Day 11 - Progressing Well

I have been the beneficiary of the interaction of a High and a Low over the USA that has been sending strong northerly winds down both sides of the Baja peninsula. All night long Pachuca continued sailing downwind toward the south at 4.5-5 knots with the full headsail and Monitor steering. I went to sleep at 10 PM and got up at 7.15 AM after having gotten up 2 or 3 times to check around. At 7.30 AM Pachuca was at the same latitude as the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantepec, but there were no gales and besides, I was more that 1000 miles west of it. By Noon I would be well in the latitude of Guatemala. From last night's weather reports and Don Anderson's comments this morning these conditions may last another day or two.

We were getting a 4 or 5 ft following sea yesterday afternoon so I decided to protect the engine by shutting off the exhaust valve. There was little danger of sea water getting up to the top of the coaming at the back and passing over the hose loop to the engine side to threaten salt water invasion of the cylinders, but why take a chance, and besides, I'd better get accustomed to the procedure. The one flaw in this system is that it relies on my remembering to open the exhaust valve before I start the engine. I am terrified that I'll forget and I don't even want to think about the consequences. So I put several reminders in place. I switched off the starter bank switch so that just having to turn on the switch will be a reminder. On top of the switch I put a card with a written reminder, which included a skill and cross bones. At the throttle lever I put a red tag with a reminder. In front of the engine panel I put another written reminder. If I stumble past these reminders into a catastrophe then I figure that I'll pretty well deserve the consequences. ... But my, what a great feeling to know that the engine is 100% protected from a following sea!

I tend to dwell on things that go wrong, but I'd like to comment on things that have gone right. Stowing the 45 lb plow anchor at the base of the clothes closet has been an outstanding success. It is back near the middle of the boat, well below the waterline, and has not budged an inch during all of the rolling of the last few days. The chain stowage in the plastic boxes has been as successful. It is a little more forward - at the beginning of the V berth area - but is again below the waterline and has not budged an inch. I can easily use it as a step to climb into the V berths to look for something. The stowage of the water containers at the crossover between the quarter berths has been successful too. I can still step my way around them to get to the quarter berths. They too are below the waterline, and have not caused any problems with shifting during the rolling of the boat. In all of these cases I have put the boat fenders to good use. They have made excellent spacers that I can jam between the various items and the nearest bulkhead to keep them in position. Then in the "silly little things" department, the cup holder that I installed at the navigation station has been great - no longer a danger of the cup sliding toward the laptop and ruining the keyboard. The big cups that I put at the binnacle have been just as useful, though I will remove them during gale force weather. And finally, the direct method of getting salt water into the galley has been very helpful to me, and will be a real blessing during bad weather. The one good thing about sea water is that there is lots of it, and I use a lot of it for washing and cleaning.

I shut down the refrigerator last night and this morning the house bank was at a healthy 12.3V. At 9 AM I started a 2-hour engine run at 1100 rpm which delivered 55-60 amps to the batteries. I gave the batteries 20 minutes to settle down and then saw that the house bank was at 12.7V. Once I have the batteries at a 12.5-12.7 V range I'll see about cutting back on the length of the engine charging runs.

At noon our position was 15N09, 113W01. We had made 115 miles in the last 24 hours and were 485 mi SSW of Cabo San Lucas. The coast of Guatemala was 1160 miles to the east.

At mid afternoon the wind was holding up well and we were averaging 4.5 kt heading south. I thought of putting up the mainsail with one reef and alter course to port as much as I had to to keep both sails full but I decided that both Pachuca and I were happy with the way thing were going, so I left well enough alone. This is the difference between cruising and racing.

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