Justin Francis Self-Portrait

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Good bye Steady Beat

We said good bye to Steady Beat on July 16. She has a new owner and a new life in Hawaii.
Why did we sell her? well simply because we ran out of money. We enjoyed our time on her and together while on the ocean but its time for us to get some jobs. Our plan is to buy another boat (smaller) to cruise the BC coast maybe in a year.
She was great 1st boat for us but it was time to move on.

We had an incredible adventure in Mexico and Hawaii and met so many great cruisers and non cruisers!

It will be an adjustment for us to be back on land but we know that we have been really lucky to have done 8 months of cruising for our honeymoon. We look foreward to cruising the BC coast and catching up with everyone.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Transpac, Transpac, all I am seeing are transpac boats!

So yes the 2009 Transpac boats have arrived with the fastest boat crossing the Pacific Ocean in 5 days and 14 hours setting a new record. There are parties and celebrations everywhere for the boats! Where was our party for lasting 27 days out at sea!!!?


Transpac boat with escort entering Ala Wai Harbour

When we got back form the mainland our chain plates were ready and we put them back on the boat late at night and early in the morning to beat the heat. I have been going to yoga classes at Diamond head and have gone out surfing twice! Roger, our next door neighbour and legend here in Hawaii, was kind enough to offer to teach me how to surf. With the south swell gone and the waves "little ankle bitters" I decided to give it a try.....and I have had such an amazing time! Roger takes his remodeled Boston Whaler with surfboards out beyond the break, drops anchor and surfs. Often Dr. John, a former high school student of Rogers, goes out too. Roger gets in the water with fins and a snorkel and pushes me when the waves come, helping me catch the waves. I am happy to report that as of today I am able to catch my own waves, stand and maneuver the board!! On the way back into the boat harbour we saw a pod of dolphins with babies, making my day!!! Roger is what the Aloha spirit is all about! Did I mention that he turned 72 on Sunday!

Dalia


Roger and Dr.John going out to surf


Jerry working on his boat "Glorious". Jerry was our neighbour in Mazatlan (Dock 6) and here!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

San Francisco

So we crossed the pacific to the mainland and it took us 5 hours...by PLANE! Justin's dad invited us to San Francisco to help him move apartments so we got on a plane and flew over the ocean. It was a bit humbling to do the trip back in 5 hours but I think we are still proud of our 27 days!

We helped move furniture in the morning and enjoyed the sites in the afternoon. We were also spoiled with great dinners a mere walk away from the apartment.

San Francisco is a fantastic city and we enjoyed the change from the Hyper-touristy Honolulu. Here are a couple of photos of our trip.


Dinner at a great little Italian restaurant


Justin and Gordon with the Golden Gate Bridge


Dalia and FAT CAT with the hills of San Francisco in the background

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Ala Wai Harbour


On our way into the Harbour...notice the surf on our right side.

We are currently docked on the 800 dock in Ala Wai Harbour and our boat is on the market for 6 weeks. We don't really want to do the sail back but if we don't sell the boat here then we have to sail it back.While we are here we are replacing all the chain plates on the boat after we found a crack in one of them.

We are facing the break wall and have the million dollar view of the ocean and all the surfers. The harbour is located right next to the world famous Waikiki beach! Its beautiful here and the sea life is vibrant, I even saw a sea horse in the marina yesterday!

More to come with some pictures of the view.....hope everyone is well


Million dollar view


The hotels of honolulu behind us

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Honolulu

We did an overnighter from Lahain, Maui and arrived off the coast of Honolulu around 7 am on June 15th. There has been a south swell hitting the islands for the last week and as a result some fantastic surf along the southern and eastern coasts of the Islands. Entering Ala Wai Harbour in Honolulu is the most dangerous thing we have done with Steady Beat. The surf was breaking on the reef on either side of the entrance bringing some fantastic rides to the surfers but a not so cool ride for us. I was watching for any breaking waves behind us as Justin surfed our 24,000 lbs into the harbour, it was SCARY.Below is a set of pictures of a boat leaving the harbour after we entered.







On the right side of the boat in the water you can see their life raft that was ripped off the deck.

With some quick thinking of some boater in dinghies this boat did not end up on the reef.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Maui

The trip across the channel was very comfortable and the scenery of the south coast of Maui was incredible with the remnants of the lava flows. Our first stop in Maui was Onela and we anchored off a black sand beach in 30 ft of crystal clear water.

We spent one night there and set off for a Molokin'i Island, a remenet of a crater 2.5 nm from where we were anchored which offered amazing snorkling and the only chance to sail your boat into a crater. The one problem with Molokin'i is the many tourist vessels and the mooring balls that are 6 feet under the surface and require a member of crew to dive down off the boat and retrieve the mooring line. This experience was complicated with the two of us and a crew member off of Lanai kai was kind enough to dive down for us.

