Passage Zihuatanejo to Acapulco (rev2)
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Wed 24 Mar 2010 09:55
Passage length 125 NM
Distance to go:38 nM
Location: (16:58.062N 100:28.265W)
Speed: 6 knots
Motor Sailing
It is 3 am and again it was night shift, a clear night, with dazzling stars
dancing above us. The sea is still rolly we are in 6 + feet from behind us,
we have 6 knots from the coast, and coarse puts us 4 miles off the coast and
4 miles in from the shipping lane. We have just had a cruise liner just past
4 miles to our starboard side light up like a Christmas tree, it was going
north.
We have had other tankers and cargo ships coming down with us, again the AIS
combined with radar work well together.
We past "Endurance" at sun down we had sailed all afternoon in this rolly
sea, and caught them up, both of us reduced sail before night fall, and
started engine in order to charge batteries, and stabilized the trip. I am
now making water as Acapulco has a harbor that is too dirty to make water so
we want our tanks full before we arrive which we targeted for 9 am.
The ride is still uncomfortable and it makes it hard to get sleep, but the
boys are adapting well, Tracy and I are having trouble to get a good stretch
of sleep. We have made good time and again Gijima is performing well, and
all the features we have done working well.
Night shift is a time to reflect, Tracy watches Michael Palin's travels
which is great time for her, I listen audio books which are wonderful. With
the boys a sleep both of us enjoy our 1 on 1 time, Tracy did to 2 am today,
and I will go to 8 am.
We are looking forward El Salvador we hope to find it calm anchorage after
the many rolly ones as we come down this coast, we can then use it as a
basis for internal land travels.
But we have 700 miles to go, still a long way we will have a couple of weeks
to wait for the weather to do the final crossing and ability to explore some
what nice cruising grounds around Hutalco. We hope this will allow us to
rest and meet people to do the final 460 n Miles together with.
The moon is setting behind us in an orange glow over the water, the waves
rise in black, the white caps have died away, and the stars glow above. I
was hoping to use our new star book to start to learn the stars but it will
have to wait for another day as we surf down the swell. At Acapulco we will
investigate the harbor, which is meant to be one of the best natural harbors
in the world, but we have heard that it is not friendly to cruisers. We hope
to find a marina with a pool for the boys but our hopes are not high, if not
we will only stay a day or two before heading on.
Must go and check the water maker.