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Letters
From The Blue Water - Page Two
The Log
Of The Yacht Barraveigh
By Colin
Reedy
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..March
2006
| 9 DEC
05 sailing
All is good…eating well…sleeping
fine…no more barfing after the first day. Improving my Spanish by leaps
and bounds…I’d say I’m conversational in 3 tenses. The other guys look
to me to translate. Catching a fair number of small tuna-type fish…skipjack?
Ryan gave fillet lessons and now we’re all into it….bloody mess. In the
relatively small area of the cockpit, we need a better system…not sure
how we’re going to deal with a big flipping bleeding slippery 30+lb yellowtail
tuna. Our freezer is getting stocked with fillets. We are now half way
down the Baja…which doesn’t seem so far for two week’s travel…but I read
it’s the longest peninsula in the world. Almost daily whale sightings as
we pass along their winter gathering grounds. We just left the big hook
of land near central west Baja…Cedros Island, Tortuga Bay…and are headed
to Magdelana Bay. I’d like to explore closer to shore to see more whales
and maybe kayak the estuaries where they breed….but we are 20 miles offshore
to get better winds. Bob and Ryan want to get past Cabo and onto warmer
waters. They’re from Arizona...they think this is cold.
10 DEC 05 sailing
6am watch….sitting here tapping on
my little 12” apple ibook….fits perfectly on the flip-up table in front
of the wheel…I like this watch because I get the sunrise every morning…the
glowing screen illuminates the cockpit….until the sun takes over. Really
happy with this new computer….the battery on this thing just goes and goes….and
charges up fast on our inverter….hope it survives the marine environment.
I keep it zipped up and surrounded by dozens of those little silicon dry
packets…and I have a dedicated dry bag when I kayak it ashore.
Good sailing last night. I started
my midnight watch with 8-9 knots of wind and 5.5 knots of boat speed. Wind
picked up to 15 and the boat touched over 7 for an hour as we plowed thru
the waters….funny to get excited about going roughly 7 miles an hour….and
tilted over at a 15 degree angle…definitely a different type of road trip.
Yesterday we had the usual slight wind situation…motoring at 5 knots….sails
down to keep from flogging…and I could see the tiny island we left hours
before….still there….so close….we’d made so little progress.
8am….i’m getting 6 kts of speed out
of only 10-11kts of wind for over an hour now….yes! 45 degrees off the
port bow….coming from the land, which is strange, but here it is called
a ‘chubaso’ wind….or something like that….the land is hot desert and flatter
at this part of baja….winds rush across and out to sea…especially in morning
as temps change…cool. Can be nasty at some times of year…but now it is
great…perfect sailing…bit of tilt…coffee in hand…looking for more whales.
12 DEC 05 Bahia Tortuga
I can taste the salt water that washed
the rim of my coffee cup. Yesterday I rearranged the plumbing to isolate
our fresh water tanks from the kitchen foot pump faucet. Now we can pump
all the water we want to wash dishes or boil pasta and crab. We carry 90
gallons of fresh water in 3 built-in tanks and another 20 gallons in 4
collapsible plastic containers that clutter the cockpit floor. So far so
good. We even did our dishes with fresh for almost two weeks now, and we
have plenty left. Of course…we don’t shower. We found great showers at
a marina in Ensenada on the 6th. Yesterday we celebrated the salt water
switch by washing our hair in the kitchen sink and sponging down. Then
rode the dinghy ashore for a big 60th anniversary of the Tortuga Fishing
Collective....yeah.
We stopped in Tortuga due to low
beer supplies…and veggies and eggs. We plan to go non-stop to Cabo next.
Maybe one more stop. This is a big whale breeding area and we have seen
many grey whales spouting in the distance and a few flipping their huge
tails close up. They are arriving now from summer in Alaska and Siberia.
Huge whale bones collected by locals decorated the entrance to a beach
bar we visited. I’m sure I’d haul back my weight if I have the chance to
wander the beaches…the cockpit is already strewn with a seal skull and
cool spine sections.
The town of Tortuga is small, dirt
roads divide dusty cinder block houses, every other one is a ‘work in progress’.
A big rusty trawler lies on its side at the harbor and a small sailboat
that beached last spring is now a playground for kids…half buried in the
sand and stripped of anything valuable. The California registration stickers
are still visible. Lobster and abalone are the local claim to fame. We
hope to find both.
