Aletta's Saga

We arrived in La Paz this morning, 51 hours out of Mazatlan.  The first day we had 10 or 12 knots of wind and were able to sail for about 8 hours.  Although the wind was blowing from the direction of our destination, weather forecasts indicated that it would shift more to the north, a change that would have been much appreciated. The expected wind-shift never materialized, however. It was fun sailing while it lasted. We were close-hauled under main, yankee and genoa-staysail, with Rangval, our Monitor vane gear, steering flawlessly. At dusk, I reefed the main and lowered the yankee, thinking reduced sail would make for an easier night. This proved to be a mistake. The seas had become very lumpy and with less power in the sails NS could make little progress against the waves. We turned on the engine and we began to move in the direction we wanted, albeit slowly. I hand steered for awhile, then decided to see what Aletta could do.

Let me introduce Aletta, our Simrad TP32 tiller pilot:

Aletta

I know that this picture is cluttered, but the TP32 is black and looks something like an over-sized first generation cell phone.  The silvery stick that looks like an antenna is actually a rod which connects the TP32 to the tiller and drives the tiller back and forth.  Notice at the left side of the picture the TP32 rests on a stainless steel block which is attached to the cockpit coaming.  You can't see it, but a stainless steel pin, a quarter inch in diameter, protrudes from beneath the TP32 and fits into a vertical hole in the stainless block. That is how the TP32 is attached to the boat.

You may recall that I named our Monitor vane gear Rangval after my paternal grandfather. I named the TP32 Aletta after my paternal grandmother.

Why both a vane gear and a tiller pilot? Shouldn't one steering mechanism be enough? Well, a vane gear gets its direction from the wind, and if there is little or no wind, it will not work. A tiller pilot gets its direction from a built-in compass, and ignores the wind.  When you are sailing, especially to windward, it is preferable to get the direction from the wind, because then the heading of the boat relative to the wind stays the same and the sails are always properly trimmed.

NS weighs somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 pounds. Usually boats as heavy as NS have wheel steering. There are advantages to a tiller, however. When steering by hand, you have a much better feel for what is happening. It is also easier to attach a vane gear like Rangval to a tiller than to a wheel.

A Monitor vane gear has no trouble steering boats much heavier than NS but the largest available tiller pilot is rated only for boats up to 16,000 pounds. Because the greatest stress on an autopilot comes under sail, I had decided to use Aletta for motoring only.

That  first evening out of Mazatlan, we still had the mainsail up when we started the engine. The main was helping to damp the rolling motion of the boat and probably added a bit of speed, as well.  We were motor-sailing.  I had Rangval for sailing and Aletta for motoring, but up to that moment I only had myself or another human for motor sailing.  Did I want to risk destroying Aletta by making her motor-sail in rough seas? Or was I going to hand steer NS all night long? I decided to give Aletta her chance.

And she did great. Why had I doubted her? Aletta steered NS for the next forty hours, with main and engine. Was this dumb luck or will Aletta be able to continue to do this in the future?

One thing I have learned from coastal cruising here in Mexico is that most of the cruising sailboats are either motoring or motor-sailing most of the time. I had been thinking that when NS got back to Seattle I might invest in a custom-fitted autopilot, which would be much more costly than a TP32. If Aletta can handle the load, we won't have to wait until we are back in Seattle to get a solution to the problem and we will save money. Forty hours is a good test, but certainly not definitive. Time will tell.

Our current location in GoggleEarth format is 24 09.325'N,110 19.582'W

Mazatlan

After an overnight voyage from Chacala, we arrived at Mazatlan Tuesday, March 22, 2011.  We had a great view of the city as we sailed to our destination at Marina Mazatlan, about six miles north of the old town.

In the Mazatlan Market

We have traveled into the center of the city twice. The old town has a European look to it, especially in the vicinity of Plazuela Machado, a square with a Parisian flavor.  There is a very long malecon (seaside walk) with plenty of bronze sculpture, a bit formal compared to the whimsy of the malecon in La Paz.  We visited the Peralta Theater, a restored 19th century playhouse named after the opera diva Angela Peralta who arrived in Mazatlan in 1883, contracted yellow fever and died.  We walked through the large indoor market, comparable to the one we saw in Manzanillo.

