AdventuresAboardAvatar: Shakedown to Mainland Mexico

After 6 weeks of traveling in the USA to visit a lot of you, then working on the boat for a month, we finally sailed out of La Paz on Sunday, November 15 about 11:25 am. Mike was still tying things down as we motored down the channel. Out in La Paz bay we had light headwinds and motor sailed on a long tack up to the far side of the San Lorenzo channel. Once we tacked, we had plenty of wind and beam reached between the peninsula and Isla Espiritu Santo. As we rounded the corner to start heading South, we broad reached down the Ceralvo channel with a reef tucked in our brand new main sail. It was well after dark by the time we sailed out into the Sea of Cortez and started making some real South progress. We decided to try 4 hour watch system at night from 6pm to 6 am. I took the first 6 to 10, Mike stood the midnight watch and then I came back on at 2am. During the day time we stood 6 hour watches, so Mike took 6am to noon and I took noon to 6pm. Then, he got to stand two watches the next night. We found this rotation worked well and we were both able to get plenty of sleep and share meal times together. On any ship, someone must be awake and on watch 24 hours a day. If we get sleepy on our night watches we set a 10 minute timer to wake up and look around 360 degrees to see if there are any other ships at sea around us.

As this is a “shakedown cruise”, we did find some things decided to shake loose. The first one was the new drawer refrigerator. Loaded with food it was probably a bit heavy and apparently the 2 missing screws did not leave enough screws to hold it in place and as we were surfing down the rollers in the Ceralvo channel. In one lurch, the whole thing slid out towards the nav station. “Holy Shit”, I was quoted. We shoved it back as best we could and put a box of wrenches and a piece of wood on the floor to hold it in place, until we were in smoother conditions. We could get to the food in the top drawer, but not so easy to get to the cold drinks in the second one.

As the Baja ferry was passing us at the south end of Ceralvo channel, the wind was getting lighter, and we ended up motor sailing through until the next morning. Then we finally got some nice sailing as we were passing up Cabo over the horizion to the West. She was sailing about 5 to 7 knots on a broad reach in 12 to 15 knots of wind. Quite lovely! The swells were getting larger and we expected a Norther to blow in behind us between Cabo and the Tres Marias Islas. And it showed up right on schedule Monday night and blew through Tuesday. We reefed down to no mainsail, full staysail and about half of the jib rolled out as the wind piped up as high as gusting to 30 knots. We were sailing quite well around 8 knots and surfing down swells at 11. We were making tracks and riding the wild horses! Testing ourselves and the boat, since none of us have been in conditions like this for some time. It was fun and actually felt good! I made some videos and will post them on my YouTube so you can get a feel for the ride.

On the first two nights the sky was partly overcast. On occasion a piece of sky would pop out and the lights would shine down from all those stars above. That first night watch, out there in the dark, alone with the wind, the boat and my thoughts, I felt elation and joy in my heart as I told myself, “you are in your element, you were made to do this”, “I love it out here!”. Sailing down some of those big swells in the darkness of the night were so amazing. In the inky blackness of the sea, with no moon, the horizon is occasionally seen by lights of passing ships. The glow of the phosphorescence turned the foam of the waves bright green as they roll under the boat.

As we sailed closer to the Tres Marias, we saw several shrimp boats, a few freighters and a cruise ship heading North up the coast. Only a big ship like that could be going in that direction! On Tuesday afternoon, Mike wrote in the log book, “combination of mogul skiing and bronc riding.” We even had a wave sneak up the windward side, slap the hull and splashed Sophie in the cockpit. So then we put on the isinglass instead of the shade part of the enclosure. Luckily it was not much water. Actually, we were a day late leaving La Paz, because I was not going to go without a full cockpit enclosure. This keeps us warm and dry when the elements are acting up, and each piece can be changed out for a shade instead when it is nice. Well worth waiting for! Thank you Danny!

