Passage Acapulco to Huatluco part 2 (Night Shift)
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Fri 26 Mar 2010 08:45
Passage length 235 NM
Distance to go:130 nM
Location: (16:08.704N 98:19.476W)
Speed: 6.0 knots
Motor Sailing
Well it's night shift again (1 am) just taken over from Tracy, I come on to
no wind to speak of, and a swell out of the west at 3 feet, with a half moon
shining down on my stern, lighting up a silvery path behind us. The
temperature is nice I am still only in shorts no shirt, it is not hot but
very pleasant, in what breeze there is coming off the coast you can smell
wood burning smoke, a little unnerving initially as you check the boat to
make sure nothing is burning. As I stick my head out of the cockpit, to our
starboard (Right) side I see an old friend again "the southern cross" I
stare at it for a time, as it is reassuring to see it, with the pointers as
well, it means we are getting closer to the Southern Hemisphere, it will
only be up for another hour or so before it dips below the horizon.
We have only the main up, as any wind is being generated by us and the
slight breeze and is 25 degrees off our port bow, but this is keeping the
ride pleasant and not so rolly as earlier. Tracy is trying sleeping on a
mattress in the dinette passage way, I suspect this is as much to give Alex
room as anything as he has a great habit of using the whole bed no matter
how big it is, and kicks you through the night or you wake to a foot in your
mouth.
Tracy has now got the passage dinners "down pat" with it simple yet rich and
been able to be served in a bowl which is much easier to handle, tonight it
was beef and vegetables in a stir-fry rice, and there are left overs for now
when I come on watch. This is another struggle is that in the passages we
find the need to nibble/ snack a lot, initially we had not catered well for
this but now we have snack bars, fruit and left over previous meal to snack
on, and it is all of us who need this, so you do not want a big meal just a
supply of small amounts that can keep us going, maybe it is the constant
movement.
At sunset as we had dinner, we had some visitors, we had turtles regular go
past, ( Alex has taken to spotting these and telling us all over and over
again), school dolphins the small ones which were jumping in the air and
then surfed our bow wave for a while, and to top it off we had two humpback
whales travelling north come within 15 feet of our port side, (I am sure
they knew we were there) but we past in our travels they were moving at
speed but we would see the whole body and the boys loved it, (they have seen
many whales now, but they still go back and look up their books to see which
one), and we discuss where they are going as we saw humpbacks earlier last
year when we were in Alaska. This adds to their real time education,
combined with the bird spotting and identifying which we do from charts and
books.
We also past another sail boat (Yawl two mast rig with 2 jibs and main)
Canadian vessel "Telcon" heading in the same direction, I called them and we
talked they heading to the same ports as us, and we had been at anchor
together in Z "wot" last week, so we should see them at anchor tomorrow
night. At that stage we were doing about a knot faster than them, due to
boat length I suspect and I was very happy with my new sailing arrangement.
I now have the whisker pole set out to the starboard side, with the Genee
sheet running through it, I have toping lift on it, with a down haul and it
is set up before leaving the harbor(saves messing about on the foredeck in
seas). I am able to unfurl the genee easily and this arrangement is ideal in
conditions where the wind is just off the aft, so you not quite running down
wind but you are deep, and it allows me to point more downwind than I was on
the last passage, which I found the waves moving the genee around too much
and I list wind. The whole sail is a much better set shape, "tell tails are
steady" and the clew of the sail is steady even in the wobbly seas.
We also were hailed by a north bound sail boat which was 4 miles closer to
land than us, they had come from the port we are going to and they are going
to Acapulco so we were able to swap information on ports and conditions.
This boat has come through the channel, and is heading to Z "wot" before
going to Hawaii mid April a nice 45 foot steel ketch.
In the afternoon yesterday Sean and I played monopoly which is good for his
maths, and strategy skill, (it is surprising to see how well he is doing
with the money now and working out how to pay with what he has, this he
struggled with at the beginning of the trip), he then went onto audio books
which he listening to "Wind in the Willows" again this is well read in the
audio books and gets his imagination working well.
The passages are an interesting time, we all get on with activities, Tracy
and I have our duties a part from the watch (Tracy in the galley) me on
sails and engine checks, and then we share the activities with the boys,
Tracy doing craft sessions and I construction and games. Time goes
surprising quickly especially if the weather is nice (get not rolly) so you
can move about. I am also plowing through novels which is great to get to
after so many years where I did not have time, but even since the boys are
here even the stretches of time I can read is limited. This passage is the
single longest one yet, at 205 nM to Puete Angel which is small fishing
harbor which we will probably pull into around about sunset tomorrow, as we
want to avoid going in to Hautluco at night, and this will give us a nice
short 25 mile hop the following day or the day after depending on how we
find Puete Angel, but is meant to be a very nice spot and calm (which is
critical for Tracy), since we are making good time and there is no weather
window for the Gulf of T for a couple of days we are in no rush.
It was nice to see Tracy move into thinking about the next 5 months and what
we are going to do, as we in central America which she has travelled a lot
more than I. We are discussing maybe exploring El Salvador and the Meyer
ruins in the surrounding countries doing this by land travel leaving the
boat in a safe anchorage under security, and then possible going South
America for 2 months to do the Chilean inside passage and then Argentina
again an air and land travel, but the planning and ideas get us excited and
it would round off a good year of travel in the Americas, we will continue
to discuss and explore possibilities over the next month. Then we would
return and go on to Costa Rica and Panama exploring their islands and bays.
As I sign off the moon has about another 2 hours left before setting, all is
calm, and going well, it is so peaceful no matter how many times I do this
at night I just stare out at the water, with the stars reflecting and the
ceiling dome of the milkway surrounding us, and then the bow wave pealing
off with the white glowing against the navigation lights, it is a good time
for reflection and I hope the next leg is as calm as this one as that has 3
nights and is longest yet at 460 Nm.
Cheers