Date: Mar 14, 2012, Time: 10:10am hawaii time
22° 19.'8 N 112° 10.8' W
Wind speed: 11 / wind dir: NW, Heading: 278, Speed: 5.7
Barometer: 1016, Water Temp: 67
Log: 3190.9, Batteries: %100
Distance remaining: 2406 Previous 24 hour run: by GPS: 146
After leaving the Marina in Puerto los Cabos we (Sockdolager, Zulu and Luckness) encountered south wind of around 5 knots. We all motored over to the tip of the Baja peninsula south of Cabo San Lucas in order to get more wind and a better departure angle. None of us wanted to hang around this area with all its traffic, but rather wanted to get our trip underway and start making our distance offshore. Sockdolager and Zulu are both headed to French Polynesia. It was cool being in a group of three boats and six people, where everybody was undertaking a major passage. It almost seemed ordinary to be doing this.
As we rounded the cape, the wind kept veering and ended up at WNW, which was forecast. I started sailing, heading south of my rhumb line but making distance away from the cape. Over the next several hours the wind continued to veer, ending at NW for the evening. The wind strength increased to the range 12 to 18 and I was off to a fast start. Luckness was moving through the water nicely, although with my apparent wind angle at 50-60 degrees on starboard, in these winds it was a wet ride. By the morning the wind had continued to veer to be roughly from the north, where it is now. The wind strength has come down somewhat, but I'm still making good progress. There also appears to be roughly a half of knot of current helping me, which is nice.
I'm currently around 25 miles south of my rhumb line between my departure point and Hilo hawaii. I'm currently making some of this back as my course is north of my bearing to Hilo - so at some point over the next day or two I'll probably end up north of my line which is where I'd like to be for this trip. The south I sacrificed yesterday was for a good cause: my comfort and progress. With the winds as they are now, I can start paying back the southing I borrowed yesterday.
Energy is plentiful, the batteries haven't been below around 98% full so far. The wind generator is working like a champ in these conditions.
Surprisingly, there are lots of targets being acquired by my AIS, I'm currently seeing 20 targets. However they are all far over the horizon. If I didn't have AIS I wouldn't even be aware they were out there.
Everything is going well with the boat and I.
I'll try to update my position reports daily, so those of you with access to my main blog page, you can click on my location link to see where I am once a day. Again - if I don't update for several days, please don't worry!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Mexico: See ya later!
Tomorrow morning I'll be starting my passage to Hawaii. Its a little surreal for me when I say that out loud. This passage has been so long in the planning phases that its a little hard for me to believe that tomorrow I'll be getting up, finishing a few little projects (breakfast for example), and then I'll be leaving Puerto los Cabos and Mexico behind. In the lingo I've heard on some SSB radio nets: Outbound Mexico, Inbound Hilo Hawaii.
The boat is refueled, although once I leave tomorrow I won't be motoring very much as Hawaii is simply too far for that to be a viable option for me. I have 60 gallons of diesel on board, giving me a motoring range of roughly 300 miles (actually a little more than that, but for planning purposes you estimate low.) Hilo is 2558 miles away from where I am as I write this, in a straight line. (A great circle route to Hilo is 2534 miles - the difference isn't meaningful on a trip this length.) It appears that the forecast shows wind in this area tomorrow, so I may be able to start sailing pretty soon after I leave and then not stop until I arrive. That would be awesome.
If I sail at a constant 4 knots, I should be there in 26 days. If I sail at 5 knots, it comes down to 21 days. At 6 knots I get there in 17 days. Just for fun, if I could sail at freeway speeds, I could be there in a day and a half. I like to sail at a pretty leisurely pace, not pushing myself or the boat too hard The winds won't be constant in direction or strength. I may decide to stop along the way to take in the sights (or get some solid sleep) and so I expect this passage to take something like 21 to 30 days. I have enough food on board for two or three people for a 30 day passage. I'm not sure what came into me, but I couldn't walk by a supermarket without buying several hundred dollars worth of groceries - the boat is full of food. My water maker has been working very well and my water tanks are currently full and I expect them to stay that way.
