20.8N 105.5W to 22.9N 109.9W. Southern Passage, Sea of Cortes, Mexico…aka “We Should Have Waited Another Day” Passage.
It is the second day of March and we are hauling up our anchor and heading across. We had to bide our time, waiting for a Norther to blow its way through…but, finally, we think it is time to get going. We depart at dawn with winds from the Northwest at 10-12 knots. The going is smooth…IN the anchorage. However, once we pass through the rip outside of the bay, we find ourselves in confused seas with some pretty prominent cross chop. The time is now, though, we say…with more northerlies predicted in less than a week. We need to get going…giving ourselves a buffer of time to deal with some potential transmission issues that might make us divert to Mazatlan.
Oh…what a mistake. There should be a cardinal rule in cruising that says something like “though shall not manhandle your boat.” OK, there already is probably a rule…but we were thinking “wind” and not “boat”…so we kept going. We got slapped around pretty hard and to add insult to injury ended having to head up to Mazatlan…because we did, indeed, end up needing more ATF. The passage was rough. Gitano’s decks were awash the entire way…the boat leaked...when we could rest, one at a time when the other was on watch, we did so in a wet birth…we bumped, we groaned, we cursed, we ached...that was just us...who knows what we really put the boat through.
To sum it up…we should have waited another day!
The transmission is leaking oil…and our supply is almost depleted. We decide to change course for Mazatlan in order to restock and head out the next morning. What a difference a day makes! The seas have calmed way down…and, while we will have to motorsail across the Sea…it is a much nicer crossing than the past two days.
Another overnight passage and we begin our approach towards Ensenada de los Muertos in the early afternoon. Steve puts out a line and catch a nice fat little male Dorado. Ten pounds of fresh fish meat. Wonderful!
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