I woke up at 5 AM to find a moderate breeze out of the NW but by the time I had finished having breakfast it had died to an insignificant 2 or 3 kt. I considered waiting another day at Muertos hoping for better wind but I decided that it was important that I position myself at Frailes to take advantage of the next round of strong northerlies. I weighed anchor at 7.30 AM and motored out thinking what a fine anchorage Muertos is in all respects. It's always nice to be able to see your anchor dug in nicely in the sand bottom.
For most of the morning I motored at 2000 rpm, making about 4.5 kt with the help of the gentle fair wind and following sea. A couple of times I rolled out a bit of headsail only to find that the 7-8 kt apparent wind was not quite enough to keep the sail full and steady. However, when I came out to the cockpit to have my lunch (ham & cheese with mustard sandwich) the wind seemed a touch stronger so I rolled out the sail once again and this time it was good, so I shut down the engine. By noon I was enjoying my sandwich while watching the jib take us downwind at 4.5 kt with an apparent wind ranging from 9 to 13 kt.
I did a few useful things while motoring. I set my laptop, chart plotter, and Trimble GPS clocks to UTC because everything in the world of navigation, radio session schedules, and weather charts revolves around UTC. To confirm that I had set the time correctly I downloaded 3 weather faxes from Pt Reyes California and they were the ones that I expected. I confirmed that the Sailmail weather fax menu lists Chilean station CBV with frequencies the same as I found on the internet. This was good. I think that CBV and Pachuca are destined to have a short but intense relationship in the near future. I then had a closer look at what the American sites (Honolulu, Kodiac, Pt Reyes) offered and discovered excellent faxes of surface pressure gradients and wind & waves of the tropical areas covering the Eastern Pacific from 20 degrees south to 30 degrees north of the equator and east of 145 degrees. I downloaded these faxes and saw in the wind and wave report another indication that I can expect very slow going from my departure point at the southern tip of the Baja peninsula to 10 degrees south of the equator. That represents a distance of about 2000 miles. Between 10 and 5 degrees north of the equator I'll be passing through the narrow band of the "monsoon trough" which just may deliver me a bit of rain. I can expect to be in the arms of the SE trade winds at about 10 degrees south and will then begin to make better time. I'll have to sail my way to 10 S because I simply don't carry enough fuel to motor at that scale. I'll make some extra progress when running the engine to charge the batteries, but that will be a drop in the bucket, so to speak.
After lunch I felt snoozy so I set up the lee sheet on the port cabin seat, set the timer to 20 minutes, and lay down for a nap. The autopilot cannot be trusted because it will disengage with no notice at random times. However, I knew that were this to happen the boat would round up into the wind (and away from land!) and the changed pattern would wake me. In any event anticipated the alarms in both of my 20 minute lie downs. Resting in the bunk feeling and hearing the sway of the boat, looking up through the main hatch and seeing the jib doing its little dance, and hearing the hum of the wind generator reminded me what cruising is about, and it was good to be back. After my mini naps I had a look around from the cockpit and realized that it really was a splendid day for sailing: 12 kt breeze, following sea, clear blue sky, and the temperature at 85F which I consider temperate.
The late afternoon was a repeat of the previous day. The wind slowed and backed to the NW. I rolled in the jib at 330 PM and began to motor. As I got close to Frailes I noticed another boat coming up from the south. I didn't think that he had a chance of beating me to the anchorage but after 45 minutes I concluded that he was hiking along so I sped up too. I arrived 15 minutes ahead of the boat and surveyed the narrow arc of the NE corner which gives protection from the northerlies. I had studied Frailes very well in the cruising guide and anchored under the shadow of Cerro Los Frailes, a huge rock 755 ft high. I didn't have time to fuss around. It was 7 PM and the light was failing, and I had the crew in the arriving boat waiting to see what I would do. I ran parallel to the rock until I got as close to the first of the two boats at anchor that I wanted to get, turned into the rock, and dropped anchor in 11 meters of water about 400 meters from the rock wall. The arriving boat then squeezed in between me and the boat whose distance I wanted to respect but I didn't mind because any ensuing difficulties will be on them. But they were not game enough to get as close to the rock as I did. Let's hope that they don't know something I don't. Risks aside, being snuggled up so close to the rock is giving me extremely good protection from the northern breeze.
I plan to spend at least one full day here at Frailes resting up and preparing for the final lunge into the open ocean. I'll take some time to investigate why the salt water pump in the galley has seized up when it worked fine when I tried it two months ago. Unfortunately I don't have a spare pump and if I can't get this one to work I'll face 3 months of dipping buckets into the ocean for my salt water supplies. I also want to put a rope fence from the bimini to the shroud to the mast. This idea came from Dieter many months ago in Hawaii and I found it invaluable in helping me get to the mast safely. I will also think of safety measures from the mast to the pulpit.
I'll also check the fluid levels in the engine and top on the internal diesel tanks from my precious stock on deck. As of tonight the engine has 92.7 hours on the clock, meaning that I have run it 13.6 hours since leaving La Paz. Assuming consumption of 3 liters per hours that two full jerry cans out of my 12 on deck that will be used. I'm not panicking. I expected to use a lot of fuel in my quest for the Pacific Ocean.
I may stay longer than one day because I don't want to set off until I am confident of good winds to boost me along.
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