A City with Hills

Mazatlan has a unique taxi service. Everywhere in the old town area, you see small, white, open air taxis, with two bench seats, covered by an awning.  For tourists, these so-called pulmonias can be both useful and annoying because as you walk it seems that every hundred feet or so one or another of them blows its little whistle to get your attention. On our first foray into the old town it was getting late and instead of taking the bus back to the marina, we broke down and took a pulmonia all the way. It only cost 100 pesos, and as he drove the driver explained to Sally (my Spanish is not good enough to have understood) the history of the service with its own small local factory. The taxis are built on top of Volkswagen beetle frames and equipped with VW engines. Until a few years ago, beetles were still being made in Mexico, but now the basic parts must be imported from Brazil.  The ten-mile ride was chilly for me sitting in the back seat in just t-shirt and shorts, but it was fun.

Sally and Alan on the Mazatlan Malecon

Alan Contemplates his Fitness Regime

The marina is in an area that is largely undeveloped, with the exception of time-share condominiums and apartment complexes.  There are good restaurants at the marina, however. We have been at other marinas with restaurants which were either struggling or defunct, but those here seem to be getting along, perhaps because, in addition to the boats, the condos and apartments provide customers. We have eaten excellent pizza at La Mona, most of whose customers are young, middle-class Mexicans, a clientele that has been largely missing in restaurants we have frequented in Mexico.

This is our last day here.  Early tomorrow we will head across the Sea of Cortez for Bahia Los Frailes, on the Baja Peninsula.

Our current location, at Marina Mazatlan, is 23 16.300'N, 106 27.278'W .

Mexicans at the Beach

Fun on the Beach in Chacala

In the small fishing villages and beach communities that we had visited, there had always been palapa restaurants with many tables, mostly vacant. It was safe to assume that sometime this seating capacity was used, but when? Last weekend, NS was anchored for two nights at Chacala (21 09.823'N, 105 13.639'W), and we finally had the answer. It was a three-day weekend for Mexicans, and they really took the opportunity to celebrate the approach of spring. Large numbers were in the water from dawn to dusk, and in the middle of the day, every table in every restaurant was occupied. There were traffic jams in the narrow street. There were swimmers, surfers and water skiers. There was even a guy offering rides on a thirty foot long inflated sausage that he towed with his panga at high speed. Most interesting was the extent to which many Mexicans seem to love sand enough to bury themselves in it or to plaster themselves with wet handfulls.

NS Anchored Bow and Stern in Chacala

The point at the north end of the bay does not protrude enough to do a very good job of blocking the swell, so it is recommended to set a stern anchor in addition to a bow anchor in order to keep the boat aligned with the swell once the wind dies.  Since several of the boats already anchored had stern anchors deployed, we had no choice but to set ours.  Otherwise we would have swung into them if the wind shifted. We also deployed the flopper stopper. It was still a bit rolly, but not bad.

Another View of the Beach at Chacala

It is not hard to see why Chacala is so popular. The bay is beautiful, with its long sand beach lined with tall palm trees.  Ninety-nine percent of the people we saw there were Mexicans, with the exception of those at a small hotel perched on rocks at the very south end of the beach. As Sally and I walked down the beach, I noticed that there were a lot of women resting and stretching on the lawn.  I remarked that they must be the Sirens, luring mariners onto the rocks. Then we saw a couple perform an acrobatic yogo posture of the sort you only see in books.  We learned that this was Mar de Jade, a yoga and wellness center. Sally swam in the surf in front of the hotel, while I took some photographs and read a book on my kindle.

Monday morning, we left Chacala for Mazatlan. Because we had to retrieve two anchors and a flopper stopper, we did not get away until 10:30.  We arrived at Marina Mazatlan about 4 PM the next afternoon after an uneventful voyage, motoring except for the last few hours.

Heading North and Tsunami

Norwegian Steam at Marina de La Cruz

Since our last post at anchor in Bahia Santiago just adjacent to Manzanillo, we have anchored a night in Tenacatita, a night in Chamela, fled a tsunami, seen a huge number of whales all at once (perhaps spooked by the tidal wave), sailed 24 hours, mostly to windward, around the fabled Cabo Corrientes (Cape Currents) and rested six days at Marina La Cruz in Banderas Bay, just north of Puerto Vallarta, where we renewed some old acquaintances, enjoyed the restaurants and the music. Tonight (March 18, 2011) we are at anchored Punta de Mita, at the north end of Bahia Banderas. I will soon be grilling Dorado and Mackerel. Sally is preparing a roux for the fish, cabbage to provide us with veggie goodness, and a kugel for dessert.

View of Hills from Restaurant at Marina de la Cruz

On the day of the tsunami, we were awakened at 8:30 in Bahia Chamela by another boat that was on its way out but from the sense of responsibility that seems to be endemic among the ocean cruising set, was warning boats who still had not heard the news. He assured us that we had at least an hour. We retrieved the flopper stopper and raised the anchor in record time. As we left the anchorage, only one of the fifteen boats that had been there the night before was left. We motored over to make sure that they had heard the news. Indeed they had. The skipper had an Internet connection and had been monitoring the news for three hours. He said he was in no hurry, since the wave would not arrive for another four hours. We had hoped to spend a day in Chamela Bay, but since we were already underway, we headed out.

