After 67 hours, 33 minutes, and 11 seconds, we left Baja Norte and became Sur people! It’s warmer but not hot. Still has hours of rain. Still chilly at night. Ocean is a brighter blue, but not that of the tropics…yet! We sailed without engine for 2/3 of the passage until the wind died in the final 12 hours. We experimented with various sail configurations and used the whisker pole! Using the pole meant that both Mark and I were on deck, clipped in, to deploy. Who was steering the boat? MACH 5 was! Autopilot was in charge.
Here’s a photo of Mark on deck. I took this after we deployed the whisker pole which is the pole in the upper part of the pic. It holds out the head sail or jib, in our case, when winds are light. The yellow line by Mark is his tether from his PFD (life jacket) to the yellow jackline on the boat. Here he is tidying lines and is clipped in. At times, we have to move between one connection spot to the next. These are the most dangerous seconds as we have to unclip and not be attached to MACH 5.
We arrived in Bahìa Tortugas (Turtle Bay) on Wednesday morning. We anchored, got ship shape, ate breakfast burritos, and went to bed! The passage was our first multi-day–4 days and 3 nights. We did better about sleeping. We started very seasick and with me (Christiana) colliding with the wooden back of the settee with my face. Resulted in a goose egg on my left temple and eventually a very black eye. Mark likes to make fun of me for being so excited about having a black eye. But see, I see it as a mark of freedom! Of living…really living! This would have never happened to the Christiana whose mother guarded her moves closely (fair enough, she spent a lot of time getting my cleft repaired). This would never have happened to the Christiana that worked so much that she slept and worked. Rinse. Repeat. It’s the mark of the valiant, as my BFF said.
Anchoring has been wonderful! We seem to have figured out the ground tackle (anchor, chain, and windlass) so that we hold. It’s Saturday as I write this and we haven’t had to re-anchor! Compared to re-anchoring a few times a day in China Camp in the Bay Area. This is the screen grab of our anchor alarm software. The blue lines are MACH 5 swinging and bouncing around on anchor. We make bowls of spaghetti. This is good!
We stayed on MACH 5 on Thursday. We did tasks and made water, which I still find magical. On Friday, the tail end of the latest atmospheric river to hit California, provided us with a day of rain. Crusher from a neighboring sailboat came over to use Starlink and hung out. He and Mark traded sailboat and adventure stories, which means injuries.
Saturday, we called Enrique, who sells fuel and offers panga taxi rides, to do both. We filled up 4 jerry cans (20g total) of diesel and a few gallons of gasoline for $3300 Mx. THIS WAS WAY MORE THAN MARK EXPECTED! Diesel is $38 Mx per liter here. To save you from having to do the math, that’s ~75 liters at $38 each. Ouch! That’s about $175 USD. This is why we sail and avoid motoring.
In town, we met some very nice people including Johana whose restaurant we lunched at. She is the owner, cook, staff, and joins you at the the table for conversation. If you ever find yourself in Bahìa Tortugas, head to Restaurante La Torre. At the mercado, we replenished some fresh foods. Found Comstock canned fruits aka pie filling! Didn’t find more McCormick Fresa y Mango Jam. Exploring town gave us an opportunity to practice our español.