We then sailed up the coast to Maui to Olowalu anchorage for a night. At Olowalu we were able to experience some fantastic snorkeling which included being up close to a dozen sea turtles. They are so cool to watch as they come up to breath and then swim back down and squeeze themselves in between the coral while they snooze.

We are currently on a Lahaina Yacht Club mooring ball of the town of Lahaina. This is such a cute town (very touristy), there is a harbour where we can dock our dinghy and walk into town. The Yacht club has showers (Yippy!!!!) and is letting us stay on their mooring ball for free. We have met such nice people through the yacht club. They have even organised for us to guest dock in Honolulu so we can get the boat ready to go back to Canada. Its nice to be back among a cruising community where everyone is impressed with our travels and want to help us.

We plan to sail to Honolulu Sunday night and hopefully get what we need for the boat and find a thrid crew member. If you know someone who has sailing experience that is interested leave us a note. A 3d crew member would really reduce the load on us and we could all get a continuous 8 hours of sleep a night. Internet is hard for us to find on the islands but we will update whenever we can....Aloha.


Mountains of Maui


Charter boats crowding Molikini

Nishimura Bay

As we arrived at 7 in the morning Justin was freaking out about the water depth because he could see the bottom very clearly. I informed him we were in 56 feet!!!! What a awesome change from Mexico!!!

We anchored in a sandy spot that we could see in 30 ft of water and went to bed all day with the occasional break to watch some arrested development on DVD. That day the wind speeds started to pick up and we had 4 days of 30 Knot North East (Yay the trades, where were you when we were crossing!?) their was a small vessel advisory. The channel between the Hawaii Island and Maui is notoriously one of the worst channels in the world as the wind funnels through the two islands! We waited till they calmed down and sailed for Maui. While in this bay we enjoyed snorkeling and seeing the dolphins and the spectacular sunsets over the other Islands!


Nishimura Bay


Justin playing his new guitar

Hilo

Justin got us cleared with Customs and came back to the boat to get me before we set off to visit the Dep. Of land and Natural resources to get a permit to be anchored in Reeds bay. It closed at two so we ran up to the office right away! We paid 20$ to be there for 5 days and then we walked into the Town of Hilo.

We enjoyed an expensive celebratory dinner at Cafe Pesto, did a couple of groceries and then crawled back to the boat for a long sleep. Over the next few days we managed to do our laundry, check our e-mail briefly at an antique store, frequented Kens Pancake house ( a MUST if you visit Hilo), saw a movie in a movie theater that is a school by day and bumped into someone that we knew from Montreal.

We met Beth at a bar we went to for some live music and dinner after our movie. We invited her and her boyfriend for a day sail and BBQ aboard Steady Beat on sunday. We had a great time with them and they were able to explain a lot about Hawaii, Hilo and the volcanoes (the lava flows and the Crater).

We ended up renting a car on monday and driving up to the crater, going to buy books and dvds at Borders, groceries and finally that night to the lava flows. On tuesday morning we woke up at 5 am, rowed in (we haven't put our outboard on the dinghy yet since there is a lot of vandalism reported in Hilo) and jerry jugged 20 gallons of fuel (and after we found a public tap) and 20 gallons of water (this took two trips with the car and poor justin rowing their and back every time).

We were pleasantly surprised when we got up on Tuesday morning Muna Kea finally showed herself to us, it was magnificent! Once we returned the rental car we went for one last breakfast at, guess where........Kens Pancake house!!!! We set off after a quick nap and sailed north along the coast to a small Bay on the north west corner called Nishimura.

Forgot to mention the lovely little guitar Justin bought himself for his birthday (on June 21st). We walked into a guitar and ukulale store in Hilo one day and Justin fell in love with a taylor travel guitar with a beautiful sound. It is perfect for the boat and now wehave to get rid of the larger guitar on board


Scott and Beth out for a daysail


Dalia in front of an old crater


Crater with sulfur spewing out

Trades to Hilo Bay

So we are finally in the trades after 17 days! This morning we encountered some drizzle which is the first precipitation we have seen in 6 months. You could see the Mexico dirt streak down our rigging, I know Steady Beat enjoyed the shower.
Sailing in the trades pretty much lasted 2 days and by the end of the 17th the wind was now coming from the East and the swell coming from the North East. On Day 18 Auto wasn't doing so well at the helm and had to go into exploratory surgery again. We found a partial rip in the belt which Justin repaired by sewing a patch. This was the first of many patches that Auto needed to get us to Hilo Bay. The first patch lasted 48 hours and the subsequent patches all lasted 10-12 hours. May 22d we were not able to patch Auto again and decided to hand steer till the waves became less hazardous for Auto. On the night of the 25th Auto received another patch that lasted until Hilo Bay. This was a real relief, since neither of us enjoyed the hand steering or the three hour shifts during the day and two hour shifts at night that came with it.