So we show up at the Anniversario
del Collectivo last night and the beer was free! Three guys sat behind
a big vat of iced 20oz bottles which they eagerly opened and poured as
fast as we could drink it. Compliments of the Collectivo. Amazing. The
band played typical Mexican music, fast…jumpy. Bob calls it ‘clown music’
and claims every song was the same. I noticed some Columbian Cumbias. The
dancing was nice to watch…how do they all know when to switch styles? 1,
2, 3, 4…or 1,2…1,2. I was close to mustering my Columbian bred dancing
skills, but decided against. Bob made a valiant effort to meet a local
chica. He just sat himself down in front of a group of three girls, smiling
his huge smile and flogging their language. Two left immediately and the
third wouldn’t even make eye contact. Adding injury to insult, the chair
he sat in held a nice puddle from the light rain. Hilarious.
13 DEC 05 sailing to the Bay of
Whales
….time goes slowly on a sailboat…reading
more in the last two weeks than the last 6 months…everything from diesel
mechanics and sailing magazines to Spanish grammar and Darwinian biology.
We cleared out of Tortuga Bay late
yesterday after Ryan and I took a hike up one of the mountains and loaded
up with more beer and tortillas. Nice fresh flour tortillas. The wind was
blowing great…but the main sail stuck coming out of that stupid furling
system. We did circles in the large bay trying to fix it and eventually
gave up….decided to just use it 80% out. At least it goes IN well enough.
Better than the opposite in case we need to decrease sails in a hurry.
BARRELING DOWN BAJA…. I made my best
pasta sauce yet with some local peppers and beef…then just after we finished
dinner outside in the cockpit, it started to blow. Woke for my midnight
watch to find 20+ knots of wind and over 8 knots of boat speed! Wind and
waves in the same direction looks deceivingly calm…but the boat was rolling
and pitching like never before. I had my harness and life jacket on….playing
with the sails…almost at the point of reefing…
At 8pm Bob and I had reefed the main
about 20% and rolled up the head sail in 30 knots of wind and light rain…and
we were still doing 8.5 knots…downwind. Fast for this boat…and a good learning
experience for all as the boat pitched and yawed from 5-6 foot waves at
the stern. Fun to connect my safety harness to the stern rail and stand
up…looking over the dodger canopy and countering the pitching with my knees…hanging
on tight…dark water rushing past…a bright moon illuminates even thru overcast
skies…highlighting the white caps breaking all around…what a ride! But
impossible to sleep thru… |
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Hitching A Ride To A Surf
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Fast forward 4 hours to midnight…my
watch again…tried to sleep…could only lay there tossing…then listening
to Ryan flog the sails. Stepping into the cockpit geared out in my harness
and life jacket ready for the worst…still rolling and pitching, but less
than half the wind…and CLEAR skies with stars. And dry warm air. Such a
huge change...and a nice welcome to the Bay of Whales.
15 DEC 05 Bahia Santa Maria
Ended three days out sailing...anchored
last night shortly after dark (never drive at night in mexico!)…huge shallow
bay…almost full moon made it easy…finally, a full night’s sleep. Woke up
early, packed the usual food-water-camera-2way radio, and took off solo
with the kayak. Wanted to explore an estuary area that ends in sand dunes…then
hike the dunes over to a long lonely beach that probably has cool things
washed up..to poke at and examine. The estuary was a mangrove maze full
of birds…I had to time my entry with the waves breaking…near the mouth
were a few clusters of shacks housing lobster fishermen…too early to buy.
Had to literally cut my way into a slot in the mangroves to get ashore
near the dunes…left the kayak stashed in the mangroves tied to a tree trunk.
Long hike across windswept dunes that resembled the waves from the other
night…thousands of shells scattered about…came across a pair of wandering
ragged donkeys (?)…and scared a coyote away from a big dead sea lion carcass
at the beach….old freighter shipwreck…a washed up rusted container…dozens
of bones and whole skeletons….each one an archeological discovery to interpret.
Dolphins, seals, sea turtles, sharks, and huge whale vertebra. Cool. Carried
home the skull of a big sea turtle..to add to my ‘science’ collection.
