Fishing – Adagio’s Voyage

Big Fat High

After two lovely weeks in Penrhyn, we were ready to depart for the remote atoll of Suwarrow (also in the Cook Islands). But, mother nature had other plans for us. We woke up early in the morning before sunrise to get the boat ready to depart. As we were having breakfast, we decided to do one last download of weather. The forecast had changed in the last 24 hours which altered our plans completely.

The weather for the passage to Suwarrow looked fine, but the weather that would come through Suwarrow shortly after our arrival gave us a reason to reconsider our plans. The forecast was showing a large high pressure system that was going to sit down around 30 degrees south (for reference, we were currently at 9 degrees south) that the weather gurus were calling a “Big Fat High.” Although the moniker was amusing, the weather was not. The Big Fat High was going to cause what is referred to as a “squash zone” north of the BFH where the change of pressure gradients would be “squashed” together. What this means is that there were going to be strong winds blowing right through Suwarrow (and ultimately a good portion of the South Pacific) in excess of 30 kts.

Suwarrow is a low lying atoll without much protection from strong winds and waves. Around 6:00 a.m. that morning, all the boats in the anchorage that were planning to depart started chatting on the radio about rethinking the plan to leave Penrhyn. Two of the boats decided they had to leave as they had guests meeting them in Tonga in a couple of weeks and needed to start making their way west. (This is why it is hard to make plans to have guests visit!) All the other boats made the decision to stay put for the time being. Penrhyn was far enough north to be out of the forecasted squash zone, so we might as well enjoy some nice (and safe!) weather. We had no idea at the time, but that Big Fat High stuck around for another two weeks.

We made the most of our additional two weeks in Penrhyn with lots of social activities with the other boats and the locals in Te Tautua. We even had a Fourth of July BBQ on the beach. Although only a couple of the boats were American, all of the boats were eager to celebrate our national independence with a big beach bonfire and grilled meats. I think that is a universal joy!

We also got to spend some more time enjoying the natural beauty of Penrhyn. Mike had fun stalking the bonefish on the flats, and I got in quite a few good snorkeling sessions.

But, the highlight for me were finding the nesting birds that were all over the motus. I had gotten pretty good with fish identification, but I needed a little help with the birds. Thankfully, some of the other boats were better birders than I am, and they helped me identify red-tailed tropic birds, black noddies, red footed boobies, brown boobies, fairy terns, sooty terns and a few others. I learned that red-tailed tropic birds usually nest on cliff sides. Well, there are no cliffs in the low lying atoll of Penrhyn, so the birds were all nesting on the ground. That was good news for us camera happy visitors who wanted to snap pics of the beautiful birds and their fluffy little chicks!

At the end of our month in Penrhyn, the winds were finally changing. We saw a good weather window to depart and took it! But, we decided to make a detour. Although the winds looked good to Suwarrow, they also looked good to bypass Suwarrow and head all the way to Niue. Niue has been one of the places we were most looking forward to seeing in the South Pacific. We also know and have now experienced how variable the weather can be in this area. After much contemplation, we decided to skip Suwarrow and head all the way to Niue. (This ended up being a good move, as our other friends weren’t able to get a weather window to Niue after Suwarrow and instead headed to American Samoa.)

We said goodbye to the rest of the fleet who left Penrhyn and decided to stop in Suwarrow, and made our way down to Niue. This was our second seven day passage this year and definitely our best. For most of the passage, we had what another sailor called “magazine sailing.” It was easy sailing with moderate winds just aft of the beam and seas that weren’t too big or confused. We only had one 24 hour period that was less than ideal, where the wind shut down for about eight hours and then piped up to 25 knots with lots of rain. So, we were a bit soggy one night, but that’s pretty good for a seven day passage.

Finally we arrived in Niue! But, more about that next time!

~katie

Diving with Dolphins

After leaving Fakarava, we had an easy overnight sail to Rangiroa. Rangiroa is one of the atolls in the Tuamotus which we weren’t able to visit last year. So, we were excited to explore a new place. Our friends Diana and Marcus on Allora came along with us, and we were very excited to run into our French friends Caroline and Philippe on Ivadel when we arrived in the anchorage. We first met Caroline and Philippe in Mexico and reconnected with them last year in the Marquesas. Upon arrival, they told us that they were in Rangiroa so that Philippe could complete his dive master certification at one of the local dive shops.

