Setting Sail: November 16th & 17th, 2024

On November 16th, around 1 in the afternoon, we left Puerto Peñasco on MerSea! It was a nice sunny, day. -Approximately 107 miles to Puerto Refugio. -Which should take us 22 - 24 hours. All of the different forecasts predicted decent weather. A little on the windy side. -23 knot gusts at the most. And I think the seas were predicted to be 2 feet on average.

We started off in nice sunny weather with about 16 knot winds coming from the north. -Except for being slightly cold, I’d say it was pretty perfect for sailing!

It was perfect until it was the worst! Around midnight clouds started coming in. The seas started getting a little choppy. And the wind started picking up. So Matt pulled in the genoa.

Then the seas got a little bigger, probably about 5 feet, & starting rolling in a confused state; where they sort of come from different directions & crash into each other. The wind also got confused & couldn’t decide where it wanted to come from. -Probably at 21 knots by now. So unfortunately, Matt, -who was feeling awful, had to get up to get the main sail down. This always makes me so nervous. Even if he’s clipped in, I feel like it’s on the precarious side & that he could slip & get injured. I mean the boat was rocking like crazy.

When he got the sail down we tried putting the auto-pilot on the device he made to sort of manually control it. However, I started panicking because it didn’t react quick enough & I was getting confused on which way to push the button. It had started pouring, I mean total down-pouring, rain. So we put Zephyr inside. And before I had a total breakdown, I went back to the helm & manually steered the boat. -Which makes me feel like I have some bit of control.

By this time there was lightning coming in almost every direction ahead of us! Pretty damn scary. I asked Matt if we should turn back. But he decided that wouldn’t be the best option, as we didn’t know which way the storm was going. -The winds were at least 40 knots by now & coming from both the east & west! The waves had climbed up to 10 feet & were like a washing machine. The rain kept coming down & all I could do was pray that we would make it through.

I basically just held on to the helm to steer through the wind & waves. And then watched the time. All I wanted was for it to start getting light enough to see. We were in the middle of the Gulf of California & were too far from land to see it on any side of us.

Matt was just feeling so awful. He couldn’t even keep any sea-sickness medication down. Zephyr seemed to be slightly concerned, because we had him down below, but was fine other than that.

I was really hoping that the storm would dissipate or that it would at least move on. Unfortunately, it seemed to be coming closer, as the lightning & thunder started to show me, & it was coming from all around us. So I couldn’t find a way to turn to escape it.

I think it was probably about 4 in the morning when the rain pretty much stopped. Although the lightning was still going along with the wind & waves. So that gave me some relief.

At around 5:30 I started to see some light appearing from the east. I was hoping that this would show me that the storm was leaving us. -We weren’t so lucky. But I do think that maybe the wind got back down to 30 knots & the seas were probably at 5 feet again.

Matt was fortunate enough to actually find a seasickness patch hidden somewhere on the boat & was able to sit up & be at the helm around 6 or 7 am. -By this time everything was a blur. And I think I laid down & slept for a few hours.

When I woke up, around 11, it was raining off & on but at least it was light out & the lightning was far off behind us. The winds were probably down to 25 knots & the seas seemed somewhat calmer. However, our engine had started making a grinding noise when we reved it up past a certain RPM. And in the state of the waves we were only able to go about 2.5 knots for a while.

We could see Puerto Refugio in the distance but it seemed to take forever to get there. The weather improved little by little. And around 2 PM I took over at the helm again & we got to the, surprisingly, very protected anchorage around 3. The sun even came out.

I couldn’t believe how calm it was in the bay. So happy we could anchor in a safe spot. But I was shaken up. I can’t say that anything we’ve experienced before has been scarier than that.

The 3 of us were exhausted & went to the v-berth to crash on & off until the next morning.

The next day was beautiful! I was still pretty shaken up but Matt was in good enough condition to jump in the water to check out if there was anything going on underneath the boat that could be causing the vibration or grinding of the engine. There wasn’t.

He then snorkeled around for a while. I was so happy that he could enjoy the anchorage, even if I couldn’t. -I was too exhausted & still shaken up. But him doing something made things start to feel back to normal.

We went to bed early that night & planned to leave around 8 in the morning for Don Juan. -A super protected anchorage.

And that is our story of the start to this sailing season! Pretty crazy, huh?

We do have a, somewhat short, video of leaving Puerto Peñasco. Didn’t really film much of anything. At first, it was just run of the mill sailing & then it was so chaotic that I couldn’t begin to have a mind to film or find the camera. However, we did get some calmer stuff on video. Plus, I did put some photos in. Take a look:

Click above to watch!

I don’t care what it is Daddy, you need to share it! I am the dog that lives under the table & you must pay the toll!

Thanks so much for reading & watching our videos! No, we didn’t give up sailing after this & there will be a blog & a video next week!