After three days at sea we arrived just after sunset into Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay).
Day one had a huge fleet of boats under sail, racing for the start line under partly cloudy skies and good NW winds. It was quite a sight! 140 so boats all leaving together. We quickly spread out as some folks pointed high to get north of the offshore islands and out to sea while others shot the gap in the islands. Most ducked east. We reached the border before we knew it. We raised the spinnaker and bore off the wind. Spinnaker up, we smoked past the boats around us, however. we were headed closer to shore and the winds lightened. We doused the spinnaker and headed out for the open ocean where we heard the winds were higher.
We stayed within 20 miles of shore into the night and motored until morning and the winds picked up, as did the swells. We headed further offshore after hearing the morning role call on our SSB radio. All boats monitor a specific frequency on their SSB radios in the morning and the organizer boat calls out each boats name asking for latitude/longitude and how it's going. Lots of stories. Boats further offshore, say 60 miles or more had high winds and big seas 18+ foot swells but sailed the whole night. But as first mate Lorell reminds us,"there's no shame in motoring" or as Captain Ron says,"it's time to kick the tires and light the fires!" That night the moon was bright and poked through partly cloudy skies. We did two hour watches thru the night and dodged a few lights here and there. Nothing really happens that fast though when your moving at 7 knots.
Day two we were between 12 and 20 miles offshore sailing with 10-15kts of wind and seas about 8-10 feet. Lots of rolling around on the boat. The three crew had some degree of sea sickness. Spirits stayed up tho cuz we were sailing! After lunch we were all on deck in the cockpit when the fishing line we'd been trolling began to zing. I accidentally flipped a lever on the reel and the line tangled. Bill and I then pulled in the line by hand inch by inch. Felt like a mile of line was out. We caught sight of lure and it looked like something was attached! Closer and closer we hauled. It would surface and skim across the surface then suddenly dive down. What did we catch!?
A 24 inch long Yellow Tail Tuna!! Bill handily brought up to the boat and we finished him off by pouring tequila into his mouth. Bill skillfully sliced up a bunch of filets. Chris made awesome ceviche appetizers and Bill BBQ'd a bunch more for dinner! A happy crew!! The sunset under cloudless skies. We sailed thru the night doing our two hour watches. We jibed once at 3am to keep us far enough out to sea to keep a heading that would be west of Isla Cedros.
Day three we continued to sail south keeping up a good pace. We happily shared our fish story during morning role call. The sun was out and the air warming bit by bit. We ate very well and gabbed here and there. The night before was very rolly with 15 foot swells or more and good winds. Otto (the "auto" pilot) kept us on course but here and there we really heeled over. As we caught sight of land we began to see more stray kelp, birds and sea life.
The wind was dying down and we made the call to motor, otherwise we'd arrive very late at night into Turtle Bay. As we motored the wind died but the swells increased. We passed Cedros, then Natividad. The greeting committee of dolphins must have heards us coming, as suddenly we were surrounded by a dozen or more under our bow or surfing astern. What a sight! Never get tired of them. We passed through a flock of sea birds who were feeding near a bunch of seals. It appears seals sleep by bending in half with their head and tail floating above the surface. I say this because we'd see them doing that and as we'd get closer it would appear that they woke up and would swim under. Two of these guys came up to our stern and barked at Lorell! From the bow we thought someone was yelling! Amazing.
We motored on and could see the fleet converging into the approach to the bay. Boats were coming from way out at sea while others hugged the coastline. We approximated we were in the middle of the fleet the three days. We had so much tuna from our catch we didn't put the line out again.
Sunset and day turned into night. Boats transformed into red, green or white glowing dots. The entry lights for the bay came into view blinking on/off in intervals. We slowed to a crawl and rounded into the bay to see a host of lights. It wasn't clear what was boat and what was on land. We poked our way into the anchorage found a spot. We dropped the anchor but it didn't grab. We tried again and when shining our handheld spotlight into the water we spotted a giant sea turtle about 15" in diameter! They named this place appropriately we laughed. We set the anchor watched for drifting and settled in. The calm bay was so welcome after days of rolling to and fro. We slept like logs.
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