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12/20/2005 1:20:00 AM
Off Cabo San Lucas
30 miles north of Cabo San Lucas

The 170 mile problem

Cracking the 170 mile problem involves lots of night trips.

Ok, so what is up with this magic number of 170 miles . it seems every trip you do down the coast of Baja California amounts to about 170 miles. So you might wonder what is wrong with 170 miles . nothing really except that our boat does on average 6 knots . yes I am a bit obsessed with speed and knots but at the end it all is a numbers game. Simple math shows you that at 6 knots you can do about 144 miles during a 24h day which ain't bad for a sailboat from the early 80s but what it also means is that you need to take an extra day or night to get those damn 170 miles behind you. That's exactly what we are doing AGAIN right now on our way from Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo San Lucas . doing a 30 hour trip. Starting to make sense what I mean by the 170 mile problem!?

Right now, it is in the middle of the night again and we are about 30 miles away from Cabo San Lucas, the most southern point of the Baja and also the best know one . we are only going to stop there to fuel up since it is by far the most expensive place too and since we are on a cruising budget, we are going to avoid the money trap Cabo. But before we get to that part, let me look back and update you on the last few days . dates are kind of a blur so let me look at the calendar myself . well it has been 4 days since we left Asuncion.

We left Asuncion in the middle of the night and with that our first encounter with cruising friends, Ralph and Glenda, to head to Bahia Santa Maria which is I am sure you guessed it by now 170 miles or 30 hours south. Our theory for 30 hour trips is that we leave in the middle of the night and then arrive one day and 2 nights later in the morning at the new destination. That way, the trip seems shorter to the kids and we have plenty room for delays, especially given our engine problems we need to allow for extra time. Arriving into Santa Maria was a perfect example for that when we had good winds for a good part of the trip, but the wind died 2 hours before arrival right outside the bay (a pattern!? .. See Turtlebay) and the motor wouldn't start again or at least not give us any forward. Therefore we coasted along at sometimes below 2 knots of boat speed and it took us over 3 hours to get into the anchorage . as we are getting used to by now, we anchored with our sails only . even the neighbors talked about it later on the radio saying: "Are you the guys who tacked in and dropped the anchor sailing in!?" . who really needs reverse after all .I am starting to repeat myself but maybe if I see it often enough I believe it myself!? Point being with our scheduled arrival in the morning, we have plenty of cushion to coast in slowly and take our time getting anchored.

Santa Maria came highly recommended but it turns out that we have to make sure we don't have too high expectations when we get to a place based on other peoples feedback . it hasn't quite turned out the same way for us as it has for others. In Santa Maria for example, the surf was too high to go onto land and therefore we saw nothing of the quaint fishing village that is there or the great beach . to bad. On the positive side, we reconnected with a boat that had a slip a few boats down in San Diego from us and had a great dinner with them. Their boat name is Van Diemen, with Drude and Josi and a few friends of theirs on board. The evening was full of fun boat stories, little or big mishaps and learnings we shared. Drude is a professional surfer so for them the trip is mainly a surf adventure which reminds me that for the first time I pulled out the new/used windsurf gear I brought along. Interesting exercise to rig up your windsurfer on the bow of a sailboat, kind of cramped but an entertaining site to see me throw the equipment overboard and jump behind it . there is picture footage to follow later once we hit a high-speed internet connection . the windsurfing turned out NOT so good with the wind dying the moment I hit the water . it all become more of a swim around since my windsurf gear does NOT float me, I had to swim back to the boat . :-( . good exercise though and a wash badly needed.

Given that there was little for us to do in Bahia Santa Maria and we didn't need any fuel, we headed out the same night straight for Cabo San Lucas (no stop in Magbay, a typical stopover) with a scheduled arrival today, 12/20 in the morning. Winds have been good with us for most of the night blowing up to 20-25 knots on a broad reach. The weather has finally warmed up a bit though I am still running around in my foul weather pants just in case I need to go on the foredeck and get sprayed which hasn't happened too many times yet. The seas are REALLY sloppy since yesterday afternoon and unfortunately most of us had our share of seasickness again . nothing we cannot handle though. In terms of animal encounters we had 2 true spectacular sightings, we saw a sea turtle float around in the middle of nowhere and we had a Frigget bird (spelling!?) soar our sails for about 5 minutes . to bad Frank was down asleep because he adores these birds and it was quite a majestic sight . the bird took aim for our mast head a few times but then with the seas being the way they were decided differently and moved on . fascinating we are 20 miles off-shore and there is all this life! While on fascinating . the day before we got into Bahia Santa Maria we saw a 'moonrise' . never quite knew that existed but it looks amazing when you watch the sunset on one side and then a few later see the moon come up on the other . WOW. The stars and skies are amazing too, the milky way is totally visible and when the moon comes up it is so bright during the night just unbelievable . despite the fact I spend most of my shifts down below reading or writing, it is always a pleasure to go up top and look around.

OK, enough 'star and sky talk'. Our plans for the next few days are to head up to La Paz ASAP or as soon as the weather allows . the weather patterns change now with our paths going back up north into the Sea of Cortez which also brings strong North headwinds for us to fight against. Therefore, we need to wait for the right weather window to head back up . yes you guessed it right the almost 170 miles (to be fair it is only 155 . LOL). Once in La Paz, it is time for some true R&R and no more night shifts for a few weeks it seems.

Just want to say again, we love getting all your email replies and we are trying to get back to your emails individually as often as we can, but be patient with us. PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING . without my original text though . LOL . Thanks.

Happy sailing,

Robert

TheSchmids Family Sailing on Lawur

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