11-5-2011 - Cruising along

Well, we finally got some sailing winds yesterday afternoon and evening. Ran with the genoa, the main, and the iron jib for most of the afternoon. We were cooking along at 6 knots much of the time. Why the engine? Because the winds weren't THAT good and because we're in "let's get there" mode. We tried to listen to Don Anderson's weather report on the SSB radio but it was a pretty poor copy. We did hear him talk about 35 knot winds on the outside aaaaaalllll the way down to Mag Bay, so before we started our watch rotation we put a reef in the main and swapped the genoa for the staysail. Keith took the first watch (1900-2300) and reported a good 6 knot ride. On my watch (2300-0300) the winds continued and we just cooked along. Matter of fact we passed a cruise ship. It was all lit up like Disneyland. We approached it, were abeam of it, and then left it in our dust. Of course, there's a very good chance that they were stopped so they'd enter port on schedule. But I prefer to think we smoked 'em! Finally, in the wee hours of this morning, the winds dropped down but we still managed a respectable 5 knot average. Don Anderson's 35 knot winds never did materialize. Looking at the GRIB files, we should be getting better winds the next few days. Unfortunately, we won't be here to experience them as they seem to be filling in right behind us.

Last night, about midnight, we were at our furthest point from land, about 75 miles or so. Look at a map of Baja. You see that big spur thing sticking out onto the Pacific about halfway down? Yes? Okay, below that the shoreline makes a big scoop. When we were halfway across the scoop, we were 75-80 miles from land. Now that we've passed Bahia Magdalena (Mag Bay) we should be steadily getting closer to land as we near the tip of the peninsula at Cabo Falso.

Keith fixed chicken salad sandwiches for lunch yesterday. I heated up some heat & serve roast beef with gravy and we had that over instant mashed spuds for dinner. Then, this morning I made scrambled eggs w/diced ham and home-fries for breakfast. Keith, on a whim, made some brownies from scratch yesterday afternoon.

That's about it. We're still motor-sailing with the reefed main and staysail. The seas aren't too bad although they're far from smooth. But it's fairly warm outside (at least until the sun sets) and the sky is nice and blue today.

That's it for here for now. Hasta luego.

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