October 29th, 2011

The race officially started this morning at 8 am. The venerable Whistle Wing crew rose around 6 am and we were greeted by the sight of a flock of boats already slipping their moorings and trying to beat the inevitable cluster that an organized start would have entailed. Not to be outdone Mike and I quickly took off the sail cover and prepared the boat to get underway. Within ten minutes of the rest of the crew waking up and shaking off their morning delirium we had pulled our hook, set our main, and were silently slipping out of the bay. The sunrise was another awesome spectacle, one that I could never get sick of. Once we set our course we had our coffee and breakfast and settled back into the sailing routine.

Once again we have following winds right off our stern so we cannot stick to the rhum-line but instead are relegated to steering 30 degrees off course. This way we can enjoy a more comfortable trip and still sail the whole way. The morning sun witnessed feverish activity on our vessel as we tried various sail combinations and trims to coax the most out of our trusty abode in these light and variable winds. We sent spinnakers and asymmetrical up and down, set and trimmed the jib, gave up and motor sailed, and then the wind finally built enough to fly the battle asymmetrical. Once all the boats stopped motor sailing and set their chutes, we started walking up on the competition. The motor sailing may sound like cheating, but the nature of this race/rally is very laid back and the “grand poobah” announces to the fleet when we are allowed to motor. Otherwise it would take us an additional day on each of these legs. The weather window is just not favorable to sailing right now, but it also makes for a comfortable trip.

Lunch consisted of a very interesting amalgamation of pineapple, tuna, and avocado that we stuffed into warm corn tortillas. It was very tasty but Mike decided not to drain any of the cans of food. What should have been a form of tuna salad turned into more of a soup that we attempted to scoop up with rapidly hardening tortillas. Not to be outdone, Mike decided that he would pour the viscous fluid into his cup and drink it while we struggled away with the soggy remnants. That sums up some of the personality of our captain, always making it work and trying to retain the upper hand. It provided a lot of amusement to Joe, Jamie, and me as we called him out on it.

After lunch Jamie and I decided that it was time to get down to fishing. We had just been in a small fishing village, heard across the net of all the boats that were catching tuna, yellowtail, dorado, and mahi-mahi, sailed through schools of fishing dolphins, and been bombarded by little Humboldt squid. We set a squid type lure and literally within one minute of us setting the trolling line we heard the drag start clicking away. Sure enough, within 15 minutes of fighting the fish we had landed a 2 foot mahi-mahi. Mike quickly filleted the fish and we threw it in the reefer for dinner. We decided that we would wait to set the line again till tomorrow. But now we have had fish for two meals out of three. I can just see future meals of various types of fish stretching out for the rest of the trip. I will seriously become the Bubba Gump of tuna by the time this trip is up. But on the bright side, people spend a lot of money to get sushi grade fish and we are pulling it in as fast as we can set our rods- and it is completely free. That will certainly help our food expenses. We decided to fry it up and do a kind of fish and “chips.” But our chips were boiled potatoes and onions and we had a side of green bean casserole; a very filling meal for pennies.

The sailing leg down to Vahia Santa Maria is only about 240 miles from anchorage to anchorage. Since the wind has picked up and we were allowed to motor sail for a few hours today, we have been averaging between 6 and 7 knots. We will be in port around 11pm tomorrow at this rate. That means that I only have to stand one night watch before we are off for another 2 days. This laid back cruising mentality is great. Our voyage down to Cabo will be exactly the same, a simple overnight sail south.

On a side note, there seems to never be a dull moment on a boat if you approach sailing with the proper mindset. There are a hundred things on a vessel that will keep you occupied if you want to be occupied. Only a lubber will view sailing as incredibly boring and mind-numbing. A great example was how I previously wrote about it taking hours to get those knives back into working order. It may have seemed like busywork to an outsider, but it turned out that we used one of those knives today to clean the fish and had the sharpening not been done, it would have been a hassle. There are a plethora of other small things to do that can keep one occupied as long as there are willing to be observant and see what needs to be done. Even now while I am writing this blog, I thought that I would have a few hours of downtime before my watch but we decided that the chute needed to come down, the jib set, the deck cleaned up, and our course adjusted. Always something small to be done, always a little more speed to coax out of the boat. What a great life!