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| Rob, Deb, Bill, Scott, Gary and Tanya - Guaymas |
Well, we tried to go North.
We really did. Even though people
who’ve been sailing the Sea for years told us not to try at this time of year…
It turns out they knew what they were talking about.
It started off so well…
After seeing Rob and Debra’s boat Avant safely put back in the water,
and after having a final celebration, our happy group of Greybeard (Bill), Kialoa (Scott and Tanya) and
Avant (Rob and Deb) finally split. Kialoa, Greybeard and Sea
Rover headed north, leaving Rob and Deb in Guyamas to finish putting together their “kit boat”.
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| Bill adjusting something on Greybeard en route to San Carlos |
We had a great motor and sail from Guaymas to San
Carlos. The Sea of Cortez welcomed us
back with a dolphin and whale show, just to remind us of what we missed over
the summer. After a pleasant afternoon
getting the kinks out of the boat (ie, fixing the autopilot, learning the speed gauge wasn't working etc) we arrived in San Carlos (about 15nm north of Gyuamas) just in time
for their afternoon blow and got to practice anchoring in tight spaces in 20 knots
of wind. Ah yes, I remember this Fun. We spent the next day doing boat jobs
(cleaning the hull, installing holders for our dingy paddles, sorting out a
halyard issue, getting our speed gauge working). We also met up with Cruising friends Phil and
Deb on s/v Coastal Drifter, who were the first other Cruisers we met last year
on our way down the coast – we waited out weather together in Port Angeles,
Neah Bay, and met for the final time in Astoria. It was great to catch up and to hear how
their first year of Cruising had been. They
are an interesting couple as each year they take a couple of their grandkids
sailing for the year with them. Last
year we met Savannah and Sierra, and this year we met Ethan. He gets to sail to Tahiti with them – lucky kid!
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| Looking north from Bahia San Pedro |
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| Capture the flag! Tanya and Gary at the top |
The group split again the next day, with Kialoa and Sea Rover
heading north, leaving Bill in San Carlos waiting for a weather
window to cross the Sea. We had an uneventful
motor in calm seas to Bahia San Pedro, which is a lovely little bay about 15nm
north of San Carlos. We took advantage
of the calm weather (the anchorage doesn’t have great protection from the N or
S) and spent the next day exploring the sea caves outside of the bay, and
hiking to the top of one of the mountains to get a view of the coastline. After 90 minutes of picking our way up through
cactus bushes and other equally prickly plants, we made it to the top and were
rewarded with a spectacular sight. You
don’t get a sense of all the little indents and fingers along the coast when
you are traveling at sea level!
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| Looking south from Bahia San Pedro |
As the weather was still forecast to be calm, we headed out
the next afternoon in 10 knots of breeze (from the north) and sailed up another
20 nm up the coast to anchor off a little village in Bahia Colorado. Our guidebook didn’t have much to say about
the bay, but they did show a picture of the bay filled with fish boats. Usually this means it has some protection
from the wind and seas. As it turned
out, it was protected from the wind, but definitely NOT the seas. This turned out to be the worst anchorage we
have ever stayed in! The swell was
horrendous. The boat rocked
back-and-forth, back-and-forth, back-and-forth, all night long.
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| BBQing in worst anchorage ever! Still gotta eat. |
Things that haven’t moved in 4500nm of travel
were knocked loose that night. For
example, the picture over the bed leapt off the wall and tried to de-capitate
me, the cutlery in the cutlery drawer spend the night banging to get out, the
tools did their best to escape their cabinet (they finally broke free the next
day – but that’s another story…). We
finally succumbed to sleeping on the floor crossways in the salon in an effort
to rock WITH the waves instead of at right angles to the waves. Needless to say we were gone by 5am (Kialoa
only made it to 4am before they couldn’t take it anymore).
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| Casualty of the tools escaping while under sail |
After our early departure, we headed out into what should
have been reasonably calm conditions.
Should have been. But weren’t. Kialoa had already turned around and were
headed south back to San Carlos by the time we were motoring out of the
bay. We forged ahead though, as Gary
really wanted to get up to Tiburon. We
sailed our rhumb line close hauled in about 10 knots of wind for a couple of
hours and made good time. The seas were
pretty lumpy, but not unmanageable. Then, all of sudden the boat heeled over at an
alarming angle (!) and we are doing 7.8 knots upwind! Can anyone say ‘over-powered?’ The wind had jumped up to 15 knots and caught
us off guard. (This is when the tools in
the cabinet finally made their break for it).
After reefing the boat and getting things more or less under control we
took stock and realized all of a sudden the seas were a LOT bigger than they
had been… But still we sailed on. The
wind increased to 16 knots and we reefed again.
The seas got bigger.
We then
started talking options. We were still
about 20 nm away from our destination and could have made it, but it would have
been a hard sail. And there was no
guarantee of safe harbour once we got there. I need access to
internet for work on Saturdays and Mondays. We
were pretty confident we’d be able to get internet on Saturday, but given the
weather we were seeing starting to set up (ie, a strong Norther being being stirred up by
hurricane Sandra), we would have had to be somewhere safe by Saturday
night. Unfortunately the closest safe harbour
would not have internet. So, to ensure
that I would be able to make my Monday morning conference calls over the
internet, we turned around and started heading south for Santa Rosalia, 64 nm
away. We were going to cross the Sea of
Cortez.
At first this seemed like a good decision. The wind decreased a bit and we sailed along
nicely on a beam reach. Then the wind
built, and the seas built, and built, and built. While a beam reach is a really fast point of
sail for us and the boat loves it, it was a really uncomfortable point of sail
as the seas were smacking us squarely on the side. The good news is that the piles of dust we
had accumulated while sitting in Guyamas
got washed off, the bad news is that the dust was replaced by salt. The next 6 hours were interesting as we braced
against the violent, steep, choppy seas.
At one point I looked down as a blur went past the companionway. It was Gary getting thrown from one side of
the boat to the other while trying to make lunch. Luckily he landed
on the settee. We were handling the conditions OK, but were
both a little worried about what would happen once we got to the Baja side of
the Sea, as conditions were forecast to be worse over there. And Gary was feeling sea sick (believe it or
not, I was actually OK). As it turned
out, the wind and seas calmed down significantly when we were 20 nm from
the Baja shore. Instead of galloping along
at 7.5 knots, we started to do a sedate 4-5 knots with the wind and seas more
at our back versus the side. A much more
comfortable ride. It gave us a chance to
get some rest (remember, none the night before) and eat some food… All good
things.
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| Keeping Sea Rover off the docks in Santa Rosalia |
We pulled into Santa Rosalia at about 10pm after a very long
95 nm day of sailing. Of course
Myrtle,
our engine, decided to pull her “I don’t like to have water running through my
body to cool me” trick when we turned her on just outside the breakwater, which
meant we had no engine. Did I mention it is dark? So, we
had a few exciting and tense moments doing donuts outside the harbour with me trying
to keep the boat level in the 4 foot swells while Gary was down below pulling
off pipes and sucking out salt water with his mouth. He finally got her to go (magician) and we made
a dash into the harbor. We docked at the
marina, and collapsed in exhaustion. I
guess we’ve done our shakedown cruise this year. We certainly felt shaken and stirred after
that one. And we now have a new list of
repairs that need to be done...
We’ll spend the next week or so in Santa Rosalia doing boat
jobs and working while we wait for the next weather window to head south. The wind has already started and so we've had to use every dock line we own to keep our boat off from being squished on the dock. Once the weather improves, we hope to rendezvous with our sailing
buddies again. Probably some time next week.