On the evening of the 27th with 85 nautical miles to go we watched the sun set in the west looking out for the 13000 ft mountains that make up the “Big Island”. No such luck, only clouds but still a beautiful sunset!All day we could hear people on the vhf and we could get some FM radio stations, it was sooo exciting to hear other voices and to know we are finally close to land! That night instead of our normal watch system we decided to do 3 hour watches so as to both get a minimum of 6 hours of sleep before we arrive. We decided since the wind were dying that we would motor sail the remainder of the 55.8 nm to Hilo so as to get there at 9 am and hopefully all our customs and immigration stuff before they close. 21 nm away we could see some lights on the island, which can be argued was our first sight of land, however we didn't truly see land we got about 4 miles off the coast. There was a thick mist all over the island and we could only just make out tree shapes. We later learned that the mist is in fact Vog and it comes from the Crater on the Island also the lack of trade winds to push it away.

Our excitement was short lived once we entered the break water and tried to enter Radio Bay. We were stopped by security and asked if we had been cleared by the Coast Guard to enter. We said no and that we wanted to, could we call them on the radio. No. We need to call them in Honolulu. No cell phone onboard we are faced with the dilemma of putting the boat somewhere so we can go ashore and call but we need to call to put the boat somewhere. Since 9-11, Homeland Security has taken control of the harbours in Hawaii state (I don't know about other states) and whenever their is a cruise ship in harbour their are some serious rules about being escorted to and from your boat and not being anywhere close to the cruise ship in your vessel (we were). The security women didn't know what to do but gave us a phone number to call.

We had traveled too long and were in need of a fantastic meal to sail to Honolulu so we decided to anchor in the small bay next door which turned out to be Reeds Bay. By 11:30 we had dropped our anchor and launched the dinghy. Justin was off to do all the official paper work which means we were officially in Hawaii!


Finally some tradewinds


Land Ho!


Finally in Hilo

Cabo to the Trades

Before we left Mazatlan Mija was kind enough to ask Don to give us some weather to get to the Trades. Once leaving Cabo Don said we should head south west to N 18 degrees to catch the trades. With a large storm hitting the west coast of California the trades had headed further south and if we wanted to meet up with them we should head south too. The wind and waves picked up from the North West as we headed south making this a really rough start to our passage. We had one reef in the main and our Genoa was up, we were headed 200 Degrees True making 6.5 kts! Later that evening Justin was checking the pilot charts and he saw some small islands in the vicinity of where we were going. Without any actual charts for this area or these islands we estimated their location and decided to avoid N 19 and W 115-120. This night after I made a chickpea curry Justin promptly got sick. He caught some kind of 24 hour bug that left him weak and tired. He still came out to do his watches while I encouraged him to eat some dry cheerios. As the day grew to night on our first day off to Hawaii we took down the Genoa and put up our working jib and put in another reef in the main.

Before leaving Mazatlan we downloaded the week predictions of passageweather.com and noted that later in the week there is no wind south of B aja. So in order for us to catch the Trades we need to be as far west from Baja as we can. That proved difficult in the following 6 days with us motor sailing every night as the wind died and then increasing everyday from the North West, West direction.Sailing up-wind, not what we expected. Along with the variation in wind we often had swell from the North and North West making the boat uncomfortable.

On May 9th the wind started coming from the North East direction but the shifted to North. This trend of North East wind shifting to North and back continued for 6 more days. We have now been sailing for 15 days, our position is N 18o56.3' W 130o53.8', we are 1343 nautical Miles away from Hilo Bay (half way there) and we have yet to encounter steady trade winds. Every day because of the wind direction changing we are either putting up our Genoa or replacing it with our working jib, reefing the main or shaking it out putting up the mizzen or taking it down. Sail changes can take up to an hour to execute if all 3sails need to be dealt with. This often removes an hour in someones “off time” and can be frustrating due simply for lack of rest. Through the entire trip we performed, on average, 3 sail changes a day for 27days.....it got old fast. We did get better by the 3d week in predicting changes and executing the sail trimmings. Our main reason for adjusting the sails was because of the complaints we heard from Auto (our wheel auto pilot). If the boat is unbalanced, as in there is some weather helm, you can hear the belt slipping in Auto or he starts screaming that he cant keep his course. So as to not upset Auto we spent time making the boat balanced so he would be happy and not cause mutiny.