The weather between where I am and Hawaii has several different areas where there are statistically different winds. On a passage of this length, you really only have a choice of the time of year you leave, and then you pick your weather window for leaving - but after a few days out the weather just starts being what its going to be. Long range forecasts aren't available or accurate out past 4 or 5 days. In the area I'm currently in, I expect to have NW winds initially. After a while, the winds will tend to be from the north, and after that the winds should veer around to NE or east. The trade winds are generally NE or east, with NE being more probable. The trade winds are likely to be more fickle at this time of year than later in the summer. However we're only talking averages. The wind will be what it will be. If anybody reading this is worried about hurricanes - this isn't hurricane season, don't worry. Hurricanes need the water to be much warmer than it is now. Warm water basically feeds hurricanes and they won't be a concern until much later in the summer. If any of you are reading this from the Pacific Northwest there seems to have just been a nice little storm roll through the area. What I'm experiencing down there is nothing like what's going on up there. Here is a weather map of the pacific as it is today:
Hawaii is in the lower middle - look around 20° north and 155° west. There is another low approaching the Pacific northwest and its iso-barametric lines are tightly packed. Wind is generated by a pressure difference, tight iso-barametric lines means there is a large pressure difference, hence more wind. Now look across from hawaii, east. There are widely spaced iso-barametric lines in that area - which means much less wind. Bummer for us sailors. Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if I experienced gale strength winds along the way for a short period - but no hurricanes.
I'll be receiving weather updates daily via my SSB radio. If it stops working along the way, I'll then be doing what sailors have been doing for centuries. I will have left at a good time of year when the weather looked promising in the short range forecasts, I have a well found boat and I'll just keep on sailing until I get there.
Luckness and I are ready to go!
Wish me luck! I may update this blog while underway, but if it doesn't happen, don't worry! Electronics can be a little fragile and I would hate for a radio failure to cause undue stress for any of you. I'll update you when I arrive, if not before.
I arrived in Puerto los Cabos on Saturday March 10th after having left La Paz on Monday. It was a pretty relaxing trip down the coast.
Sockdolager left La Paz at around the same time and we met along the way and then we buddy boated down the coast. 'Buddy boated' is a good term for what we're doing, they're good buddies. I first met up with the crew of Sockdolager, Jim and Karen, in Port Townsend as a Sailing Symposium. We stayed in touch and have met up all the way down the coast and in the Sea of Cortez over and over. They are heading to the Marquesas this morning. Its going to be a mixed departure. I'm super excited to be leaving on this trip as they are on theirs, but I'll be a little sad to be saying 'see ya later!' to some good friends.
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| Sockdolager arriving in the marina |
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| Luckness and Sockdolager |
The boat is refueled, although once I leave tomorrow I won't be motoring very much as Hawaii is simply too far for that to be a viable option for me. I have 60 gallons of diesel on board, giving me a motoring range of roughly 300 miles (actually a little more than that, but for planning purposes you estimate low.) Hilo is 2558 miles away from where I am as I write this, in a straight line. (A great circle route to Hilo is 2534 miles - the difference isn't meaningful on a trip this length.) It appears that the forecast shows wind in this area tomorrow, so I may be able to start sailing pretty soon after I leave and then not stop until I arrive. That would be awesome.
If I sail at a constant 4 knots, I should be there in 26 days. If I sail at 5 knots, it comes down to 21 days. At 6 knots I get there in 17 days. Just for fun, if I could sail at freeway speeds, I could be there in a day and a half. I like to sail at a pretty leisurely pace, not pushing myself or the boat too hard The winds won't be constant in direction or strength. I may decide to stop along the way to take in the sights (or get some solid sleep) and so I expect this passage to take something like 21 to 30 days. I have enough food on board for two or three people for a 30 day passage. I'm not sure what came into me, but I couldn't walk by a supermarket without buying several hundred dollars worth of groceries - the boat is full of food. My water maker has been working very well and my water tanks are currently full and I expect them to stay that way.