One of the reasons we really wanted to visit Rangiroa was for the diving. As many dives as we have done in French Polynesia, we have never seen dolphins in the water. We see dolphins from the boat, but it seems to be really rare to see them snorkeling or diving. However, Rangiroa is known for some local dolphins that either tolerate or actually like playing with the divers. We’ve had friends tell stories of dolphins coming right up to them like dogs wanting to be petted. We had no intention of actually touching a dolphin, but I really wanted to see them while diving.

There had been a rather large south swell for a few days filling the lagoon which meant that the current in the pass into the lagoon was always going out. With wind opposing the current, this also meant that there were some rather large waves in the pass. Due to the conditions, and our desire to get the best shot at finding the dolphins, we decided to go with some local dive shops rather than attempt the dives on our own.

We didn’t waste anytime getting to the diving and scheduled a sunset dive for the same day that we arrived. On the first dive, there were no dolphins, but lots of great barracuda, a school of twenty spotted eagle rays and a fantastic end to the dive where we ended up in a huge school of thousands of small jacks of some sort.

The next day we were back at it with even more determination to see dolphins. We had a different dive guide this time, a young French woman who was the most at ease in the water I had ever seen. She just kind of floated with an occasional frog kick to propel her forward, unlike my clumsy diving where I’m always trying to dial in my buoyancy and not look like a flailing fish when trying to deal with current. I aspire to look so calm in the water!

Anyway, our guide suggested that our best shot at seeing the dolphins might be to go out a little bit further from the reef “into the blue.” After a “one, two, three, everybody into the water,” we descended into the blue. I had never had a dive like this where all around was blue. You couldn’t see the bottom or the reef off to our right. As we descended, I had to carefully watch my depth gage, because I had absolutely no sense of how deep we were with no reference points around us. Even looking up at the surface didn’t give you any clue as to where you were. It really did feel like floating in outer space. I thought it was awesome.

We swam for a while with some fish drifting by and eventually over toward the reef. All the while, we were constantly looking for the dolphins. As my air showed less than half a tank left, I was beginning to think that dive number two was also going to be a bust for dolphins. But, just as I was beginning to lose hope that we would see them, they appeared. The dolphins were above us toward the surface, but we could see a small pod of four or five. And, the most amazing part was a baby dolphin who we were told by the dive guide had just been born about 10 days prior. If it is possible to smile with a regulator in your mouth, I did it.

After three dives, the weather forecast was not looking too good to stay anchored up by the pass. We looked at sailing down to the southeast part of the lagoon where we would have some protection from the wind and fetch. That part of the lagoon also has large sand flats where Mike and Marcus were very excited to do some fly fishing for bonefish.

The boys had a fun time that week out every morning stalking the fish on the flats. Diana, who is an artist did an awesome mosaic on one of the sand spits which a bunch of shells she collected. And, one day Diana and I went out to do some fun photo shoots. Diana caught this cool photo of me and an a sting ray. (I now want a dome lens for my camera!)

She also got some awesome drone photos of our boats, that I’m thankful she shared with me.

The wind subsided and we headed back to the anchorage by the pass to do some more diving. We got in a couple more dives and even got to have Philippe act as our dive guide as part of his training with one of the dive shops. We saw the dolphins (and the baby) a few more times, but they never got too close to us. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get my close encounter, but we gave it our best shot.

We loved Rangiroa, and I could have stayed there a lot longer, but the time was coming for us to head back to Tahiti and to start to head west. Leaving the Tuamotus with no idea if or when we will every be able to return gave me a sad pang. I know that there is more to see out there, but it is hard to wrap your head around leaving a place that it truly a paradise.

~katie

Shark Bump

We followed our friends Marcus and Diana on Allora to a beautiful anchorage in the northern part of the Gambiers, where their friend Eric owns a pearl farm. Marcus and Diana have been in French Polynesia for two years and really made some wonderful friends with some locals, including Eric and his family.

We took the dinghies over to Eric’s place which has a huge sand flat out front where Mike and Marcus were going to do some fly fishing. Around the side of the island is what is called a “false pass.” A false pass is a break in the reef that heads out to the open ocean, but it is not deep enough for a boat to be able to pass through across the reef. But, the false pass made for a great snorkeling location.

Diana and I left the boys in the flats and headed to the pass with our snorkel gear. We had to almost crawl across very shallow coral to get to these large caverns or bowls of deeper water cut into the reef. It was a spectacular site. Diana and I each started exploring the area, diving down to look in little crevasses under the coral and getting great pictures of all kinds of colorful reef fish. We saw several species of huge grouper lumbering around and even had a couple schools of bluefin trevally swim by.

