabo is calm and we would have had to use at least another 7 gallons to get away from there. We slept well (at least I did). Rigged for spinnaker yesterday and will use it alot from here on out. Lots of squeaky noises from the boat. Cheers to all.
Dave and Booker

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Heading South

We just spent 2 days in La Paz doing last minute details. My anxiousness has subsided and turned in to just another departure. Whether on this boat or at the airline. We are well prepared, have a better equipped boat than most, and the season is right for the crossing. It's a one way street however. There will be no easy way to come back this way.

We will miss Mexico. Great people, great food. Oh, I will miss the flavors of the chiles.
Cheers, Dave and Booker


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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

On the Road Again

We are back in the water. 11 months for the boat on land, 153 work days for us living on the hard, and we are finally back where we should be.

This was the launch from hell. The Travelift that belongs to Marina Guaymas is too narrow for us so we have to use one that belongs to the neighboring Shrimp Boat repair facility.  It showed up about 3PM with hoisting straps looked like this, covered with mud.








I was not about to let them touch the boat with those so I made them wash them.   Of course they had to use my pressure washer and were not so happy about this.









The sailboat next to us came in after we did using the small yard lift.  Now there wasn't enough room between our boats to bring the big lift in to get us.  So the small lift had to take them away.

Time is ticking away







Finally we get the big lift in place.  Still dealing with the crap on the straps, with the help of all our boatyard friends, we covered them with plastic.


Notice the long shadows.  It's getting late.  Probably after 5PM by now.







And off we go.  Driving down the road over to the shrimper facility things went fine but the workers were now on overtime and still had to haul out a shrimper after we launched.  Not my problem, but I should have been more wary.











Finally in the water, the engines had trouble starting.  I had replaced all the fuel lines and there were some bubbles in the system that had to work their way out.

Now it's getting real late and these shrimper guys were giving me the bums rush out before I got a good test on the engines.  I thought they were just moving me back further from the lift but the next thing I know it they are pushing me out into the channel.  This is BS.



So I put the engines in reverse and the right engine dies.  I stopped the backward motion with the other engine but now the wind had pushed the back of the boat sideways and it was a mess.  Yelling in Spanish, I finally got the boat back into the slip to deal with the engine.  I was pissed that they did this too me but was so exhausted by this time that it really didn't register.

Now, with everything running properly, I put the engines in reverse, cast off the lines and backed out properly.   Anyway, we picked up a few scratches from this fiasco but nothing that can't be fixed next time around.

This is our last view of Marina Guaymas as we departed the next day.   What a great place it was to get work done and what an incredible community of boaters that are living there in their boats on land making the best of not sailing.  Adios amigos.