Departed Cabo Los Frailes

Don's weather report predicted 15 kt north winds for this part of the Sea of Cortez but for another hour the wind stayed down in the 3-5 kt range and we discussed staying another day. Charlie came by in his Kayak and delivered us a fish. He had caught about 6 that morning, and the day before hooked a marlin which could have towed him 50 miles up the coast. Fortunately it got away. I showed Charlie my trousseau of fishing gear and to my delight pronounced the tackle and lures first rate for this area. He was short of heavy swivels so I gave him 2 out of my packet of 3.

By then the wind was up and Arnold and I made haste to depart. We lashed the Zodiac to the foredeck inflated. Because the wind was moderate and favorable we did not use the engine. At 9 AM I lifted the anchor and Arnold pointed the boat downwind under bare poles until we were about to let out the entire jib. We then sailed close to the wind so that I could hoist the mainsail and soon realized that we had fallen into the old trap of a lee shore, ie things look deceptively calm until you get away from the shore. We rolled in half of the jib and I hoisted the mainsail with a single reef. Soon we had Jeff steering us NE at 4 knots into 14 knots of apparent wind and we were very pleased with the course. Unless there was a wind shift we would probably stay on that course until dusk when we would throw a tack and try to lay Ensenada de Los Muertos.

The main halyard with a missing section of its outer cover worked well which gave me confidence that it would get us to La Paz OK. Another nagging worry was the inboard engine that took 5 or 6 tries to get started the last time that we had used it. We could hear the click of the solenoid but no action. I hoped that it didn't indicate a problem with the starter motor but then again I tend to assume the worst.

Once the boat had settled down I went to the galley to attend to the fish that Charlie had brought us. He had filleted it and each piece was about 16 inches long. I cut the filets into squares and spent 30 minutes frying the lot in olive oil. We wound up with enough fish for dinner that night and a generous lunch the next day.

At 2.30 PM we decided to tack the boat lest we risk being caught far out by an adverse wind shift. We rolled in most of the jib as usual so that it would clear the inner forestay and while the boat was relatively quiet I went forward emptied the Zodiac, rolled it over, and spun it around 180 degrees before lashing it down firmly. I had not been able to do this prior to raising the anchor but next time I'll sort all of this out before we get seriously under way. The anchor started to slam up and down as the bow of the boat punched into the sea so next time I'll be sure to move it back from the roller to the Sampson post on the foredeck. Because the prevailing winds in the Sea of Cortez this time of the year are from the north we expect to do a lot of beating to weather as we work our way up to Loreto and hopefully beyond.

With the heavy beat to weather we started shipping water as usual - about 20 strokes per hour - so it looked like a good time to investigate other potential sources of leak. I cleared the space between the quarter berths and opened the door to the under-cockpit section. With a spotlight in one hand and a mirror in the other I slid my big gut over the batteries until my head was far enough in for a direct look at most of the items of interest. There was a bit of moisture around the rudder post but nothing of any consequences. The rudder post passes through what looks like a packing gland similar to that of the propeller shaft, with the same method of tightening the packing with big open ended wrenches. The cockpit drain hoses were not leaking at the cockpit end. I could directly see the port thru-hull fitting of one of the drains and it was dry. With the mirror I could see that the starboard one was dry too. Both of these fittings were replaced in 2006, as were all of Pachuca's thru-hull fittings. I had a good look throughout the entire cavity and could see nothing to account for the amount of water that we are shipping.

Arnold is as baffled as I am about the source of the water. It looks like I will have to resign myself to frequent pumping on certain points of sail until I get back to Fremantle and execute my plan of stripping the boat of every non essential item, including all sails and head liners, and starting with a dry boat begin experiments with water hoses and ultimately by taking the boat out into heavy weather. I'll need clear access and view of every internal section of this boat to resolve this problem.

We had a sundowner at 5 PM with our last bottle of beer and had a pretty good meal of rice and fish an hour later. The incessant clanging of the anchor was getting to me so after dinner we put on the deck light, hove to, and I went forward to do what I should have done when we left the anchorage. I untied the Zodiac and got it out of the way then retrieved the anchor from the roller and lashed it to the Sampson post. The entire operation took 30 sweaty minutes but it was well worth the effort.

At 8.30 PM we were 35 miles SE of our target, course 027 speed 4 knots. Yes, we had covered only a third of the total distance but we had gained position, hoping to lay the mark on our next tack in a few hours.

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