LA CRUZ TO LA PAZ 2019 - TAKING WHAT COMES

March 30, 2019

I didn’t sleep well, fearing to oversleep, and got up before my alarm went off.  I did one last load of linens, packed up the last of my food and clothing, and slipped out of the house to make one last trek across town to the marina.  I always got very sentimental when leaving La Cruz and it looked very quaint in the quiet of early morning.

I arrived at the boat at 7:15 with just enough time to stow my belongings before we left for the fuel dock.  It was busy, so we had to wait for room at the dock.  We put 120 liters in each fuel tank and finally left the marina by 8:30.  I took the short watch until 10:00 when we started the real rotation and then retired to nap until almost 14:00.  I needed to catch up on sleep.

Sun Setting Over the Marias Islands

By the time I awoke we were off La Penita and heading north.  It was hazy and we could barely see the shore.  I sat in the cockpit with Paul for the remainder of the afternoon and then took my watch at 18:00.  Carol cooked chicken and veggies with curried rice for dinner.  Winds were light and mostly on the nose, but we did manage to put the jib out for a few hours around sunset.  Sea Note, who had left just before us, fell far behind until we could barely see their lights when darkness fell.  We passed the Marias Islands at sunset.

My Bunk on Unleashed

I tried to sleep from 21:00 to 2:45, but something was banging in the head and I couldn’t secure myself well in my bunk.  We were heeled just enough for my face to fall into the lead cloth and I couldn’t turn around because I needed to leave access to the snack locker.

March 31, 2019

I got up before the alarm went off at 2:45.  I had finally silenced the banging about 2:00 but was too afraid to oversleep to drop off by that point.  The wind had died down and my watch from 3:00 to 6:00 was uneventful except for the moonrise at 4:15.  Carol relieved me at 6:00.  I had meant to stay up to watch the dawn, but was too tired.  I went below and napped in Carol’s bunk on the low side for three hours.

The Seas Were Very Flat

I got up when Carol came off watch at 10:00, dressed, and ate breakfast.  Then I sat down to write for a couple of hours.  It was pleasant below decks with the portholes open.  The sea was very flat and the wind still on the nose.  Paul checked the weather and we made the decision to bypass Mazatlan and head straight for Muertos.  The north winds were receding up the sea and we were betting they would be gone by the time we reached the other side.

Actually Sailing

My next watch began at 14:00.  The wind came up and we were able to sail, but not in the direction we wanted to go.  We elected to tack and sail southwest while we had the wind to do so.  We had been north of the rhumb line when we thought we were making for Mazatlan.  We needed to get west somehow, since La Paz was on the west side of the Sea.

Cooking on Unleashed

The seas grew increasingly lumpy and Carol started to feel queasy.  She was unable to prepare dinner before coming on watch at 18:00.  I cooked the dinner as soon as I came off watch.  We had saffron rice with a stew made from potatoes, tomatoes, and ground beef.  We stayed on that southwest heading until I finished cooking because it was easier to cook with the stove on the downhill side.  Once dinner was prepared, we tacked back over and headed north again.  I went down for a nap after dinner.  It was very lumpy but I was so tired that I had no trouble sleeping.  I slept until 23:30. 

The wind had died as soon as the sun set and we were motoring again when I came on watch at midnight.  It was quite choppy, but there wasn’t much wind. It was pitch dark and I could just barely see Sea Note’s  lights a couple of miles off our port beam.  We continued on in that manner for my entire three hour watch.

April 1, 2019

Paul and Carol of Unleashed

It was still quite lumpy when I went to bed at 3:00, but I had no trouble sleeping.  In fact, I slept until 9:00 when I awoke feeling quite refreshed.  The seas had died down and we were motoring along the rhumb line to Muertos.  Unfortunately, we were only making about four knots.  Even in the relatively calm seas, Unleashed hobby horsed a lot and the tide was against us.  Winds were frustratingly light and variable.

I grabbed a light breakfast of yogurt with granola and a quarter of an apple that was lying about the galley before taking the helm at 10:00.  Sea Note had pulled ahead of us during the night, probably because he had been more diligent in using his sails while we plodded along under motor power alone.

