Tradewinds Sailing Blog

So after commenting yesterday morning about how the previous day’s conditions were better than forecast, yesterday afternoon brought balance. Or maybe I jinxed it by saying something. But the afternoon brought a few hours of 30 knots headwinds, gusting to 38, which was not at all in the forecast. Fortunately the sea state didn’t get too crazy, so I did fine with a scrap of sail up and some tacking along the shore.

It seems the water is colder than normal this year, as the kelp forests are flourishing. I know this coast well, and places where I haven’t seen kelp before now have a 1/2 mile carpet reaching to the surface. I’m glad I passed by during daylight, and was able to see the extent of it. Once it got dark, I didn’t dare approach the coastlines too closely, although it did get dark about 30 minutes before I got through the Dewey Channel, a narrow collection of rocks and islands just below Cedros island.

It is one of those places where the wind blows 25 knots from the NW until you get through it, then it suddenly switches to 12 knots from the East, then maybe some West once in a while, too, all because of the effects of Cedros island. And the currents swirl around at a couple knots, too, as all the northwest flow squeezes through the channel and around the islands.

After sunset, with a crystal clear sky, I was awed yet again by the vast carpet of billions (I stopped counting at 800 million) of stars in the sky. I have seen it countless times, and still enjoy it. And after 2 hours of that, a nearly full moon rose to light my path for the rest of the night, into kindly moderate conditions. I am still hoping to cross the border into the U.S. on Saturday morning, and the weather seems to suggest going while the going is good, maybe all the way to SF Bay by Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

6/7   8am    28.56N   115.07W    8109nm gone,   677nm to go

My good fortune continues, as yesterday’s forecast of very windy and bumpy was mostly wrong. It was nice to have the forecast be wrong in my favor for a change. Most of the day I enjoyed 12-18 knots of wind, at an angle I could actually use, which was an unexpected treat. It did finally blow 20-25 for a few hours in the evening, with lumpy seas to go with it, but I never saw the forecast 25-30 knots, so I was able to keep moving throughout the day and night, and didn’t need to anchor and hide along the way.

I had an unusual visitor aboard in the evening. I was on the foredeck adjusting a jib car during the hour of darkness between sunset and moonrise, when I noticed a small spot on the deck, which I figured was a squid. I turned my flashlight on it, and was surprised to discover a small baby lobster!  It was only about 2 inches long, but was snapping his little claws and flicking his tail in frustration, so I tossed him back in. I guess he was swimming near the surface when a wave splashed him aboard.

I can’t resist looking ahead, to see what weather might greet me on the rest of the voyage, as with just 800 miles to go, it could be less than a week. At the moment, it is blowing 35 knots down the coast from Monterey to Point Conception, which is a no go for me, but that is supposed to stop by Sunday evening, followed by a few days of reasonable wind. So maybe, ideally, I will pass Turtle Bay late this afternoon, cross the border early Saturday morning, make it to Point Conception Sunday night, and then continue north, maybe arriving San Francisco Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. There are still plenty of miles to go, but that is my first loose possible estimate,which would suit me just fine.

6/6  8am   27.04N   114.18W    7973nm gone   802nm to go

Yesterday certainly had variety. I was visited by dolphins, Dahl’s porpoises, and sea lions. I had windy and bumpy on the nose, windy beam reach, and no wind. I had sunshine, cloudy bits, a clear sky with full moon, and at sunrise I got fog for a while.

At about 11pm last night, I was also visited by the Mexican Navy. One of their little patrol boats started following me, and hailed me on the radio to ask who I was, how many crew, where I had been and where I was going. They were very friendly as always, and wished me good night and good voyage. The whole thing took less than 10 minutes. A bit different than a U.S. Coast Guard visit, which usually involves them boarding and inspecting, and is somewhat more intimidating.

Anyway, I continue making some progress, with today and tomorrow windy and maybe bumpy at times, but Thursday and Friday look light. If all goes well I should cross the border into the U.S. sometime this weekend. Less than 1000 miles to go!

