Trying to Go North

From Cabo to Hilo, Hawaii

We are sitting in Bahia Santa Maria, which is just north of the entrance to Magdalena Bay, on the Pacific side of Baja. Most people would have taken a couple days to cover the approximately 170 miles from Cabo San Lucas; not us. We took the long way - 900 miles or so.

We were anchored at Bahia Los Frailes on May 12^th. I had really wanted to see the hard-coral reef at Cabo Pulmo and this was the closest place that anchoring is allowed. The four-mile dinghy ride wasn’t as bad as we had expected. We pulled the dink ashore and made the easy swim to the reef. The surf was crashing over the reef and I felt at one with the fish being pushed one direction and then the other. The water was full of bubbles which made it a little hard to see clearly. Fortunately most of the fish were big, 12 to 24 inches, and easy to see. We didn’t see great quantities of fish like I had at San Evaristo, but what we did see was new to us and BIG. It would have been nice to go snorkeling in different areas of the reef, but I was pooped after one outing.

Our trip to Cabo was fantastic. We sailed the entire way on the spinnaker alone. A big THANK YOU to Don and Mary Yager of Yager Sails. The sails that Don made for Comocean are great.

We made the big departure on the afternoon of May 14^th. The wind hit us the moment we cleared the iconic rocks of Cabo. We headed out into the big blue sea under a reefed (single) main and a little snippet of headsail. It was pretty ruff going (I have the bruises to prove it). We were heeled over at 30 +/- degrees and unable to stay below for more than a few minutes. We all lost our appetites, including Cinnamon; which was good, since I couldn’t cook anything. I was quite worried about Cinnamon though because he wouldn’t drink any water or eat. I did manage to get some liquid in him by offering his favorite - water from canned tuna. After 9 days I lost 4 lbs, I'm sure Greg lost some and Cinnamon was starting to develop a waist! After three days we were exhausted enough to manage to get some sleep despite the rolling, squeaking and loud pounding of the waves. It sounded as if the boat would shatter when it leapt off the 9 foot wave and smashed down on the water.

The sailing vessel Viccara was also headed for Hilo and was ahead of us by a few days. Jon (pronounced “yon”) and Johanna (“yo anna”) (Dutch folks) had sailed from Europe to Africa then across to the Sea of Cortez. Jon has befriended us (sort of taken us newbies under his wing) and makes a point to call us on SSB every morning and evening to make sure we are not getting exhausted, we are sleeping, and generally in good spirits. They also tell us what weather is lying ahead of us. Another sailboat named Dow (no idea of spelling), with Chris and his female companion Shawn on board, joined the exodus a few days behind us. We had ourselves a nice threesome. Shawn was having some anxious moments when 30 or so pilot whales became a little too pushy. They surrounded the 33 ft boat and hit it with their tails and rammed it. She worried that they could damage the boat if they had a mind to. They turned on the boat’s depth sounder and the whales departed; apparently not enjoying the sonar emissions.

Mechanical Failure

On the evening of May 17^th Greg noticed that the autopilot was malfunctioning. I had noted that it had been making a really loud banging noise that day. It soon became obvious that it was not working at all. At that point we were around 400-500 miles off shore. There was no one to consult and we hand steered through the night. The next morning Greg contacted Dr. Don Anderson (sailor and weather guru) and filled him in on our situation. Don said “I can’t tell you what to do, but I sure know what I would do. I would turn around and head back to Cabo and get a wind vane.” We discussed the pros and cons of continuing on to Hawaii versus returning to Baja and decided that we should be cautious.

Sonia's "nylon autopilot:"

The next day while Greg was sleeping I needed to leave the helm to turn on the running lights. I used nylon straps to temporarily hold the wheel. Upon returning to the helm I realized that I didn’t need to steer - I only needed to nudge the wheel a little when the head sail luffed. Greg was surprised to see me casually sitting at the front of the cockpit when he awoke. We now had a nylon autopilot.

Note the "very specific" (kidding) knot.



We arrived at Bahia Santa Maria on May 22^nd. Once anchored and settled we discussed what had happened and we agreed that we could have easily continued on to Hawaii with our nylon autopilot and not taken a 9-day ocean cruise just for the hell of it. Oh well, it’s that 20/20 thing.

Repairs

Once at anchor, Greg removed the autopilot even though  Raymarine states that “there are no user serviceable parts” in the autopilot. That's what they think!




"Capt. White Beard" assesses the situation.

 As it turns out our wild gyrations and a bad stop had caused the autopilot to overextend. This allowed some retainer pins to drop out of place consequently allowing the magnet portion of the clutch to turn. This caused two little wires to get their panties in a twist until they broke. Fortunately for us they broke far enough out to allow Greg to splice them. Now the autopilot is as good as new and we didn’t have to fork out hundreds of dollars for a repair.

 

 Bahia Santa Maria



We are sitting here now, May 24^th, with five other sailboats and one power boat, all waiting for the winds to settle a little so we can move farther up the coast. The plan is to make a break for it sometime after midnight.

We thought that it was too late to go north via Hawaii now due to hurricanes and we were ready to join this parade. Most are only going to San Francisco. After doing some more studying and consulting Dr. Anderson again, we now believe that we can make another go at Hawaii. The current high winds off of Mag Bay will even be to our advantage.



Industrial Velcro retainers!



Yesterday was spent cleaning and doing repairs. Today we are putting our new-found open-water knowlege to work. I am cooking up a storm - making lots of things we can eat cold - and Greg is on a creative streak, stowing things more securly, adding retaining mechanisms and solving pesky little problems like how to keep the coffee strainer on the pot when the boat is using you for a ping pong ball! 

Tomorrow we're outta here. In 18 days or so we should we in Hawaii.
Wish us luck!