I Sail Away

The cat is out of the bag! The America’s Cup Team has announced the race course for the 2013 America’s Cup to be held in San Francisco.

Here is the link to the full article, including a map of the course you can download.

I was supposed to race on the Express 37, Exy, this year in the Rolex Big Boat Series at the St. Francis Yacht Club, but life got in the way.

Here’s some footage of the fleet where that I was supposed to race . . . .

According to Don Anderson, on the S/V Summer Passage, on the Southbound HAM Radio Net, the weather is going to be good for the next few days–as in, 10 – 15knots with mild seas. So, around 3am, I am weighing anchor from Turtle Bay and heading to the North Anchorage of Isla Cedros to anchor near the Sea Lion colonies.

Spent today getting ready: the dinghy is stowed, everything on-deck is secured, 6 more jerry cans of diesel fuel (and the tank topped off), 30 gallons of purified water, and food stores replenished. We are ready to go . . . .

I am not sure what the Internet reception is going to be for the next few days–but, I am on the last leg to San Diego.

I am departing Bahia de Tortugas as soon as Enrique can bring diesel and water. The route is to San Diego via: Isla Cedros, Punta San Carlos, Isla San Martin, Isla Todos Santos, and finally San Diego. Some of those places may not have cell phone or internet connection . . . . just so you know.

I’ll be back in the US soon!

Around 3:45am, Marishanna and I were underway from Bahia de Asuncion to Bahia de Tortugas. We rounded the large islands and with almost no winds at all, made our way towards the open ocean and Turtle Bay.

There are two successive points that you have to pass, followed by a long, open bay (Bahia de San Cristobal). The northwest end of the bay has Thurloe Head with a small protected anchorage behind it, roughly an 8-mile rock outcropping and then the entrance to Turtle Bay. It is a straight-forward passage–with the exception of the fishing nets around San Pablo (the fisherman in Bahia San Hipolito warned me about them).

I was motor-sailing as the sun rose (6 – 8 knots of fluky wind was not enough to sail), and the further I got into the ocean, the stronger the seas built. Quickly, they were 2-meter waves every 2 – 3 seconds–a rough, pounding time and a bit more than lumpy, in my opinion. Shortly after, the fluky winds amplified to 15 – 20knots, and remained fluky–shifting as much as 20 degrees in the course of a few minutes.

I tinkered with the course a bit more, wanted to stay outside to avoid the fishing nets and the only course that balanced the waves and the wind was taking me WSW–away from Turtle Bay. So . . . I dropped the main sail, lashed it to the boom, and powered the rest of the way to Turtle Bay. It was quite a difference from the full sail of yesterday.

The seas stayed a bit more than lumpy and the winds stayed above 20knots all day, but landfall happened quickly, and I was sitting on the hook by 1pm. Also, while in Bahia de San Cristobal, I saw the spouts of three whales. They never breeched, but they were there . . . .

Turtle Bay is a large stopping point for boats on their way either up or down the Baja outside passage (there are more than a dozen boats here now). Clean diesel and potable water are available here (they actually bring it right to the boat), and there is a small town as well where you can re-provision, get warm showers, and a cold beer. There are cell phone signals here, too–and, internet access.

I also needed a few small repair parts for the boat–a spare belt for the engine and some fuses–which I was able to obtain pretty easily. I will be here for a few days to do some minor repairs on Marishanna, re-provision, buy diesel and water, and to get some current weather information.

And, then–it is the final 350Nm to San Diego and home . . . .

Location:
27°41.080′ N
114°53.317′ W

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

I pulled anchor around 7:30am and headed for the next stop at Punta Abreojos. On my way out of the anchorage, another sailboat was on their way into the port and they hailed me on the radio–asking if I knew where the panga fisherman met boats for fuel.

Fuel, I asked? With the possible problem with the fuel lifting pump, I wanted to purchase some extra fuel so that I could continue to run off the top of the tank.

He said that a fisherman offered to bring him diesel fuel, and I wanted that too, so I turned around and went back to the waiting area. After another 45 minutes, the fisherman arrived. He was charging 15 pesos per liter (about 6 pesos more than the price at the marina in Cabo San Lucas), but I bargained with him for a 5-gallon jerry can for 10 pesos a liter.

What we didn’t know is that he was going to wait until his afternoon/evening fishing session to return with the diesel–which was about 4:30, and far too late for me to depart for Punta Abreojos–which absolutely requires a daylight approach for all of the submerged dangers.

In the meantime, the other boat and I had rafted together, were well into telling stories, they treated me to a fine pork chop dinner, and loaned me some DVD movies for the evening–and, I shared my charts and guidebooks with them. Theirs were a bit outdated.

During the day, a couple of locals came sailing up in a 14-foot NY Long boat. It was all wood, had the sailing rig attached (it is basically the design of row boat that they used in NY harbor in the late 1800s–with an optional sailing rig). The return line for lifting the keel had slipped through and the centerboard was stuck in the down position. So, they tied up to Marishanna, I loaned them some snorkeling gear, and Christian dove below to retrieve it. Afterwards, we offered them some beers and to come aboard.

Turns out . . . that Bahia San Juanico is a hidden gem of a town with a healthy ex-patriot community of surf/sail loving Americans. According to Christian, they have three restaurants at night, one during the day, a grocery store, a Sailboat/Surfboard designer (Choate), and some really great long-board surf–two really long pipes that I saw. Unfortunately, they have no cell phone service.

And, I must admit the bay was filled with surfers, stand-up paddle-boarders, kayakers, etc. It was quite beautiful, and definitely a place I want to return and stay awhile.

Position:
26°15.083′ N
112°28.249’W

I am looking for a few good sailors for the return trip. The details of the boat are on this blog, and I will provision the boat–you must simply cover your flight expenses to Cabo San Lucas, and return transportation to your home town.

The trip from Cabo San Lucas to San Diego has no place to get off, although we will be stopping in Bahia Santa Maria, Turtle Bay, and Ensenada for our final check-out of the country–with the possibility of other stops along the way to avoid bad weather. Your help on this stretch of the trip would be for the duration of the Cabo to San Diego leg. Of course, you will have to suffer vistas like this . . . but, you will have your share of watches, too. 4-hour watches during the daylight, and 2-hour watches at night–and, we will be fishing the entire trip.

If we were to sail straight through without stopping, and with perfect weather, it could take optimistically 6 days to get to San Diego. Realistically, it will be more like 10 – 12 days–and, if we have to wait out bad weather, or mechanical problems, it could be another 3 – 5 days on top of that.

Once in San Diego, we will be there for a few days to visit friends, re-provision the boat, and check into the country. The legs are much shorter once we are back in the US–San Diego to Morro Bay (with the possibility of stops at Catalina, and Point Conception between), Morro Bay to Monterey, and Monterey to SF.

If you are interested in getting some sea miles under your belt, please contact me through the website, or email me directly at: timothy@isailaway.net

A beautiful boat . . . .

This is Zenzi, purported to be owned by Larry Ellison (think Oracle and America’s Cup).  It anchored out in the bay in Cabo for a few days . . . and, we were neighbors.  Then she set sail.

How sweet it is . . . .