After swimming for a little while, several whitetip reef sharks appeared. The whitetips have been the most curious sharks in my experience. Most of the other reef sharks won’t get that close to you, but the whitetips don’t seem to have much fear. They are usually in the 4-5 foot range, so they are big enough to be substantial but not usually frightening. A couple of times I would turn around to see one only a foot or two next to me just staring at me. It was starting to get a bit annoying, because I then became distracted constantly looking around me.

At one point I was at the surface and turned to find one shark heading straight for me at an angle from below quite quickly. At the same time, there were two or three others swimming nearby me. It was a little unnerving. I faced the shark heading toward me. As I had my fins out toward the shark, he came up and bumped my fins. I kicked him to get him to move away from me, which didn’t really do much in terms of a deterrent effect. Finally, he moved away a bit as I looked over at Diana. She asked me, “Did he bump you?” When I said yes, we decided to move out of the area. Some locals had told Diana that the sharks will bump you before they decide to take a bite.

Neither of us wanted to be shark bait, so we swam to a shallower area where the sharks didn’t follow us. The whitetip reef sharks aren’t known for being aggressive or dangerous, so we don’t know if these particular sharks were just curious or being territorial, or what. Whatever it was, we didn’t really stick around long enough to find out. Luckily, the sharks didn’t bother us the rest of the afternoon as we snorkeled around the shallows and headed back in toward where the boys were fly fishing.

As I’m sure you all know by now, Mike loves to fish. But, he had done mostly deep sea fishing and had not tried his hand at fly fishing. Marcus is a huge fly fisherman and inspired Mike to try it. So, when we were back in the States, Mike bought himself a fly fishing rod. The sport of fly fishing is really fascinating to watch. The technique used to try to catch a fish on the fly is really an art and quite graceful.

We’d heard tales from Marcus about the fascinating fish that he had caught fly fishing. But, by far one of his favorites is bonefish. These beautiful, slender, silvery fish dart around in the shallow, sandy areas eating little things they pick up on the sand. In order to catch one, you have to see it first, then present the fly just in front of it and then be able to hook it and reel it in. Once they are on the hook, they like to fight, giving the fisherman a bit of fun.

Mike had now been trying to catch one of these elusive bonefish ever since we arrived in the Gambiers, with no luck. But, just as Diana and I were coming out of the water from our snorkel, we saw Mike in the distance hook up. We all ran over to see the action as we hoped Mike would be able to score his first bonefish. It was fun to see him quickly stripping the line and reeling it in to get that fish, and we were all there to see it! Mike was beaming and having so much fun. He is definitely hooked on fly fishing!

The next night we were invited aboard Allora for dinner with Eric and his son (also Eric) and had a wonderful time with a fantastic meal and great company. It was a great end to our time in the Gambiers. After a quick stop in Rikitea, we were off to the Tuamotus.

~katie

Fish in a Barrel

We waited for a calm weather day to make the trip from Raiatea to Huahine, knowing that it would be an upwind sail. We timed it right and had a beautiful day sailing in light winds and calm seas, the latter being a rarity for us here in the South Pacific. So, we were on a bit of a high when we came in through the pass. Mike’s eyes lit up even more when he saw all of the surfers catching the nice waves on the reef as we came in. We immediately knew we were going to like this place.

Our first night we anchored outside the main town of Fare. There were quite a few boats there, and our anchoring position had us sticking out a bit into the channel where the boats come through the northern pass. We weren’t blocking anyone from coming in, but it would have been better to be able to sneak in closer to shore. That was definitely evident that night as two supply ships came in, and I woke up to the bright lights of the ships traversing pretty close to our stern. The next morning, we moved.

We reanchored off the reef not far from Fare but between the two passes where you can enter the lagoon. It was the perfect place for Mike to get a good look at the waves in the morning and head out to join the other surfers. Mike was told by a some other people that the locals could be a bit territorial about their waves, but he had no problem making friends quickly and catching “epic” waves (his words). For the next two days the swell was perfect for Mike to spend hours in the water while I had a chance to relax and catch up on some reading.

Unfortunately, the swell died out the following day leaving all the surfers staring longingly out into the water. We happened to look out our companionway and saw our friends Liam and Annie on Gone with the Wind passing by at the same time as they hailed us on the radio. They were heading down to Avea Bay in the south part of the lagoon and planned to go to a traditional Polynesian lunch buffet the next day. Because the surfing had died out, we decided to follow them down to Avea Bay.