Early Wednesday morning the winds lightened, but the seas were still rolling in from behind us. Decided to run the motor to keep the boat in a steadier motion. Speaking of motion, moving around the boat in these conditions takes time and careful thought. Sometimes you have to stop and wait for the boat to roll in one direction or the other before you can continue moving where you want to go. This is when the old saying “One hand for yourself and one hand for the boat” comes into play! Late Wed. Night the conditions were too rolly and the handle engaging the autopilot kept slipping out where it engages with the rudder post. Each time this happened, one of us had to dig under the aft bunk (where one of us was usually trying to sleep) and shine a light back there to see and explain to the person at the helm which way to turn the wheel and the autopilot to get it to go back in. After the 3^rd time I sat back there and watched it for a while to see if I could figure out why it was happening. Finally we decided it had to be the handle in the cockpit gets bumped or slides in somehow. Mike fixed it with a pare of vice grips not allowing the handle to slid in. He has some ideas on how we can fix that permanent for later. Funny how it worked so well in big winds, but when the wind died and the seas were sloppy it did not like it at all.

Miss Sophie, our Chihuahua/Jack Russel mix doggie, on the other hand loves being back on the boat. She was originally raised on a boat, but had to move ashore years ago and has been going to work with us every day for years. She is a little old lady at 13 years, but she knows how to be comfortable on a boat! She is also very photogenic! We have really enjoyed her company as she staid up with us on several night watches. So glad we brought her with us.

Early Wednesday morning (0230) the light on Cabo Currentes was spotted and the glow of Puerto Vallarta was off to the East as we passed the South side point of Bandaras Bay. This is the Western most cape on the mainland of Mexico. As we motorsailed south most of the day we realized we were bucking a current as it was holding our speed down to 4.5 to 5 knots. Hence the name Cape of Currents!! As the afternoon passed on, we realized it was going to be dark when we got to Barra de Navidad, so we decided to stop in the bay of Chemela while still light and then sail the last 35 miles in the daylight the next day.

More shaking down as we anchored in Chemela, the circuit breaker for the anchor windlass kept popping. So Mike set the spare anchor until we could figure it out. Turned out the pawl that knocks the chain out, got stuck going the wrong direction so it was jamming and blowing the breaker. All we had to do was change direction and then the main anchor went down. So we brought up the spare and put down the main anchor and called it good! Finally little to no rolling! We went for a swim to cool down in the lovely water. That nigh we got to sleep in each other's arms for the first time in several nights, felt really good too!

The next day there was little to no wind, so we motored, ran the generator and watermaker while out in the clean ocean water. We had our first sea creature sighting as dolphins swam over to check us out, but did not stay for long. As the afternoon passed we were starting to get winds out of the South!?! WTF? Now that we were close to the coast, we had cell phone coverage again. Mike called his son in CA and then spoke to Cindy in La Paz. She informed us that a tropical storm had developed offshore of us overnight! Well that explained the south wind. Get out the computer and look at windyty.com with the I phone. Lucky for us we were almost at our destination.

The last 10 miles of the trip, just off Tenacatita, we started seeing furniture floating by. First a chair, then a table, then lots of pieces of wood, one with a big bird taking a ride. Must have rained like hell somewhere and washed away someone's home. It may have been left over from Hurricane Patricia, which drove a big tanker up on to the rocks just south of the entrance to Barra. We noticed a big Recycle barge and helicopter flying around for the workers who are trying to salvage the ship.

About 1530 we passed through the narrow entrance to the lagoon at Barra de Navidad. It is a shallow place with a lot of mud. The channel is a bit hard to distinguish and we softly went aground twice and backed off as we made our way into the lagoon. Only two other boats anchored here. One was much bigger and I was sure had a deeper keel than us, so I said head for him! Finally found the 10 foot deep water and anchored to his port side.

My old friends, Rick and Lorie Greenwood, moved to Barra back in the 1990s, from Las Vegas. About as opposite as you can get. This place is a real small town, that mostly comes alive in the winter months with beach vacationers from Guadalajara and Mexico City. There is also a group of Canadians and Americans (gringos) living here and in Melaque the next town up, which is a bit larger. We kidded Rick about the tropical storm being named after him when they invited us over for dinner our first night in. What a warm welcome of homecoming comfort food, with pot roast and potatoes, then cherry pie and ice-cream for dessert! Yum!

Today the French Baker came by in his boat and delivered the chocolate croissant I had been bragging about. Mike said I got absolutely giddy when I saw him coming in our direction. We ordered 4 more for tomorrows delivery! Not sure how long we will stay here. We have a few projects to work on and then would like to start gunk hole hopping on our way North back to Vallarta. We were thinking of leaving Tuesday, but the weather gods may have something else in mind for us. So we will wait and see! In the mean time Rick and Lorie have a pool and have invited us over to watch the NASCAR race this Sunday! Come on Jeff Gordon!