The weather between where I am and Hawaii has several different areas where there are statistically different winds. On a passage of this length, you really only have a choice of the time of year you leave, and then you pick your weather window for leaving - but after a few days out the weather just starts being what its going to be. Long range forecasts aren't available or accurate out past 4 or 5 days. In the area I'm currently in, I expect to have NW winds initially. After a while, the winds will tend to be from the north, and after that the winds should veer around to NE or east. The trade winds are generally NE or east, with NE being more probable. The trade winds are likely to be more fickle at this time of year than later in the summer. However we're only talking averages. The wind will be what it will be. If anybody reading this is worried about hurricanes - this isn't hurricane season, don't worry. Hurricanes need the water to be much warmer than it is now. Warm water basically feeds hurricanes and they won't be a concern until much later in the summer. If any of you are reading this from the Pacific Northwest there seems to have just been a nice little storm roll through the area. What I'm experiencing down there is nothing like what's going on up there. Here is a weather map of the pacific as it is today:
Hawaii is in the lower middle - look around 20° north and 155° west. There is another low approaching the Pacific northwest and its iso-barametric lines are tightly packed. Wind is generated by a pressure difference, tight iso-barametric lines means there is a large pressure difference, hence more wind. Now look across from hawaii, east. There are widely spaced iso-barametric lines in that area - which means much less wind. Bummer for us sailors. Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if I experienced gale strength winds along the way for a short period - but no hurricanes.
I'll be receiving weather updates daily via my SSB radio. If it stops working along the way, I'll then be doing what sailors have been doing for centuries. I will have left at a good time of year when the weather looked promising in the short range forecasts, I have a well found boat and I'll just keep on sailing until I get there.
Luckness and I are ready to go!
Wish me luck! I may update this blog while underway, but if it doesn't happen, don't worry! Electronics can be a little fragile and I would hate for a radio failure to cause undue stress for any of you. I'll update you when I arrive, if not before.
Monday, March 5, 2012
La Paz: See ya later!
Just a quick note that I'l be leaving La Paz an hour or so after this is posted. I was going to write up a long post about La Paz, but find I'm out of time - I may write something up later. The short versions is: this town is awesome. The people are super friendly and the town is interesting.
I'll be leaving here and stopping at a number of anchorages as I make my way down the coast toward the tip of the Baja peninsula.
There are basically five destinations for boats from here: north into the sea of cortez where they can avoid the hurricane season; south along the coast to avoid the hurricane area; toward the South Pacific; to Hawaii; or back up the coast to America. There are a number of boats I've met who are heading to the South Pacific - every time I hear them talking among theirs selves about their destination, I feel a little pang of longing to join them. My plan is to head over to Hawaii and from there back to the Pacific Northwest. I'm looking forward to everything about this next phase of my trip: the passage, arriving in Hawaii and cruising around.
I should be starting my passage either late this week or early next. The boat is ready to go, I believe I have all the provisions I need, and I'm feeling good.
Monday, February 20, 2012
In La Paz, part three
I returned to La Paz from my latest trip to the islands on thursday, Feb 16th. I was away for 18 days this time. This is likely to be my last return trip to La Paz this season. I'll be moving along with my journey in a week or so.
On this latest trip to the islands, I saw some of the same places I had been to earlier along with a few new things. Since the local islands are so beautiful, I don't mind repeating the same anchorages more than once. I decided long ago to spend more time in the local area rather than sailing far and wide visiting as much as I could but not staying anywhere very long. I've really enjoyed these islands.
After leaing La Paz to start this trip, I returned to Bahia San Gabriel where I stayed for a night. The next morning I moved on to Ensenada Grande where I stayed for a few days. There are three lobes to the anchorage at Ensenada Grande and when I arrived the middle lobe was empty and so that is where I pulled in and collected another little anchoring story... The middle lobe is fairly small, but large enough for two or three boats. The morning of the 1st another boat pulled in and anchored 240ft away (which I measured via my radar.) I went for a hike that afternoon and when I got back I found the boat was now 120ft away, although the wind direction hadn't changed and the wind wasn't very strong (in the 10-15 range.) They were dragging down on me. I had around 120 feet of chain out in 20 feet of water - and so rather than going over to try to convince them to move, I quickly decided that I would move and within a few minutes I was raising the anchor. As the anchor was raised Luckness was being pulled closer to the other boat, with my closest point of approach being less than a boat length. Yikes. I moved to the north lobe of the bay which was empty.
