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sww914 · 29-11-2012, 10:02

Safely anchored in Turtle bay and reflecting on our first long leg of our journey.
Wind was 5-20, mostly on or behind the beam. Swell was 2-6 feet, mostly on or behind the beam. We didn't have any major failures, the shackle at the bottom of the mainsheet setup failed, no biggie, it was blowing 5kts so I hauled it in by hand by the mainsheet, pulled the preventer over the other way and replaced the shackle.
Approaching Cedros Island at 3am we had a scary few moments. There are some sea mounts off of the Islas San Benito that seem plenty deep on the charts but steer VERY clear of them, we had breaking waves on BOTH sides of the boat for a couple of minutes, scary scary stuff.
All in all a great trip, I calculated 51 hours from Ensenada to Turtle bay and we had our anchor set 51 hours and 7 minutes after we left the dock. 300 miles in 51 hours, I'm happy with that.
Oddly, we found that a 4 hour shift with both of us on deck, then 8 solo, then another 4 with both on deck worked really well.
I caught the biggest fish of my life so far, a 20# Bonito. It fought like crazy, lots of fun. The fillets were in the fridge in 15 minutes!
Our next legs will be shorter than this, about 240 to Magdalena Bay and then 180 to Cabo. After that another long leg to Vallarta at about 300 or to Mazatlan at about 225. We'll see.
We're waiting out a large swell until Monday or Tuesday, should be 10-15 feet, no point in braving that if you don't have too.
We'll write it all up on our blog maybe toninght, today is for resting and showering!

Cheechako · 29-11-2012, 10:13

Sounds like you had a good trip, mine was 16 ft seas and 35 knots for 2 days, abaft the beam also..... yeah it was pretty gnarly around Cedros when I passed there. We arrived in Cabo in the am, and all along the coast near there the whales (the ones with the long fins..?) were breaching on a sunny morning to welcome us! Hopefully for you too.