A DAY TO MOVE MIRADOR

I thought I'd write a short WEB update about what a day is like on Mirador when we move from one anchorage to another. I don't know if we are similar to other Sea of Cortez cruisers but,I suspect we spend more time in each anchorage that do most people. I do know that getting Mirador ready to move after being anchored in Puerto el Gato, or any place else we spend over a week, is a many hour project.

Yesterday morning, Wednesday July 24, was one of my days to be NET control on Sonrisa Net which is the "cruiser friendly" HAM net that starts at 14:30 Zulu, 07:30AM, Sea of Cortez time. Getting up at 7 AM was a little difficult yesterday since the easterly swells started up again about 1 AM the previous night and were really rocking Mirador around, despite the stern anchor keeping our bow straight into the swell. The building swell was accompanied by a dying wind. By 2 AM the boat motion was uncomfortable and the temperature in the sleeping cabin was 86 without a breath of breeze.

I had to get up at about 2:30 AM and move to the cockpit for a while in order to cool off. I fell asleep there for a while and then moved back to the main cabin, which is more open and has a little better airflow at night than does the sleeping cabin. All in all I only got about five hours sleep so 7 AM and Sonrisa net seemed a little early.

Sonrisa Net required my attention from 7:30 to 8:30 and then I participated in Chubasco Net from 8:45 AM to 9:15 AM. Chubasco offers phone patches to the US and lots of interesting folks to talk to in the SW United States. My family has the phone number of one of the regular HAMs who lives in Arizona. We listen each morning to see if anyone is trying to contact us.

The next order of business was breakfast, which took a little longer than usual because we really are running out of food. The bread, six weeks from the bakery, had to be closely inspected for mold. Then the jelly jar had to be very carefully spooned out since it was empty yesterday. The same problem occurred with the peanut butter. The coffee had to be ground. Not matter what anyone tells you; Mexican roasted coffee does not have the body that Starbuck's Columbia or French Roast does. The Cafe Morino coffee that I use is good - just not as robust as I would like.

Well that was breakfast - we ran out of bananas two weeks ago and yogurt last week. The last eggs were two weeks ago and the bacon was finished yesterday morning.

As I ate my PB&J with mold sandwich I worked on the five waypoints for the 22-mile trip from Puerto el Gato to Agua Verde. This is not so easy here in the Sea of Cortez. The Cunningham cruising guide for this area provides detailed waypoints for reefs, rocks, and anchorages. However when I entered the waypoints into the computerized Jeppesen Marine Map system, using the only CD charts available for this area (Maptech PCX charts San Diego to Acapulco), I found that the recommended waypoint for the Agua Verde anchorage was 1/2 mile inland. After plotting several other recommended waypoints I found that the entire detail chart for Agua Verde is offset to the west by about 3/4 mile.

Then I went back to plotting a track around Roca Marichial, which guards the SE entrance to Agua Verde. That is on a different chart but I noted that the Cunningham waypoint for the light on Roca Marichial was 1/2 mile off from the charted position. Then there was the confusion about passing between Roca Marichial and Punta Marichial. The chart says clearly "NO PASSAGE" but Cunningham states, just as clearly ,that there "is deep water between the rock and the point." The rock is 1.5 miles off the point and I decided the safest thing to do was keep the rock one mile to our west and go around it in deep water.

The process I use is to set waypoints in the computerized Jeppesen Marine Map based on the Cunningham waypoints. These waypoints are then combined to form a route. Then I try to reconcile the differences between what I see on the chart and what Cunningham says. Finally I enter all the waypoints into the Garmin 128 GPS that is hard mounted at the nav station and provides input to Jeppesen. I then enter the same set of waypoints into the ondeck Garmin 75 GPS that drives the autopilot and provides guidance to the helmsman.

This whole process took about an hour. I am a lot more careful now than I was before hitting the reef at Punta Cobre in late June.

Then it is time to start taking down all the stuff we put up to make life comfortable at anchor. The first thing to come down is the forward part of the sun awning. This is no big deal and takes less than five minutes.

Then I have to retrieve the flopper stopper, which is deployed off the end of the 23' reaching pole. The reaching poled is secured with a topping lift, aft guy, and forward guy. The flopper stopper hangs off a Lewmar block shackled to the end of the reaching pole. A line runs from the mid-ships cleat out to the block and then 14 feet underwater to the flopper stopper.

Untangling all those lines and hardware takes 15 minutes, depending how much the boat is bouncing.

Then I have to wash and scrub the stainless steel flopper stopper. It is amazing how much grass and other weird stuff can grow on a flat piece of polished stainless that has been suspended in 78 degree water for two weeks. Of course this makes a mess on the foredeck so that also has to be washed clean.

The next project is to retrieve the stern anchor, which meant I had to let out another 100' of rode off the bow to allow the stern to move back over the anchor. I had to retreive 120' of 2" nylon webbing, 15' of 3/8" chain, and a 22 pound anchor from 23' of water. All this is done by hand since there is no windlass on the stern.

