I love Mexico but simple things like getting wifi to work can be a real challenge, I gave up in the end and am now using a cafe keyboard which is Spanish and considerably different from what I am used to. But what the heck, I`,m in Mexico , Cabo San Lucas andf it´s 75f in the early evening.
When I get things figurured out I will post pictures, John, Heathers Dad took a lot of them.
So, how did it go? Overall great, we had some great sailing, the start from San Diego was basically windless until 2 hours into it, then the we sailed into light SW for a couple more hours, then that died and on came the engine fro the next 8 hours, chug chug at 5 knots, next morning the wind was up a little so up went the hot pink assymetrical and up it stayed for the next 36hours with the windvane steering. We now had about 15knots of NW and were flying, I reasoned that the wind would hold steady and was proved wrong when it built quite considerably around midnight so I had to wrestle it down with John on the halyard, but it all went ok, it`s been a while since I``ve done a midnight takedown. Next day started light and sloppy but we could see Isla Cedros and gybed towards it, finally we made the San Benitos and gybed again, this time just the jib so it was easy. The wind built as we approached Turtle Bay, eventualy blowing 30 plus and we were down to staysail and the 2nd reef screaming through the night, we made it into the anchorage at around 0500, tired.
During the night a fire extinguisher had got loose and discharged into the main cabin, white powder everywhere, it was very surreal illuminated with our red night lights and swirling around. it got literally everywhere, fortunately not into the forepeak where Heather and Liam were sleeping. I crawled into bed with Heather and said you are not going to be happy, I was correct in this regard.
It was really windy in TB, a panga bumped alongside, we took on fuel about 10 gallons everyone went ashore and I started clean up. Heather got back and started clean up again, the wind dropped and we had a pleasant couple of days at anchor, beatifull sunsets and sunrises, a beach party and Liam absolutely skipping for joy, naked on the beach wearing a hat and sunscreen.
The next leg was Turtle bay to Bahia Santa Maria, a shorter leg by about I00 miles, it was another light wind start but we sailed off the anchor and sailed back onto it once we reached BSM. We caught a huge tuna, it was a scary big one, I really had know idea what I was doing but I did land it kill it and filet it, it was probably 25 to 30 lbs.
Grace had been sailing wonderfully well, we were keeping up with much larger boats and overtaking some of the cruising catamarans, which seem to be remarkably slow despite how they are advertised.
When the wind got sloppy we were about 50 miles directly upwing of the finish line and decided that enough was enough and went to start the motor, it started but wouldn`t run up to speed and smoked really badly, I changed the secondary filter, no problem, but the same thing happened, I changed the primary and switched the fuel system , but same result, we ended up sailing the rest of the way and were able to brag about it.
Bahia Santa Maria is a beautifull bay and about as isolated a place as you can find in the Northern hemisphere, which makes it pretty cool when the crew of about 150 boats show up and have a party on shore, and rock and roll band appears out of nowhere, and the nlocal fishing families cook up great seafood and the pangeros play water taxi, they had cleaned and painted there boats just for this one day of the year when the HaHa fleet arrives.
I took the fuel system apart and seemed to have got things running, but we ended up sailing off the anchor once again, so we left for Cabo San Lucas with an uncertain engine, which I will admit made me a little apprehensive.
It was a short leg, around 220 miles and we enjoyed some fine warm weather sailing the first day and night with the pink assymetrical kite and the vane steering, the next day it got sloppy and really light, the apparent wind was to light for the vane and we hand steered most of the day, watch on, watch off, let me say now for the record that I could not have asked for a better watchmate than John Doherty, my father in law, Liams grandfather and Heathers dad, he was calm and effective and didn`t seem to mind when I said things like^^ how do you intend to avoid running into that anchored megayacht^^. I don`t remember saying that.
As we approached the Cape the wind died completely, we were still about 35 miles from the anchorage, so , tried the engine and it ran okay, not great , but enough to get us in to Bahia Cabo San Lucas.
We are now in the Marina with the engine in pieces, the cylinder head has just got back from the machine shop, the valves on the numbers 1 & 2 cylinders where choked with soot and sludge so they were not sealing on the compression stroke, consequently when we left the anchorage for the marina we had about 9hp to move a 13 ton cutter, people kept coming up to us to tell us that our engine was smoking.
Safely in a berth once more I enlisted the help of a local mechanic and we should have things back together tommorow.
Then were will we go? La Paz, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta? we will see, I have to admit I quite like hanging out in Cabo San Lucas.
Michael
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