Mirador is sitting firmly on jackstands in the Don
Jose Abaroja boatyard where she will remain until I return from
my month long trip back to the United States. Abaroja's hauled
Mirador out of the water on Saturday, November 2nd and placed her
on jackstands where I hope the keel damage will dry out before I
return.
Here is the heel area on the keel where most of the damage occurred last July when I put Mirador on a reef at Punta Cobre. Only some gel coat and a little glass mat was scrapped off.
The damage on the front of the bow was even less significant.
The boat will sit out in the warm dry La Paz air until sometime in December when I'll return from the US and will then repair the glass and gelcoat.
You can read about our encounter with the reef in the JUNE_27_2002 WEB page.
My trip down here from Agua Verde was uneventful, well almost, and included a lot of nice low speed sailing.
I went for a nice hike that took me out on a point of land northeast of the anchorage before I left Agua Verde.
This view is looking southwest toward the Northwest Agua Verde anchorage and the Sierra Giganta mountains in the background.
Here I am standing on top of the point overlooking
Roca Solataire that guards the northern entrance to Agua Verde.
The island in the far distance is Isla Monseratte, about nine miles NE of Agua Verde.
My departure from Agua Verde was delayed by yet more electronic gremlins. When I turned on the instruments Monday morning I was greeted by the message "CODELOCK" displayed on each of the Autohelm ST50 instruments.
Codelock is the Autohelm anti-theft system that locks up the instrument and requires entry of a 4-digit code number whenever the instrument "thinks" it has been stolen. The Codelock is disabled in all ST50 instruments as they are shipped from Autohelm and I never enabled it so I had no idea why the instruments, all of which were still present, thought I should enter the required 4-digit code.
Nor did I have a clue what the code might be since it must be specified by the boat owner when Codelock is first enabled. I tried entering the 1234 code shown every one of the instrument manuals. That code didn't work so I just left the instruments on, with all the displays flashing "CODELOCK" over and over.
After a cup of coffee and 30 minutes of talking on the Chubasco morning HAM net I noticed that the instruments were displaying the appropriate values. Apparently they recognized their surroundings and decided they had not really been stolen. I turned them off and back on again and found CODELOCK flashing on all the panels. This cycle repeated several times during the day but I was unable to determine why the Codelock system was being invoked or why the instruments, at seemingly random times, would come back to life with no 4-digit code being entered.
More research showed that the Autohelm ST6000 autopilot was not disabled by the Codelock system. That meant that the only really important instrument I need but was locked out was the depth sounder. I was unwilling to venture forth from the nice secure anchorage without knowing water depths so I decided to sit in Agua Verde for another day as I puzzled over the vagaries of ST50 instruments.
Eventually I stumbled onto the 4-digit code that would instantly allow all the ST50 instruments to work. Once I did that I carefully followed the manual's instructions for disabling the Codelock process but was unable to do so. Then I tried to enter a customized 4-digit code but was also unable to do that.
I suspect that the Codelock problem has something to do with the ST50 knotmeter. That instrument has been getting progressively more flaky and unreliable. The day before the Codelock problem started the knotmeter was flashing all kinds of partial displays and was, at times, cycling thru all its possible displays with no input from me. I guessed the knotmeter decided it had been stolen.
I removed the knotmeter from the Seatalk system that enables all the ST50 instruments to talk to each other, hoping that it was the source of the Codelock demand. That didn't help get past the Codelock problem but did get rid of the annoying flashing display.
The more significant problem was that the ST50 wind instrument needs to know the boat speed to determine apparent wind speed. No knot meter input results in a blank apparent wind speed display.
By Monday evening I was fairly confident that the depth sounder and autopilot would work consistently so I decided I would leave bright and early Tuesday morning for some place south of Agua Verde. Mirador was out of the Agua Verde anchorage shortly after sunrise and headed south for Puerto el Gato, Punta Cobre, or Punta Evaristo, depending on wind strength, i.e. what kind of speed could I make?, and wind direction, i.e. which anchorage would be comfortable in the afternoon winds.
It turned out that the wind did not come up until about 11 AM, at which time I was south of el Gato and Cobre, so I decided Evaristo would be the appropriate place to head. I rolled out the 165% drifter and pushed the full main out to starboard. We were soon heading SE on a lovely 8 to 12 knot NE breeze that carried Mirador directly toward Evaristo at four to 5 1/2 knots on a nice 90 degree reach.
That wind prevailed for almost three hours until Mirador entered the three-mile wide San Jose channel between Isla San Jose and the Baja Peninsula. The wind slowly moved aft and diminished to less than four knots at which time the Yanmar went back to work.
By the time we had motored about 10 miles southeast in the channel to the southern end of Isla San Jose the wind had come back up to 10 to 12 knots out of the SE. As I sailed south out of the channel I decided that I would be in Evaristo too early in the afternoon and I would miss too much nice sailing so we took off close hauled to The Hook anchorage on Isla San Francisquito, about 10 miles SE of Evaristo. Several of the boats that I had anchored with in Agua Verde and points north were headed to La Amortajada (The Shroud) anchorage on the SE tip of Isla San Jose and had talked to me on the VHF about meeting them there for a fish fry on the beach. It sounded like they had caught some big Dorado (MahiMahi) and wanted help eating it.
