La Cruz to Tenacatita Night Shift
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Sat 6 Mar 2010 08:13
Distance to go: 30 NM
Location: (19:30.235N 105:12.415W)
Wind: Off the coast at 5 knots
Sea: NW at 5 to 6 feet 14 seconds next to no wind waves
Comment: Cloudy skies, moon trying to come through, 1 to 1.5 knot current
against us
Speed: 5 knots under motor sailing (cut back in order to arrive in daylight)
It's 1.45 am central American time, we moved onto this time zone after
leaving La Cruz, this puts us on the same time as Plano / Dallas (where I
spent so much time last year). No stars tonight as we have cloud cover, but
the moon appears full and is trying to get through so we have a slight glow
over the water making it not totally black. We are running approximately 6
miles off the coast at a nice 5 knots. I am in a T shirt and in an open
cockpit so the temperature is nice. Tracy on her shift had a lot of activity
of sailing boats coming north a lot of these do not or barely show up on
radar so you need keep an eye out, but it is not surprising as this is a
weather window north and south, and actually as of tomorrow night (according
to the weather models) the trip north will not be favorable for a couple of
days due to strong NW winds. So when Tracy made the comment she was dodging
boats it was not surprising, this is a different night run to the last 2 as
we are following the coast, where as the last 2 we have been covering open
water and basically you could barely see the coast if at all. Here I can see
the lights from the towns and flashing red radar/ phone towers at set
distances down the coast. I am of Chamela at the moment so you can see this
small set of lights.
We had issues with the Radar earlier had to dig through some wire runs and
found water entering a connection, dried it out and did some basic fix all
working, but I will have to clean this up when we drop anchor, but no big
deal, just a loss of power to scanner which was fixed. I do not like going
through the night without radar as it is bring reality (as is) feedback on
the situation out there, eg I have the chart plotter with our plotted
position, but this assumes the charts are correct, most of these charts are
100 years old (last update) and we have found 7/8 mile difference average,
at Isabela Island the actual island was 1 3/4 miles south east of the chart
position. I was initially confused at the approach to island as the chart
gave me a certain distance to the island but the radar picked it
differently, the radar was real and correct, so now I can see the coast at 6
miles on the radar this helps me with distances at night which also get
screwed up.
This afternoon the boys and Tracy slept, we had a busy time with other kids
in La Cruz and out at night and it showed when we left, as the boys went to
afternoon nap willingly and Alex slept for 4 hours, Tracy also got 2 hours,
and now they back down. The boys are settling into these passages well, we
started off with puzzles, then shapes and building cards with glue, and then
drawing the whales they saw. Sean then did some audio book time he is
listening to best Rudyard Kipling these audio books are good as he listens
and uses his imagination. We jumped to bow for a school of dolphins surfing
off the bow wave (I never get tired of this) and Sean can see them so close,
the strong, sleek bodies powerfully, or effortlessly keeping up with the
boat, we can see quiet deep, while out there we spot and identify birds
which Sean checks in the books and charts on return to cockpit. After dinner
they watch a movie each and suddenly the day is gone, we are lucky to have
such a big cockpit that allows them safe space and room.
Again this night shift was easier than the last 2, the team set and slotted
into groove easily and this shows us get better a tuned to this life.
I did not catch any fish, no sign will try again as the dawn comes up at
night I pull them in as I do not want to be on deck at night when sort
handed, just not good safety.
Tonight I reading up on my skills on radar setting, and the features of the
chart plotter, I am still not happy with the different compass settings, as
some are GPS absolute and some are magnetic, you put in the offset but still
we are out which is off putting, I tend to go back to the old compass as the
master, but we must be able to get this better.
The moon has broken through we now have our shimmering silver road forward
over shifting sea to the horizon under the moon, the swell can clearly be
seen now but not much else. We are still on target to be dropping anchor
about 7 to 8 am in the morning so in plenty of light, I would have liked it
to be 10 am to allow any boats to leave, but I suspect most will have left
today if coming north this is a popular anchorage.
Stay tuned.