Avea Bay is a big, beautiful bay with clear, turquoise water all around us. We’ve seen huge sea turtles in the anchorage and lots of rays. We could see staying here for quite a while.

Adagio in Avea Bay…

Our Polynesian lunch was great with poisson cru, roasted pork, fish cooked in banana leaves, chicken and spinach, and lots of other traditional foods. We had a fun day hanging out with our friends with good food and drinks.

Time flies when you are somewhere really lovely, and it has for us here in Avea Bay. We’ve been snorkeling, paddleboarding, surfing (Mike found another break down here) and touring the island. I think I’ve lost track of when we even arrived here!

A few pictures around Huahine…

But, I think the most hilarious experience we have had here has been what I’ve termed “fishing in a barrel.”

We hadn’t had much luck fishing lately. We hadn’t caught anything on the troll between the islands, Mike hasn’t found anything to spear, and even jigging in the pass didn’t yield any fish. So, Mike and Liam came up with a new strategy. We were hanging out for dinner one night on Gone with the Wind, a beautiful catamaran with blue underwater lights between the two hulls at the stern. After dinner (and a few cocktails) we all noticed a lot of good size trevally swimming off the transom, chasing the baitfish that were attracted to the lights.

The boys decided the next night that they were going to go after the trevally. Mike seemed a bit overly confident to me. Yes, there were a ton a fish swirling around in a small space, but that didn’t mean they were going to go after your lure with all of the baitfish around! And, we never fish at night, so who knew how this was going to go. Liam jumped on Mike’s enthusiasm and even reported on the SSB net what he was up to that night. So, now the pressure was really on to catch some fish.

As soon as it got dark we flipped on the underwater lights and waited for the fish to arrive. It took a bit of patience, but soon the little baitfish showed up and the trevally followed. Mike cast his lure in the mix trying to con the fish into thinking he was just another baitfish. At first, there was no action. But, then Mike snagged the first trevally, and then another and another. Pretty quickly we had five nice fish in the bucket! It was a bit comedy to watch Mike pull the flailing fish up out of the water and Liam try to get it into the bucket. Those fish do not give up without a fight!

We don’t know whether it was the rain the started to come down or if the fish just had enough, but the fish action shut down after that. We had enough fish for each boat to get a couple of meals out of them, so everyone was pretty happy. I guess sometimes you just have to think out of the box to try and outsmart the fish!

We’re back to surfing, swimming and paddle boarding. It’s pretty nice to just stay put somewhere for a while. So, we think we’ll spend a couple more weeks here before heading back towards Moorea.

~katie

The Big Tuna

The weather forecast from Fatu Hiva to Raroia looked pretty good. The winds were not predicted to be that strong, but it was forecasted to be about 15 knots on the beam. Perfect. It was 400 miles from Fatu Hiva, and we wanted to time our arrival for early morning. We decided to leave at sundown on Monday evening and hoped to arrive Thursday morning.

The sail started out beautifully. We had winds as predicted and a comfortable sail through the night. But, by mid-day the next day, the winds started dropping and shifting more from the north. That put the winds aft of the beam. When the wind is behind us, we need stronger winds to keep the sails full and the boat moving forward. So, this combination was seriously slowing us down. We used the spinnaker when we could and altered course to head into the winds a bit and hopefully get more apparent wind.

As Tuesday was coming to a close, and we were seeing our boat speed dip down to under 4 knots, we realized we were not going to make landfall during daylight on Thursday. We would have to push for arriving Friday morning. The timing on arrival into an atoll is pretty critical. An atoll is a ring of islands and reefs with a lagoon in the middle. To enter the lagoon, you have to find a pass in the reef deep enough for the boat to enter. Luckily, these have all been charted by many others long ago.

Because the tides will have to push all of the water in and out of the lagoon through the small pass, the currents in the pass can be quite fierce. If you are coming into the lagoon through the pass when the tide is ebbing, you could be fighting a current that is stronger than your boat is able to overcome. And, if the wind and tide are opposing, it can create come standing waves in the pass. Therefore, it is critical to try and time your crossing into the lagoon at or near slack tide when there is the least current. Based on the best information we had, the slack low tide was about 8:30 on Friday morning. (The tide information is sketchy because there are not tide stations at every atoll, so you have to extrapolate from tide stations elsewhere in the Tuamotus.)