Once we got out of the bay, we discovered that the wind was on the beam. Wow! A first. (For those non sailors who might be reading this, a beam wind is a wind that comes from the side. It causes a sailboat to go faster than even a wind from astern. A beam wind is the dream of every sailor. It only lasted about two hours, then started shifting into a headwind. We already had all the sails up, so we just continued.

About four hours after we left Chamela, we started seeing lots of humpback whales. We saw one whale breach completely out of the water, but mostly they were rolling on the surface and smacking the water with their tales. There were whales on both sides of the boat. We wondered whether this had something to do with the tidal wave. We could not detect the wave but I have no doubt that the whales could.

In all, we sailed 24 hours, all but the first two close-hauled. Rangval (our Monitor windvane self-steering) applied his steady hand to the tiller all the way. During this time, I reefed and unreefed the mainsail (increased the sail area and decreased the sail area) several times, with Rangval at the helm. This was a first for NS and very good news. It is important to shorten sail promptly when the wind strengthens and if the self-steering can guide the boat through the transition that is a great boon to short-handers.

Tomorrow we plan to sail to Chacala, en route to Mazatlan.

Our current coordinates at Punta de Mita are 20 45.843'N,105 31.307'W.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Of Sea Turtles, Breaching Whales, Resorts and an Uninhabited Bay

After a month at the Isla Navidad marina and resort, we finally broke free, giving up the pool privileges, yoga instruction, happy hour drinks, excellent Internet, and proximity to the town of Barra. Not much wind on the day of departure (March 3, 2011), so we motored the approximately 20 nautical miles to Ensenada Carrizal. Along the way we saw dozens of sea turtles. Knowing that sea turtles nearly everywhere are threatened, it was quite a surprise to see so many. They were all solitary, with the exception of a single pair swimming within 20 feet of each other. Really a treat.

Carrizal was also a treat. This small bay (19 05.771'N,104 26.252'W) is only a few miles from Manzanillo, the largest port on the west coast of Mexico, but there are no houses or other signs of development with the exception of a single small grove of palm trees. There was one other boat anchored there the night of our arrival, SV Hemisphere Dancer, a Hardin 45 ketch owned by a very interesting couple named Larry and Mel. They have been cruising for a couple of years now and always anchor out, avoiding marinas entirely. They intend to cruise Mexico for another year or two, then continue on around the world.

Early the first day we saw numerous schools of fish just under the water, all nipping at the surface. Ensenada Carrizal is ringed with coral, so a bit later we took the dinghy to the shore nearest NS to snorkel. Swimming amidst the schools we had previously spotted, we also saw a number of other brightly-colored and feathery-gilled species. Because the water was a bit murky, it took some time for the eyes to adjust and really pick out the colors and other features. Impressive, nonetheless. The best part of this snorkeling adventure was that we were just a couple of hundred feet from our boat at anchor. After Sally freed the dinghy anchor from the rock its rope was snagged on, she was able to swim back to the boat about as fast as I rowed.

After snorkeling, we showered with one of the new sun showers that our friend Brooks Burford had brought to us from Portland. For those not familiar with this particular amenity, a sun shower is a large tough plastic bag, clear on one side and black on the other. The top has a handle from which to suspend it and from the bottom runs a hose with a small shower head and valve. Filled with water it lies on the deck clear side up, and the sun heats the water inside. When we were ready to shower, the water was actually hot -- nearly 110 degrees farenheit according to the temperature gauge on the side. With the bag suspended from the solar panel arch on the stern of NS, Sally and I took turns showering in the cockpit. Four gallons sufficed for the two of us, without completely emptying the bag. Because we felt somewhat chilled after our time in the water, the hot water was a great pleasure. Having experienced the bursting of four previous sun showers before they could be put to use (possibly inferior to the Stearns models Brooks brought us), we are being extremely careful with the new ones.
The first evening in Carrizal, the wind was coming from the head of the bay, while the swell was coming from the opposite direction. Since NS was lined up with the swell, there was little rolling. Later on, however, the wind shifted around and NS was taking the swell on the beam. A bit more roll than we would have liked, although both Sally and I slept well enough. The next evening I deployed for the first time our new Magma roll stabilizer, an example of what is often called a "flopper stopper." It hangs down into the water from the end of a spinnaker pole, which positions it about eight feet outboard. Flopper stoppers work by providing very little resistance to motion through the water in the downward direction, but much more resistance to motion upward. As the boat rolls in the direction of the flopper stopper, the device sinks into the water, and when the boat tries to roll back the other way, the flopper stopper impedes the motion. It worked very well. I think we will be using it a lot in the future.
The second evening in Carrizal there were five boats in the bay. Norwegian Steam and Hemisphere Dancer were joined by another ketch, a trawler-style power boat and a twenty-seven foot sloop named Altair. We saw Altair a month ago in Yelapa and met Christian, her owner, when he paddled over in his kayak. He had brought the boat down the coast from Bellingham and was intending to head for the South Pacific. When he paddled over to NS this time, we learned of a possible change in plans. Christian met a French Canadian girl while he was anchored in Melaque just north of Barra de Navidad, spent a great week with her, and now is seriously contemplating parking Altair somewhere and following his new friend back to China, where she has lived for the past nine years. The adventures of youth!