We decided after we left Cabo to use our fuel to motor sail down to the location where the trade winds are located versus saving the fuel for the 500 nm east of Hawaii that had no wind (we saw this on passageweather.com before we left.) Thus by Day 11 we had used up the fuel allocated to get to the trades and that was our first 24 hours of sailing since leaving the continent. The rest of the fuel onboard was allocated to charging our batteries and for getting into port.

Days 11 to 15 the wind continued to shift from North to North East, the swell was increasing from the North. On Day 14 (18o58.3' N,130o27.7'W, Heading 270oTrue) we saw wind from the North East at 25 Knots and the swell was confused with a 10-13 foot swell from the North East and cresting. This was very uncomfortable and lasted for 24 hours until finally not sleeping made us head 260 True, so that the swell could be on our quarter and maybe we could get some sleep (it was still hard to sleep). On Day 16 (also May 16th) the wind was 20 knots from the North East and the swell was 8 ft from the North East.The last 72 hours with the rough swell and wind had made Auto unhappy. Day 16 Justin prepared Auto for a make shift surgery. We rapidly removed him from the helm as I took over and justin opened him up. He found 3 fractures associated with where the screws held Auto onto the wheel. Justin used some resistol epoxy putty to repair the fractures and Auto woke from the anesthesia back on the wheel and he was 100%!
By the 17th the wind was down to 10-15 kts from the North East and the swell was 3-5 ft.....finally we could get some sleep, we were in the TRADES!

From Cabo to the Trades, we saw dolphins (900 nautical miles from Baja!), Boobies (don't know if they were blue footed boobies), and I saw some whales the second day after we left Cabo (I think most have already migrated north to NA to feed). We saw one tanker, actually Justin was on watch and failed to see it, I came on deck and noticed it right away. On day 8 Justin turned on the water pump, heard it pumping and no water came out of the kitchen tap. He investigated and noticed that a piece of the carbon filter had broken off and he had just pumped 5 Gallons of water into the bilge. 2 things with this story 1) fast thinking on Justins part meant that we didn't pump 20 Gallons into the bilge (I would have stood there and decided that the tank was empty) and 2) good thing we keep the water pump off when we are not using it as we could have inadvertently pumped 100 Gallons into the bilge.


600 miles and still no trades


Justin looking for trade winds

Friday, May 29, 2009

Mazatlan to Cabo

We left Mazatlan on May 1st, a friday and for some sailors leaving on a friday is bad luck. We made the decision to sail to Cabo, fill with fuel and then sail south after we left Mazatlan. As we sailed to Cabo we didnt encounter anything “Bad Lucky”. Dons weather predicted no winds to take us accross to Baja California but we managed to do some motor sailing and sailing. It was a very quiet crossing with us being able to sleep comfortably in the V-birth. We saw the Baja Ferries leaving mazatlan for La paz but other than that no other boats. We saw lots of dolphins leaving Mazatlan and some really small dolphins (3feet long) the closer we got to Baja.

We decided to do the Swiss watch system which is broken down into 5 watch periods
(for 2 crew): 2100 - 0100 (4hours), 0100 – 0500 (4 hours), 0500 -1000 (5 hours), 1000 – 1600 (6 hours) and 1600 – 2100 (5 hours). This watch system was hard to at first but we learned to really like it.

On May 2nd as the sun set we were able to the outline of hills of Baja in the sunset. At 0100 you could see the lights of San Jose Del Cabo. We slowed the boat down to time our arrival with first light. On May 3d at 7 am we docked at a Pelican poo infested fuel dock at Cabo San Lucas and took on some more disel. We couldnt pay with credit card so Justiin walked onto land to find an ATM. We paid for our fuel and Justin gave all our left over Pesos to the fuel guy.

We were extremly impressed with the water clarity of the Marina. We could see the sand, fish and rocks at the bottom 10 feet down IN A MARINA! If thats the water quality of the marina imagine what the rest of Baja looks like? We are dissapointed that we didnt do the Sea of Cortez, just that little peek made us vow to come back one day and do the sea.

At 0739 May 3d Steady Beat left Baja for Hawaii with a lone sea lion waving us off. Its an Adventure!


our special seat in the cockpit


our new bed on the dinette


one sea lion waving us off

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Off to Hawaii



OK soooo...Week 4 has started with us running!
We never heard back from the boats in the old port about wind vanes (a way to automatically steer the boat) and eventually we took the bus down to find that everyone (along with their wind vanes) had left! Shock! Horror!

Ray at Mazatlan Yachts showed us a wind vane on a boat that has been abandoned for 15 years and we started negotiating with the authorities to buy it, but they backed out of the deal after a few days.

So we started the checkout process on Thursday morning. We were checked for animals and bugs and given a clean inspection by the authorities. We now have all our paperwork in order, all our food stowed and we are ready to go.

