Capt Rich
07/28/2012, Along with some Misc Photos of the Trip
Lori was pulled up the mast this morning to attach a new shackle on the Genoa halyard and we should now be ready to depart Bahia Santa Maria for Turtle Bay at 8AM tomorrow morning.
We would have liked to visit San Juanico and another anchorage or two between here and Turtle Bay, but we have a weather window that should let us sell most of the way to Turtle Bay…so we can’t turn that down!
Here are a series of Photos from the last few days in Mag Bay and Bahia Santa Maria.
The TelCel Banda Ancha card is working great. We plug it into a wireless router and then the 4 laptops aboard can all use the SVTHIRDDAY WiFi signal.
Cortez had to repel a boarder while we were anchored in Man-O-war cove
Mag Bay is teaming with sea life of every kind. The recently molted shrimp casings line the beach. With such an abundance of food chain items, life is teaming here in the cooler waters of Pacific Baja.
SV Hurrah preparing to set anchor off of Man-O-war cove. The town is SMALL, has one restaurant, and one small tienda.
Mexico is a young Country demographically and every town you visit is teaming with young kids. Man-O-war Cove is no exception and it looks like a future Panga Fisherman is in the works!
We landed this Dorado on our second day from Cabo San Lucas to Mag Bay. This fish brings our total Dorado count for the 4yr cruise to 31!
It seems that Lori and Amy are determined to fill every bit of empty space with shells and beach combing items before we hit San Diego. Here’s Amy’s shell find at Belcher’s Point in Mag Bay.
If you haven’t heard the Mark Mulligan song “Sand Dollar Millionaire” then go download it from his latest album. It’s a great song and something Lori takes seriously.
Technology is everywhere folks. Take a look at the shacks/houses in Man-O-war cove and notice the blue satellite TV/internet dishes on the rooftops.
SV Hurrah at anchor near the Puerto San Carlos shrimper dock, where we used the dingy to make diesel fuel runs.
SV Sea Raven and Hurrah are playing follow the leader as Jason leads the way out the curvy channel from Puerto San Carlos to Man-O-war cove.
If they knew Jason was at the helm, maybe they wouldn’t have been following us so close!
Cortez had his paws full keeping the bird life off the boat in Mag Bay. This Cormorant spent the night sleeping on our handing dingy, much to Cortez’s irritation.
SV Sea Raven is at anchor at Punta Belcher in Mag Bay.
| Baja Bash 2012 |
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Comments [0]Capt Rich
07/27/2012, Projects-Rest-Shelling-Working in Bahia Santa Maria
It occurred to me this morning, day 11 of our trip, that the last time I bashed from La Paz to San Diego I was able to make the trip in 12 days! That was with crew and on the more typical “Vacation from Work Bash Schedule” but the slower pace of this trip north seems more like our typical pace of slow cruising than bashing. We plan to leave here Sunday at noon for the 93 mile trip to San Juanico and if the weather forecast can be trusted at all (always dubious) then we should be able to sail all the way, but I’m not placing any bets. The problem we see coming is that starting next Thursday/Friday it will start blowing hard on the Northern 1/3 of Baja, so wherever we end up by Wednesday could be where we stay for another hand full of days. Hopefully we will be fortunate enough to have internet access with the TelCel Banda air Card so I can work while we wait.
After resting and “work” working yesterday, I started working on boat repairs this morning. First I had to tighten the alternator belt, then next up on today’s repair list are:
1. Get the Bow Navigation lights working
2. Add some oil to the hydrolic steering system at the helm
3. Pull someone up the mast try and fix our Genoa halyard/sail attachment.
The story of why we need to go up the mast starts as we were sailing from Man-O-war cove to Punta Belcher. We were please without selves for sailing the entire way and were just about to enter the anchorage and were making preparations to roll in the Genoa when we were hit by a 25kt wind gust. We healed over a bit more and the crew was watching our speed shoot from 6.5kts up to 8kts. Feeling a little over powered with the huge Genoa up we were just starting to turn into the wind to roll up the sail when…Pop…ping….splash. With the splash of the Genoa shackle overboard (or something from atop the mast we don’t know for sure yet) the Genoa slid down the roller furler a few feet and that’s when the fire drill started. We started the engine, turned into the wind and when I tried to roll in the Genoa it wouldn’t move! So in 25kts of wind the Genoa was flogging away as I “calmly and politely” asked Lori to fall back off the wind and refill the Genoa so I could figure out how to deal with the situation.
The sail needed to be rolled in so I went up on the bow to try and help roll it by hand while Jason put the furler line on the winch and Lori pointed our bow back into the 25kts of wind. It wasn’t easy rolling up the baggy Genoa but we finally got it in and dropped anchor next to Hurrah and Sea Raven, who I’m sure were trying to figure out what we were doing.
At this point we are not sure if the sail attachment point tore or what caused the Genoa to come lose from the halyard and slide down the roller furler, but with any luck we can get it repaired at anchor here in Bahia Santa Maria along with our running lights that stopped working on our pre-dawn departure from Punta Blecher. Just another day in paradise.
Boat projects won’t stop our little flotilla from having a good time. Tonight we are having a pizza party aboard THIRD DAY, we all have our priorities and good food and cruiser pot lucks easily trumps boat projects.
| Baja Bash 2012 |
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Capt Rich
07/26/2012, More to follow later
Easy trip to Bahia Santa Maria from Mag Bay 5AM to 10:12AM
TelCel internet is smoking fast here in BSM.
More details of the trip with the latest disaster to follow later today, but it will involve a trip up the mast to fix.
Time to hit the beach and become Sand Dollar Millionaires!
About Captain Rich
