Never sail on a Friday…

Could have been us...

There is a sailors superstition that it is bad luck to sail on a Friday. A lot of people keep this in mind when planning a sailing departure day. We never really gave that too much merit, until now. And by reading on ahead, you will see why.

On the morning of Thursday December 20th we came to the conclusion after talking with our boating buddies about wind/wave & weather conditions, that we would leave the next day. Friday was always the day everyone agreed upon, but I was always rooting for Saturday. No one seemed to pay too much attention to my wishes….they were determined to leave sooner than later. Friday’s forecast looked ok but still was looking a little lumpy due too some big winds from the previous few days. Anyway…Friday it was!  I had to wrap my head around  a next day departure. I had been setting my sights on having  one more day to get everything done and at a leisurely pace. No such luck! Lots of scrambling around occured with last minute grocery shopping, banking, laundry, making up sandwiches and getting healthy snacks together for our overnight sail. I had to transfer all of our clothes, food, computers, books, dog food (3-35lb bags to be exact),camera, refrigerator items etc. from inside the RV and get it onto the boat and stowed. Also had to clean the RV. Rick put out jack-lines for our tethers and did some other odds and ends to get the boat ‘ship shape’. Together we raised the mainsail and marked all of our reef lines. (Oh…forgot to mention… that shiny new electric winch motor I mentioned in our last blog that our friend Mike brought to us was missing a key part! So no electric winch for the mainsail this season. We lived without it before we can live without it again. It’s just a big sail and takes brut strength to raise the sail. Amazingly enough we were able to manage! Still we are trying to figure out a way to get the part one way or another.)  Lastly we cleared the decks and tied up anything that might roll around or get in the way.

In the afternoon we had to take the RV to get the tanks dumped before taking it to a storage facility. Everything got done and we had a little bit of time for a relaxing dinner and to make a few phone calls to say goodbye to our kids, since we wouldn’t have cell service for a couple of days maybe more.  

We decided to go to bed early since we were planning on getting up around 5:30a.m. the next day. Unfortunately I was feeling very stressed, my chest tight and I lay wide awake most of the night. I’m always a little anxious for the first voyage of the season. And…after last season and our motor troubles which caused us to have come back to San Carlos. Anyway after a sleepless night we got up as planned in the morning and took the dog for her last walk on land for doing her ‘business’ and had a light breakfast. Next we untied the dock lines and motored over to the fuel dock, filled up and made our way out of the Marina following our friends Peter and Marina on S/V Juguete.  

It was a beautiful clear morning, sun out, light winds, and mild lumpy seas. As we motored along waiting for stronger winds before putting up the sails, we were hi-fiving each other because everything was going so well. Our motor was doing great, staying at 160 degrees and the auto-pilot was working.  We could just sort of relax for a bit and enjoy the ride. 

Around 9a.m. we put up our sails and turned off the motor. We only had about 10 knots of wind and our speed over ground was about 4.2 knots. Not bad. It was a nice little sail. Juguete was up ahead and we were in touch periodically by our hand held radio. 

The wind did not last long so we ended up motor-sailing (motoring with the sails up).

About 2p.m. is when things started to take a turn for the worse. We noticed that our engine was up to 200 degrees and overheating! Along with a few choice words, Rick turned the motor off. When I heard the news, my heart sunk. Here we were again, same as last year, no motor, no wind, bobbing helplessly at sea…in the Sea of Cortez. The winds were so light we weren’t going anywhere. So we radio’d our friends on Juguete and he slowed things down on his boat in hopes of us catching up to him eventually after we fixed our engine issue. 

Juguete coming back around to wait for us

An hour later, after the engine cooled a little, Rick went down below and opened the engine compartment to see what may have been the cause to the overheating. Good news…it was a broken fan belt and we just so happened to have a spare or two. Rick was able to fix the situation quickly. Still light winds… the engine goes back on and we continue on our way .  We were both so relieved. 

Maybe I better mention where we were headed before I get too far. We were headed to Isla Coronados which was 117 nm from San Carlos. About a 24 hour sail…at 5knots. We planned to anchor there for a day and one overnight. Then make our way to little Isla’s along the way before ending up in La Paz. We had not intended to go to La Paz this season, but our friend Peter was headed that way and so we decided to go there as well. 

Ok..back to the story….

