SOUTH TO
Today is
Here is a map of the route we took from
The crossing from the Baja peninsula at Los Frailes to La Cruz covered 294 nautical miles.
I was accompanied on the trip to La Cruz by Gene Carman; a
friend I met in
The trip over here was composed of four legs with an overnight stop at each anchorage.
9 miles from
51 miles to Ensenada de Los Muertos – sailed 46 miles
51 miles to Bahia Los Frailes – sailed all 51 miles
294 miles to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle – sailed about 140 miles
The wind was almost always aft of a abeam. We had great sailing from Rocas Lobos, at the mouth of Bahia La Paz, all the way to Ensenada de los Muertos. After we left Bahia La Paz and started down the south part of the Cerralvo channel we had to put two reefs in the main as the wind increased to about 30 knots from 140 degrees apparent.
The next day we left Muertos at
about
The wind and seas both increased as the day progressed until
we were seeing consistent winds above 35 knots with sustained gusts over 50
knots. The seas were up to 8’ by
And – it was cold! The air temperature never got above 75 degrees the entire afternoon.
By 3PM Mirador was flying only a
80% jib off the bow but was still doing 8 knots directly toward Cabo Los Frailes. I was very thankful that Gene was
aboard. He is an excellent helmsman and
was having fun driving Mirador downwind in the
sometimes confused seas.
We did have some concern as we sailed south in the
increasing seas. Our Whitlock steering
system was generating a loud “CLUNK” each time the wheel passed 8
degrees of rudder to either port or starboard.
We could feel the clunk thru our butts and feet as we sat in the cockpit. I have never heard this noise before, even in
similar conditions off Point Arena, north of the
I climbed into the lazerette, an unpleasant place to be while rolling 25 degrees, to watch and feel the steering cables, sheaves, and quadrant. I could find no problems, no slack, no frayed cables – nothing to account for the clunking
We tried to use the ST6000 electric autopilot as much as possible since the ram on its linear drive attaches to a lever arm that is bolted directly to the rudder post, below the steering quadrant. As the wind increased the swells became a little more even and regular but the odd ENE wave would still hit Mirador from almost abeam and shove the bow up into the wind. That was not where we wanted to be, abeam of 8’ breaking waves with wind gusts above 50 knots. So, Gene did a lot of hand steering.
I spent a lot of time navigating since we were straight
upwind of Pulmo reef.
There were also two shoals that extend out into the
The sun was low in the sky, the waves were high, there was a lot of spray on shore, and Cabo Frailes is not a very distinct landmark. There are also rocks lying off Cabo Frailes in a SW direction that force a boat to keep a proper distance off the headland. Trying to find the correct point at which to turn west toward the calm anchorage was somewhat stressful and I am very glad Gene was on deck to tend to boat handling while I used the GPS, navigation software, radar, hand bearing compass, and binoculars to find the way into Bahia Los Frailes.
I found the spot to turn, Gene did a great job of steering Mirador the three miles she was abeam of those breaking
waves, and Mirador, the trusty old girl, made her way
at 7 knots with just a 80% jib up. We anchored in 30 feet of flat water where
the wind was 10 knots gusting to 30. The
sun set in fine fashion, the full moon rose in spectacular fashion, and we
enjoyed an excellent glass of scotch.
That was a day that will serve as the basis of ever more exaggerated tales of seamanship and beauty.
The next day was spent checking out the steering system,
checking out the refrigeration system, installing a new GPS so it won’t
fly around the cockpit in 30 degree rolls, and chatting with newly met friends off a
boat northbound to
The steering
problem turned out to be no big deal. We
took the compass off the steering pedestal and checked out the sprocket and
drive chain. The chain in our Whitlock
system is swaged onto the two steering cables which cross at the bottom of the
pedestal where they go thru the deck and turn 90 degrees around the sheaves
that then direct the cables to the steering quadrant.
We found
that the swages just brush the chain coming down from the other side of the
sprocket when the steering has a large load on it. The swage sorta'
catches one of the chain links as it goes by the opposite way and makes a clunk
as it hops over the link. There was no
sign that the chain or the swage was being damaged by the rubbing.
The rest of
the steering mechanism looked like new. The manual
says the three sets of shaft bearings are sealed for life and there is no
recommended maintenance except to put a little light machine oil on the
chain. The chain still had oil on it but
I dribbled a little 3 in 1 oil on it. I
should have used some of the Pedro’s Mountain Bike chain lube that I have
in my bike bag.
The BIG
problem was the four 4mm allan
head bolts that hold down the top cover of the steering pedestal and the
compass housing to the top cover. They
were so corroded inside (steel bolts in aluminum holes) that an allan wrench chucked into a
3/8" socket twisted the heads off three of the four bolts. AFTER - we worked on them for four hours with
my good impact wrench and lots of WD40.
