San Quintin & Bahia De Tortugas & A Scary, Scary Night!: November 1st - 10th, 2023
Right now I’m standing up on a cockpit bench trying to get a good signal on my computer. And we are at a harbor! I can’t believe how crazy it’s been to get a hold of access to Wi-Fi. All I want to do is post my blog. Oh well, wah, wah, wah! If you’re reading this, I’m lucky enough to have gotten it to work.
Trying hard to get the blog caught up to where we are but I can’t do much except go with the flow of whatever is thrown at me internet-wise or boat project wise. I’ll probably get the hang of it by the time we have to go back to Santa Cruz. -Or… will we even go back to Santa Cruz? I’ll leave that thought right there for now.
In the last post, (or actually 2 posts ago), we were leaving Ensenada. At around 11AM we left the marina. There was a good wind in the bay for a while, so we took advantage of it. Matt also took advantage of the chance to fish & he caught one even before we got out of the bay! It was a mackerel & we ate half of it for dinner. Once we did get out of the bay though, the wind lightened up & started coming from the south. So we did have to motor. The sky was beautiful & starry until the almost-full moon brightened up the sky & sea.
We both slept decently through the night during our alternating shifts. The sunrise was beautiful & we were stoked to get to San Quintin around noon. It was our first anchorage in a while & although we knew the water wouldn’t be warm it would definitely be slightly warmer than what we had experienced in the previous weeks. So we both took a jump in.
There’s really nothing in San Quintin but it was a nice anchorage to break up the trip to Bahia de Tortugas. There is an estuary where pangas come in & out of but other than that, it’s just flat earth. There were a few other boats there. So, we weren’t the only ones needing a break between Ensenada & Bahia de Tortugas.
Making our way to San Quintin.
The next morning we prepped MerSea for the sail to Bahia de Tortugas. We went straight south & were able to turn the motor off & sail along at 4 knots. Matt caught a Pacific Bonito within a half hour of us leaving. Now it’s just getting silly easy for him to catch fish. Even though the waves were a little choppy, he was able to grill half of it up for dinner. Not as great as the mackerel. But we made it tasty.
That night we got up to 6.7 knots! We loved that we got to sail for so long without that engine! We were wing on wing -which was great until…Well, I’ll get to that later.
Leaving San Quintin with the luck of wind & a Pacific Bonito!
The next morning was lovely & warm. Wind was still going fairly strong. Most of the day was kind of lazy for us. Even if we do get sleep when we sail at night, it’s not the highest quality so we tend to be a bit sluggish.
Matt made makeshift forts for Zephyr, me & him to get out of the sun. Not having a bimini on the boat, it can be a little bit intense in the sun all day.
I tried to make curry with the rest of the fish but it came out mushy. Oh well, at least we had something nutritious to eat even if it was something I would have sent back at a restaurant.
The evening came as always & I took the shift from 7 to 10. Matt woke up during this time & thought the autopilot sounded weird. The wind was getting a little stronger so I didn’t think much of it.
Well, at 10 Matt took over. I fell asleep. A half hour into that sleep I heard a big bang, snap or thud! It's hard to describe the sound, but it sounded bad. The boat started to become uncontrollable. I was half asleep & couldn't think straight. Luckily Matt could & figured out that the wind had changed & came from the opposite direction of where is previously was coming from. We were wing on wing & both the genoa sail & main sail were static at the time. -Meaning they were held in place & could only be moved by someone going up to the bow of the boat & releasing them. Anyway, that problem was taken care of by the wind - as the chain-plate that held our shroud to the mast broke! Setting our main sail free to fly the way it wanted to. Therefore the mast being held up was compromised. The waves were getting bigger & sloshing around like a washing machine. We couldn't see anything & in the chaos I struggled to get myself unclipped, so that I could take over the helm, so that Matt could prevent the mast from falling down. I can’t say that I handled the situation very well. I panicked & was on the verge of tears. But Matt kept me calm enough that we were able to start the engine -which actually didn’t start at first. I then figured out some semblance of how to steer the boat. It was hard to figure out which way to go. Everything, including the wind direction, was so confusing & I was just praying that Matt would be safe up on the bow. Matt eventually made a makeshift shroud out of an extra line to secure the mast. He then got Zephyr inside to be safe. Afterwards, he came back up & got the genoa off of the whisker pole. Completing this, he went downstairs again to put Zephyr in the v-berth & clean up all the things that weren’t completely secure. I think I had calmed down enough to steer fairly straight in the crazy, but luckily not too big, seas.
