New fore-deck setup worked most excellent on grueling Northbound passage - 2019

This picture was taken in Bahia de Navidad before our passage to Puerto Vallarta.

 June 2019 -We are currently in Paradise Village Marina in Banderas Bay Mexico (by Puerto Vallarta)

 We considered leaving the kayak and paddle board in their respective racks on each side of the boat yet thought it was a lot of wind-age for a long passage.  So, we loaded everything on the fore-deck, along with the deflated dinghy.  This was really the way to go!  We tied a line from the bow of the Ocean Kayak Malibu Two to the anchor roller to keep the jib sheets from getting caught up under the bow overhang from the fore-deck as has happened before at times. This was all explained in an earlier post before the passage.

 The passage and was a rough one with a lot of pinching (heeling) in 4-6 seas with an occasional 8 foot set. 😜The wind was 12 knots for the most part with apparent wind of 17 knots. We were on our ear trying to pinch out tacks to make any progress. The whisker pole helped keep the jib sheets from getting caught up on any foredeck items. Not sure if that would have happened anyway but this made it less likely. We had the whisker pole ready for any use but we must have been dreaming as the wind was close to being on our nose in spite of the SW wind direction forecast. The wind was more NW.😕 

 It took us 32 hours to get from Chamela Bay (town - Punta Perula) to Puerto Vallarta, a long hard slog..

 With back winding our 35 percent Genoa and controlling the sheets well we did not have any problems. We can reef up the Genoa when need be by luffing the Genoa and pulling in the Harken furler line then repeat, etc. Helps to wear gloves. 

 So nice - foredeck set up for our goodies that we can get off the rail for these type of passages. We have tried the side decks for storing these items on passages and it was OK but less than ideal.  We thought we needed the deck space to bring down the whisker pole for use. However with the whisker pole already down and set to go we could store the items on the fore deck. It's sometimes the simple things...