Edited to post photos. I have wifi here in Tenacatita thanks to my cool new wifi adapter and 9db antenna (you can get it here, if you want - pretty good deal).
Almost exactly a 24-hour trip from La Cruz (only 120 miles but I took my time, mostly going only 5 knots or so). Left La Cruz about 2:30 pm yesterday (the 28th) and arrived here in Tenacatita today around 2pm. Immediately after leaving La Cruz, there was about 20-25 knots on my port bow, so it was a fast close reach out of Banderas Bay, but soon after sunset, just after Cabo Corientes, the wind died to almost nothing. I motor-sailed for a while, but soon even that didn't make sense. I remember at one point this morning about 3am that there was absolutely *zero* wind. The water was glass. It may have picked up to 2-3 knots as I was approaching Tenacatita, but nothing worth raising any sail.
I did the whole trip and felt pretty well-rested when I got here, but I just woke up after a 3 hour nap. I know I slept for a couple of 15-20 minute naps around midnight (I set my iPhone to wake me up every 30 mins if I happen to fall asleep), and then I think this morning around 4-6 I must have reset that iPhone alarm at least 3 times. Basically, the routine is:
- Set the countdown timer for 30 min
- Have a good look around: AIS, Radar, check course, check visual
- lay down, take 5-15 mins to fall asleep (often check everything again 10 minutes into this "break")
- when alarm rings indicating 30 mins is up, get up, check everything again, and either make some coffee / tea or do it again.
It's amazing how slowly things happen out there. I can see a ship coming on the AIS from up to 60 or 70 miles away, sometimes, so I'll see a freighter 3-4 hours before our paths will cross. And it's so dark out there that it's pretty easy to see any lights that shouldn't be there (any lights that aren't lighthouses). Last night I only passed two boats that were close-in to shore like me (5-6 miles offshore), and those were both yachts heading north. All other traffic was well offshore: freighters and cruise lines mostly heading north. Because I can get such a good look every 15-20 minutes, the only thing I really worry about is running into a long line while motoring. A long line is a single fishing line / rope with many other leaders and hooks hanging off of it. Sometimes they're tied to any random floating piece of stuff, and sometimes the irresponsible fishermen use non-leaded line or don't put enough weight on their line. If I were to run over a long line in the middle of the night it would be bad enough and I'd have to try to shut down the engine or take it out of gear asap, so if I were resting that's that much longer for the line to wrap around my propeller shaft and possibly do damage - possibly pull the shaft out of the shaft seal enough to create a major leak. It's happened. But it's one of those things... you just have to hope you're not unlucky.
Wildlife-wise, I got my first Dorado (Mahi-Mahi) before leaving Banderas Bay, about 30 mins before sunset right around Cabo Corrientes. It was a pretty big one, I think. I used the special lure technique taught me by Norm in San Blas: the Dorado Killer, he calls it. You have a plastic bottle that you just fill mostly with water and drag behind the boat about 10 feet in front of an artificial squid. It's sort of a poor-man's flasher. The bottle spins and dives and splashes around, creating attention for the squid. It's pretty cool and seems to work very well when you get the bottle filled just right and conditions are such that the bottle will dance. I wish I would have bought a fish scale to measure this fish; I have no idea how much these things weigh. I'll guess this one was about 25 pounds.
Edit: Uh... this wasn't a dorado. It was a Jack Crevalle, which is why it tastes so horrible.
This morning after sunrise I started seeing dozens of turtles resting at the surface. The water was very calm so often I could see I was coming upon a little hump coming from 1/4 mile away. I got a few really good pictures (and a couple good self-pics of the dorado) that I'll add to this entry when I get a real internet connection (posting this via sailmail / SSB).
Had a nice surprise when I rounded Roca Centro to come into the anchorage; my old friends Sailfisher and Shiloh are here. I've pretty much been resting and cleaning, working on the outboard since I got here, and I didn't see their dinghies so they were ashore - I haven't seen them, but I'm looking forward to hanging out for a night. I'll be heading farther south on a day-sail tomorrow or Sunday. I may fuel up at Barra Navidad, which is right next door (about 10 miles away) and then head to Manzanillo, which is only 37 miles away. Manzanillo to Zihuatanejo is almost 200 miles, so I'll want to be rested up for that. I may also look for a stopping point half way; I'm going to be making great progress from here on, so there's no real need for overnighters before the Gulf of Tehuantapec crossing over to Costa Rica.
TT
