Sailing alone

Sailing alone May 2010

May, 13, 2010…no it is NOT Friday  rather it is Thursday.
Since Candy chose not to come down to La Paz this week…here I am…on Monday, I started to clean up the Noe Mar…dust everywhere. Painted the dingy on Tues, Painted the cabin top later (paint color has faded, so it made the dingy look weird). Plan on taking off on Thursday and sailing to the Islas espiritu santu & Partida. My neighbor takes off for the islands on Wed.
Left the marina de La Paz @ 9:35, after helping my neighbor turn his big power boat around (both PhD’s in Psych, retired…hmmm wonder what they think of me?). They offer to help me un-plug and cast off…but they have a prior commitment to go to Santa Todas. So, I cast off by myself…have to use the docking pole to keep me close while I undo the lines. I make it OK.
Call Candy and assure her I am OK and will be OK. Thus I use the ATT iPhone to call her all the way to the Islands. I lose connection @ the anchorage in Ensenada el Cardonal bay.
Leave @ 9:35 AM motoring…no wind…2.8 knots until I get all on board. Thanks for the auto pilot (Raymarine). As I am bringing fenders on deck, I hear the roar of a good sized outboard…but ignore it…well until Casey Jones (yes, his real name)came roaring up beside me…and paced me. Chit chatted and asked if I was OK (seems the whole Marina knows I was hospitalized for a few months last year). I assured him I was and he grinned and said HAVE FUN!! Plus the wind might be 15 knots out there.
OK, but I never found the 15 knots until I came into the bay to anchor  Still, with a 8 knot wind, I set sail and managed to get 3.8 knots (OK, land lubbers that is around 5 mph ) but was that real wind speed or apparent ? Either way this heavy boat did OK…and pointed (she is a gaffer) 5deg off the head wind. Not shabby, cry you Marconi rigged sloops  Oh yes, second thought that wind was apparent, so subtract 3.8 knots from the 8.
Gave up when the wind slowed and I needed to hit anchorage before 6-7 pm. So, I motored @ 4 +knots @ 2700 RPM…good fuel mileage at that speed.
Arrived at 4:30 PM, set the anchor in 17 ft of water (used 30+ ft chain)and zoomed in my nav chart…love that old XP Gateway lap top…it runs forever…but only as a nav station.
Dinner…well, I made a scrambled omlet using 3 eggs, 1 roma tomato, ¼ onion, ¼ potatoe, some Mex cheese (great stuff), olive oil and seasoned with blackened creole blend and salt. Sorry, no garlic. I won’t win any chef prizes, but that and a glass of BC Norte vino…it was great. Turned on the music…listened to Ellen Quinn and her funny ballads about sailing…some funny and some sad. OH well.
Took pics of a sailboat with it’s spinnaker set…check it out. Plus pics of the anchorage…I could go hiking tomorrow up past the Mangroves in this bay…but I think I’ll play being a sailor and go out tomorrow and play in the wind…if it is like tonight. Later……..Cheers, all………Skipper, Ancient Scotty