We leave tomorrow (Friday May 1) for Hilo bay, Hawaii. It is 2700 nautical miles. Averaging 4 knots gets us there in 28 days. Averaging 5 knots (ha!) would get us there in 22 days. We have enough food and water to last more than 60 days. So we are planning for about 30 days. If it takes more than 40 days, it may be time to begin worrying.

The weather looks beautiful all the way to hawaii with 15-20 knots of wind from the East and NorthEast along our general course. Check out passageweather.com for a pretty view of the wind on the way to Hawaii.

We'll update you all when we get to Hawaii!

Bellow is a picture of a diver at the Mazatlan Aquarium and all I could think is that he looks like he is being beamed up to the Star Ship Enterprise. yes?no?

Monday, April 20, 2009

Mazatlan, Week 3!

Ok.....so we are still here but we are making progress with getting the boat ready. We moved back to Marina Mazatlan last week to have our engine looked over. The engine is in good condition so we are getting some maintenance done to keep it that way. For this to be done we have moved over to Singilar Marina which charges us in Pesos (Marina Mazatlan charges us in U.S $) and as such we are able to save 12$ a night.

On Saturday Dalia climbed up to the mazatlan lighthouse which is the second highest naturally elevated lighthouse in the world. Our friends Pam and Joe on Sea Escape joined the climb up. It was a really cool view of Mazatlan! In other news we got a sim card for our phone (because calling cards are so difficult to find) and Justin gave Dalia a hair cut.


the view from the top of the lighthouse.

Week 3 is just starting so we will write more as the week develops!

All righty...more has happened. We got our injectors removed and they are being serviced, tested the holding tank, fixed the sink in the head and a couple of odd little jobs. Our hand held GPS died, a couple of days of research and announcements on the Morning cruisers Net provided us with a cheap replacement. The crew on Ocean Blue II provided us with a free SSB receiver which unfortunately broke down :( but we recovered quickly when Justin went out and bought one (for double the cost in Canada). Still in search of a hank on storm jib and now a self steering wind vane. We have a lead on 2 possible candidates in the old harbour however cost and time for instillation will be deciding factors..stay tuned for more on the self steering wind vane!

Last Friday, Steady Beat organised the Friday Night Raft up where we met Pamela on Precious Metal, the crew on Rutea, Sole Mate and old friends on Aquarius, Sea Escape and Escapade. It was a fun evening that ended with a 4 dinghy raft motoring back to the marina (lots of water pouring into our Ghetto Duck!).

Pamela came to visit Steady Beat on Sunday evening to have a look at the boat and give us advice on the crossing to Hawaii. 20 years ago, Pamela did a crossing with her husband and children from Victoria to Hawaii and onto New Zealand. Since then she was running a charter service from her home town Port Hardy on Vancouver Islands north tip and she had much advice and recommendations for us about sailing to Hawaii and in and around BC. We feel inspired and really excited about getting up north and doing some cruising up there. But first lets get there;)

We hung out a lot during our week with Jim and his friend Marty aboard Escapade going to the pool, out for dinner and some boat projects. The biggest was when Justin decided to finally change our almost useless Engine Kill switch. Jim and Marty came to help with the project and then we all raced over to Precious Metal for cocktails...it was a fun and late night!


We were sad to find out one morning that Bob from "Bobs Marine Mart" had passed away. Before we left Mazatlan he had helped us find many things for our boat, offered us lots of advice, took care of all the cats and was a pleasure to talk to. We will miss him.

Currently "Total Yacht Works" is on board adjusting the cylinder valves, they brought us our injectors yesterday and apparently our alternator is not far behind. Justin feels that all the projects on the boat are done and I am just organising the meal plane and the provision list. Tomorrow its off to the Aquarium and next week is week 4! and hopefully by Week 5 we will be underway for HAWAII!



All Dalias hair after her hair cut

raft of sea lions on our way from the old harbour to Marina Mazatlan

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Mazatlan Week 2

Mazatlan is turning out to be a longer stop than anticipated. We spent 10 days in the Marina where Justin worked on getting the boat ready to take to Hawaii and I spent 120$ on Chiropractic care for my back! I am happy to say that I no longer have back pain so it was worth it! Justin, poor guy, is feeling 10 days of hard work in the hot sun. We managed to seal all the leaks in our portholes (there were a few), build storm covers, stoppers for the dory vents, get our alternator looked at, etc....all in all it was very productive! The boat is near ready to sail off to Hawaii.

We moved to Stone Island for Easter weekend, which is one of the biggest holidays in Mexico. Children get two weeks off from school and most families head to the beach for two weeks. 400,000 people came to Mazatlan last week and Stone Island was full of partying Mexicans. There were a dozen banana boats around us (I thought of you Jade) and many kayakers came to inspect the boat. On Sunday arvo we moved to the old harbour, which is located right in the old town of Mazatlan. We are currently looking for a 3d crew mate, a storm sail, a single side ban radio (to receive radio info) and a couple of other small boat stuff.