The winds grew lighter and lighter during my watch until we had only one and a half knots.  To make matters worse, the wind was shifting from one side of the boat to the other. 

Carol took over at 14:00 and I went below eat the leftovers from dinner and take a shower.  It drove Carol crazy that Sea Note was pulling ahead of us.  She put out the jib and tacked over to take advantage of what little wind there was.  Ray reported more wind ahead, but it was gone by the time we reached his position.  Ultimately, she abandoned her efforts because we had to sail too far south to catch any wind and it wasn’t giving us enough speed to justify covering the extra distance.

Another Sunset at Sea

We motored slowly north at four to five knots.  When dinnertime came, Paul took the helm and I boiled noodles and finished preparing the spaghetti with meatballs that Carol had made ahead of time and thawed for use that night.  It was amazingly lumpy for the non-existent wind we were experiencing and the sea state really slowed us down.

My watch began at 21:00.  It was pitch dark, as the moon didn’t rise until shortly before dawn.  Skies were clear and I could see the Milky Way.  Winds continued light but there must have been wind somewhere because we continued to battle swells.  For some reason, I was tired and slept like a log after I got off watch at midnight.

April 2, 2019

Crescent Moon at Dawn

I slept until my alarm went off at 5:45 for my 6:00 watch.  We were moving along at a good pace and I hoped for wind but found that it was just the tide that was scooting us along at six knots.  The crescent moon rose just before dawn and the sun rapidly followed.  When the glare from the rising sun abated, we were excited to see land off our port beam.

Entering the Cerralvo Channel at Dawn

The Ferry to Mazatlan

Late Afternoon in Puerto Balandra

After my watch at 10:00, I ate breakfast and then hid below, reading and napping, most of the day.  Carol woke me in the mid-afternoon, as we were exiting the Ceralvo Channel, because she said we were about to die and didn’t want me to wake up in heaven.  It turned out that we were just crossing paths with the Baja Ferry.  They missed us by half a mile.  Seas were finally flat and we continued making nearly six knots all day.  Due to the unexpected speed, we arrived in the anchorage at Puerto Balandra before 17:00.  We anchored easily and enjoyed a celebratory gin and tonic before Carol made us chicken tacos for dinner.  I played the guitar in the cockpit until it grew too dark to see.  We were all in our bunks by 21:00.

April 3, 2019

I got up early to watch the dawn but it was nothing to write home about.  I made a hot drink and sat in the cockpit until Paul and Carol got up.  They were surprised to see that I had been up for some time because they hadn’t heard me moving around.

Sea Note at Anchor in Balandra

They wanted to enter the marina at slack tide, which wasn’t until 14:41, so we were in no hurry.  I made pancakes and we had a leisurely breakfast.  Then we left for La Paz, arriving off the marina at 13:00.  

Sea Note  had already entered Marina Cortez and told us it was okay, so we decided not to anchor out and wait for slack tide.  The fairways in the marina were wide and there was not another boat sharing the double slip with Unleashed.  This turned out to be a good thing because the current and the wind were both pushing the boat off the dock and we ended up diagonally in the slip.  The stern line was barely long enough to haul the boat into proper position.

Marina Cortez was a nice, new marina with concrete docks.  They didn’t have the hard-wired internet connections and potable water that Marina La Paz offered, but it was otherwise a nice marina.  It remained to be seen how the docks, which lacked pilings and were attached to the bottom with heavy rubber bands, would hold up in a hurricane.

Paul at Marina Cortez

We were hungry, so headed up to Rancho Viejo for arrachera stuffed baked potatoes as soon as Paul and Carol checked into the marina.  After lunch, they helped me drag my baggage over to Scout and visited with Greg for a bit.  It was good to be back aboard Scout with all my gear in one place for a change.

We met up with Paul and Carol, later, for cocktails and then walked up to Gina’s for burritos.  Never imagining that anyone would think to put mustard on a burrito, I neglected to tell her to hold the mustard.  That rendered the burrito inedible as far as I was concerned but I really wasn’t hungry, anyway.  Greg started to bring it home to eat later but ended up giving it to one of the marina taxi drivers.  It had been a long day and we were ready to retire.