Bidding farewell to towel service, 2 pools, and the best ice cream we have had in Mexico, we left Marina El Cid in Mazatlan on Wednesday morning at 8am. We turned off the engine and set the sails by 9am and sailed straight for the next 31 hours! This is not only our longest record of sailing straight without engine assistance, we also had such great winds that we hit 146 nautical miles in our first 24 hours and saw flying fish, dolphins, and sharks!
If I were a cowboy, I would have loved this passage. Crossing the sea was like riding a bucking bronco. The choppy sea had its way with us and inflicted me with a case of mal de mer so bad that I ate little more than a bowl of cereal in the next two days. Surprisingly, I was still able to do all of my watches. As the first time I was seasick was the crossing from west to east, I figured that I would be seasick from east to west. I was happy that we had winds up to 22 knots which would ensure that it would be over as fast as possible!
We were actually doing such great time that we were on track to anchor at Playa Bonanza on Isla Espiritu Santo 8 hours earlier than expected. When we had passed Isla Cerralvo and had Isla Espiritu Santo in sight the wind died. We finally turned on the engine, took down the main sail, and as I scanned the horizon I saw that there were wind waves past the island. Our plans to anchor that night were quickly foiled as we were hit with a coromuel and had winds of up to 30 knots on the nose. After a night of 2 hour watches, putting all of our foulies on (ski clothes for sailors), and getting drenched by the waves coming over the bow and in to the cockpit we finally dropped the hook at 7am the next morning.
We have spent two more nights in Playa Bonanza, each night with coromuels containing winds of up to 27 knots coming out of the SW. Our anchor has held very well, we hiked the island, walked the beach, and have experienced the clearest water we have seen so far in Mexico. Last night, we had dinner on the deck and watched what looked like mini longhorns coming down to the beach with babies. We saw schools of manta rays that swam by the boat and waved hello to us. They then spread out across the bay and we could hear flop, flop, flop, for several hours. The flop was the sound of them hitting the water after jumping up and out of the water, waving their fins, and trying to fly in a feeding frenzy.
This has been so much fun and we can’t wait for the next anchorage!
Internet is only marginal here so no photos and we may not be able to post for another 2-3 weeks but we will post when we can!
