We left LaCruz anchorage about 2 pm and sailed the afternoon thermal one tack for over three
hours before the wind died. Then we motor sailed. The seas were a bit lumpy until
we got to the light house about 3-5 km out. The seas picked up and were a bit gnarly at about 8-9 pm. We motor sailed with the main reefed and were surfing the
waves at about 7 knots and the Garmin GHC 10 class A under deck autopilot was working hard.
This was our first test of the Garmin autopilot repair we did this last summer.
The Garmin GHC 10 class A under deck autopilot worked great! The wind picked up to over 20 knots and
stayed that way past midnight. We were tired so we left the head sail furled
and surfed the waves motor sailing. In the am then after we passed Ipala the waves
laid down a bit and the wind died. The wind never picked up again all day for
any sailing.
I think we will go back to doing the 2am rounding of Cabo Corrientes as it is nicer sea state-wise. We had tried to leave when there were
20 knot winds predicted so we could get a good sail but we had technical difficulties
with our Garmin GPSMAP 740 chart plotter. The chart plotter quit as we were leaving the
La Cruz anchorage to sail south. So it took a couple days to get it sorted out after we returned and re anchored at La Cruz..
We bought charts for the “TransasiSailor” app for our android Samsung tablet. We had limited Wifi and the
maps seemed the least expensive. That gave us the ability to make a route to Tenacatita.
We also have an old Garmin hand-held gps which we can make routes on. Debbie
also did that. We also practiced our plotting on our paper charts and were
pleased with that. Still the Garmin autopilot could not follow a route
predefined on the chart plotter because the chart plotter was not working. It
was an intermediate problem. It would turn on then go off or not turn on just display Garmin . We eventually think we found
the problem being a breaker switch. We installed our electronics and wired them
to a Blue Seas fuse block. The fuse block has it’s own fuse and then is also
wired to a breaker at the nav station. These breakers are old. So Debbie noticed
(as we were trouble shooting) that the breaker was a pretty warm. We took it out
of the loop and wired the fuse block directly to the bus and so far so good! So far still no radar but we will try plugging that back in soon.
We sailed direct to Tenacatita this time skipping Chamela (Perula Bay). The wind never picked up again so it was
a motor sail.
I had thought of heaving-to and never running the motor (In
my mind but never voiced this to Debbie). But why? Tenacatita and the other
anchorages we are going to are beautiful places and a lot of fun so why hang
out on the Pacific Ocean if there is no wind to sail? Some places like Cabo Corrientes (Cape
Currents) can be a dangerous place to hang out.
So we arrived in Tenacatita and spent a couple days there before sailing to Barra-Bahia de Navida. We could see our anchor chain on the bottom in 15-20 ft of water. We jumped right into the 80+ deg water to cool off!
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