Avoiding Sergio
Nov 17th, 2006 by Elise
16 November 2006 0030 hours
Lat N22.07 Lon W105.55
Well that plan to leave Mazatlan didn’t quite work out exactly as anticipated - I know that’s a shock to all of you. While we listened to the local cruiser net that morning - this is very common in all these cruising havens. Everybody gets on the VHF radio and trades information about repairs, things to do, just about anything you can think of. It’s very helpful and a great way to get to know who does what to whom. There are also the HF nets that squawk every morning for the longer range cruisers and provide weather (probably the most vital information) and keep up with who is out there, where they are going, how they are doing - a real safety feature. Anyway, we missed this one because I was more intent on getting the website updated before we left. Anyway, up at the cruisers lounge in the computer room the buzz was about the tropical storm now named Sergio starting to gather its forces and predicted to become a hurricane later that day. Of course, it was south in the direction we wanted to go. The locals with more local cruising experience than us - that wouldn’t take much as we’ve been in Mexico now all week, said to stay put and wait. Being the prudent sailors we are (wimps actually) we thought this made great sense. So we just hung out at the marina and did the laundry. Actually you have the laundry done - 40 pesos to do it yourself - 50 to just drop it off and let someone else do it, fold it and return it in 4 hours. Not a tough decision here.
While the storm was stagnant at this point we certainly didn’t want to be hanging out in an unprotected anchorage as the swells generally produced by hurricane force winds started to build. Instead, we joined the Margarita happy hour on the s/v Equinox with Hank and Betty (another Island Packet family) and the crew of Briar Patch both of whom arrived from the Baja HaHa (yup, these folks just don’t go away - they’re everywhere and continuing to arrive in droves now). They were planning the cyclone party - oh boy!
Things always look better in the morning - the storm now named Sergio was still moving slightly southwest and while still predicted to build to hurricane strength, the weather gurus all agree that we had a two to three day window to move south to Puerto Vallarta. Now all we had to do was get fuel and go, right? Well almost. I called the fuel dock at the other marina close to the entrance of the harbor to check their hours, see if they were really open, etc. Since they don’t seem to answer the VHF as advertised, I used my cell phone. Oh sure, come on over, they said. Now remember the dredging equipment I mentioned in the last update-well that does seem to be an issue. Moving through the harbor entrance from the fuel dock out to sea is only open during certain periods during the day. Apparently that opportunity was available at 2 PM and I could get fuel at 1:30 PM. Well we were there at 1:20 and were ready to depart at 2:20 PM - the gate was closing again at 2:30. Unfortunately it was like one of those road construction areas on a two lane road where the guy with the stop sign on one side and slow on the other side only let the traffic pass in one direction at a time. The only thing missing here was the guy with the sign. Just as we were backing away from the fuel dock (couldn’t go forward as there is a wall right in front of the boat and a channel too narrow to turn around in - oh yes, let’s not forget the strong currents), there were two large and very wide catamarans and several fishing boats coming the other way - quite the circus. We squeezed through by the dredging barge and gunned it hoping there wasn’t any more traffic coming against us. The good hews is that when the Cutthroat is coming at you, you will probably get out of the way - it’s a big boat and the law of gross tonnage kicks in making us the clear winners.
We’re having a great trip now with the wind behind us at about 15-17kn until evening. It’s a beautiful night with lots of stars and lots of activity - mostly shrimp boats. Oh yes, the shrimp guy showed up at the marina this morning so we picked up dinner. Good deal and a delicious meal.
Boat issues for the day:
- Took 750 liters of diesel
- Wind instruments went haywire. This has happened in the past - a real pain to re-calibrate. Got it sort of fixed but I need to calibrate the whole vane system when we get settled. Need open, flat water - a big harbor like San Diego Bay.hummmmm>/li>
- SIRIUS radio not working again. This has also been an ongoing issue. We replaced the unit just before we left, but it still isn’t acquiring a signal - only will do so at the dock in San Diego - gremlins. I think it might be tied to the XMWx box - so we’ll work on this one once we get settled in
After 1200 miles these are really the only issues we’ve had - not bad (but we’re not there yet either)! Once we get settled into our new slip in Puerto Vallarta we won’t be traveling the distances like since leaving San Diego. We will cruise the area here visiting villages and various anchorages and pretty much just taking in all the area has to offer. We also plan on returning to Florida for a month over the holidays. We’ll bring Mom Wag back with us in January - do more of the cruising thing and prep the boat and us for the passage to Hawaii in April. This was more or less our testing ground to see if the Hawaii passage was really something we wanted to do. That answer is a firm yes! That was always my answer, but Rog gets to vote on this one too (sort of).
More from PV - probably Friday as we should arrive in mid-afternoon tomorrow, in time to get ready for Roger’s birthday on Sunday, Pat’s arrival on Tuesday, and Thanksgiving.
Fair winds and following seas from the Cutthroat Crew.