We talked to many people during our time in the Marina about crossing over to Hawaii. Opinions and experience vary but we have decided that it will probably be our number 1 choice to get the boat back north. It looks like May-June is the best time to cross to Hawaii and August to get back to the continent.

More news to come in the next few days.......and I promise I will get organised with photos!!!

Photos are of: Sealing the ports, Slacker Kitty on Dock 6 and Justin getting a hair cut by Louis the barber.


Sunday, April 5, 2009

La Cruz and north to Mazatlan

So we spent a week in La Cruz enjoying the cheap marina fees, the movies (I had to see Confessions of a shopaholic), Domino's pizza and the company of our friends on Follow You, Follow Me who were waiting for the arrival of their last crew member before sailing off to the South Pacific Ocean.


Allan, Rena, Dalia and Justin

We sailed up to Dalia's favorite beach town,Chacala, on Tuesday morning where we met up with Lovely Reta and Meerkat for a hike up the hill to see some goats and lots of boogie boarding at the beach. After 4 days at Chacala we left at sunset to do an overnight passage to Isla Isabel.




Heather, Debby, John and Justin overlooking Bahia Chacala

We arrived at Isla Isabel at 9 in the morning on Dalia's champagne birthday (she turned 28 on March 28th), finally found an spot to anchor and made english muffins for breakfast. We napped and enjoyed the sunset. Justin did the dishes (as a gift to Dalia on her special day), made a wonderful chocolate cake and yummy pizza for dinner. This was the most low key Birthday Dalia has had since her 18th.....but on the other hand it was the most exotic birthday since her sweet 16th in Budapest and Prague. Not many people can say that they celebrated their champagne birthday on their honeymoon with whales and blue footed boobies off a island in Mexico....it was memorable.

Champagne Birthday!

We left Isla Isabel in the morning of the 31st of March and arrived at Marina Mazatlan in time for the morning cruisers net on April fools day. Right now we are researching the crossing to Hawaii and preparing the boat for such a crossing. Not a lot to be done, a few minor fix up things to be done before we sail for Baja and on to the Sea of Cortez and eventually for Hawaii. We have discussed the crossing with a couple of other cruisers and we are getting psyched for such an adventure. More to come in the next few days.....



Spotted Seagull eggs

Spotted Seagull chick (lower right corner)

Blue footed Booby checking out Steady Beat at Isla Isabella.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Cabo Corrientes

It is necessary to set the stage properly. Corrientes is notorious. It is even rumoured that a few boats have been lost while trying to round the point. If conditions deteriorate quickly and get bad, the current, waves and wind could put you onshore with more power than any boat can cope with. The best days to round this point is when the weather calls for calm winds and calm seas. The best time to round Corrientes is early morning and the worst time mid-afternoon. The best direction to round Corrientes (as if you had a choice) is South. With huge swells from the South for the last few days, and North winds of 20-25 knots while we waited in Chamela, we were not looking forward to our trip. We pounced on a weather window that called for no winds overnight and the next morning and hoped the predictions were accurate.

The best time to leave would be when there was no wind and when there was still light. Sunset, at 1900 is the best fit to those criteria. We needed to Corrientes before 1200 the next day or the currents and wind and waves would force us to spend the day at Ipala and head out again the next night to round Corrientes. What that meant was that we needed to average 4 knots for the first 65 miles to Corrientes and then average 5 knots to cover the 35 miles to La Cruz to arrive before dark. If we could not arrive before dark in La Cruz, it means we would have to anchor out instead of going into the marina for some rest.

Of course, when we left at 1740, there was still 15-20 knots of wind from the North. We would be making 3 knots into a 15 knot headwind the whole evening and into the early morning. Morale was low as we realised that unless we could average 5 knots for the rest of the journey, there was no way we would make it around the point that morning. By 0200 in the morning, however, the wind had died and the waves had calmed enough that we could take the sails down and begin motoring. Slowly over the next hour our speed under power increased from 3 knots to our normal cruising speed under power of 5 knots. Things were looking better.

Until 0900, when the waves started building again. The worst possible scenario. No wind to tack with, but the same choppy waves that would slow us down. Luckily, there is a normal 2 knot current setting North around Corrientes. With 15 miles to go to reach the point, we were making 3.5 knots. The mystery of the no-wind chop was resolved when the wind picked up 5 miles further North to 15 knots right on the nose. Putting our main up at 1100, we motor-sailed to point better into the wind and were making 4.2 knots good. We were somewhere between 2 and 3 hours behind schedule when we rounded Corrientes at 1300 just as conditions were deteriorating, but both of us would prefer to anchor in the dark at La Cruz than be rounding Corrientes again if we turned around to go to Ipala for the day.