Still was able to enjoy a sunset

Around 5 p.m. Rick decided to take a nap before our watches began. We normally take two hour shifts which works perfectly for us.  While he was sleeping, the engine was running at 160 degrees. All was good. When he woke up and came up to the cockpit, he mentioned there was a bad smell coming from inside the boat..sort of like a toilet leak or something. We checked both toilets and didn’t see a problem. We figured it was maybe a left over smell from when the fan belt broke. 

Now it’s 7 and I go down for my nap. Easier said than done! The engine was incredibly loud and everything was rattling and sliding around.  So I ran around the boat looking for everything making a noise that I could buffer with a rag or a pillow. Still the engine was just plain loud…even without the rattles. So I first tried sleeping in the pilothouse berth, nope…too close to the engine compartment. Then I tried the bed in our room, nope! Still too close to the engine room. Then I moved to the settee midship and that was loud as well. Last, I attempted the V-berth. Too darn loud! But this was my final chance for rest, so I laid there covering my ears with my hands and even tried muffling my ears with a pillow but the noise seemed to vibrate even louder in my head. And…the smell that we had smelled earlier was growing stronger and more intolerable to the point of giving me an excruciating headache. I came back up to the cockpit and told Rick…there’s no way I can sleep!! So I skipped my nap and just decided to wait until later when we could possibly just sail without the engine running. Then things would be quiet. 

I told Rick about the smell, and he said he was smelling the same smell up top and his head was hurting as well. By this time it was more of a chemical burnt rubber smell. Horrible! There was no escaping it, no matter where we were on the boat. Hanging our heads off to the side wasn’t helping either. 

Rick and I had had enough of that foul odor, so Rick went back down into the engine compartment to see if something else had gone wrong, causing the smell. Sure enough… something else was wrong! The Hydraulic Line broke and transmission fluid had sprayed everywhere which was giving off the terrible smell.  Another call was made to Juguete keeping him in the loop of our situation and why we had dropped so far back. Peter decided to circle back and hang close by to see if he could lend a hand or offer some transmission fluid which he so happened to have a couple of extra quarts. Well, we took him up on the offer of the fluid.  It was a little tricky getting it to us but Marina drove the boat close enough for Peter to throw the 2 quarts onto the boat. One at a time. Hooray we thought!! Now we can tighten the hose fitting back to the hose, tape it with some Flex Tape and add the fluid. Then all should be good to go again.  Rick accomplished just that and off we went, carefully watching the temperature gage and checking the hose periodically for leaks. This happened around 10p.m.

About an hour and forty minutes later when Rick checked the hose, it was leaking more than ever!! Off goes the motor again!! I looked to Rick for some comforting words for a repair. He couldn’t give me any. There was nothing we could do at this point. Boats U.S. (a AAA for boats) came to mind, but that thought left immediately, because we were in Mexico and there is no such thing at least that we knew of. Peter decided to stay close even though there wasn’t much that he could do. But it was comforting to know that we weren’t totally alone.  After a while he was of sight and told us via radio that he’d see us in Isla Coronados but to keep in touch.  That was a nice thought, but my worry was…even if we make it to Isla Coronados, how would we anchor without a motor? I know anchoring under sail is possible, but not so much in the dark. But how about sailing off of the anchor??… when it was time to leave? Which way would the winds be blowing? On shore? Into another boat? It all seemed quite dangerous and impossible in my mind. Rick was not too keen on the idea either.

Another mishap we had when we were trying to trim the sails, was that the main sheet traveler block pin came out and the boom went crashing from one side of the boat to the other. Rick grabbed the lines attached to the boom and almost went flying overboard. We were fortunate enough to find the pin and get it back where it was supposed to be.

So without the motor running, we weren’t charging any batteries, so we couldn’t use our electronics, which included, the wind/speed instruments, the auto-pilot, charts and VHF radio. Our wind generator couldn’t charge anything because there was no wind and the solar panels were of no use, because there was no sun. We were screwed. We had a tiny bit left which only used to use the radio, but we kept it off until we needed to call.

All night long we had to hand steer which isn’t the end of the world, but night watches suck when you have to hand steer.  It’s dark out and all you can see is the compass which was also hard to see because there was no light. You had to shine a flashlight on the compass with one hand and steer with the other.  At least we knew to stay on 180 degrees to keep us on track to Isla Coronados. Two hours on watch seemed to last forever. Normally with the auto-pilot on you can sit nearby, maybe under the dodger to keep dry and a bit warmer. Behind the wheel you are exposed to the damp, cold air. 

