Cabo Corrientes

The wind meter tells the truth!

We had read the warnings about sailing north around Point Cabo Corrientes, “ it blows 25-30 knots steady around the point, wait for a weather window with southerly winds, sail at night around the point to minimize the winds and currents, but there’s no way to change the fact that this is the farthest point that sticks out on this coast and there will be currents and winds that get stronger near this conversion point. It is what is …sometimes the winds are mild and sometimes they are not. …So, we were prepared for some kind a wild ride and so it was!

Jan 29

We left Bahia Chamela in the afternoon Tuesday January 29 at about 1:00pm and sailed with mild 10-15 knots weather up the coast northbound to Banderas Bay.  We were enjoying the coastline, as we hadn’t seen this part during the day as our travel down had been at night.  Somewhere around 3:00 pm the winds picked up and continued to build. We planned our night sail strategy. This is a discussion between Capt. Juan and first mate (me) about the virtues of reefing the sails early in the evening before getting stuck with too much sail up later in the night (for those non-sailing readers, reefing the means to shorten the sails, the jib and the main by rolling in a few meters so the boat has smaller sails to wind power). Anyway, sailing along as the winds increased at sunset…we decided to tack away from land for the night (smart decision) and reefed sail with 22-25 knots wind to weather. This means we are sailing north into the wind and against waves that are normally traveling south down the coast. This makes for a choppy, confused seas and a bumpy boat ride as the rolling waves meet and roll under the boat.  Some waves were more excited than others and smacked right into our sides with a ‘gush” of water over and into the cockpit! Mostly the dodger protected us from those" rogue waves". It was a wet ride. And the most uncomfortable passage we’ve experienced so far, except for John’s passage down the California coast back in September …that was a wild ride, too!

25-30 knots 

From my log…

3:00am-”Good thing it’s night and I can’t see those big black swells coming! I feel like I’m riding a “buckin' bronco” as the swells roll under the boat…can’t wait ‘til morning and I can see what’s out there!

4:00am- “only two more hours ‘til sunrise …I wedge myself in a spot in the cockpit near the hatch so I won’t  rock’s roll around..  I see black silhouettes of dolphins as they greet us and pop in and out of the waves next to us..… and I hope this leg of the trip will be over soon…

Rough and wet!

7:00am- Wed. January 30…grey cloud layered morning…couldn’t wait until morning so I could see these “angry seas”, now I don’t want to see them!  Winds are steady 25-30knots with gusts to 35. We clocked one gust- 36 knots! Shows us Wizard goes to weather well and nothing has broken. Morning has us 35 miles offshore, so we tack towards land and the point Cabo Corrientes.hoping to be our final tack into Banderas Bay.

3:00pm- so here it is 3:00pm on Wed and we are just barely pointing high enough to make the tack into the bay. This is where I’m loosing my patience on a sailboat!  It goes so frickin’ slow and there’s still 27 miles to La Cruz to go!

As you can see, my patience was running out! We both hadn’t eaten and or really slept in 30 hours and we still had hours to go! We both were  exhausted and not used to the physical demands needed for a rough passage.

Sunset in Banderas Bay

9:00pm-We finally make La Cruz at 9:00pm a night landing so totally not recommended, but sometimes necessary. Luckily, we have been here before and know somewhat “the lay of the land”.  It was hard to navigate the channel entrance by lighted buoys while distracted by the city lights just beyond. We finally secure lines at the fuel dock, drop dead in bed and looked at each other and said” WTF did we just do and why?”

Safe and sound in La Cruz

Feb 2

 Two days later after sleeping for 10 hours, I feel better. We're both glad to be in a marina where there is relatively no boat motion. We empty the lockers and dry out where seawater found it’s way in. The docks are lined with stuff laid out to dry. 

We meet up with old friends and enjoy getting reacquainted with the activities of marina life!