Spinnaker Flying

At the start of leg three of the Ha Ha there was great wind at the very early morning start time of 8am. I was barely awake and I know I had not had a cup of coffee when Rog called for the spinnaker crew to get on deck. Drats, we were not going to ease into the day as I had hoped. We did get the chute up and flying full when Proligate crossed our bow. This picture was in Latitude 38 but the boat was identified as La Palapa not Di's Dream. I am here to tell you that it was Di's Dream flying the palm tree spinnaker, I watched her for too many miles not to recognize my own sail.

The sky looks very threatening but in fact we were all in shirt sleeves and very comfortable. We did keep the sail up until mid afternoon when the wind picked up and it was no longer a ladies leisurely sail. The Nobletech recorded momentary boat speeds of 14 knts--hang on to your hats it could get ugly. Rog got the evil eye from me and the sail promptly came down. Marilyn and I became very proficient at handling the spinnaker lines.

Changes in Latitudes

Mexico??? I thought it was suppose to be sunny and warm there!! Larry will certainly argue the warm part.

Jay lives in Puerto Vallarta so wearing foul weather gear is not normal for him. Hopefully the hot coffee helped.

The weather was slightly overcast in San Diego but Jay was in shirt sleeves and shorts never the less. Later that day the team would leave for Long Beach with nice seas. It was an overnight passage that started around 3pm and ended with an arrival in Long Beach at 6am.

The sun was coming up as they arrived at the Long Beach Yacht Club. Larry was getting off here so we were down to a crew of three bringing the boat the rest of the way home.

Rob arrived at the docks at the same time as the boat with Starbucks for all. I think he was there to collect all the fishing gear we had on the boat. It had brought us great luck during the trip.

Travel in the shipping channel can always be challenging so AIS was always on.

Long Beach was not a port for leisure, there was more food needed, laundry to be washed and a visit to Grandmother Mary. Time was a consideration, weather was changing rapidly in the Santa Barbara Channel and up in the Bay area. I had seen a forecast calling for 14 to 19ft seas on Sat afternoon. Time to get the boat moving to Santa Barbara and Pt Conception.

The overnight trip to Santa Barbara was motoring with the wind on the nose. They got into SB around 8am for a quick refuel and breakfast to go. The weather was not going to wait for long. Between SB and Pt Conception there was 20 to 25knts of wind, moderate waves and sunny skies. They passed within a couple of miles off the point and by evening the swells had laid down a great deal.

The trip from Pt Conception to Monterey was uneventful. In fact the boat was making over 7knts and Rog called me around noon to say they were close to Monterey Bay and could be under the Golden Gate by midnight. Spoke to Soon!! The ugly, lumpy, rainy weather that I had been predicting since he arrived in Long Beach had finally hit. Seas were from all directions, wind never clocked around to the west or south, and it made for very slow going. I tried to wait up to see him arrive via the Sausalito video cam but gave up just short of midnight. Good thing because he did not get to the Gate until 4am and into our slip until 6am.

The seas do not look too terrible yet but that would soon change.

It even started to rain to add insult to injury!! Lets just hope it rinses off some of the saltwater spray. There were six to eight foot seas with three feet of wind chop on top--not fun!!! I hope Rog can make it home before it gets any worse.

Looking back towards the south Rog can only remember the warm waters and beautiful sunny skies that we enjoyed every day down in Mexico. We met many new friends, had great adventures and would love to return soon.

Red Sky at Night

You have heard many a tall tale from Mexico but Rog assures me that this one is true. After a brief stop in Bahia Santa Maria to transfer fuel from the jerry cans to the main tanks the team took off for San Juanico where they were met by local pongas not long after the anchor went down. Yes, the fishermen had lobster to sell. The price??? A mere 100 pesoes would get them 4 lobsters and after you convert that to dollars it came to $2.00 US dollars each! Jay was the official photographer for the trip, Andy played chef, Larry was head mechanic and Rog was the Captain and trimmer. My feelings are a bit hurt though because Rog keeps raving about the meals Andy prepared for the group.


After three days at anchor in Turtle Bay the guys headed back out. That first night as they cleared Cedroes they enjoyed this beautiful sunset. Red sky at night did indeed become a sailor's delight.

Rog found this ponga to be most interesting. Check out the wheels used to pull it up on the beach. Really!!!