6/5   8am     25.41N  112.38W    7840nm gone,  924nm to go

I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 week break back home, and have now returned to Mexico to try to finish my long voyage to San Francisco. I arrived into Los Cabos yesterday afternoon, and departed right away, as there were lighter winds forecast for a day or two.

So far so good, although not as light as forecast, but I am making progress up the Baja peninsula, and hope to be at Santa Maria, just north of Magdalena Bay, late tonight. I will be fighting a 1-knot current most of the way up the coast, so speeds get notched down a bit, and everything takes a little longer now. Tuesday afternoon is looking pretty breezy and bumpy, but I may be OK staying close to shore. We’ll see how it goes and how I feel, and if things get too ugly I’ll anchor and wait it out.

One benefit of taking that break is that I missed the new moon, and enjoyed a nearly full moon last night. Despite the sunny days, the weather is cooler now as I am getting north, into the low 70’s at night, and I officially crossed the tropic of Cancer today, so I am no longer in the tropics…

6/4   8am     24.00N   111.06W    7701nm gone   1057nm to go

Once again, the weather changed a bit yesterday, and was not quite what was forecast. I started seeing 20-25 knots from the west, and seas rapidly built to short, steep, 4 to 6 foot breakers. Fortunately, I only had to endure a few hours of this, and it wasn’t on my nose, but I decided to take a break anyway. So I pulled in to San Jose Del Cabo, the marina we used for the last Puerto Vallarta race, and was tied to a dock just before sunset- perfect!

You may recall that my original plan was a 5-week offshore route to San Francisco. But the winds said no, so I went the coastal route. And it went super quick. I thought I would be stopping along the way to wait for better weather, but I had great weather the whole time and never stopped. So the trip was too quick, as it turns out. The state of California has an issue with the boat if it enters before June 9, so I have to wait for about 2 weeks someplace. I was thinking Ensenada, so I would be there and the Baja part behind me, but with the revised weather down here, I would be stuck in Cabo for 4 or 5 days anyway. So I decided to just park here for the two weeks, and fly home for a while- an unexpected bonus!

I will return to Cabo on June 3, and depart whenever the weather looks good after that.

5/18  8am   23.03N  109.40W    7585nm gone,  1169nm to go.

What is this? It got below 80 degrees last night. I must be getting too far north. I actually had to put on a T-shirt last night, the first time I’ve worn anything but swim trunks in almost 2 weeks. Next thing you know I’ll have to wear a fleece, too. I guess I won’t be Mowgli of the Sea anymore.

Yesterday turned out to be quite entertaining, courtesy of all the marine life. The morning started with a few more turtles, then a large whale surfaced right next to me, just to get my attention. So I grabbed the camera, he swam forward of the boat and leaped out of the water in a full broach, all while I was video taping. Very considerate of him, I would say.

Around midday a flock of boobies joined me, flying in loose formation with my sails, and occasionally one or two would land on the bow pulpit and rest. They stayed with me the entire day, and as the sun was setting they all decided they wanted to spend the night on the bow pulpit. But with 20 birds, they were having a time of it. Birds were trying to match their flight to the bouncing of the boat for two hours, until after dark, all so they could land on the pulpit. It was very fun to watch, and they weren’t disturbed by me at all, even when I sat on the foredeck just a few feet away. Amazingly, 9 of them managed to squeeze up together on that little piece of rail, and spent the entire night there, finally flying off for breakfast when the sun came up today. Why none of them would land anywhere else is beyond me, especially as others had landed on the spreaders, masthead and bimini before. I guess that’s why they are called boobies.

As fun as that was, the highlight of the day was the afternoon dolphin show. Not the really big speckled dolphins of previous days, these were the small dark ones (spinners, maybe?), and were very acrobatic. A large herd of them started swimming with me, jumping out of the water, dodging this way and that, doing tail walks, and sometimes leaping as high as 12 feet out of the water, wagging their tails at me. And yes, I have video! Eventually I will return to the land of broadband, and promise to share.