However, as we approached the south end of San Jose it became obvious that the SE 10 knot wind would make the Amortajada anchorage pretty rolly since the anchorage is wide open to the Sea of Cortez to the Southeast and there would be a fetch of hundreds of miles. So we all agreed to sail on to The Hook.
Since I had sailed all the way to the entrance I was the last boat into the anchorage. I was having a great time sailing and decided to show off as I entered The Hook. It was almost sunset and there were 8 boats already anchored but I decided to sail, without the engine running, onto the anchor as close to the beach as I could get. That meant I had to make four tacks thru the fleet of anchored boats to get directly to windward. It took me about 15 minutes to work my way thru the fleet but I was able to do so and dropped the anchor just as the sun set behind the Sierra Giganta mountains. I knew all the cruisers except the two Moorings charter boats and was able to have a nice chat with each one as I slowly sailed by their anchored boats.
A great ending to a wonderful 48 mile and 10 hour sail!
Wednesday was another nice light wind sailing day to Ensendada Grande on Isla Partida. I am really getting into this sailing thing. Mirador and I sailed for hours at three to four knots close hauled as we made our way 22 miles SE to Partida, directly into a SE wind that slowly clocked around to the south and then died just as we got to Ensenda Grande. I have found that when the sun is warm, the air is in the mid-80s so it is not too hot, and the seas are fairly calm, that it is very easy and comfortable to just glide along at 3-knots with no real intent of being anyplace for hours. I am finally getting the idea about cruising - most of the time there is no reason to rush to be anywhere.
Thursday was my day to transition back to civilization and the big city. We had to motor about two-thirds of the 24 miles from Ensenada Grande to La Paz but did get about three hours of nice sailing after we crossed the San Lorenzo channel. And it was there that the autopilot again gave me heart failure when it decided to wander off to the SSE instead of the SSW as it was programmed.
I had put up the drifter to starboard with the 24' reaching pole and had the main clear out to port and securely snubbed down to the toe rail. We had been sailing at 3.5 to 4 knots with that setup for several hours and had not deviated from the heading of 157 magnetic for over an hour. The ST6000 was setup to steer an apparent wind angle which seemed to work fine despite there being no apparent wind speed reading.
I went below to make some tea, make a log entry, and to review the charts for La Paz. When I went below there were no boats on the horizon, none on the radar, and the wind was a steady 8 to 10 knots from almost dead astern. The ride was very smooth and quiet since the tide and wind were headed the same direction. It was, all in all, way too peaceful and I was a little too relaxed.
I lost track of time so I don't know how long I was below but I suspect it was less than five minutes when I heard the Autopilot offcourse alarm continuously beeping. That happens when Mirador's heading has changed by more than 30 degrees from what it was when the desired apparent wind angle was entered into the autopilot.
I went on deck and found that Mirador was now sailing a course of 130 degrees magnetic on a close reach at 5 knots with the mainsail backed against the gybe preventer. For some reason the autopilot lost control and let the boat wander. The wind had not shifted nor had it changed in speed. As I steered Mirador back to her course of 157 I realized that we had been headed directly at Rocas Lobos which was only 400 yards dead ahead when on the 130 degree course.
At a speed of 5 knots we had been less than three minutes from hitting the rocks!
I had to wonder why the boat wandered off course and more importantly - WHY HAD I FORGOTTEN ABOUT ROCAS LOBOS?
Rocas Lobos (Sealion Rocks) is a 1/2 mile offshore, is marked by a light tower and presents an excellent radar return. I have no idea why I didn't notice the rocks, either by eyeball or by radar, before I went below and became engrossed in whatever I was doing down there. The rocks are the first hard objects a boat encounters as it sails the 20 miles south from Isla Ballena to the La Paz peninsula so I guess I was just asleep at the wheel, even though my eyes were wide open.
I did arrive safely in La Paz about 4:30 PM and have now adjusted to the busy city life.
I will be leaving La Paz about noon today to drive 900 miles north to San Diego. Archie and Bev from SV Seatacean are renting a car to drive to San Diego for a Downwind Marine parts trip and I will ride along in the back seat. We'll do the trip non-stop so I hope to be on the Coaster train to Carlsbad, California by 11 AM Wednesday. My brother Jim will meet me in Carlsbad.
On Sunday November 10 I will fly from San Diego to Seattle where I will spend a couple of days with Arlene before I head off to Cape Coral, Florida to visit my folks. On November 22 I will fly back to Seattle and spend Thanksgiving with Arlene. My flight back to San Diego is scheduled for December 3 so I should be back onboard Mirador by December 5 or 6.
Unless - I end up helping my brother drive a truck from San Diego to Cape Coral during early December. In that case I will probably spend Christmas in Cape Coral or Tacoma and will not be back to Mirador until after the first of the year.
I will be checking my e-mail on a daily basis so feel free to contact me at either JERRY@SVMIRADOR.NET or KI9NG@WINLINK.ORG