Author: Neil Scheuerlein

We had a big breakfast, one of the things we bought when we were out in town was fresh large tortillas. Renee’ made a sausage pepper and onion mix to go with scrambled eggs and salsa. She added cheese to hers. One of the things about the Sea of Cortez is that this time of the year the weather tends to include strong northerly winds. Today is an example, there are 20+ knot winds on the sea headed south, this includes whitecaps inside the harbor. So, we doubled our dock lines, I had help from the security guard here in the marina. After we were done, Francisco changed one of the lines from being doubled onto a cleat to one going to the cleat and the other around the piling. Quite a bit better, but it does mean we have to duck when leaving the boat.

Then we caught up on Facebook for a while. Finally heading up to the bus at about 10:15 to catch the bus to Mulegé. This is a town we went to last year that does not have a good harbor or protected anchorage. Last year we anchored off shore and took the dinghy up the river and walked into town. Good we got into town, Bad we hit a rock with the prop on the dinghy, and “OH yeah, it was raining all day!”

This me we had fantastic weather to see the city and the sights. There is a mission here, we had to cross a small dam to get to it, this dam makes for a small lake which waters a grove of palm trees. There is a museum here that is housed in the first prison in California, (the state in the US, Baja California Norte and Baja California Our). We really wanted to see the museum, but it was closed for Covid 

We had a beer at the Mulegé brewing company (Stout!) very tasty! Then wandered around town to do some shopping and sight seeing. Making sure to find the colored letters for the city and getting a picture standing in front of it. 

We had dinner at a restaurant that was recommended by Francisco (from the marina) we had scallops and fish tacos and watch some humming birds at a feeder through the window. The food was awesome and the bill for the meal was about $25.

Finally it was time to head back, our bus was scheduled for 6 pm, but about half past we were told that the bus had broken down somewhere south of us, and we would have to take the 7 pm bus instead. Which was late as well. We got back to the boat about 9 pm or so and off to bed we went. 

I have added a link to the right that shows our current position/track.

We woke up without an alarm clock by about 7 am. We have figged out local time now, so I can say with confidence what time we woke up! Had breakfast and did our reading of the Bible in one year, and Renee’ walked up to the office and checked us in, while I worked on the blog. We will take a walk after lunch.

We did some shopping, and looking at things we think we might need on the boat. Our coffee pot (a drip that uses a metal pot) has started to leak, and we are debating whether to replace it or not. We found one in town that would work, and it is a bit bigger than the old one. But we were not prepared to bring it back to the boat, we left the wagon at the boat, and it was a bit too big to carry. We are leaning to not getting the drip pot, we have a large stainless steel French Press that makes two large cups of coffee already.

In any case we headed back to the boat and worked on some odds and ends (like the blog). Later we had our thanksgiving meal, (meatloaf, mashed potatoes and veggies). Then about 7:30 or so, we had Sharon and Paul over for pumpkin pie. Then have an IP370 here in Santa Rosalia.

I have added a link to the right that shows our position/track

We got up at 4:30 and underway by 5 am. Maybe, might have been 3:30 and underway by 4 am, depending on which clocks you looked at. We changed time zones for a little bit here, so once again we are not really aware of the time. It is pretty much arbitrary anyway. In any case, anchor up, and headed south, we had a bit of wind to push us south as we were between the peninsula and an island (kind of) then once out of that the wind dropped and most of the day the apparent wind was under 5 knots (that means that even if the actual wind speed was 10 knots, but we were going south at 7 knots, apparent wind speed would be about 3 knots), so we motored south.

A pretty uneventful day, and we were in Santa Rosalia as the sun was going down, which meant that we were tied up while still having light to see what we were doing. As we approached Santa Rosalia, we got cell service, so we were able to check with the marina about which slip we were going into. But with the language issues we were having difficulty figuring out which side of the boat to prepare for the dock. That means getting fenders rigged and dock lines in place to tie up with etc.

I had been on Facebook and noted that one of my contacts had posted covid conditions in Santa Rosalia in the Sea of Cortez Facebook group the day before, so I sent him a message to see if he was still here, he was and went and looked at the slip and gave us clear direction on it being a starboard side tie if we back in with a little wind pushing us away from the pier, and that the guards are very helpful in tying up the boats.