I think that was basically how things went but for all I know I have them a little out of order. Needless to say, Matt was a hero & secured our boat enough to get us the rest of the way to Bahia de Tortugas. It was a very scary situation. I think I would have been crying my eyes out if I wasn’t so stressed & didn’t have to pull myself together so quickly.
It was almost 3 hours later when he was able to finally rest & try to sleep. He wanted to let me finish my sleeping shift, but I was so tensed up I could barely move & knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep for a while.
I kept one hand on zephyr. -More for my comfort than for his. When 4:30 rolled around I was relaxed enough to lay down & sleep for a couple of hours while Matt took over. Like a beacon of hope, the sun came up around 6AM & we anchored around 7AM.
The lovely sight of Bahia de Tortugas. Another anchorage to calm our nerves after a hellish night.
There were a ton of boats anchored in the bay. Almost all of them were from the Baja Ha-Ha. We checked into the group for the 1st time. They were all about to leave to go to the next stop, Santa Maria. On the call with the group, someone mentioned a guy, Gonsalez, who did great welding. After the call, Wayfinder kindly stopped by on their way out to make sure we were okay. So sweet of them. We crashed soon after that. -Or at least I did.
It was a blur of a day for me. I do remember that it was super windy. We didn’t want to take our dinghy to shore & all the pangas were done for the day. Oh well. We jumped in the water to wash away the fear. It was still on the cold side. -But getting warmer by the latitude.
Unbeknownst to us, this was disintegrating hidden beneath the deck.
Not good when this is helping holding the mast up.
Woke up slowly the next day & went to shore. Nothing was open. The Baja Ha-Ha was gone & I think the town was exhausted from it. Plus, it was a Sunday. We couldn’t find a Wi-Fi signal anywhere either. Eventually though, we did find a few stores that were open. The first shop that Matt went into, he asked lady behind the counter, (her name was Santa), if she knew Gonzalo & right then & there she called up his shop! A guy named Emilio came over & understood what Matt wanted, in terms of fixing the chain-plate, & told him to come back the next day to pick up the part. So awesome! We bought a few groceries. Then walked around the dusty little fishing village.
Little market where we met Santa, who called up Gonzalo, who sent over Emilio. Our 3 angels that day.
We went to shore again & met a guy named Rojillio. He let us use his Wi-Fi! It wasn’t very strong, but definitely enough for getting a few emails & for Matt to be able to do a bunch of work online. We then walked up to Santa's store & she had the bracket/chain-plate that was repaired by Gonzalo. Only $50! We were so stoked! He did an amazing job!
We walked around some more & found a gas station where Matt could come back & get some un-contaminated diesel. We also found the fishing store. -Which surprisingly was kind of far back from the ocean.
The next few days we didn’t leave the boat. It was fairly windy & the shore landing looked a little rough. During this time Matt used the opportunity to re-install the chain plate & affix it to MerSea.
Matt also went around to the rest of the stays & checked the tension. He tightened them all up to the right amount to make sure that our boat was much safer. I feel so lucky to that he knows all of the right stuff. And he makes it all look so easy. -I know that it’s not.
Re-affixing the new chainplate. Thank you Gonzalo & Matt!
The last day in Bahia de Tortugas we got to spend time at Rojillio’s place to get online. Rojillio’s friend, Eric, took Matt to get water & a Telecel card. Matt didn’t even ask. They just offered. These guys were the nicest, genuine guys. We couldn’t believe their hospitality & kindness. Kind of sad to leave them behind. Zephyr even made friends with their dogs.
The next morning we were off at 5AM to move on to Bahia Asuncion.
Sunrise just after leaving Bahia de Tortugas.
What an experience! I’m sure & actually I know we will have many more crazy stories to tell. Not ALL scary. In fact, I declare to not have many scary stories to tell in the next few months. Let it all just be rainbows & fairies! Oh, that’s right, we decided to buy a boat & go sailing…..
Our boy snaps back from traumatic experiences pretty quickly & is then there to take care of us.
Thanks for reading! I am hoping to get more caught up next week! In a couple of weeks we’ll have Starlink & am thinking that it might be a game changer for us getting stuff up & down from the world wide web. But our life right now has many surprises. So who knows? Well, come take a chance next week & see if there is something new! 😄
