The original plan was to make it to Barra with only one stop in Papanoa but as you can guess, we changed our minds. At this point in time you guys must be thinking that we are two very wish washy individuals. It is just an indicator of our new existence. Plans really are written in the sand at low tide and following our blog only confirms that. I am sure that the unsurety of our life would drive some of you crazy. But we met a Frenchman this week and he summed it up perfectly. It is like we are gypsies of the sea! And at times even though it makes us feel a bit unsettled, in reality it helps to define this life that we now live.
0830 10-Apr-2015 there is no wind and it is high tide so it is the perfect time to move over to the fuel dock and fill up. $161.50 dollars for 40 US gallons of diesel.
0930: back to the dock for final preparations. We re-inflated the dinghy and put it back on deck. Final top up with water. Moorage was paid - 1700 pesos. Everything has been stowed.
1300: away from the dock under clear skies and a gentle chop. The winds are from the SSW at about 5 knots. Our course is 220 which is SSW which means on our nose - again!
Huatulco to Papanoa: 307 nm
Papanoa to Zihuatanejo: 37 nm
Zihuatanejo to Barra: 223 nm
For a total of 567 nm
1800: abeam Puerto Angel. We are motoring at 4.5 knots on a course of 270. Winds continue to be on our nose. The skies are a bit grey and there is a slight chop.
Pods of Dolphins have converged upon us from several directions and stayed with us for most of the evening. Hopefully we have captured some of it on the GoPro.
2100: we now have been motoring for 8 hours and have covered 39 nm. The motor is running well with a small amount of oil leaking from the main bearing/transfer case area. We have found that the oil leak is kept to a minimum when we run the motor between 1200 - 1400 rpm.
2400: 11-Apr-15
15* 40.59 N. 95* 55.62 W. Large shrimp boat off our port side.
0232: abeam Puerto Escondido. Distance travelled is now 63.3 nm. The skies are cloudy and very dark. We are alone in the night!
0730: eastbound naval vessel is 1.5 nm a beam to port. Unfurled the staysail but still motoring. A 10 degrees shift in the wind would be greatly appreciated at this time but Neptune is not hearing me!
0855: fruit salad and yoghurt with grapefruit juice for breakfast. It is mostly cloudy and the seas are rippled.
1000: abeam Puerto Galera
1200:15*56.8N. 98*02.1 W. Lots of turtles. How can an ocean this big be so calm. But we are experiencing 12-14 foot seas with a long wave period which we discovered later was the result of a typhoon that hit Vanuatu, some 5000 nm away two weeks ago. The ocean is an amazing being!
1253: AIS picked up a cruise ship going to Huatulco. AIS identified her as the Queen Victoria. SOG is 19.5 knots Course is 95*.So she is no threat to me.
1320: Genoa and staysail are out and we can finally turn the motor off. We are maintaining 4 knots on a course of 290. Thank you Mr Diesel!
You ran for 24 hours and gave us no grief!
David is a happy man!
1830: sails had to be furled in and motor turned on. Course alteration required to clear Cape Maldonado. But we had a pretty pleasant afternoon of sailing averaging 5 knots. The seas are pretty calm so I was able to make beef fajitas and fresh Pico do Gallo for dinner.
2045: I picked up Misty Michael (Chris, Gerry and Goof)on the AIS. I tried them on the radio but there was no response. The lights were on in the aft salon so I am guessing that they were having dinner and were not monitoring Channel 16. Too bad. It would have been nice to talk to them.
We had originally met the in Huatulco at Christmas. They had been up in Mazatlan having some work done on their boat and were on their way back to Huatulco. Maybe we will see them in November!
2400: 12-Apr-15 abeam the light at Point Maldonado
0642: Bulk carrier Raramur on a course of 271 passes on our port side. He is .92 nm away. It is a big ocean. Does he have to come so close?
I had a good sleep but gave the Captain heck for letting me sleep so long. More than six hours is a little excessive! It is a grey morning. Winds are light at less then 5 knots.
1413: Pretty good day. It started out with half decent sleeps for both of us. Then a great brunch with Johnsonville Italian sausages, scrambled eggs with Swiss cheese and reconstituted Hashbrowns from American Basic Foods. We got them from Barry and they were as good as he claimed them to be. I would say this would be a good item to put in the ship's stores for a long passage.
Then we had showers on deck!
It was relatively calm so I decided to make chicken coconut curry for dinner. Then we would just have to heat it up.
1600: The winds did pick up and we were finally back to sailing. Guess it is true- scratch the mast and you will get wind. David had scratched the mast when he took the reef out! At a course of 310 we should clear Acapulco. Speed 4.3 knots.
1930: Sails are in and the motor is back on. We are abeam of Acapulco and the sun is just about ready to set. And of course we have that pesky headwind!
13-Apr-15
0314 and the moon is up. It is bright orange at 38%. The seas have calmed down.
0518. Freighter is showing on the AIS on a course of 277* at 14.9 knots. Again - no threat to me as he will pass me and carry on.
The moon is a spotlight on our stern. The Monitor has settled down and is holding our course.
0738: Sun is up
and so is the Captain. It was my turn to reciprocate and allow him a good sleep! Multigrain Cheerios for breakfast and then this First Mate is off to bed. I am so tired that I think I would fail a sobriety test.
1530: Dropped the hook in Papanoa. It did not take me very long to get into the water. We both had a lazy afternoon. I managed a couple of more laps to the end of the harbor, nice shower on deck and then a wonderful dinner of panko and Parmesan encrusted chicken cutlets, garlic mashed potatoes with onion gravy and corn.
2000: chores finished and we were both in bed. 10 hours of non-stop sleep. I guess we were tired!
14-Apr-15 We decided to stay an extra day and just enjoy the anchorage. We read and swam. I made real Mac & Cheese for dinner - sometimes you just want that comfort food - two nights in a row!
15-Apr-15 0830
Decided to try our luck with the winds. David managed to bring up the 100 feet of anchor chain. That was his upper body workout after two days of just laying around! I helped by slowly bringing the boat forward to ease the tension on the chain and I took pictures.
0930: Sails are up. Motor is off. With a couple of long tacks we were able to have a wonderful day of sailing. Close hauled at a steady 5 knots and an overall 3.5 knots going forward. For those non- sailors close hauled means sailing in a direction as close to the direction of the wind as possible with the sails pulled in tight to the centre line of the boat.
As seen in this picture:
We were on a port tack ( meaning the sails are on the starboard side) on a course of 310 maintaining 5.5knots. We were happy sailors!
1500: total sail time was 5.5 hours. Switched to a starboard tack with the motor on as we were heading into the wind and needed to get around Point Botosi Rocks and Frailes Blancas. David had his upper body workout on the anchor so I get mine on the winches!
Motor started on its own this time - 3 for 3 today! We had a bit of stutter with the motor. David bled the line and it worked its way out. No problem for the rest of the day.
1838: the head has stopped working! Guess it is back to the old bag in the pail technique til we (Dave) can deal with it. I will not complain! But we are in a pretty good frame of mind and we had some good sailing and so the profanity is not flying but the "pooh" jokes sure are. And who said cruising would be boring?
1900: dropped the hook in Zihuatanejo
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