On the 3rd I left Ensenada Grande for a new island - Isla San Francisco which is roughly 20 miles north of Ensenada Grande. The forecast was for NW 5-10 knot winds and what I got was NW 15-22, meaning I was sailing upwind all day. The wind had been calm all of the previous evening and night so the waves were small and it was a fun day. There was lots of spray all over the boat but the boat was moving along nicely - it was a good sailing day. When I arrived in the anchorage I found Sockdolager again! Yay. We both had plans to spend a few days at anchor there and then to continue exploring north along the Baja coast and the islands to our north...but that didn't turn out. Isla San Francisco was a really nice spot, and in the end I spent 8 days there.
I was approaching Isla San Francisco and I was feeling mighty fine after a good days of sailing. I approached the anchorage and found myself on the wrong side of the island. It was getting later in the day, and rather than sail around the island to the anchorage I decided to simply sail across the island to the correct anchorage, as shown in this picture of my chart plotter:
Before coming to Mexico I kept hearing how inaccurate the charts are and have seen examples of this during my stay. This is the most inaccurate I've seen the charts so far. Sailing in Mexico reminds us that chart plotters are simply an aid to navigation, and not to be relied on. (The whole island needs to be shifted on this chart north and east, Luckness was anchored in the bay shown as an indent on the SW side of the island.)
I was here for eight days but wasn't idle. There is good hiking along the ridge line, you can explore the other side of the island, snorkel, read, enjoy the sun, visit with Sockdolager. Ok, so I was a little idle while I was here. It was a good time.
I had a few goals on this trip, which are roughly to continue preparations for the next leg of this journey - the passage to Hawaii that is coming up. While at anchor I was continuing to review the Celestial Navigation book I had on board, written by David Burch. Karen (on Sockdolager) also knows celestial navigation and we practiced some sights while here. We tried sun sights, latitude by local apparent noon and later I tried a few star sights. As an aside...now that I'm back in La Paz I've been able to download an app to my iPhone to help with the sight reductions: StarPilot for the iPhone. Its an awesome app, and if any of you want a good celestial app I recommend this one. Or more to the point, David Burch (author of many good books dealing with sailing topics) recommends this product and I agree with him.
I wanted to be back in La Paz for the Carnival and on Feb 11th I started making my way back again. I left at around noon when the wind started to arrive for Ensenada Grande, getting there just after 6pm. I sailed as long as I could before being forced to turn on the engine so that I could avoid anchoring in the dark. While sailing over to Ensenada Grande I came across a huge pod of dolphins - hundreds and hundreds of them. They were staying together as a group but not really going anywhere in particular. They were coming toward me slowly and ended up passing closely by my stern from my port side to starboard. Later they changed direction and went back the way they had come. It was an awesome display.
A couple of days later I moved a little more south to an anchorage I hadn't yet been to: El Mezteno.
The afternoon was beautiful in El Mezteno. I explored in my dingy, got to shore for a walk and then went for a swim back at the boat. I also decided to start cleaning the hull again and to change the zinc's on the boat as they needed it. When I was in the water I was seeing bits of seaweed around me and feeling little stings on my right arm as it was moving back and forth cleaning the hull. I didn't think much of this - the seaweed was a little spiny and I thought it was causing the little stings. Then I finally focused in the water close to me and saw there were thousands of tiny jelly fish. They were small and completely transparent. The critters were a single sack with four dangling tentacles and were totally infesting the water here. I got out pretty quickly after realizing this, and a short time later welts started raising on my right arm which was moving through the water the most. The welts lasted for a few days.
The weather for the last part of this trip was starting to be pretty random. The forecasts and reality were diverging pretty wildly - light winds were forecast and stronger winds arrived from the east, south and west. For a few nights in a row there was 15 or more knots of wind blowing into the anchorages creating pretty rolly conditions. I moved further south the day after arriving in El Mezteno and didn't see any other boats in any of the anchorages on the island which is unusual - it seems that everybody had left back for La Paz to avoid being rolled around all night. I pulled back into Bahia San Gabriel and was the only boat in this large anchorage. I positioned myself in the middle, in around 25 feet of water where I could have dragged my anchor for 1000 feet in any direction without it being a problem.
