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12/22/2005 7:00:00 PM
Bahia Los Muertos
50 miles by sea to La Paz

Theories of Cruising

Here a few theories of cruising, with Theory No 3 probably the most insightful one to life on the boat so far.

THEORY NO 1 - The frequency of logbook entries is directly proportional to the distance covered = the amount of night shifts . peaceful ones that would be.

Let me explain that theory in a bit more detail. It is Thursday, December 22nd right now and since the last report from outside Cabo San Lucas we have covered in 3 days a meager 90 miles . but man what a piece of work that was . but again I am getting ahead of myself since that will lead to theory No 3. Since then 3 days have passed and someone not cruising would assume that we had plenty of time to write another report . NO that would be against Theory No 1 since it seems the best times to write are in the middle of the night while underway and that requires longer distances. Maybe I should rename it to 'frequency is proportional to quiet night shifts' . I am almost scared to write this report during regular daytime . am I going to make any sense, will I get too romantic, boring, dry or interesting . who knows but there is room for some theory development for you guys.

THEORY NO 2 - Neptun doesn't want us to leave its oceans and shuts down the wind before landfall.

Well this one you should have guessed the last few times but it took me a little bit longer to accept this theory and put it in writing. Maybe by now putting it down in bits and bytes it turns out this is actually not a theory but a jinx. Based is this theory on the fact that the wind seems to die every single time we make landfall, see Turtlebay, see Bahia Santa Maria and see also Cabo San Lucas. We made it into Cabo San Lucas sailing nicely downwind with winds up to 20 knots at times, a bit choppy but good progress with an unusual quiet night without the motor running . until 2 hours before we got there. That not only became the basis of this theory but also made sure we had no usable motor or reverse that would be when entering Cabo . a bit disconcerting when you think that this is a very busy harbor, quite tight and rumor has it lots of cruise ships stop there. Our timing was perfect since all the fishing boats had already left early in the morning and the junk (jet skis, .) and cruise ship traffic hadn't started yet. We motored into the harbor way to fast for my taste at around 6 knots, dropped the main outside with a quick few donuts . wondering what the people in the anchorage thought about us . and then about 100 feet from the fuel dock the engine did what we all expected . it died. We coasted onto the fuel dock, stopped the boat with lines, tied off and were on land for the first time in quite a few days.

THEORY NO 3 - Cruising highs and lows are often very close together and much more intensified then in regular life, whatever that is . regular life!?

Ok let me start with saying that we should have been warned about that since the first book we ever read about this adventure mentioned this very early on and talked in great length with examples about that . sounds very exciting when you read it in a book, almost esoteric . what the hell does it mean when they say close together and intensified . well let me tell you about our day after we arrived in San Lucas and then you might be your own judge.

As I said, we arrived in Cabo pretty much fine and had covered a very long trip of over 700 miles in pretty much less then 10 days, not bad for starting cruisers like us but the fact that we had Frank with us to help and split the fun and down times with made it much easier, but we should have been ecstatic. We knew the fun with Frank would come to an end but it came all too fast for us when Frank told us that morning it made the most sense for him to head out in Cabo right here and now . in our head we knew that it was right but our hearts didn't quite want to accept that logical conclusion. So here we were just having covered the whole Pacific side of the Baja, really a big milestone we were VERY HAPPY to have reached but at the same time VERY SAD to see Frank leave. But wait it gets better, so after fueling up and dropping Frank off, we had decided pretty much there that it made sense for us to not even spend one more minute in Cabo but start our trip up the coast the other side of the Baja to La Paz . remember winds were super light so it was perfect weather for a trip that is usually made difficult by strong northerly winds. Our goal was Los Frailes which is about 40 miles from Cabo . nothing like the old 170ers we were doing . just a quick day hop . right!? Well so we thought until after having gone almost two thirds the winds started to pipe up . at first only 10-15 but quickly the wind was building to blow all the way to 25 knots and that now was NOT from the right direction as we had all the way down the Pacific side of Baja but straight on the nose. This on its own wasn't all that bad, we got a good seaworthy boat that can handle it but guess what . with wind come waves and steep ones at that in this area and so pretty quickly we realized our motor couldn't take it and died plowing into the waves. Suddenly, a short 15 miles becomes more like 30 miles due to the fact that we have to tack forth and back . now imagine this, it is our first day without help, just Niki and I, the wind is coming from the worst direction possible and the waves are nasty . ah, we can take it while it was still blowing 20 knots which really feels more like 25 due to the progress you are making into the wind . in sailor terms we had 20 knots true wind and 25 apparent. But remember Theory No 3, the lows are low . and I mean really low . well to make matters worse we lost one more crew member and his name is Joey . haven't heard of Joey yet, well he is our autopilot and since he is a VERY IMPORTANT part of our boat, he gotten named by the kids as Joey Wheeler (pronounced with a French accent since the autopilot is of French make). Joey has done great so far but he has a little bit of a problem with heavy seas since his life line, the electrical cable supplying him power, is undersized which results in him giving up right when we needed him the most . NOW. Ok still not too bad, I can steer and at the end it is only 15 miles . well actually 30 miles to go but what else is Red Bull made for . :-) . now here it got really crappy because now the winds increased to even over 25 knots and Niki and I decided to do the prudent thing at our lowest moment (no Frank, no Joey, bad seas, friends sooooo close and then sooooo far away) and turn around to run away from the wind back to Cabo . but hey didn't you say the highs are really close by . where are they . trust me I was waiting for it too and as the theory says it happened . within 10 minutes, and I am not kidding, the wind died down to 5-10 knots . well here was a high and we were VERY HAPPY campers so we turned around again . seems I need a theory on turning around soon . and headed to Los Frailes again. Problem was that by now it has gotten pretty late and the 2 hour cushion to get into anchorage before sundown was blown out the window . so here we are all happy to find out we have to anchor at night in a place we have never been. Now this is getting a bit long so I will cut through the chase here . wind started to pick up again, motored on the edge of dying for 3 hours, pretty nerve racking but anchoring went fine, a bit scary but just fine, then we found ourselves blown out for over a day there, but we made the best out of it by going on a nice beach hike and while being a bit bummed about not being able to continue north . guess what here comes the next high, the winds died and we were able to motor to Los Muertos over night and we just had a marvelous day on the boat and at the beach. Did I make my point!?

OK, I am done with theories, before I forget I wanted to add despite the fact that the boys were a bit scared at first when we had huge seas and strong winds, they settled down quite well. Less sailing related, we had all in all 2 very nice beach days, which we needed badly since we did rush down the coast just a bit too fast for my taste but with our goal in mind to be in La Paz for Xmas, we did really well. Today in Los Muertos we ran into the same monster schooner (over 90ft long) again we saw in Los Frailes by the name of Talofa (check out www.talofatallship.com). This is a charter boat and we connected with the owner and crew today, who were nice enough to give us a tour of the boat, let the boys climb the rigging and jump off like pirates did . was fun to meet them and get introduced to such a big ship.

Our plans are to head out tonight again for La Paz, the winds have been fairly mellow and we hope to be there tomorrow 12/23. More updates to come once we are there and settled in. Thanks for listening to me theorizing about cruising and hope you enjoyed my little excursion,

Happy Sailing,

Robert

PS: Niki asked me to make sure to let you all know despite the lack of snow, the white beach with palms trees . yes it is a bit like in the brochures . we don't lack the Xmas spirit which is underscored by the fact that Niki and the kids just finished baking typical Austrian Xmas cookies . not quite like my grandma did it but real close.

TheSchmids Family Sailing on Lawur

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