Buddy boats: Shindig, Agave Azul, Pangaea and Trinity Rose
Happy Birthday, Robin!
We pushed the snooze button a time or two before we pulled ourselves out of bed. I started the coffee, Mike checked the oil and started the engine. It was 6:30 by the time the anchor was up.
I loved Santiago, and we plan on stopping there again on our trip north. The only thing I didn't appeciate was how many mosquito bites I received. Despite putting loads of skin-so-soft and/or deet on my exposed skin. My mosquito bites are all in places that were covered by clothing; I have bites on my back, every square inch of my butt, my inner thighs and my ankles. Now I am scratching myself like a sailor. Ha! Better work on my profanity for the full sailor affect.
We had to motor/motor sail all day. Even though we had a little head start, the other boats caught up with us and passed us. They are all 47+ feet and motor a whole knot faster than we can. We all checked in at noon via VHF, and we still had a visual on everyone. We were able to catch up a bit by the afternoon, and we all checked in at 6 pm.
Right before our last check in, i was walking back from the bow of the boat and noticed something on the end of one of the fishing lines. It was a fish! A nearly drowned fish, but a fish! We reeled her in and looked at the fish book, and we caught a Bullet Tuna or mini tuna. It was a little one, but since it was pretty much dead, we figured a little sushi might be nice as an appetizer. And that is exactly what we had. Really. Good. Fresh-out-of-the-sea. Sushi! Yes! I am so glad I listened to that little voice that said, "get sushi condiments" while at Walmart in PV. Check her out!
We had a beautiful sunset tonight. Everyone was looking for a green flash as the sun meets the sea. No one saw one, but Mike and I swear we saw a green color, not really a flash. We have always looked but this time was different and definitely green.
Shortly after dinner, none of the other boats was in our AIS range. By the midnight net check-in, Mike could not make radio contact, even on the pre-determined SSB channels.
We always wear our harness and clip in to a jack-line. It almost feels like an umbilical cord. I guess that makes Pangaea truly our mother ship!
All is well,
First Mate Kate
3-4-15
Happy Birthday, Mom!!
It's 3:00 am and I have one more hour of my watch. I tried contacting Shindig but heard nothing. I had been writing for the last hour, catching up on the blog, so I was in deep concentration/focus. All if a sudden I was grabbed; Mike was up and grabbed my hand and scared the crap out of me. I flung my hand in my shock response and ended up whacking Mike in the nose. He was supposed to be sleeping and not scaring the pants off of me. I kissed his nose a dosen times, trying to make it all better. Hopefully no black eyes in the morning. Sorry, Mike!
We had a nice sail for several hours and then the wind died. So we motor-sailed for the rest of the trip. We checked in with the Skipjack Net at noon and found that we were only an hour behind the rest of the fleet. That is, until our engine died. We were 20 miles from our anchorage.
I got the head sail up and started flying it like a kite to eek out a little forward motion with zero wind. I was happy with 2 knots! Meanwhile, Mike was busy bleeding the fuel lines, changing filters and relays and figuring out what the heck happened to our said engine.
As we went along, the wind picked up and we started to actually move and track toward our destination. At one point we were making 4-5 knots. It was beautiful! Then the wind died. At this point we were in visible distance of Isla Grande, where we were heading. We were able to contact Rob and Nancy on Shindig and they said they would come out with their dinghy and tow us in. It was late in the afternoon at this point and we all wanted to be safely back before sunset.
In the midst of all the chaos, we were given grace. Our wonderful friends, a full moon rising and a gorgeous sunset while we were gently towed by a hip-tied Shin Dinghy with Rob as Captain.
We are really grateful for and indebted to Rob and Nancy. Muchos, muchos gracias!!!
Isla Grande, we are here! Another point south, now Ixtapa.
As we settled in and took in the day, our experiences and the beauty of what had just happened, fireworks were being shot off from the beach off of our stern. We sat in our cockpit and enjoyed the show, grateful again, for our dia milagro.
Feeling very blessed,
First Mate Kate
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