After rounding the point, we could fall off the wind onto an upwind port tack. We were motorsailing with only the reefed main up and making 4 knots until the wind died down to 15 knots, when I felt we could put up more sail around 1400. So we shook out the reef, put up the drifter (light wind headsail) and suddenly we were motorsailing close-hauled at 5.5 knots. At that speed, we might actually make it. From there, it just got better as the wind moved further West, allowing us to be on a more down-wind tack. By 1600, we were making 6 knots under full sail with no engine heading straight for La Cruz, and arrived after two hours of our best sail of the trip.

We had made 100 miles in 24 hours around the infamous Corrientes and were rewarded with a delicious and expensive dinner of Italian food in La Cruz, and a wonderfully calm night's sleep tied to a dock in the cheapest marina in the world at $15 a night for puddle jumpers.

North to Chamela

After a few days in Las Hadas, we were ready to head back up North. We are both anxious to get up to the Sea before it gets too hot (and crowded). So directly from Las Hadas we went to Tenacatita skipping Barra. That trip taught us a lot about our boat as it was the first upwind journey we have had to make so far.

We were motoring up and things were going well until we hit Bahia De Navidad, which always has a wind pick up in the afternoon. Around 1500, we were less than 10 miles from our destination, rounding the Southern point of the bay. We rounded the point straight into 15 knots of wind. Our 26 horsepower engine managed to push our 12 tonne boat at a pitiful 2 knots against the wind and chop. The wind kept building to 20-25 knots, and it became clear if we wanted to make any way we would have to put up sails. We reduced our sail area by putting up the working jib and a double-reefed main. We then proceeded to motorsail while tacking upwind and we were still only making 2 knots or so in the direction we wanted to go (in retrospect, we probably had too little sail area out).

Finally arriving in Tenacatita at 2000 by moonlight and feeling confident because we had been there before, we promptly dropped our anchor next to the only hazard in the bay: a reef submerged due to the high tide. Waking at 0200 in the morning, we saw how close we were to the reef and re-anchored by moonlight once again. In the morning, we went over our GPS history and found that while we were never in danger of hitting the reef, we were certainly a little close for comfort. After so exhausting a day (11 hour sail and sleepless night) we spent two days recovering in the bay. Of course, the water was still murky.

After cleaning the bottom for the next upwind leg, going up the river for ridiculously slow lunch and generally having a ho-hum time, we left for Chamela on March 13th. This time luck gave us a wind such that we were on a single tack upwind for most of the day. Experience gave us the wisdom to know to start tacking early and keep our speed up even at the price of pointing further upwind (trigonometry does not lie). After a relatively easy sail, we arrived in Chamela after 8 hours of sailing.

The swell in Chamela was at least 6 feet from the South, which translates into a very uncomfortable anchorage. Isla Colorado, our favored little deserted island was simply out of the question as an anchorage for waves were sweeping the island from both sides. In the main anchorage, it was swelly, but that is better than wavy every day of the week, especially if the waves are breaking as they were at the island. The swells were so large, in fact, that it was more comfortable in 30 feet of water than in 20 feet. In 20 feet, the swells had already started piling up and becoming steep. The entertainment was watching the pangas (20 foot fiberglass fishing dories) deal with 8-10 foot breakers on the beach. We vowed to leave as soon as the waves died down in two days to round the infamous Cabo Corrientes in the upwind direction.

Stuck on our boats due to the waves, the boats in the anchorage (Sirius, Aurora, Samantha, G-Rated) passed the time by psyching ourselves about the horrors we would experience when we tried to round Corrientes. We decided to leave with Aurora around sunset on the 15th of March, hopefully rounding Corrientes around mid-morning to arrive in La Cruz that afternoon. The backup plan was to head into Ipala (a bay just South of the point) for the day if things got nasty or we could not make the point by noon.

Bahia de Santiago

On the way to Santiago Bay we encountered a red tide,a jelly fish bloom and my favourite, a pod of dolphins. There were probably 100-150 Dolphins jumping out of the water headed north. We were aimed at a smaller pod and they caught our bow wave for a free ride. By the time Justin came up with the camera they had already returned to their pod headed north.



Our attitude for these sightings is to enjoy the moment because its usually short lived and we are not professional photographers and any pictures we take will probably not turn out anyways.