After tying up and getting shore power on, we walked the dock and met some people on the other boats here, and found another Island Packet (a 370) S/V Sundance with Paul and Sharon onboard. We talked for a bit and found they knew S/V Capalel III from the previous owners (before Colin and Claudia), and they too were from Alaska. We saw that S/V Munday’s off was here but saw no sign of Joe. Later we got in touch with him and found out he was in Loretto visiting his sisters for Thanksgiving, and he would be back on Sunday (we met him when we were here before). We have invited Paul and Sharon over for Pumpkin pie tomorrow that Renee’ made while underway. 

After all of that we walked across the street and had dinner and saw a few more people from the last time we were here.  Finally we returned to the boat, got showers and went to bed, the end of a rather long day.

I have added a link to the right for our position/track.

It was a very windy night, no the weather programs did not show this in advance. But our anchor held firm, we were up at 6 AM, which means we missed the sunrise.  Of course the wind had calmed down a bunch by morning.

Well, about an hour or so out of Puerto Don Juan, we put out the spinnaker. Good, it went up ok, and was pulling the boat at about double the speed we had been doing before in about 10 knots of wind (boat speed approaching 4 knots). Bad, then we tacked (POORLY!) and tangled the spinnaker around both the jib and staysail, we then spent the next hour and a half getting the spinnaker down. What a mess. Finally we were headed in the right direction with the wind directly from behind us. Which means that unless we sailed wing on wing or had the spinnaker out we were not going very fast (1-2 knots). We looked at the charts and distance to Bahia San Francisquito and elected to motor there and hopefully arrive before dark to anchor for the night.

So, a bit more detail about the spinnaker incident. We have (successfully) flown it before. It takes some preparation to get it hoisted. We have installed preventers (lines from the cockpit to the bow then back to the boom to hold it out to prevent an accidental jibe). The port side preventer is also used as the tack line for the spinnaker (the bottom attachment point for the spinnaker. The top of the spinnaker goes up to the top of the mast, and has it’s own halyard with a winch on the boom to haul it up. At the remaining corner of the spinnaker is the Clew which is where the sheets for spinnaker attach and are then run back to the cockpit and we use the winches that are normally used for the jib (the forward most sail). So, the spinnaker is stored in a bag in the forward cabin, and comes up through the hatch over the bed. The spinnaker has a huge sock over it that is fixed at the top, and has a rope installed for pulling the sock up when the spinnaker is being used, and the other end of the loop is used to pull the sock down when you are putting the spinnaker away. So, in our efforts to tack this loop got tangled around the spinnaker and the gib and the staysail all about 50 feet above the deck with enough wind to really move the sail around. Thankfully when this happened, we were not near any shore or islands or rocks. As I said all told it took us well over an hour to sort it out. We had the sail wrapped around the loop for hauling the sock, and the staysail and the jib about a dozen times. What a mess! Renee’ made the comment later, that it is fun sailing with me and thankfully you (meaning me) don’t panic. Yes, this would have been an appropriate time to consider panic as an option. We considered going back to Puerto Don Juan to sort it out, and we considered tying it up and just coming ahead to Bahia San Francisquito to sort it out when we anchored, and as it is, we will put it up to dry it out in Santa Rosalia sometime over the weekend.

As it worked out, we dropped anchor at about 4:45, just after the sunset, so there was still light to see what we were doing. It is a pretty jolly anchorage, but the hook is set and we are in for the night. Oh and the autopilot/chartplotter did not work at all well today, and so most of the sailing was with the auto pilot in semi auto with frequent adjustments.

Tomorrow is another long day, we have to go about 70 miles to get to Santa Rosalia. Good it is a harbor we have been to before, Bad it will be a long day. We plan to get up at about 4:30 and get underway at about 5 am.

I have added a link to the menu on the right side of the page to our track.

No pictures today.

We finally got up around 11 am or so, had a bite to eat then took our tandem kayak out to go ashore. We stopped at the S/V O’boy and said hello to Katie and Peter then went ashore. We did the walk to the salt pond (there is not much else to do here) and then back to the boat. Good, the walk and the company, Bad, one of the handles on the kayak came off and we lost the painter. This kayak has been used a bunch, we bought in 2010 at Costco for use on our first boat, and have hauled it from Oceanside to Florida to Iowa and then back to California to put back on our boat. We have replaced the clips for the seats with brass and restitched some of the webbing, and we have replaced some other items on it, but it might be time…. We will see.

Dinner was leftovers an excellent meal.

If you want to know where we are, click this link: 

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again