Heading West . 1/27

After not quite 2 weeks at the Marina we checked in at we are again on our way west. We started out with another overnighter. Leaving at 7 am and arriving at about 1 pm. We had hoped to continue another 30 NM but it took us to long to get as far as we got. Tomorrow will be an easy 30 mile day as we still plan to stop where we had hoped to get to today.

Sailing was far from ideal with a lighter wind on the stern. We used just the head sail and motored as it was slow going. Captain at one point decided to try setting out the spinnaker which ended in a wet spinnaker and a decision to not use it. The dinghy tied down on the bow was certainly in the way. It was not a good lesson in flying a spinnaker. Captain seems to get winded quite easily unless it's just for dramatic effect? I went forward and untangled the spinnaker and stuffed the wet sail back in the bag.

We only turned the motor off for part of 2 shifts but only about 4 hours total. As the sun rose today, Monday it seemed like it would be a breeze to make it to our hoped destination but the wind soon died to the point of even roller furling both sails in.

Sailing along at night we encountered not a single freighter as we were not out in shipping lanes. Even crossing past the big city we saw none. Now fishing boats I saw over 100 during my shifts. These were just small fishing boats and most were very small. They had no running lights and often no lights at all until they decide they should let you know they are there. Several times a boat would suddenly appear out of the darkness not to far off the bow.

During my final 4 am to 8 am shift I noticed one boat off our starboard bow and it seemed to have a blue flashing light and bright white light and a port running light. It certainly was not a fishing boat. Many of those had a green light or just a lantern light but this red port running light was the first I'd seen all night including my 8 pm to midnight shift. Captain was resting in the cockpit and I asked him what he thought about that boat with the blue flashing light? He glanced at it and said ? I don't think anything about it.. I sensed an attempt at sarcasm for my even bringing it to his attention? It got closer and eventually gave us a short sounding of a siren. Then bright spotlights and a request to stop I assume? But in Spanish. I put her in neutral and eased off the throttle but we left the jib out as we were barely moving under just sail power. I recommended captain turn on the hand held as they have probably been trying to contact us for quite some time. A bit of a language barrier but the person on the radio spoke English though with an accent. A few questions were asked and after seeing we were on the list of cleared and authorized boats we were told to continue our navigation. The sun rose shortly after.

We entered our early destination and anchored near the guarda dock.. The guarda knew basic English but I think he wanted us to move closer to the broke down dock which was too shallow for our 6' draft. In the cruising guide it clearly says anchor and wait for them to come out in their boat...with oars by the looks of the photo in the cruising guide. Anyway we did not pull up our anchor to move closer and eventually he called a boat from the scrap metal salvage yard across the bay.. We are clear to continue on our way at 7 am.

Remember that wet spinnaker. The plan was to dry it out once we got to where we were headed for today.. After the whole morning of zero to 5 knot winds, it was blowing easily over 10 knots. Captain said let's hang out the spinnaker to dry. As we are connecting the top to the halyard he says why couldn't we have had this wind all this morning? I mentioned maybe we should wait and dry it out when it was less windy... Anyway as he had me hoist up the halyard it got away from him before either bottom points were secured.. We both watched as it flew like a mighty flag aft of the boat fluttering just above the rapidly spinning wind turbine. Captain quickly moved to the cockpit and got that spun around so the blades weren't spinning. I hauled it the rest of the way up so that when the wind did die it would drop into the cockpit rather than the water. It dried out nicely and was soon back in the bag.

No more overnight sails until we finally head for Mexico.