It’s a funny thing sailing our home across the Pacific Ocean. Inside the boat everything looks and feels more or less the same: meals get cooked, dishes get washed, laundry is cleaned and then dirtied and cleaned again.
Nope Nothing To See Here
It’s dark and quiet out here. No moon tonight and no stars. A high cloud layer is dampening all light like a heavy blanket. The sky and ocean are indistinguishable melting into an undetectable horizon.
We spent six fantastic nights anchored off of San Benedicto Island in the Revillagigado group, about 340 miles off the coast of La Cruz. Like Brian said in his previous post, it was like we’d sailed to the moon:
We arrived at Isla San Benedicto in the Socorro Island Group early this afternoon. We made great time covering the entire 330 mile passage in just under 48 hours, without motoring at all. We couldn’t have hoped for better weather.
We untied from the dock in La Cruz at 4:56 p.m. yesterday, March 27. We had a great send-off from the gang. Brad and PJ and the crew of Totem even showed up to blow the airhorn and wave goodbye from the breakwater. It was a great way to say goodbye to Mexico.
Erin and Brady showing our route from Mexico to the Marquises islands with a short stop in the Socorro Islands.
Delos is a 53’ Amel Super Maramu 2000. She is a ketch rigged (2 mast) sailboat built in La Rochelle, France. Delos is a medium displacement boat for her size weighing in at about 20 tons (40,000 lbs) and is built as a solid cruiser capable of crossing oceans.
Ok, so here we are hours away from departing Mexico for the Marquises Islands in French Polynesia. We have our Zarpe, that nice little certificate that says we’ve checked out of Mexico.
For the moment Delos is tied to the dock at the La Cruz marina, about 25KM from Puerto Vallarta. We decided to treat ourselves to a stay in the marina with unlimited power,internet, and easy access to the bus routes that are so crucial to us right now.
We dropped the hook in La Cruz at 5:00AM after 20 hours underway. Waiting for the right weather window really paid off. Instead of beating into 30 knots right on the nose we sailed the first few hours with our spinnaker up and then motored around Cabo Corrientes under light conditions.
After spending four days waiting for a weather window to round Cabo Corrientes we are finally northbound! We departed Tenacatita at 8:00AM and after an overnight passage should arrive tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning.
Barra was the southern terminus of our cruise in Mexico and it’s time to head back north to Puerta Vallarta. We did have grand plans, or should I say “intentions”, to head all the way down to Costa Rica before making our Pacific crossing.
After much deliberation Erin and I decided to depart Mexico from Puerto Vallarta instead of our beloved Gold Coast. It will make the logistics of provisioning, boat projects, and crew arrivals just a little bit easier.
9:00AM, any day of the week, VHF channel 22:
“GOOD MORNING! Welcome to the Gold Coast Cruisers’ Net serving Tenacatita, Barra de Navidad, and Manzanillo. This is Hermi on the sailing vessel Iwa. It’s Wednesday, no Tuesday…. Actually—sorry!—I lost track. I’m pretty sure it’s February. Does anyone know what day it is?
We woke up early this morning to the news of the earthquake in Chile and the Pacific Tsunami warning issued by NOAA. As a precaution all boats in our anchorage headed out to sea and deeper water.
I’m sitting at one of the eight tables that form a circle around the bar at The Sands Hotel, overlooking the pool. A cool breeze pushes aside the palm fronds behind me and hits my back, sending a shiver down my spine as beads of sweat evaporate.
If the answer truly is blowin’ in the wind, then we should be genius by now. Last night there was quite a gale: 45 knots of wind in Barra de Navidad (some boats are reporting they saw 56 knots). North of here, in Banderas Bay, they saw 75 knots.
A few months before we left Seattle, Stephan, the previous owner of our boat who sailed it nearly around the world, drove down from Bellingham to help us with a few boat projects.