I continued cleaning the hull while I was here, making sure there were no more jelly fish in the water. I was using a scotchbrite pad on the hull, and when I got to the bottom of the keel I found a bunch of barnacles as my bottom paint hasn't covered this area very well. I was able to rub the barnacles off with the scouring pad, but in doing so I felt a few small scratches on my right hand, I didn't give it much thought. When I got back into the boat, the scratches weren't visible, no blood, nothing serious... A little later I found the skin on my right hand started to go numb. The numbness spread from two of my finger tips (where I was rubbing the critters off the bottom of my keel) and up into my hand. This was a little freaky. After a few hours some tingling returned to my hand and a few hours after that the numbness had faded. I'm learning that some of the creatures in these waters have pretty good defense mechanisms!
The final sail back to La Paz was that, a sail rather than a motor. The forecast was for west 2-4 knots and I got SW winds up to 16 knots or so, which was awesome. I sailed to within a half mile of the entrance to the harbor, lowered sail and was back in Marina Costa Baja in the slip I had left 18 days earlier by early afternoon.
I've started to spend less and less time thinking about what I should be doing and seeing where I am in favor of planning and preparing for my passage to Hawaii. I'll begin the passage to Hawaii sometime in early to mid March, and am looking forward to it. There are a few boat projects I would like to work on while I'm here, there is some more reading I would like to finish up (I'm now reviewing my marine weather books) and then there will be provisioning, checking out of the country and getting started. When I leave the marina, I'll make my way down the coast toward Cabo San Lucas where I will do a little more provisioning and then finally check out of Mexico and start sailing across the Pacific.
I left Seattle on Sept 1st and roughly 2200 miles ago. When I left, I had been planning on spending a year out for my training year, and the year is now almost 1/2 over and the distance I will travel is around 1/3 done. I'm looking forward to the remainder of this Training Year and to the years that follow.
On this latest trip to the islands, I saw some of the same places I had been to earlier along with a few new things. Since the local islands are so beautiful, I don't mind repeating the same anchorages more than once. I decided long ago to spend more time in the local area rather than sailing far and wide visiting as much as I could but not staying anywhere very long. I've really enjoyed these islands.
After leaing La Paz to start this trip, I returned to Bahia San Gabriel where I stayed for a night. The next morning I moved on to Ensenada Grande where I stayed for a few days. There are three lobes to the anchorage at Ensenada Grande and when I arrived the middle lobe was empty and so that is where I pulled in and collected another little anchoring story... The middle lobe is fairly small, but large enough for two or three boats. The morning of the 1st another boat pulled in and anchored 240ft away (which I measured via my radar.) I went for a hike that afternoon and when I got back I found the boat was now 120ft away, although the wind direction hadn't changed and the wind wasn't very strong (in the 10-15 range.) They were dragging down on me. I had around 120 feet of chain out in 20 feet of water - and so rather than going over to try to convince them to move, I quickly decided that I would move and within a few minutes I was raising the anchor. As the anchor was raised Luckness was being pulled closer to the other boat, with my closest point of approach being less than a boat length. Yikes. I moved to the north lobe of the bay which was empty.
On the 3rd I left Ensenada Grande for a new island - Isla San Francisco which is roughly 20 miles north of Ensenada Grande. The forecast was for NW 5-10 knot winds and what I got was NW 15-22, meaning I was sailing upwind all day. The wind had been calm all of the previous evening and night so the waves were small and it was a fun day. There was lots of spray all over the boat but the boat was moving along nicely - it was a good sailing day. When I arrived in the anchorage I found Sockdolager again! Yay. We both had plans to spend a few days at anchor there and then to continue exploring north along the Baja coast and the islands to our north...but that didn't turn out. Isla San Francisco was a really nice spot, and in the end I spent 8 days there.
