Baja Ha Ha - Leg 2 Day 1

Saturday 2245 Local - We spent a couple of great days in Turtle Bay - got to meet some local folks, learn a few words of Spanish, give away a couple of baseball bats to some very happy boys, and even did yoga on the beach after the afternoon beach party (I understand that this was a Baja Ha Ha first!).

We had a slow start this morning with very light winds (we gave up on our sails after a couple of hours and started our engine when our boat speed went below 0.5 kts). Once the wind picked up, it has been reliably in the 10-18 kt range. When we doused our spinnaker at sunset (in winds that were just at its upper limit) we were pleasantly surprised that the boat moved more comfortably at the same speed with genoa instead. Kind of like when you finally reef an over-powered boat and get the same speed with less discomfort for the crew ...

Unlike the first leg when we basically had the ocean to ourselves, with just a couple of other boats within a few miles for company, tonight we are surrounded by tri-lights in every direction - lots of chatter on the radio as folks deconflict their tracks. We have about 12-15 kts of wind on our port quarter (which is so much more pleasant than 15 kts on our nose!) and Frank & I are cooking along at about 6-7 kts through the water. We are trying out three-hour watches tonight (vice four-hours) as our autopilot is not piloting reliably and we are hand steering the whole way. This is expected to be a two-night passage.

Everyone is well and happy and we are looking forward to connecting via means other than HF when we get to Cabo!
--Liz
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At 01/11/2012 17:38 (utc) our position was 27°50.04'N 115°12.43'W

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