Rounding Cabo Corrientes
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Fri 5 Mar 2010 21:36
105:43.757W) about 5 miles, we have taken a wide rounding, giving this
point the respect it has by reputation as Corrientes stands for "current"
and here 3 current hit, the one from the north, one from the south at 1 knot
and then the tidal current coming out of the bay. We chose this time based
on discussions with Jim from the dock at La Cruz who does this trip a number
of times a season, and he times it for the ebb tide on high, which we did,
it has got us out a little early as we have the challenge of wanting to
arrive in day break not dark so I am hoping the 10 to 15 knots will appear
and we can sail, even if it is at lower speeds. Currently the prediction was
for 10 to 15knots west/ N W, and we have 6 to 8 out of East, so I am not
sure. The swell was meant tobe 5 to 7 feet out of NW, it is out of the NW
but I doubt if it is much more than 3 feet and 14 to 16 seconds, so nice. I
am motor sailing cut back the engine to 2000 RPM so we still have turbo
working but not pushing it and we doing at nice 6.5 top 7. The challenge is
you cannot pull back the engine too far as it likes to work, and we still
want to make progress so we can only hope the breeze freshens by 5 knots and
we can get in some hours of sailing. Otherwise the exit of La Cruz as
painless, other than Sean been very upset at leaving some friends which he
has played with, this is the challenge with moving down the coast you pass
and get know people then move on. We are hoping that tomorrow Sean will see
Zada again who he said good by to over a year ago and has known since he was
2, and we will run into Endurance again and their 2 girls and then we sail
with them down the coast meeting up regularly, so he starts to understand
how people move.
It looks like we have picked a good weather window, hope it holds through
the night, all says it does, and we can be in Tenacatita for breakfast and
tea.I have my lines out with a new exciter bird (yes Ed I picked one up) in
the hope that we catch a tune, Mahi Mahi on the way down, but many boats are
saying they have not seen much south of Cabo. I am playing with some new
line settings to see if we get any action, admitterly we have no where to
put it as we have a full freezer still but fresh will be nice , but don't
hold your breath.
As we past the islands on the exit to the bay we had a hump back whale
surface 20 feet from the boat, and then breach just away from us, and then
slap it's fins, it was so close, and Sean and Alex loved it. Alex is
spotting the whales and then telling them to do more and more as if you can
order this. But we have seen more whales from Isabela down than the whole
trip and many great jumps and tails.
The boat looks more like a laundry as we did our final loads of washing in
the on board washing machine (yes got it working on the dock, now still need
to see why it will not work off the inverter) but we drying the laundry all
around the cockpit, maybe it will attract the fish????
Over to my port the high headland rises with rocky points of gray rock, and
then these yellow beaches at the bottom of the green vegetation and before
the gray/ blue sea it looks very un populated. But the rounding is smooth
and the boys and Tracy have gone below for the afternoon nap. This is a time
when I can read, catch my thoughts and just take it all in.