I was approaching Isla San Francisco and I was feeling mighty fine after a good days of sailing. I approached the anchorage and found myself on the wrong side of the island. It was getting later in the day, and rather than sail around the island to the anchorage I decided to simply sail across the island to the correct anchorage, as shown in this picture of my chart plotter:
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| Why bother going around when you can simply head across the island to anchor! |
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| Isla San Francisco |
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| Isla San Francisco and looking across to northern anchorage |
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| Jim and Karen from Sockdolager |
I had a few goals on this trip, which are roughly to continue preparations for the next leg of this journey - the passage to Hawaii that is coming up. While at anchor I was continuing to review the Celestial Navigation book I had on board, written by David Burch. Karen (on Sockdolager) also knows celestial navigation and we practiced some sights while here. We tried sun sights, latitude by local apparent noon and later I tried a few star sights. As an aside...now that I'm back in La Paz I've been able to download an app to my iPhone to help with the sight reductions: StarPilot for the iPhone. Its an awesome app, and if any of you want a good celestial app I recommend this one. Or more to the point, David Burch (author of many good books dealing with sailing topics) recommends this product and I agree with him.
I wanted to be back in La Paz for the Carnival and on Feb 11th I started making my way back again. I left at around noon when the wind started to arrive for Ensenada Grande, getting there just after 6pm. I sailed as long as I could before being forced to turn on the engine so that I could avoid anchoring in the dark. While sailing over to Ensenada Grande I came across a huge pod of dolphins - hundreds and hundreds of them. They were staying together as a group but not really going anywhere in particular. They were coming toward me slowly and ended up passing closely by my stern from my port side to starboard. Later they changed direction and went back the way they had come. It was an awesome display.
A couple of days later I moved a little more south to an anchorage I hadn't yet been to: El Mezteno.
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| From Luckness, looking toward El Mezteno |
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| Feb 13, 2012. From El Mezteno |
The afternoon was beautiful in El Mezteno. I explored in my dingy, got to shore for a walk and then went for a swim back at the boat. I also decided to start cleaning the hull again and to change the zinc's on the boat as they needed it. When I was in the water I was seeing bits of seaweed around me and feeling little stings on my right arm as it was moving back and forth cleaning the hull. I didn't think much of this - the seaweed was a little spiny and I thought it was causing the little stings. Then I finally focused in the water close to me and saw there were thousands of tiny jelly fish. They were small and completely transparent. The critters were a single sack with four dangling tentacles and were totally infesting the water here. I got out pretty quickly after realizing this, and a short time later welts started raising on my right arm which was moving through the water the most. The welts lasted for a few days.
The weather for the last part of this trip was starting to be pretty random. The forecasts and reality were diverging pretty wildly - light winds were forecast and stronger winds arrived from the east, south and west. For a few nights in a row there was 15 or more knots of wind blowing into the anchorages creating pretty rolly conditions. I moved further south the day after arriving in El Mezteno and didn't see any other boats in any of the anchorages on the island which is unusual - it seems that everybody had left back for La Paz to avoid being rolled around all night. I pulled back into Bahia San Gabriel and was the only boat in this large anchorage. I positioned myself in the middle, in around 25 feet of water where I could have dragged my anchor for 1000 feet in any direction without it being a problem.
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| Low tide on shore at Ensenada Grande |
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| Ensenada Grande |
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| One of the mangrove stands, Ensenada Grande |
The final sail back to La Paz was that, a sail rather than a motor. The forecast was for west 2-4 knots and I got SW winds up to 16 knots or so, which was awesome. I sailed to within a half mile of the entrance to the harbor, lowered sail and was back in Marina Costa Baja in the slip I had left 18 days earlier by early afternoon.
I've started to spend less and less time thinking about what I should be doing and seeing where I am in favor of planning and preparing for my passage to Hawaii. I'll begin the passage to Hawaii sometime in early to mid March, and am looking forward to it. There are a few boat projects I would like to work on while I'm here, there is some more reading I would like to finish up (I'm now reviewing my marine weather books) and then there will be provisioning, checking out of the country and getting started. When I leave the marina, I'll make my way down the coast toward Cabo San Lucas where I will do a little more provisioning and then finally check out of Mexico and start sailing across the Pacific.
I left Seattle on Sept 1st and roughly 2200 miles ago. When I left, I had been planning on spending a year out for my training year, and the year is now almost 1/2 over and the distance I will travel is around 1/3 done. I'm looking forward to the remainder of this Training Year and to the years that follow.
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