On To San Carlos

Vagari left the Mazatlan yacht harbor Saturday afternoon, March 18. . The narrow entrance to that harbor is best done in daylight with a favorable tide. We anchored behind an Island just off the “Gold Coast” of town so we could leave at first light on Sunday, which we did.

The first 24 hours of the 190-mile crossing were easy and pleasant. Our destination was a bay near the south end of the Baja Peninsula straight across from Mazatlan. Monday morning when about 60 miles from the peninsula we reviewed the weather reports and our status and decided spend another night at sea. We turned north changing our destination to an area up the Baja coast that had lots of safe anchorages. We could save some time by doing this and not add a night at sea because under the original plan we would have to sail at night up the Cerralvo channel. This channel usually experiences strong north winds during the day.

During the first night a large ship approached us from dead astern. I hailed them on the radio when they were two and a half miles behind us. They responded promptly. I ask what there “intentions are”. This is the nautical and polite way of asking how they planned to deal with our conflicting paths. They are obligated to keep clear of us because they are the overtaking boat and are “burdened” to avoid us. When I hailed them on the radio I gave my latitude and longitude and the compass heading from me to them. They responded by saying “I have you now” at such and such a distance and direction. We now both know that we are talking to the proper vessel. They tell me they will alter course to port and pass me on my port side. I ask them how far to my port they plan to clear me and tell them I will hold my course. They indicate that they will clear me by at least one mile and wish me a pleasant evening. I repeat what we each plan to do and wish them a pleasant evening. They cleared us by exactly one and a half miles. All this is a very routine encounter between boats at sea but I seldom meet large vessels at night because of where we sail so I find it really cool.

During the second night the winds strengthen and came from the northwest, the direction we were heading. Vagari pounded into the waves and slowed way down. The water here is filled with plankton that emits a bio-fluorescent glow. As we pounded into the waves the water was filled with a beautiful blue/white light. We had to cross a fairly busy shipping lane at night. We saw a couple of large ships but none were even close to interfering with us. We are close to shore now and have some interesting navigation because a light on a rock in our path was not working. The rocks location is only give as four mile north of an island. So with Rhea helping and looking for the rock, which we never saw and never showed up on radar, we follow a course that takes us two miles north of the island. Radar accurately measures distances that would be impossible to do visually.

By sunrise the pounding and slow progress was getting on everybody’s nerves. We decided to duck behind a large island and wait for the headwinds to subside. Once we were inside the island the waves were gone but the headwinds continued. However we were up to speed again so we continued about 15 miles up to the north end of the island and dropped the anchor in the early afternoon off a beautiful beach protected from the prevailing wind and seas after 54 hours underway.

The entire evening was calm and we all slept well. The next day we were underway at first light. The wind direction was favorable the seas were moderate. We stopped an hour before sunset in an anchorage that is about a 24-hour sail from our homeport, San Carlos.

The motor sail to San Carlos was one of the best of the season. The weather forecast was for light and variable winds. We had mostly light winds but they always came from the east, which was perfect for us because we were headed due north. We made great time, arriving in San Carlos before sunrise March 14^th.

Vagari went back “on the hard” on the 18^th. We returned to SaddleBrooke the next day.

That’s it for this season. We will spend Christmas and Thanksgiving with our kids next winter so we don’t plan to start cruising until March of 2009. That will be our fifth and last season cruising. We have enjoyed cruising but we are ready for something new.