The dinghy outboard has to be moved from the dinghy transom to the rail mount on Miradors stern. Yesterday was easy since we had been using just the Suzuki 2 HP, which weighs 21 pounds. While in the dinghy I tie everything down so that if the dinghy swaps nothing floats away.

I had to rig two heavy trolling poles in their holders on the stern rail. More about this later in the trip.

Then it is time to move forward and take down the sun awning from the mast back to the stern. This is a 10-minute, two person, wrestling project while trying to subdue 30 square yards of sunbrella and three 12' poles that support the awning. This whole thing has to be carefully rolled and tied onto the handrails on the port side of Miradors cabin top. The wind was calm yesterday so this wasn't too hard.

The spare main halyard and spinnaker halyard have to be reattached to their cabin top U bolts since they were holding up the awning.

Now for the hard work. I have to take the washdown hoses, cleaning equipment, and spare lines out of the port side of the anchor well so I can retrieve part of the anchor chain. I pulled 60' of chain by hand. I also had to undo the two 1/2", 40 foot long, nylon snubber lines that were attached to the anchor chain. Both the chain and snubber lines have lots of marine growth on them so are slimy and smelly.

I then attached the foot of the 165% 2.5 oz. drifter to the U-bolt on the bow and used the spinnaker halyard to hoist the drifter to the masthead. Then I had to rig the drifter sheets and roller furler line from the bow to the cockpit.

Did I mention that it is now noon, the sun is burning a hole in my back, and the air temp is 93?

The main halyard has to be moved to the Mainsail headboard and the sailcover removed from the Mainsail.

The bimini over the cockpit has to be put up since we fold it back when the sun awing is up.

Arlene is in down below trying to re-stow everything that has been taken out of storage while at anchor while I am on deck doing all this work. Ever since our disastrous trip from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz we have been very careful to stow EVERYTHING! You can read all about that trip by going to our Archives and finding the September 21 entry "There is Always a Price to Pay for Pleasant Sunshine."

By now I am really hot and sweaty so the next job is a cooling relief. I put on mask and fins and jump into the water to take at look at Miradors bottom. I have to clean the barnacle and grass out the knot meter impeller and clean the same stuff off the prop. I then take about 15 minutes to scrap barnacles off the rest of the bottom. It is a real treat to be in the 82-degree water under the boat, out of the sun.

Not much to do now - check the diesel oil and water, in particular to make sure there is none of one in the other. I also check the alternator belt and the fuel filters. It is now time to start the engine and then to start the water maker.

While the engine is warming up I start Jeppesen Marine Map running on the computer and set it up to talk to the GPS. I then set both GPSs to give us range, bearing, and VMG to the first waypoint.

Yesterday I had to check the alternator output to make sure the newly installed Silver Bullet 135 amp alternator and Heart Incharge regulator were cooperating to make 14+ volts. This required the Fluke DVM since the Link2000R battery monitor system is still not working.

Arlene and I then go on deck and discuss what piloting maneuvers she will have to make as she drives Mirador up and over the anchor and then out of the anchorage to deep water. Yesterday was a little tricky since there was a long, partially submerged. reef between us and open water. We had to find a 1/4-mile wide pass between that reef and the one that extends southward from the point on the north. There was also a reef, about 8' below the surface, j50 yards to our east so I wanted to make sure she knew what heading to follow to avoid all those obstacles.

While I am on the bow pulling chain by hand, gotta get that exercise, Arlene slowly drives Mirador up to the anchor float. I then use the windlass to pull the last 35' of chain. Once the anchor is out of the water it is up to Arlene to drive us safely to deep water while I secure the anchor. Yesterday I stayed on the bow and kept a close watch for rocks and reefs. We creeped out of the anchorage at 1.5 knots for the first 1/2 mile until we were out of the pass and into deep water.

Once in deep water we engage the autopilot and have it track the first waypoint. In track mode; the Autohelm ST6000 will take directions from a GPS and steer directly, and precisely, to a waypoint. Our first point was 1400 yards east of Punta San Telmo, about 2.5 miles from el Gato.

As soon as the autopilot is engaged I put a green and orange 14cm Rapalla lure on one rod and a green and orange "chicken feather" lure on the other pole. The dinghy follows Mirador at a distance of 40' and is a nuisance to avoid with the lures.

There was no wind so we didn't put up any sails.

Then it is time to settle back, relax, and enjoy the cool breeze and spectacular scenery. The Sierra Giganta Mountains come right down to the water along this part of the coast. There are 500-foot cliffs that go on for miles with an occasional white sand beach at the mouth of an arroyo thrown in for variety. What there is not is any other boat traffic. We did not see another boat anywhere between el Gato and Agua Verde.

The trouble with relaxing is something always gets in the way. The first annoyance was a beautiful big Dorado that had taken the chicken feathers. It hit while I was below making a log entry. When I came on deck Arlene was trying to hold onto the pole, which was pointed backwards and downwards. I guess the mounting bolts on the pole holder weren't tight enough and it rotated on the stern rail.

