On Passage - PPJ Day 1/2

We sailed off our anchor from Punta de Mita yesterday with air horns of encouragement from our friends on Heavy Metal and then a cannon salute later from Destiny. Winds have been a fairly consistent with the forecast: 9 to 14 kts from the NW meaning we have been on a close reach most of the time resulting in speeds from 5 to 8 kts. Everybody is getting used to the reefing system as the winds have been changing frequently.

Less wildlife than our departure from the bay last year since the Humpbacks have moved on in their migration. We have been spotting lots of formations of rays which amuse us with their jumping dolphin imitations. Destiny (heading into the bay) reported catching a 45lb yellow tail tuna and Windcutter (parallelling our course for the Marequesas) hailed us to say they caught a 25 lb yellow fin. So far we have one little Skipjack filet in the fridge. We even adjusted our course to pass close to the renowned fishing area of La Corebanea to no avail. Fingers crossed for some tasty tuna later.

The boat has been cooperating. The only problem so far was the fridge/freezer shutting down but that was a just a clogged filter on the water cooling. Suspicion was that running the fridge while I did my free dive spearfishing practice (i.e. breath hold hull cleaning) may have caused to suck up all the sludge. All good now. The new solar and the wind generator we installed last year are doing well. The conditions are ideal for both so the batteries are topped up again by 1700. This will likely change as we head downwind after the Socorros as we will most probably have more shading and will almost definitely have less apparent wind.

Everybody is doing well but all are looking forward to fully finding their sea legs and starting the downwind portion of the passage.

Cheers,

Max

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