Now that we had resigned ourselves to arriving Friday morning, we could relax and sail as much as we could, even when we weren’t making great speed. We’re still in the trade wind belt, so when the winds dropped to under five knots it was not only frustrating but quite surprising. We had to motor the last twelve hours just to make our Friday arrival.

The benefit of the calm winds and seas meant that it was perfect conditions for fishing. We hadn’t caught anything since the two tuna off Nuku Hiva some weeks ago. In the spirit of friendly competition, we made a fishing bet with our friends on Kini Popo who were traveling with us. The winner was the one with the largest fish. The losing boat would have to make cocktails for the winning boat.

It was late afternoon on Thursday, and we hadn’t caught anything. We hadn’t even had a single strike. Kini Popo caught a 7 lb skipjack, so they were in the lead. Mike & I were sailing slowly with the spinnaker up when I spotted dozens of birds circling around and diving about a quarter mile off our starboard side. We quickly doused the spinnaker and started up the engine to head in that general direction. As we got closer, we could see huge splashing at the surface and the occasional fin. From a distance, we were sure it must be dolphins feeding. I got up on the bow to get a better look and quickly realized that the fish on the surface were not dolphins. They were as big as dolphins, but the spiky yellow fin breaking the surface gave away the huge yellowfin tuna school in front of us.

Just as we seemed to be approaching the school of tuna, our line took off. The line peeled and peeled even as Mike set the drag and we slowed the boat down. We knew we had a big one on the line. I quickly moved everything I could out of the way so Mike could work on reeling in the fish in whatever direction it took him. I could see Mike struggling and ran to get his fishing belt that holds the butt of the rod. Mike worked and worked on that fish for about 45 minutes. He was now circling off the port side and getting close to the surface. We couldn’t believe the size of the tuna! He was 5-6 feet long and clearly over a hundred pounds.

Mike gave me the rod to hold while he got ready to gaff the fish. The force the fish had on the line was immense. I was praying I wasn’t going to drop it! Mike took a first grab at gaffing the fish but didn’t get the gaff in very deep. He knew if he pulled up, it was likely to pull through the fish. So, he tried to redo it and gaff again. But, as he tried this, the wire leader got wrapped around the gaff and snapped. Bye, bye fish (and lure). Mike was completely dejected. It was the biggest tuna of his life, and he couldn’t believe he blew it. I’ve never seen him so depressed over a fish!

So, I was not surprised that early the next morning Mike had the fishing lines in the water before sunrise. It was about six o’clock and we had two hours left to Raroia. I had gone to sleep at 4:30 ending my night watch and was dead asleep when I heard Mike yelling.

Half asleep I ran up the companionway stairs to the sound of the fishing line peeling out and Mike excitedly barking orders. Before long, we had the fish at the gate ready to gaff again. It was another yellowfin tuna and just as big as the one from the day before. Mike gave me the rod again as he got ready to gaff. He was determined not to mess it up this time, but I was wondering how the heck he was going to pull this fish up on the deck that looked bigger than him!

Somehow adrenaline must have kicked in, because before I knew it Mike had that fish up on deck in one big pull. I think we were both shocked at the size of it now that we saw it out of the water. It was an incredible fish.

I grabbed our giant fillet knife to give to Mike. He wanted to make sure he killed the fish so that it didn’t thrash around and get off the boat. He stabbed the beast in the top of the head, but for some reason that just did not kill the sucker. The fish started thrashing like crazy beating its tail up and down. Mike jumped on top of it, and it was like he was riding a bucking bronco!

Eventually the fish finally gave it up, and Mike got to work filleting the fish. Although, he said that this was more like butchering than filleting. I took bowl after bowl of tuna steaks downstairs to package into ziplock bags and put into the refrigerator and freezer. I had no idea how we were going to eat this much tuna! Luckily, there are always people around who love tuna. We gave tuna to four other boats and some of the locals in Raroia. And, we still had a freezer full. So far we’ve had tuna sashimi, tuna poke, poisson cru, seared tuna, and tuna salad. I’m working on how many other different ways I can make tuna.

As fishermen are proud of their catch and excited to show off the exploits, Mike cannot stop talking about the biggest tuna he’s ever caught and showing all the other boats the photos. When I went to take a photo after the fish was on deck, Mike couldn’t even lift it completely off the deck. The tail went up past his chin (and Mike is 6’2”). We originally thought it must be a hundred pounds, but I think it must have been over 150.

Here’s the video of our tuna!

We won’t be fishing for a while, until we eat all this tuna, but Mike is already working on his next project of hunting coconut crabs.