Carrizal was such a beautiful quiet place that we stayed one more day and night than we originally intended. It seemed a shame to leave just after we had worked out the best place to snorkel and the ease with which Sally could swim from the boat. The second day we employed our Advanced Elements inflatable two-person kayak, which was the first time I had used it. The kids had tried it several times, first in Seattle, then in La Paz, but this was a new adventure for me. Even though it is an inflatable, it seems to move quickly and easily through the water, quite different from the pathetic rowing performance of inflatable dinghies, including ours. We explored the shoreline and then snorkeled in the coral, seeing even more and different species of fish than we had the day before.

View of the Las Hadas Anchorage from the Paradise Restaurant (NS is leftmost boat)

The next day, as we undertook the short seven-mile trip to Bahia Manzanillo, we saw the most breathtaking sight we have experienced so far. A couple of hundred feet off our starboard beam a huge creature launched itself into the air and did a barrel roll. It was a breaching humpback whale. I am not sure if there was one whale or several, but before the display was over there had been six complete out-of-the water breaches. Incredible! As we continued to watch, the whale(s) rolled over and over in the water and then beat the water with its tail for a minute or two, until it dove beneath the surface, probably trying to escape the whale-watching craft that had come zooming close to it.

The Fantasy Architecture of the Las Hadas Resort

In Bahia Manzanillo, we anchored near Las Hadas, a major resort that is similar in some respects to the Grand Bay at Barra de Navidad, but a different style. It is hard to figure out what the architecture is supposed to evoke, but perhaps the Arabian Nights or Moorish Spain. The marina is surprisingly primitive for such an upscale place, so most cruisers simply anchor nearby (19 06.086'N,104 20.698'W) and use the marina's dinghy dock. We took the kayak in to check the place out, and had a nice dinner at the Paradise Restaurant, part of the Dolphin Inn, a resort next door to Las Hadas. The next day we rowed the dinghy in, caught a bus, and did a big provisioning at Mexico Commercial, one of our favorite Mexican supermarkets. Because of our huge load of groceries, wine, and beer, we took a taxi back, and found that taxis in Manzanillo are very reasonably priced. After rowing the dinghy back to the boat and stowing the provisions, we rowed once again to Las Hadas so Sally could take a swim in the very long and winding swimming pool that is a feature of the resort. We had paid 100 pesos to use the dinghy dock, but that also entitled us to use the swimming pools, and we were determined to get our money's worth! While Sally swam and showered (outdoor shower on the beach -- the showers provided for the marina are worse than pathetic), I took a laptop to the Paradise Restaurant, used their WIFI to catch up on some email, and drank a couple of margaritas. Sally joined me there for dinner again, then we rowed back to NS. A very long day.

Today we took NS into the marina to fill up her diesel tank. The wind was blowing very hard pushing us way from the dock. We tried three times to get in, and then a woman from one of the other cruising boats who happened to be on shore and noticed our predicament came down to the dock and took a line from Sally. The fuel dock is in terrible condition, with many cleats half rusted away or about to fall off. Even when NS was tied up with bow and stern lines and a spring line, she kept surging first towards the dock and then away, moving about four feet on each cycle. Luckily we have a lot of strong fenders, which I quickly deployed.
After leaving Las Hadas, we motored north into the next bay, called Bahia Santiago, where we are now anchored at the north end. With the wind from the north, this is well protected. We plan to leave early in the morning for Tenacatita, hoping to cover the 36 nautical miles and get anchored while it is still daylight.
Our current (March 9, 2011) position at the anchorage in Bahia Santiago is 19 06.439'N,104 23.635'W.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com