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16 DEC 05 Bahia Santa Maria -
The trick is trade
All three of us took the dinghy up
the estuary in hopes of lobster and a hike…zooming thru narrow mangrove
lined channels…landed at a cluster of wooden shacks…two fishermen stood
unloading their catch. rustic scene…but tidy and organized…nets neatly
laid out, traps stacked, strings of colorful buoys, clean boats (all named
Isabel)….even the dirt grounds were meticulously raked…like a zen rock
garden. Maybe that’s why they charged so much for the lobster….prices were
set by “El Cooperativo”…the lobster mafia…they didn’t haggle…we left without
dinner, but managed a good hike near the sand dunes.
End of the day, Bob made a go at
surfing a small break…but the low tide exposed too many rocks…so we motored
out to watch the really big waves off the point. No luck. Cold and wet
driving back into the wind…veered off to check on 2 fishing boats…looked
like shrimpers. “hola, que tipo de pescado tienes?.... ”camerones!” he
said with a smile. Great, shrimp! Talk of prices didn’t go far, but they
asked for cigarettes, magazines…what did we have? None of us smoke, but
we’d meant to bring a couple cases of cigarettes just for this reason.
Damn. Then I recalled a bottle of champagne I had in the fridge…a gift…I
don’t even like champagne. 20 minutes later we handed the bottle up to
an excited young guy…who then filled our igloo cooler with pounds of huge
shrimp. an awesome dinner. The trick is trade.
20-23 DEC 05 Cabo San Lucas -
Turbo tourism
Came in at dawn past the big rocks
and the famous arch….keeping wide of two huge cruise ships…picked up fuel
and info inside the crowded harbor…then anchored outside it along the beach
strip east of the town. We managed a free anchorage about 100 yards from
shore in 30 feet of water…just off two loud beach bars. This was fun for
about two days, and now I’m ready to leave…but…I’ve been out voted and
it seems we stay thru Christmas. This place has endless attractions for
the tourist….air conditioned malls, theme bars, day fishing, hip harbor
bistros….all to the droning sound of jet ski engines. There is even a Costco,
and I heard about a Home Depot and a proposed Wallmart. ...someone´s
paradise.
I met a group from Florence, Italy,
the first day…so I’ve filled the Cabo culture void with their company…and
revived my Italian. Now I rarely complete a sentence or thought in any
single language…and resumed waving my hands when I speak.
Harder to motivate on boat projects
now here in Mexico….still need to install oil pressure gauge…oil leaks
from a few places it shouldn’t…oil pressure ‘alarm’ works in case pressure
drops too much, but prefer to add a ‘gauge’ for exact info. Battery charging
is still a mystery…it works, but not as predictable as it should be…Bob
and Ryan generally handle that while I focus on the engine….but…I’m carefully
reading a couple books on sailboat electrics and hope to understand the
systems better. I think this boat has electrical systems that are too complex,
aging, and slightly neglected…the usual story. and all added at different
times...on top of each other. I’d prefer to start simpler and build on
what we know, adding complexity gradually. Instead, we chase problems thru
nests of greasy wires, test here and there, read manuals, and make guesses
about how everything is tied together. We tend to figure it out in the
end...but it´s not the most efficient.
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Article
Continued Below -
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Next Months Letters From
The Blue Water - Morning Paddle - Coffee - Chasing Whales
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Continued
From Above -
31 DEC 05 Mainland Mexico
Now the trip really starts. The past
three months were preparation and shakedown. We know the boat…and it’s
problems. We know each other…and our quirks and abilities. And we’ve got
a rhythm going for the day to day life either at sea or anchor. Baja California
was the warm-up for Mexico.
After a fast crossing of the Sea
of Cortez, we pulled into Mazatlan about 11pm and anchored just inside
the jetty. According to the Lonely Planet guide book, Mazatlan is the largest
fishing and commercial port in Mexico, and the largest shrimp industry
in the world. Sure enough, vendors camped out at busy street corners hawking
fat prawns from murky buckets of sea water…I bet those shrimp are especially
good after long day in the hot sun.
This place is wet…humid…compared
to the Baja Peninsula. More plants, grass, birds, and probably some great
bugs. On the Baja, mornings were dry. Here, the boat is soaking wet with
condensation in the morning. All my electronics are wrapped in zip locks
bags with lots of little silicone dry packs…concerned about the computer…cameras.
And it’s only going to get wetter. I made moisture absorbers from old Tupperware
containers… based on a design I saw…one month on Baja sucked a pint of
water out of the air…I’ll probably get that in a week on the mainland.
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