Journey's Blog

Monday, December 14, 2015

Getting to La Paz

We left Puerto Escondido after a few days and we had a short window that we decided to make the 21hour passage in one shot. The passage started off well, sails up, sun out and we settled into our course. The winds started to build and the sea started to stack-the wind was directly behind us at 20-25k and the seas were on our aft beam. This left the main flogging and a bumpy ride. As the sunset and winds began to build, we decided to reef the main. Unfortunately, we did this a little late as the winds were whipping and as we headed into the wind to lower the sail, we forgot the forward hatch was open just as we buried the bow in the water. I screamed to close it and Journey jumped into action to close the hatch. Disaster was averted and no water went below. As John tended to the sail with his lifejacket and harness in place, he reefed the sail. As the seas bounced us around, John fell into the dodger on his way back to the cockpit breaking the zipper between the dodger and the bimini. We sailed into La Paz at 4 am and drifted outside the channel until first light where we then made our way to Marina de La Paz.
Once we docked, we realized that we had broken the aft end of the boom on the track. We think from the stacked seas and flogging sail, the aluminum failed and the car that holds the end of the sail pulled out of the track.
So we spent the first month in La Paz getting reacquainted with old friends, cleaning the boat, repairing the dodger zipper, and taking the boom off for repair.
                                                          Heading across the Sea
                                            Beautiful sunrises and sunsets do not disappoint!
                                        Dolphins are always welcome to ride our bow wake!
Broken Boom-boo hoo.

2 comments:

  1. Yoiks! Sounds like quite the trip! We are still in Maz, thought we might see you over Christmas but with your repairs, probably not. We have a general rule for our main at night, always one reef in, it can always be shook out. Forget who told us to do that. We too are having parts fun, waiting for our main sail to come back, it is being held hostage, our pactor modem has just quit and worst of all the other smaller things, the ice machine just packed it in as well!!!
    We hope you had a wonderful Christmas, hope to see you soon! Take care and have fun.
    Dean, Lynn & Lulu

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