First Passage

The Maria & Isabel on our starboard side.

Well, here we are attached to a nice dock between two extremely large yachts in La Paz. “WAIT! WAIT!” you might say. “Weren’t you going to La Cruz? What happened? Well, as usual, there is a story. And, in that story, new lessons learned and old ones re-learned. So, here is the “story”. I hope you will enjoy it.

 

At anchor - last night in San Carlos.

The day before leaving San Carlos we had to take the boat out and “do some turns” to calibrate the new auto pilot so we decided to anchor in the Bay that night and leave from there. As it turned out, there was enough of a swell to make the anchorage pretty rolly so neither of us got much sleep.

At first light we raised the anchor and headed southwest. The weather prediction (from several, usually very accurate, sources) was for NW wind of 12-15 knots and seas of 1-2 feet with both decreasing each day. Perfect sailing weather. When will we learn?

As we pulled out of the anchorage, the new auto pilot was working beautifully and in a couple hours we had enough wind to sail. The sails went up, the motor went off and the new auto pilot acquired a name of “Steady Eddie”. “He” actually seemed to LIKE sailing and we cruised along at 7 to    7-1/2 knots (8 – 8.6 mph) for several hours. The wind and seas started building just after lunch so we were now seeing waves of 3-4’. They were mostly on the starboard quarter so were helping but our speed was building to a fairly consistent 8-1/2 knots (almost 10 mph). As nighttime approached “Eddie” was becoming less & less cooperative. It was time to take in the headsail and start the engine to slow down a bit and (hopefully) make more power for “Eddie’s” voracious appetite. Steering by hand, for those who don’t know, is a LOT of work in a big boat…and the bigger the wind & seas are the harder it is. Chris & I have done plenty of hand steering in the past and, for us, it means two hour shifts are about all we can do before we are exhausted. Two hour watches also means no one gets any sleep. The cold nights exacerbate the problem. 

After we'd been motor sailing for a couple hours Chris realized we weren’t making power. Not good. We turned off everything we could (refrigerator, interior lights, radio, etc.) so all the juice would go to “Eddie” and that worked enough to make it through the night with minimal periods of hand steering.By sunrise we had decided to divert to La Paz to effect repairs. No easy task, of course. La Paz was still almost two days away and between the rougher than predicted weather and physical exhaustion we really needed to get some rest.

 

Abby wishing she was on the land.

The closest anchorage was Agua Verde but even that was still many hours away. Getting there also necessitated crossing a good sized piece of water that would mean taking the waves on the side. With seas now upward of 3-5’ when they hit the side, the boat rolls from side to side and the "stuff" starts flying onto the floor of the cabin. It gets pretty annoying listening to the noise.

 

Anchored in Agua Verde.

Before making the turn we needed to find a partially protected place to drop main sail and the lee of Isla Catalina was just quiet enough to get that accomplished. The whole process seemed to take hours since we couldn't trust "Eddie" to hold the boat in one position. After much maneuvering we got it done and three freezing, bouncy hours later we were finally tucked into the quiet cove of Agua Verde.

 

Chris checking the batteries in our "spacious" engine room.

The next morning we put the solar panels out and Chris crawled into the engine room to check the batteries. Hmmm. They were all fine. That’s odd. By the end of the day the solar panels had re-charged them about 2/3.Chris started futzing about having to replace yet another $1,000 worth of batteries but after much contemplation and borrowing a meter to double check he realized the problem was actually the alternator. Much cheaper to replace!    It was warm and calm inside the anchorage and I was feeling pretty beat up so I made the decision to stay an extra day. As Captain I can do that. It was just Heaven to finally be warm enough to wear a swimsuit – the first time this year.

 

View of the anchorage from one of the pretty little beaches.

From Agua Verde we made a one day (10 hour) passage to Isla San Francisco and had another quiet night. After that it was just two four hour days to La Paz. We could have done the last bit in one day but it was Super Bowl Sunday and the likelihood of raising someone on the radio to get a slip was pretty slim.

 

Back in the land of beautiful sunsets!

So here we are at a dock in La Paz. The alternator was replaced on Wednesday, the laundry is done, the boat is cleaned up and we are enjoying the chance to catch up with old friends and meet new. And now...we have decided this is the perfect place to have some additional work done on the boat so looks like we'll be here until the end of the month.

Oh well...cruising is all about flexibility!