All along our cruise south along the coast we are trying to better understand the boat. The number 1 concern is energy consumption. For the past week Justin has using his maths skills to work out how many Amps our solar panels, wind vane and alternator put into our batteries. He took it on himself the otherday to clean the battery connections and to measure voltage acrosss different connection in the boat with the multimeter. Its been at least 6 years for Justin and close to 8 years for me since we both used Ohms Law and calculated resistance or voltage across a circuit. Its the first time I have had to usethese skills since finishing physics in CEGEP. At the time I remember telling my physics teacher that since I wanted to go into biology these skills would never serve me again. Well I have been proven wrong....if you own a boat then you will need to use them again.



After 2 days we left Santiago for a short motor to Bahia de Manzanillo and anchored directly outside the Las Hadas Hotel. On our way out of Bahia de Santiago we saw the red tied. It seems the red tied will arrive and depart without much notice and doesnt ever really last long. This part of the bay looks as though we are in Greece with its white buildings stacked up. We dinghied into the marina and had lunch by the pool. Today we do a little provisioning and maybe we will leave tomorrow back north.....but who knows. As everyone says here "plans are written in the sand at low tide".


Melaque and Barra de Navidad

Melaque is a town situated at the northern end of Bahia de Navidad (Yes, Christmas Bay). It offers the typical Palapa restaurants, white sandy beach and good holding for the anchoring. We anchored bow and stern to the swell. We decided that we would take the dinghy to the Barra lagoon with our handheld GPS and the GPS way points. Barra lagoon is situated at the south end of the Bay and requires careful maneuvering through a narrow channel with mud bars on either side. We wanted to check it out and see if we wanted to go to the lagoon. The trip across the bay was wet in our little dinghy and we worried about the trip back. We checked out the lagoon and then landed our dinghy at the Sands Hotel. We eventually found our way to port captains office and found him talking to a neighbor outside. We walked into the office and he came running in to his post behind his glass partition to tell us that he was closed. Justin played it a little dumb and he decided to finally check us in. We then wandered the town of Barra to find a restaurant that would serve Justin a Hamburgesa con papas (he is still on his search for the best hamburgers and pizza in Mexico). Once our upper was done we headed to the French Baker's cafe for a latte and apple pie. We debated to hang around Barra till the wind died down or to bite the bullet and get wet in the dinghy ride back to the boat. We decided the later. As we moved against the current and the waves poured into Ghetto Duck we vowed to never do that trip again by dinghy!

Thursday ended up being an errand day where we went into the town of Melaque to do some internet, lunch and some groceries. Friday we went to a restaurant/Deli that was recommended to me by a man swimming by the boat the night before. Chez Penny is small deli where we discovered some imported extra sharp cheddar, something we have been dying for since all Mexican cheese lacks any real flavour. After dinning on cheddar sandwiches, potato salad and buying all sorts of baguettes and croissants we finished doing groceries and headed back to the boat. We went for an evening swim, rinsed off and headed over to Lovely Reta for drinks and horse ovaries (as Debbie calls it). John and Debbie, on Lovely Reta, are another couple from Dock 6 that Justin became good friends with while working on the boat and left for cruising before I arrived in Mazatlan. It was so very nice to meet them after Justin had talked so much about them! They were heading into the Barra lagoon the next day to catch up with some boats anchored in there and at the last minute on saturday morning we decided to follow them into the lagoon. Once Anchored, we launched the dinghy and picked up our laundry. We met up with Tristan &Mindy and they invited us over to the Grand Bay Hotel where they had some passes that we could use to go swimming in one of the three pools. We spent the afternoon colling off in the pools and waterslides which was a nice change from sea water;)

On Sunday Dalia took the dinghy into town on her own and spent 2 hours looking for long distance calling cards since she had a couple of calls to make on monday concerning her student loan. On Monday Dalia and Justin took the dinghy into Barra where Dalia made her calls (very frustrating) and Justin checked out with the port captain, checked his e-mail,bought a pizza, banana bread and some croissants. We had lunch on the beach and headed back to the boat. We dropped off Justin's purchases and headed to the town of Colimilla which is across the lagoon from Barra. In Comlimilla we did our final stock up of fresh produce, juice and water at the famous Maria's Tienda. Which was promptly delivered to Steady Beat that evening.

Upon our return Justin noticed that two boats in our proximity had swapped positions in the anchorage and one boat was closer to us than before. Concerned Justin try to hail both boats on the vhf and was unsuccessful. Another boat in the anchorage hailed us and proceeded to explain that boat 1 had dragged back onto boat no2 who moved out of the way and several cruisers in the vicinity got into their dinghies and threw out a second anchor on boat no 1. The wind had picked up considerably in the afternoon in the lagoon causing boat no 1 to drag back and no one was on the boat. The importance of putting out enough ground tackle was the lesson from that close encounter.

Tuesday with our boat stocked with provisions we pulled up our anchor and headed to the fuel dock for diesel and water and then South to Manzanillo.