Coronado to Zihuatenajo

12/11/13

So after my last post we had a series of small delays, waiting for stuff to come in the mail, then the weather, and something I else I just can’t remember at the time of writing this.  So that week (which feels like forever ago), I decided to rent a car and drive up to see my brother for the night. On the way up I was able to have lunch with my friend that use to work in Korea, Dan.  He’s living north of LA and kind of doing a lot of various things.

. 

From there I drove to central California, and spent the night with my little brother, Jas, and his girlfriend, Lexi.  It was a Thursday night in SLO so we went to the downtown farmers market, and had some good food, and heard good music.

So after that this happened….

Our first day was actually pretty crazy; we woke up at 2am and set off for a local town.  We were going to weather, which means we were sailing into the wind, which also means that it was rough waves, and our boat was heeling.  There would be surf splashing over the front of the boat from time to time, and we had to have the motor running most of the way. The worst part was the cold; it was bitter cold.  At one point Mike had me go below deck to sleep, later he told me he did that to not freak me out with rough sailing on the first day. We arrived in Ensenada, Mexico late afternoon, so we went to dinner, and then went to sleep.  I fell asleep at 7:30pm and didn’t wake up  until 6:30am, so we were all pretty exhausted after the first day.

The next day the first thing we did was head over to the marina office where we filled out some paper work

And then we went to Immigration for more paper work.

So after about half a day we were on our way.  We started out sailing in perfect conditions. Wind was blowing across the middle of the boat and at a good speed, and not too many waves, so we had both our sails up.

It wasn’t too long into things until on only our second day out we see a dolphin, and just when I think things can’t get any better …

It started out with a bunch of dolphins off in the distance jumping out of the water, and then they came over to us and were just swimming all around us for awhile, there were about 20 dolphins, just playing around our boat.  (check out the video below)

That night we enjoyed an incredible sunset.

So from 3am-6am is my nightly watch, my first night I was pretty nervous about it, but the wind had dropped and we were motoring again. Although it was chilly out, it was really peaceful, and I just listened to some podcasts and watched for other boats and to make sure we were holding course. I saw 5 shootings stars my first night as well, I forgot to make wishes, so there’s five free wishes out there for anyone who wants them. 

So when I woke up from my after watch nap, I come up to us motoring the boat and some pretty calm seas.

12-12-13

Today we finally got some pretty good wind coming from behind.  So we were able to turn the motor off and do some actual sailing.  This is important because we can go faster sailing than motoring, and it’s cheaper, and we won’t need to make a stop to refuel, which will ensure we get to Zihuatanejo (sp?), in time to meet with Christine.

Today we did a couple of different types of sailing, the first thing we did was take out something called an asymmetrical spinnaker, and let that fly instead of the jib sail, which is the sail at the front of the boat.  The second cool thing we did was something called sailing wing-to-wing.  Basically it involves taking a long pole called a spinnaker pole, and attaching it to the mast of the ship.  Then, you attach the jib to it so that it sticks way out.  Essentially, when sitting in the cockpit one sail goes out to left while the other sail goes out to the right.  Below is a picture of the asym spinnaker.

Ok I realize that I am telling a lot of sailing stuff and not as much travel stuff, well for now I am busy doing a lot of learning, and so that’s what’s on my mind.  Once I have that stuff down, I’ll write more about some of my thoughts and the other cool things we are doing as they happen.

12-15-13

So the last couple of days I haven’t really been able to write due to craziness.  2 days ago I was in bed all day with sea seasickness.  I haven’t been able to really eat for the past few days so I’ve been feeling pretty drained.  So then yesterday right when I was I getting ready to write we get some pretty crazy weather.  It was my first time experiencing the crazy weather.  We were getting 25-30 knot winds sailing at a close reach.  What that essentially means is we had some pretty big waves.  Just when Joe and I thought we were going to put the sails away, Mike pulls out a storm sail and puts up another sail. So at that point we were at the mercy of the wind, and so we were going to stop at Cabo to refuel, but we were pulled out to sea over night, and so by the time the wind had calmed there was no going to Cabo.

So far a typical day for me looks like this-

12am-3am: Try to sleep

3am-6am: Watch duty

6am-9am: Try to sleep

9am-5pm: Hang out on deck, either reading, or helping change sails or whatever.

5pm-6pm: go below deck to journal and blog

6pm-9pm: Watch duty
9pm-12am: Try to sleep

12-16-13

So today was a pretty relaxed day. No sea sickness at all, and I ate a decent dinner. We are ahead of schedule, about 3 days away from Zihua, so we didn’t worry about motoring, we just sailed all day.. There were times we were moving pretty slow, and just chilling out. We found a flying fish on the deck that was dried out, so it must have been from the heavy winds day.

At this point the days are starting to move slower, I am looking forward to getting to our destination.  We’ve been underway, just over a week now.  Also, yesterday I saw a whale. So that was pretty cool, although it was brief so I wasn’t able to get any pictures.

12-17-13

So we’ve reached the 48 hours until Zihua mark.  The forecast for the next couple of days is that the wind is going to be difficult with us, so we will probably be doing a lot of motoring.

So one thing that is kind of hilarious is that the guys keep a flare gun with flares from the 70’s on deck. Not for emergencies, but to shoot at birds so that they don’t land on the deck and poop on it.  Don’t worry they never come close to actually hitting the birds, they’re just trying to scare them off.

I thought I would also leave you with a picture of the moon from last night on my watch…

12-18-13

Today has been pretty low key.  There has been no wind, so the water has been like glass, barely a ripple, and so we’ve had to have the motor running all the time, and as it is now it looks like we will be motoring all the way into Mexico.  So we should arrive around 3pm tomorrow.  I am looking forward to some dry land and possibly even a shower.  Yeah, I haven’t showered or even put deodorant on in almost 2 weeks, so that’s kind of awesome. 

One cool thing that did happen today as we were watching the glassy water is that we totally saw a shark fin just poking up above the water!

12-19-13

So last night on watch I was checking out our radar screen, and was looking at a boat crossing our path, check out the name of the boat! I bet they’re scurvy free. (This will only be funny to people from Ship, but they will think it’s hilarious)

So today we finally arrived in Zihua in the late afternoon, so we didn’t get into the shore, so I have yet to contact my lovely wife and let her know my whereabouts, but I took some sweet video of the area.  Here’s a picture of us arriving, and you can’t tell by the picture but the dudes in the boat are fishing and are being swarmed by nearly 100 birds.  It’s hilarious.

12-21-13

So now I am here and at my hotel.  I'll try to post another blog in a week or so telling you about Zihua, and the adventures that Christine and I are having here.  She gets here in 2 days and I am super excited to see her!  So I will leave you with a video of our trip from Ensenada to Zihua...

Thanks for the prayers, keep it real!