San Diego to Turtle Bay

Day 1 Monday - It Begins


Well, they forecast light winds and they were right.. I decided to leave after lunch as winds are often better then. I guess it sort of worked out for me. I had a nice easy spinnaker run all afternoon. The wind shut down promptly as the sun went down so then I was just drifting. I needed to get south of Enesenada before slowing down in order to get past the majority of the busy border traffic. With any traffic around me I can't get any naps or short sleep periods, so I ended up motoring much of the night..



Noon
N32.41.328
W117.20.732


Day 2 - Tuesday - Dead Calm


This ended being a really hard tiring day. It was dead calm almost all day. I had a little wind in the morning but only enough to move me five miles in over 3 hours! I sat around all afternoon waiting for the wind that never came.

Unfortunately dead calm is not as fun as it may sound. The wind stops but the swell doesn't. This means hat the boat is rolling around uncontrollably all day. When you are sailing you have the pressure of the wind on you sails to help minimise this, but not during calms. The boat actually rolls around more this way than in most ather sailing conditions... I couldn't even sleep because the rolling was so bad. For once I was actually jealous of the container ship as he motored by me... At least it made for some pretty pictures. After 10 hours of this I gave up and turned the engine on...





Noon
N31.21.092
W116.53.979



Day 3 Wednesday - Fog, Fish and Fun

After midnight I turned the engine off. The swell had gotten smaller and was not being quite so hard on me and the boat. I left the Genoa up and even though I was registering zero as my speed it gave me just enough so that Otto could keep steering. (If the boat has no forward motion the rudder can't change the direction the boat is headed). Of course it would fill with a WHACK as the boat rolled to one side. Then it would roll to the other and all the air would roll out of the sail. Then it would roll back with a WHACK as it filled again and so on.... I managed to get 3 hours of sleep anyway. (getting up every hour to check on things, of course)

Ovenight it got really foggy and

really wet so I busted out my fancy cockpit enclosure. I tell you I was LOVING it!! Everything else got soaked but I stayed pretty dry. small things make you happy on day three.





In the morning I put the fishing lines out again and caught my first yellowtail tuna. It was just a baby but I ate him anyway. I even tried my first home caught sushi and it was delicious!!

Noon
N30.37.121
W116.26.456

The rest of the day wa either very light or no wind. I did sneak in a bit more motoring though. After a while you just can't take it.

Day 4 - Far Offshore

This was the section I was farthest from shore. Once I passed San Carlos the coast dropped east and I continued SSE for the west side of Isla Cedros. As I got farther offshorethe wind began to show itself so out came the spinnaker. Soon was doing 6 knots and actually enjoying my sail. The swell was much bigger (maybe 8 - 10 feet) but that was fine as I was finally making time.

Noon
N29.29.720
W115.53.937

Day 5 - Whales and Fish and the one that got away


This was the day that made the last four worth everything. I was sneaking a small nap in the cockpit when I heard a very loud exhale beside the boat. I jumped up expecting to see dolphins and was amazed to see a large humpback whale following my boat. He/She was very curious about this strange fish plodding along in the water nearby. There were several passes on both sides of the boat as well as a few directly underneath. I was so excited I totally forgot about my video camera inside the boat, I barely remembered my camera which lives in the cockpit with me.





The day just got better. Soon after onew of the fishing reels started spinning.. I reeled in (expecting the usual clump of kelp) and was delighted to find a 3-4lb Mexican Bonito. I caught 6 more in the next two hours. At one point, I barely had the line in the water before I caught the next one.

Noon
N28.01.509
W115.20.218

The one that got away made me sad though. It was a beautiful 10 - 15 lb yellowtail tuna that took me about 15 minutes to reel in. After a good long fight I finally had him beside the boat and I made the mistake of trying to use my net instead of the gaff. Well the net broke, the line snapped and he got away ( with my favorite lure!!) A few more inches and he would have fallen inside the boat. Oh well, I only hope that he can shake the lure from his mouth now. That part made me feel bad.....

The end of the day was a race to see if I could make turtle bay before darkness set in. It's always better to enter a new harbor during daylight. I had the engine and the sails going and the boat was flying as fast as it's design allows but I still didn't make it. crap. thank God for radar....