Still there was no wind. We were drifting  and sometimes just bobbing around. Hard to steer without a little momentum! When the boat did move, I think it was just current.

I could hardly wait until my watch was up. It seemed almost unbearable at times. I was so tired, could hardly keep my eyes opened.  I’d look at the ipad to check on the time with what little battery was left on that. 

During the night at the ‘changing of the guard’, we noticed the outline of the mountains and they were getting closer and at times we were headed straight for them.  We were both worried, so, Rick thought we should lower the dinghy down from the Davits and into the water where he would climb down inside and  I would lower the motor down to him to attach to the dinghy. He wanted to have it ready just in case he needed to get in it quickly and push the boat with it to steer it away from shore. I wasn’t initially onboard with this idea! I didn’t want him off the boat at all! The seas were lumpy and I didn’t want him falling off the dinghy and then both of us would be separately doomed! But he had a point…we might need it in an emergency. So we lowered the dinghy, he jumped in, I lowered him the motor, he attached it, climbed out of the dinghy and up the ladder into the boat. We together hoisted the now much heavier dinghy back up where it belonged. This was all being done as the dinghy was bashing up and down and into the boat from the 3’ swells. 

We really didn’t sleep much that night because we were too worried about crashing into shore. There are a lot of little islands around that we could barely see. 

That night turned into another day and another night of just drifting, floating, turning around in circles. Our friends had been anchored at Isla Coronados and we passed on by and decided to head for Puerto Escondido which at the rate we were going was going to be about  8 hours. 

6a.m. on Sunday we caught a little bit of wind….3.3 knots. It was just enough wind to fill the sails and get us moving along and more in control of steering. Our next worry was getting into Puerto Escondido under sail. Rick seemed to think it would be no problem, I felt differently. So, a few miles from the entrance of Puerto Escondido, I first tried to radio the Port Captain to see if someone was available to help us into the harbor/anchorage. I could not get through. Someone over heard me on the radio, Kim on S/V Puna, and she ended up finding someone inside the anchorage to meet us in their dinghy and help sort of steer us in. So a man dressed up as Santa Claus, David on S/V Leap of Faith, came out in his dinghy and escorted us into the harbor. He helped get us tied to a mooring as well. Hallelujah! We had arrived in one piece..safe and sound!

Santa Claus to the rescue...AKA David Faith

Puerto Escondido Anchorage

With all that went wrong…oddly enough I was not freaking out, crying, or angry. I was just sort of numb. I was on auto-pilot, just doing whatever needed to get done, helping Rick in whatever way I could. Some of it physically tough, but I managed. Going down below to help hold a flashlight and sticking my head upside down in the engine compartment while Rick was working on the engine as the boat bounced around which normally would make me sick, did not. I somehow new that everything would be ok…eventually. And I know that things could have always been so much worse! We could have had high winds and crazy seas. We could have been sea sick or injured. We could have actually ended up on the beach or on the rocks! There are so many more things that could have gone wrong. We feel very fortunate and are grateful to the boating community! Our friend Peter went above and beyond what any one else would have done as a ‘buddy boater’. The people at the anchorage in Puerto Escondido that heard my distressing calls didn’t hesitate to get help to us. 

We are now happily attached to a mooring ball in the anchorage. We have enjoyed meeting and talking to new friends each day. We had a wonderful Christmas taking a hike to the beach and spending the day swimming and relaxing, taking in the sunshine. 

Celebratory dinner

Carol Ann and David Faith --on S/V Leap of Faith

Dinghy ride to the Marina

Solastra

A hike to the beach on Christmas Day

Tomorrow we go into Loreto to hopefully get a new hydraulic hose made! After all repairs are made and we find a good time to leave, we will leave here and head to Caleta Candeleros Chico which is a small bay that most people pass up. Then to Agua Verde. From there…not sure where we will stop before getting to La Paz.

Our day in Loreto...

Had a new Hydraulic Hose made here...no problemo!

Delicious breakfast at Cafe Ole in Downtown Loreto

Thank you for  following along and all of the positive thoughts for safe travels have been appreciated.