Cabo Corrientes 2.16.09

We left at midnight, or a little before, this morning with S/V Selah leading the way & have been motorsailing the entire way. It is about 52 miles up to Ipala and Cabo Corrientes is about 10 miles North of Ipala. We had no issues on the crossing – mostly calm seas, winds between 8-12 knots the entire time. We saw a lot of turtles but no whales this trip. The phosphorescence in the water was stunning, cascading off of the disturbance in the water that we made, it lit up the ocean with a blue-white color. Bob & Marlene have made this trip several times and it was nice having a buddy boat for the trip. Bob made contact via radio with us at least once an hour and we each chatted for a bit to help keep the z-monster away. Selah cruises quite a bit quicker than we do, she is a 54 Jenneau with beautiful lines, a longer waterline and very sleek. Bob kept backing down, running slower to allow us to catch up, and never letting us get more than 2 miles behind. We ran the RPM’s up this crossing to try to keep up too! The moon came up around 12:30 and was a beautiful blood red quarter moon on the horizon before giving us plenty of light the rest of the trip. The clouds were out, a pineapple express is hanging around which kept the temperatures down, but it was still a bit chilly! I even put on my Ugg boots & sweats! Oh man, I’m going to freeze my patooty off in Alaska! Haha…

We made it into La Cruz around 2pm and anchored just as the winds picked up to 12 knots or so. But the holding here in good and the anchor stuck on the first try. We wanted to get near the front of the pack to attempt to get wireless internet, but still can’t pick it up We will need to go into town to catch up. Next year we’re purchasing a super duper wireless antenna so we won’t have this problem….hopefully! Michael was beat – these long crossings take it out of him. We did shifts during the night, but still it’s difficult to get such little sleep, at smaller increments, & not be comatose the next day. Once the anchor was down & we felt secure, he immediately laid down in the cockpit & fell asleep. I was pretty wide awake so I immersed myself in a new book that I can’t put down – Disclosure by Michael Crichton. We attempted to watch an Adam Sandler movie and were crashed early. We are looking forward to spending the next couple days in La Cruz and spending time with Bob & Marlene.

More to follow...
Rene