Bahia De La Ascension
Well it's kind of windy but I feel plenty of sailors would reef as needed and continue on? Or maybe not. Anyway I finished one book and started another. We started our day with a visit from Mexican authorities of some kind as captain was in the middle of cooking scrabbled eggs with spam chunks in them. About 5 or 6 guys on a gray work boat pulled near. It said Marina with some letters and numbers after on the bow. (I learned later after I'd jumped ship that it was Mexican Navy. There is a Navy post in Punta Allen). A couple of them were pretty young...trainees? They requested our entry paperwork and the TIP was probably in the ziplock bag the captained handed off to them. The wind had picked as yesterday turned to evening and it was quite choppy. After the authorities were satisfied we finished breakfast and moved the boat to the other side of the island. It has proven to be a bit calmer than the other side. With luck the wind won't switch NE and increase.
I spent most of today out in the cockpit reading. A few dolphins happened by. They seemed so much happier than the trained dolphins back at the Marina Puerto Adventuras. There were also several boats with fishermen.. Guided fly fishing and light tackle fishing for bonefish and I suppose other kinds is popular here. I mentioned there was a world class bone fishing resort in this bay on the south end I thought from what I'd heard when I kayaked here nearly 20 years ago. The captain found mention of it in a cruising guide so now we are moving to there via a route on the inside of the reef tomorrow. We will spend our last night anchored at the resort and probably go ashore hoping for a dinner and wifi? I saw a small helicopter heading there from the north this morning and saw it heading back just at sunset.
It will be nice to see a new place to anchor...though I dread dealing with putting the dinghy in the water then back on the bow deck before setting out sometime Saturday for our overnighter 65 NM sail to Xcalak. Saturday the 22nd is my birthday.. We will set out just before dark and arrive to Xcalak the next morning to enter the reef pass at daylight.
OK I wrote this the day before and decided to post it even though things changed. We did set out as planned but it was getting shallow as captain, in my opinion had not gone out nearly far enough toward the reef, the diagram/Map in the cruising guide clearly indicated the route with mainly 12 feet depth was along the inside of the reef not way in toward the islands where we were. I would have shared my opinion but had learned not to bother. Anyway the rudder had been clanging in the wheel binnacle way more than usual. At some point the wheel would not even function in one direction and we'd have to turn a circle then it would lock in the other direction. As we struggled back toward our previous anchoring spot we had removed the compass to access the sprocket and chain. The chain was way too slack and we used a screw driver to keep it from binding on the sprocket while turning the rudder to stay on course. Once anchored we spent about 2 hours working on it discovering that the cable had frayed on the port side just at the connection point to the bottom of wheel chain. All that could be done was to tighten the cable up but now the splayed strands of cable hindered passing up and down through a hole at the binnacle bottom. He asked if I thought we could find 1/4" stainless steal cable in Punta Allen to which I said I was there nearly 20 years ago and haven't got a clue. We set across the 5 or 6 miles to anchor on the inside of the Punta. ... Continued in next post in titled 'Jumped Ship'
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