My direct route to Cabo seems to be working out pretty well, although the sea built up a bit during the night, so I had to reduce sail to slow down, to keep from jumping off waves and slamming the boat. But good progress was made, all in the right direction. Actually, at 173 miles in the last 24 hours, a 7.2 knot average, it was one of my best days since Panama. I should make Cabo San Lucas late tonight, and if the weather allows it I will continue on towards Magdalena Bay-Santa Maria.

5/17   8am    22.06N   108.43W    7503nm gone,  1232nm to go.

Yesterday saw me sailing off of Manzanillo, which is famous for its fishing. And it seems every Mexican with panga or an innertube was out there. Problem is, they fish using long nets (as long as a mile across on the surface), and sometimes long lines with hooks and bait strung together, also up to mile across the surface. And they mark these hazards to boating with empty water bottles and old 2-liter 7-up bottles, every 50 meters or so. In other words, with a little waves, swell or white crests, they are impossible to see until you are on top of them. And they seem to criss-cross the area from the shoreline out to 20 miles like a big spider web.

So my track yesterday looks like some kind of Aztec drawing, with hard turns and zigs and zags every which way. It was tiring and frustrating, detouring around some of the nets, but also crossing many of them, too, as I didn’t see them until it was too late. Sometimes I would slide over without a problem. But sometimes I would get snagged, and I would go head to wind and try to back down, and that could work. If it didn’t, sometimes I could reach the offending line (they mostly use fishing line for everything, occasionally a real rope, though) with the boat hook, and pull it up and cut it. Once though, nothing seemed to work, so I had to drop the sails and go swimming with a knife. The water was warm and clear, which was nice, but it was still a hassle, and a delay. I am very glad to be past all of that, at least for now.

Now, do you remember all that stuff I wrote yesterday about the two legs of the triangle and going to Mazatlan and then west? Fuhgeddaboutit. As unbelievable as it is, the weather forecast was not completely accurate. It seems the NW winds are behind me, at least for now. The conditions I am seeing tell me to go straight to Cabo, and not sail the extra 100 miles to Mazatlan. So that’s what I am doing. I figure even if the NW show up afterall, I can always run with it and go to Mazatlan anyway.

If all goes well, I should be in Cabo early morning on Friday. And after that looks to be a classic Baja Bash up to San Diego, but I will finesse that when the time comes.

5/16   8am    20.15N   106.24W    7330nm gone,  1403nm to go

That’s what I’ve been doing for the last 3 days- the big slalom. During the night, the wind blows offshore from the East, so I am on starboard tack angling out to sea a bit. In the morning, the wind switches and comes from the SW, so I can sail parallel to the coast on Port tack. In the afternoon, the wind builds and veers a bit more West, so I angle more towards the shore. Then in the evening, it switches and I head back out again. My track looks like a big lazy “S”, but it has been good for me, as I am very happy with my progress.

The next hurdle in front of me is Cabo Corrientes, which I need to go around. Like the other major capes in Mexico and California (Sur, Conception, Falso) it juts out into the prevailing NW winds, causing the wind to accelerate (same volume of air going through a smaller space, makes it squirt like a hose nozzle). This also agitates the seas quite a bit, so the normal strategy heading north is to try to round the cape in the early morning, before the winds and seas build for the day.

The normal NW winds have been absent these last days, which has allowed me to make such good progress, but they are forecast to return Wednesday afternoon or evening, building to 10-20 knots. But the way it looks right now, my big slalom has worked, as I expect to round Corrientes early tomorrow morning, avoiding the mess.

After that, the next hurdle is getting to Cabo San Lucas. It is pretty much NW from here, which is straight into the winds and seas. So I expect to head north, maybe as far as Mazatlan, then west over to Cabo. It’s a bit longer sailing the 2 legs of the triangle, but it makes sense from a weather and sanity perspective.

The days continue hot and sunny, and the nights are starry.

5/15   8am    18.40N   104.06W    7170nm gone,  1564nm to go