The Taco Traveler

(5/5 and 5/6/2009)

Now we’re sailing! There’s not much wind anymore, and the swells are still following and a bit annoying, but there’s about 15 knots on my starboard quarter and I decided to roll out the gennaker, and it is freakin beautiful. I don’t think I’ve used the gennaker since my last time in Mexico, “racing” Shiloh and Sailfisher from San Blas to La Cruz, but I had crew, then. I haven’t flown the gennaker single-handed since I left San Francisco. So it’s staying generally full, and I should turn a bit right and get it a bit more angle as it’s often masked by the main, but we’re okay with a little flapping.

I “fixed” the autopilot again, but instead of trying to be too fine, I just put a *bunch* of tape on it so it stays engaged no matter what. It won’t slip anymore, and has been great for a couple hours now, but the problem is I can’t disengage it without removing it. But I’ve removed it about 20 times in the last 48 hours to make modifications and repair attempts, so I figure having to spend 2 minutes removing it to disengage it isn’t that big of a deal. The only reason to disengage it between here and Cabo should be to let it cool off, but I’ve got an ice pack on it right now to try to accomplish that temporarily – I’m not ready to hand-steer yet and it’s doing a great job now that it has better purchase on the wheel.

So under full main and 150% gennaker we’re doing between 7 and 8 knots. Outstanding and fun. We’ll see if this westerly breeze keeps up. If the wind shifts to the NW then I’ll have to run under main only, probably. So given the direction of the wind and the slightly smaller swells, I’ve decided to cut straight across to Cabo rather than hugging the coastline. It’s about 80 degrees and beautiful – couldn’t ask for better weather right now though I’ve passed many northbounders who could ask for a bit of relief from the wind and swells. They’re having a very difficult uphill slog of it.

Since Mag Bay, the water has gone up in temperature about 5 degrees. It’s now at 64.4 F. My job since I put the gennaker up about 2pm has been to just keep the autopilot cool with an occasional ice bag. That’s a job I can handle, and the autopilot is doing a great job of keeping the boat on course through following seas and the big flying headsail. Just a great sail all around. I just heard a VHF call from Marina Costa Baja, which is in La Paz, so that’s weird. That’s a heck of a transmitter, as La Paz is currently 67 nautical miles away. Well… I guess I’ve received transmissions from farther (AIS uses the VHF band, and I’m picking up a faint, occasional transmission from a boat that’s 282 miles away), but never over land like that (La Paz is on the Sea of Cortez, on the other side of the Baja peninsula).

I’m racing a bit, as I’d like to keep up a pace of 7+ knots so I get to the cape at sunrise. Right now, at 7 knots, I’ll get there about 8am. I definitely would like to be around Cabo Falso before 9:30 or 10am, as the “cape effect” winds can be pretty gnarly, whipping up some big, confused seas and generally making everything very difficult.

I just took about a hundred pictures of dolphins either sprinting towards the boat from afar or playing in the bow wave. There aren’t very many usable ones, of course, but on “Sports” mode I was able to take several shots in a few seconds to try to grab that one great moment. I got several shots of them coming, then a few jumping next to the boat. Then after that got boring, I took the camera up to the bow and held it over the edge, trying for an extreme closeup on a dolphin right on the bow. Not sure yet how it came out, but there were a few shots of like four guys in a row all surfing the wave. They’re still playing, which is surprising to me because I’m only going 6 knots, but there’s no annoying engine, so they probably don’t get that a lot, with so few sailboats going south right now (most are going north for the end of the season, and are generally motoring uphill trying to go as fast as possible if there’s a calm).

Time to put the gennaker away and start motoring… the wind has dropped down to about 5-6 knots and I’m now meandering along at 5.5 knots (probably 1 or 1.5 of that is current). This won’t do to get me past Cabo Falso before the wind picks up late morning.

It’s a beautiful night, though absolutely windless. There’s a big, bright moon, the swells have died down, and I’m just motoring along at 7 knots at an easy 2k RPM (I can do 8+ knots if I want to). The water has warmed up even more, and is now 66.2 degrees, so we’re getting there. And I’m being reminded of a big negative with Mexicans and their radios… the fishermen who use it honestly tend to whistle to get attention and then often scream the name of a boat or a buddy three or four times, and reapeat that ten times before giving up or being answered. Then there are also just assholes who clog up channel 16 with idle chatter and messing around. This is why cruisers switch to channel 22 when we get down to mainland Mexico (maybe even La Paz?). Channel 22 becomes the cruiser’s hailing channel, because 16 is so full of garbage. It’s ridiculous, and it would be nice if the Mexican Navy would get a handle on it – maybe try educating people about the importance of keeping an emergency channel clear. But I guess it’s a small minority that is hurt or potentially harmed by this misuse.

Just after midnight and I’m watching my second movie of the night – “Say Anything.” So funny that I never noticed before that Jeremy Piven was in it. Did ya know that? He’s the drunk aggressive friend of Lloyd Dobler’s at the party who’s wearing the little hat and high-fives his keys into Lloyd the Keymaster’s hand. Then he passes out on the lawn at the end of the party. Oh, and he’s one of the guys at the Gas N’ Sip, too. He says: “Your only mistake is that you didn’t dump her first. Diane Court is a show pony, and you are a stallion, my friend. Walk with us and you walk tall.” He says that right before the kid says “Bitches, man!”

No wind – been motoring for three hours now. I could probably pull 5 knots if I put up the gennaker, but that’s not enough for my goals this leg:
a) Don’t get run over by this big cruise ship called “The World” which is heading north on a really inshore track – probably to keep its guests out of the offshore swell
b) Get through the fishing fleet safely at Golden Gate Bank
c) Get around Cabo Falso before the “cape effect” winds pick up
d) Anchor in the spot where this past December I had good Internet from some hotel on the beach
e) Send a few emails and post a few blog entries
f) Go to sleep

Weird – Golden Gate Bank is completely deserted (of both fishermen and fish, apparently). When I came through here on my way north in January, there were about a hundred boats working this area. They must have moved over to the Sea of Cortez side for dorado or something (I’m pretty sure in January this area was hopping with yellowtail). Oh well… I guess I’m not going to make a living as a fishing charter captain.

Relatively easy night, but the wind never picked up enough to sail once I took down the gennaker around 6pm. Bummer. I hate motoring, as I just count the dollars getting burned up in the cylinders (are they still called cylinders in diesel? Compression chambers?). So each hour costs me about $2.80 on average – my Pactor modem cash drifting away.

So I’ve got land within 4 miles. Cabo Falso is about 18 miles to the southeast and Bahia San Lucas is another 6 miles past that. Should be at anchor by 11am.

Arrived in Cabo safely. G'night. :-)