Day 21 - Caleta Partida

Flower popular with birds (including hummingbirds)

I took Brenda to the shore for a post breakfast bird walk. I then returned to the boat to do some chores. One thing that I did was to inspect the bilge for the first time in the 9 days since I had dealt with it after the wet crossing to San Evaristo. There was some water in it as I had expected because the electric bilge pump does not completely dry out the bilge. However, after 10 seconds of running the bilge pump started to suck air which told me that either a small amount of water had crept in or water had drained into the bilge from the nooks and crannies along the bottom and sides of the boat. In those 9 days we had spent hours both sailing and motoring up to Agua Verde then back to Punta Salinas, though there was no repeat of the rough passage with decks awash. The water is definitely coming in from the deck. I have rebedded all of the rail stanchions, rebedded the chain plates after they were removed for inspection in Port Townsend, and sealed and painted the four winch supports over the cabin. The toe rail does not seem to leak in the sections that I am able to inspect from the interior of the boat.

At 10 AM we weighed anchor and set sail, jib only, with a 12 kt wind of the starboard quarter. Within the hour the wind started to die down and we raised the mainsail for the first time in about 10 months. Just as well. The zipper of the sail cover had become corroded and it took a generous treatment with WD-40 and careful work with a pair of pliers to free it. I was wise enough to drop both lazy jacks and get them out of the way to avoid the hassle of the battens getting snagged as I tried to raise the sail. But then I discovered a more serious problem: the main halyard is too thick and will not self tail on the winch. That meant that I had to crank with one hand and tail with the other until the tail was long enough for Brenda to reach from behind the wheel. There is a story here. I installed a new main halyard in Port Townsend and during our cruise of the San Juan and Gulf Islands we found that it would not self tail. Port Townsend Rigging was good enough to replace it with one that would self tail when we got back. Unfortunately here in the Sea of Cortez I got a severe crossover which tore away the covering of that halyard and I got a replacement here in La Paz. It self tailed OK when I first installed it but either its diameter has increased over time or the covering has changed its characteristics. In any event I am tired of these main halyard hassles. I'll go for a safely thin spectra line next time.
We sailed on a broad starboard reach with both sails up for over an hour then got a wind shift which allowed us to gybe and lay the course to Calita Partida, our destination. The wind sagged for a while but it eventually strengthened and veered allowing us to make Caleta Partida in fine style making over 6 knots on a beam reach. It was a great day of sailing. I got sleepy after lunch so Brenda took the wheel and I had the pleasure of napping to the smell of beer bread baking in the oven. The beer bread was an inspiration of a recipe that Sue Hoover had given to Brenda and has been a very successful part of this cruise.
We rolled in the jib the dropped the mainsail outside of the entrance and motored into the headwind of Caleta Partida, dropping anchor in 6.1 meters of water right in the center of the anchorage behind the sand spit at 5.15 PM. We had three sloops behind us on the north side and a catamaran behind us on the south side. Our position was 24N31.85, 110W23.00.
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