2003-06-18 03:59:05
Yesterday, we got up and left the anchorage at 8:00 AM. The winds were hooting from the South and I wanted to take advantage of that. So we stuck our nose out into the channel and found winds in the 15-20 knot range and wave action was about 4 feet closely stacked. We put the wind at about 120 degrees, off our port stern quarter and released the roller jib alone. Bam!! 7 knots. Perfect. We only had 28 miles until our next stop but I just didn’t want to motor. So… we sailed the entire way for the next five hours as the winds continually dropped. At a point where Texans speed was down to 3 knots. I rolled up the jib and hoisted the spinnaker. Perfect, back up to 5 knots. We left it there until the wind died completely and had to motor the final thirty minutes into the bay. It was a great trip. Our friends on Spirit Healer, being the late risers that they are, left two hours after us, arrived one hour after us, but motor sailed the entire way. Ugh. That is exactly what I didn’t want to do. I must say that I believe the spinnaker is going to get allot of use this summer with what I project as going to be many days of very light winds to sail with. So, here we sit, in this small cove with four other boats looking at the fishermen leaving in their pangas for another hard day at trying to make a living. There are about 15 houses here, salt flats for harvesting salt sold in La Paz, and there is suppose to be a small tienda that sells food products after they stock on Tuesday nights. We’ll stay here until Wednesday just to see what the tienda really has to offer. I heard we may be able to pick up some potatoes. That’s it for now. Life is good.
S/V TEXAN