We met Chris
and Marge from Mocha when we asked them if they had a 4mm allan wrench that we could fit into the drive unit on
my impact wrench. Chris did have that
particular item and it allowed us to examine the steering mechanism hiding
inside the steering pedestal.
After I took
off the compass I used my huge vise-grips to grab one of the now headless bolts
and was able to twist the bolt a 1/2 turn before it sheared right at the
housing.
The compass
is now safely resting in a cushioned bag above my bed and the nice flat
steering pedestal top is now a good drink holder.
Chris and
Marge were interesting to talk to. They
appear to be in their mid-30s and are from
Once Mocha
was in the water at
The
refrigerator was consistently shutting down with a low voltage alarm, even when
the Link2000 showed over 13 volts at the battery. I put a
clamp-on amp meter on the 12V power wire where it connects to the IsoTherm terminal block and watched the amperage slowly
increase from 8 amps to 15 amps and then in a positively accelerating fashion
go to 27 amps where the compressor shut down with a low voltage alarm. It was obvious that the compressor motor was
stalling and drawing an ever increasing current which caused the voltage to
drop since the battery has a fixed upper voltage and the wire has a fixed resistance.
The compressor
housing was getting to 135 degrees before the compressor shut down. I found
that water would flow out of the sea-water line plumbed to the filter on the
water pump for the compressor cooling system.
But, no water was flowing thru the filter. I found the filter to be
clean inside. I reconnected everything,
water flowed, the compressor stayed cool, and has now
run OK for a week.
This is
about the fourth time the water flow has done this for no apparent reason. I am wondering if the water intake at the
thru hull is cavitating when we heel and sail fast,
the water pumps sucks air, gets an airlock and loses suction. ???
The 50 hour
trip from Los Frailes to La Cruz was mostly
uneventful. We left Frailes
about
About
The only excitement during the sail was when the shackle that attached the drifter sheet to the sail broke at 3 AM. I guess I need more than an 800 pound test light air shackle since that is the 2nd such shackle to break in three months. We just rolled up the drifter, set the 120% genoa, and kept on trucking until about 10 AM when the wind lightened again. This time we tied the drifter sheet to the sail and away we went under full main and drifter with 8 knots of apparent wind at 90 degrees. Mirador's speed over the bottom stayed in the 4.9 to 5.3 knot range while the wind went up and down two or three knots.
The first
navigation problem during Sunday evening and night was to stay more than 20
nautical miles off the Tres Marias
islands. The three islands are Mexican
penal colonies and are carefully guarded by patrol boats. The 2nd navigation problem was to
find Roca Corbeteňa which
lies SE of the Tres Marias
and is directly on the rhumb line for La Cruz. The rock is about 2 meters high and 100
meters around, coming up out of 600 feet of water. There is supposed to be a light on the rock
but on early Monday morning there was no light visible to us or the other two
boats that were near us. We picked up
the rock on radar at 3 ½ miles and it was exactly where the GPS and charts said
it should be.
That is no
small matter since the charts for the area contain the following note next to
the Tres Marias islands :
“Isla
Maria reported 3 miles further east and Isla Isabella
1 ¾ miles further SW than shown on this chart.
The reported positions cannot be
reconciled with current hydrography.”
Such is
navigating in Mexican waters – lights that don’t work,
charts that have islands mis-placed and WAIT –
there is more!
As we approached
the west end of
We made it
past the Tres Marietas,
(rocks and islands blocking the west entrance to
We anchored
about 200 yards SE of the breakwater and tried to settle back for a rest after
the sail over from Los Frailes. But, wouldn’t you know it? The anchor would not set! It took three trys
to get the big Spade to dig in and hold 3200 RPM in reverse. That has never happened.
And, the fresh water system failed when we tried to wash up . Only a tiny dribble was coming out of any the water faucets. I eventually found the “strange white crystals” clogging the elbow where the suction line comes out of the water tank. Easy to fix but not what I wanted to be doing.
La Cruz has changed a bit since I was here in December 2000 and April 2001. Several of the cruiser hangouts have closed and the dinghy landing beach has been moved due to the reshaping caused by Hurricane Kena last October. When we arrived on Monday morning there were only 8 boats in the anchorage. The least number I had previously seen was 40 or so. However, by Christmas Eve there were 22 boats anchored off the breakwater.
And here is picture from Mirador looking toward Buccerias, the next town heading toward Puerto Vallarta. Buccerias is where we go for more shopping and restaurants.
I'll write more about La Cruz in the next couple of days. My plan is to hang out here in La Cruz for several weeks and then decide what to do after the New Year.