We took the engine out of gear and tried to retrieve the fish. It put up a nice fight, in fact too nice. We got it to within 3 feet of the transom and let it hang there for a while. Dorado are notorious for getting loose at the last minute so it is best to tire them before trying to boat them. This one was just gorgeous - brilliant blue, orange, and yellow as it swam along beside Mirador. I could see that only one of the two # 7/0 hooks was in his lip. Not a very secure attachment.

I am really clumsy with a gaff so I grabbed the wire leader and lifted the fish to the swim step. Whoops - good-bye fish! It shook its head one time as I lifted and away it went. Arlene was more than a little annoyed since she had told me to let it tire some more. But hey - the great Captain and Fishkiller knows best. I guess we'll wait a while longer next time - stay tuned for the next fish.

Actually, Dorados shaking the hook is a common topic of discussion on the HAM nets. It sounds like over 1/2 the hooked Dorado get off the hook as they are brought to the boat.

After less than an hour we had a very nice 7-knot SE breeze so we put up the Main and rolled out the Genoa while we headed NNW. That was good for about 3.1 or 3.2 knots. After about 1/2 hour and no increase in the wind I decided we could do better with the drifter. Sure enough - our speed increased to 4.2 - 4.4 knots. The sailing was great - a close reach direct to our waypoint, light swell, 89-degree air, and beautiful thunder heads in the mountains to our south and west. This continued until we approached Roca Marichial, about 3-miles from the Agua Verde Anchorage.

By then the wind was up to 16 knots and we were past a broad reach, sailing at about 140 degrees to the apparent wind. Those are just perfect conditions for Mirador. We were making a steady 6.5 to 6.8 knots with no heel and having a great time. As we rounded the north end of Roca Marichial we had to keep sailing NNW to a waypoint that would keep us 0.65 miles off since the reefs extend NW and SE.

When it came time to bear off and then gybe to the Agua Verde approach waypoint we found that the wind had increased to 20+ knots and the wind waves were up to 3'. Then disaster - another crash gybe! This happened exactly the same way as the last one. I was trying to steer as low as possible so Arlene could pull in the main in order to slow it down as it came across the center of the boat. I guess I did a real poor job of steering because the main never went slack so Arlene never had a chance to pull it in. One second it was almost to the spreaders on port, the next second it had banged into the shrouds on starboard. I am a good downwind helmsman and really don't understand how I keep letting these gybes get out of control.

You can read about the last crash gype in the November 25, 2001 entry in our log entry.

We were lucky again, in that the only damage was to the aft mainsheet block hanger, which pulled loose. We were able to head up into the wind and attach a temporary line to the aft part of the boom where we then hung the aft mainsheet block. During this fiasco the wind increased to the mid-20s with gusts close to 30.

We had rolled up the drifter before the gybe in preparation for rolling out the genoa after the gybe; so there was no headsail to cause problems.

And - just to double the fun - another big fish hit while we were trying to subdue the main sail to which there was no main sheet attached after the crash gybe. The fish just about ripped our biggest pole out of the big, heavy stainless rod holder. Neither of us could do a thing about it because we were both trying to get the main under control. Finally, when I could attend to the fish, I found that the line from the rod was wrapped around the dinghy wheel that sticks up from the transom on the dinghy 40 feet astern of Mirador. That meant we could not reel the fish in. So we got to drag the poor thing at six knots as we reached into Agua Verde under main alone with the wind increasing to the high 20s.

This fish dragging was exactly what Arlene had recommended earlier in the day.

The wind was inflow to a big thunderhead complex hanging over the mountains, just a mile or so west of Agua Verde. The picture to the right is of those mountains, which come right down to the Agua Verde anchorage.

We just kept reaching along under Main alone hoping that the wind would die as we got into the lee of the cliffs on the south side of Agua Verde. It was at this time that I pulled the dinghy up to Miradors stern and tied it so the dinghy bow was resting on Miradors swim step. Then I stepped into the Portabote bow, trying to keep from sinking the bow and swamping the dinghy. I was able to free both fishing lines from the grasp of the dinghy wheel and to climb back into Mirador without falling in or sinking the dinghy while the wind gusted to 30, the wind waves were 3 feet, and Mirador was making 6 knots.

We then reeled in a seven pound 26" Leopard Grouper that turned into a very nice dinner.

You'd think that was enough adventure for one day but we had one more mistake to make. While backing up to set the anchor we heard a loud crack and turned to see the dinghy strike Miradors stern. We thought we had just backed up too fast and hit the dinghy. After a moment I realized we had backed over the dinghy line and wrapped it around the prop shaft. Again luck was with us. The line broke cleanly but the twisting affect from the prop caused the two broken ends to weave themselves back together. It took me ten minutes to untangle the line enough to verify that it had actually broken. The dinghy stayed attached to Mirador and the prop shaft and feathering Maxprop blades were not damaged by my dumb mistake.

We had forgot to tie the dinghy up close to the stern before setting the anchor. First time for that mistake in several years.

We turned the engine off at 18:30 after quite the sail. The sun came out, the wind died, and we had a nice quiet dinner.

And that is one day with Mirador as we move north in the Sea of Cortez.