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.
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