I Sail Away

The sail today from Bahia San Hipolito to Bahia de Asuncion is a short one–a bit longer than 20Nm. So far, I have been either motoring or motor sailing the entire distance. Today, however, I wanted to try full sail into the wind to see how it affects the speed of the transit, and because of the short distance, I could sail all day and still make it the next landfall in daylight. And, well . . . it was brilliant.

Marishanna’s pedigree is really shining on this trip. She is a fast boat. With her 5’6″ headroom, no noise or temperature insulation, and missing necessities for cruising, she excels in one area–speed. Under sail in a a breeze that freshened all day to a steady 22knots, Marishanna sailed a steady 6.5knots.

Bahia de Asuncion is a fairly large, well-protected anchorage, and there were 8 other boats anchored in the bay. On the far West side, there is an rock island with a couple that lives on it–and, a huge colony of sea lions, pelicans and other birds and healthy kelp beds surrounding it. Although it may be possible to travel between the island and the shore, it is shallow and not recommended except with local knowledge.

When I pulled into Bahia de Asuncion, I saw that my very, very good friends Ryan and Kristina on Caramello (think apple pie . . . . ) were already at anchor and on shore, and I anchored in 25 feet of water about 200 yards behind them.

All in all, the day and the experiment were both a success: I did not lose a significant amount of time under full sail, used zero diesel along the way, and had the beautiful, quiet, blissful experience of sailing that hooked me in the first place–all while returning the boat any myself safely to California . . . .

Later in the evening, I spoke with Ryan and Kristina from Caramello and without the internet access, I have been without fresh weather information (still tinkering around with the SSB radio). My weather info is about 5 days old. They had fresh information and were leaving at 10pm to sail the flat seas and relatively small winds to make the final 50 miles to Bahia de Tortugas.

I liked the idea of joining them, but had just set the anchor at 3pm, and would need some rest before an overnight passage. So, I opted to follow them in the early morning, rather than through the night.

They also loaned me two jerry cans of diesel fuel–because I still do not have access to the bottom 75% of the fuel tank because of the lifting pump problem.

Location:
27°08.068′ N
114°13.473′ W

I awoke early, and took a long morning. I would either be sailing 40Nm to Bahia Asuncion, or stopping along the way at Bahia San Hipolito if the conditions were really big. That gave me a little time to enjoy the morning.

Right around the boat, a pod of dolphins were playing or feeding–regardless, they came right up to the boat and said Hi. In the meantime, I made a nice breakfast and some coffee and lingered over it while doing a little writing. It was a great morning.

Leaving Punta Abreojos is a bit tricky. There are two underwater knolls that under the right conditions can cause breaking waves out of seemingly open ocean. So, where you normally steer a wide course around the point and the breaking waves on shore, you need to steer close to the shore in this instance. Just outside of the breaking waves, and inside of the knolls. Needless to say, I hand-steered, poked my way through the main anchorage close to town, around the point and up the North side of the anchorage.

Last night, I was unable to see the town, but as I motored past it today, it looked cute. Larger than a village–with some amenities. A restaurant, a Pemex gas station, and the police station were all visible from the water. On the point, there was a small lighthouse.

On the way North, you stick along the inside track of the land following the 5-fathom depth curve. On the left, after 3 – 4 Nm up the coast, there is actually an outcropping of rocks–Roca de Ballena. It is named because it looks like open ocean because at high tide, you can barely see the rocks at all–maybe a foot or so out of the water. When a wave hits it . . . you can see what looks like a water spout of a whale.

After I passed that (and before the shoal of the Lagoon entrance ahead), I headed away from land and out to sea. Not long after I left the protection of the land, the wind built quickly to 25 – 30 knots. It is a familiar pattern of weather around here: calm at night, 5 – 10 knots in the morning and building, and by 1 or 2pm–blowing like stink–25 – 30 knots. Fortunately, Bahia San Hipolito was pretty close.

The town of Bahia San Hipolito was really small–there were only a few fishing pangas and perhaps three dozen houses–all built into the lee side of the small bluff. It looked pretty impoverished–but, the sun was setting and I was glad to be off the ocean and at anchor–even though it was still blowing 25 knots at anchor . . . .

Location:
26°58.984’N
113&deg58.466′ W