~katie

Passage to Ecuador – Part 1

547 miles to go…

I’m laying in my bunk writing this as I have wedged myself in diagonally to keep from falling out of bed with each swell we go over. We have had an eventful last 24 hours.

We left Panama City Friday morning to head directly West to Vista Mar to fill up on fuel and water. We decided to spend Friday night at the dock as we poured over the various weather forecasts we had downloaded. The predictions were that the next few days were going to be a bit rough with winds in the 20’s and large seas. But, the conditions were going to get worse near the Panamanian coast later in the week with winds over 35 kts! So, we had a choice to make. Either we left now and tried to get as far south as possible as quickly as possible to avoid the coming weather, or we wait out the winds and seas in Panama for at least another week. After much discussion, we decided to go. If it got too rough, we could always turn around and run back. It is a lot easier to handle the wind and seas if they are from behind, which is what would happen if we had to turn around.

We left Vista Mar Saturday morning to head south toward Punta Mala. The wind was almost directly on the nose with confused seas. Because we knew we had to get south and outside Punta Mala, we decided to motor-sail for 12 hours and just bash through the seas. We finally cut the engine south of Punta Mala. We had roughly 20 kts of wind as projected. The wind was not an issue, but the big swells kept slowing us down as the bow of the boat continuously buried in the waves. Unfortunately, that meant a great deal of seawater was getting into the anchor locker and down into the bilge. Our dutiful bilge pump kept kicking on to pump it out.

Adagio has handled the wind and seas beautifully. We have a double reef in the main, the staysail is out and just a piece of the jib. With the boat balanced properly, the Hydrovane is steering easily, and we are making a lot of southward progress. Although the boat sails just fine, it is definitely a bumpy ride! Just getting up and down the companionway stairs is a challenge. And, if you need to use the toilet, you better hang on! So, needless to say, neither of us have had too much sleep. I’ve been eating a lot of ginger to keep from being too queasy.

This morning has been much of the same with the occasional squall coming through. At least the rain and clouds are keeping things pretty cool on the boat. We did have some other excitement today. Mike had one trolling line out in his continued quest to catch a yellowfin tuna. The line screamed out and we knew we had a big fish. Mike saw the fish jump and thought it was a marlin. We worried for a moment that we were going to get spooled. But, Mike worked hard to get the fish up to the boat. It wasn’t a marlin, but we’re not sure what it was. It looked like a sailfish but with a short bill, not a long one like a marlin. It was brownish in color but had purple vertical stripes on it. We let the fish go, and I told Mike he was done fishing for the day. It is way to rough to be dealing with a fish.

What the heck is this fish???

The new forecast today looks a bit better than what we saw on Friday. It looks like if we get through the next 24 hrs of rough conditions, we should be far enough south that things will start to smooth out. Let’s hope so!

Will keep you posted.
Katie

Tehuantepec Tale

What the heck is a Tehuantepecker, and who came up with that name??? The Gulf of Tehuantepec spans about 250 miles from Huatulco to Chiapas on the Mexico/Guatemalan border. On land is a narrow peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean. This low lying area creates a funnel effect drawing strong winds from the Atlantic to Pacific side.

When a Tehuantepecker (the name for the strong winds) is blowing, the winds can reach over 60 knots. But, the real danger is the short, steep waves that can develop. These waves can build up to 10 to 15 feet at 4 to 5 seconds. That is pretty gnarly.

All of the books and sailing blogs, etc. warn you not to become another “Tehuantepec Tale” arriving at your destination exhausted with torn sails or worse. Basically, they all try to scare the shit out of you.

So, the prudent thing to do is to closely watch the weather forecasts and go when there is no Tehuantepecker predicted. There are also lots of “strategies” for how to make the crossing. You can do the straight shot, rhumb line approach and take your chances. But, you have a greater area of exposure to the strong winds. Or, you can take the 16 degree short cut where you head northeast into the Gulf and then cut the corner when you get to 16N. And, of course, there is the “one foot on the beach” approach where you hug the coastline all the way around the bay.

Mike and I read and read all these different pieces of advice and looked at weather forecast after weather forecast. Finally, we just decided we had to go for it. We did NOT want to be stuck in Huatulco for another week waiting for a more perfect forecast.

After we returned from Oaxaca, the forecast started to show the winds dying out the next Monday afternoon, Tuesday looked calm, and then the winds started up again Wednesday afternoon. The 250 mile trip would take us approximately 48 hours. So, the weather window looked tight. But, the funnel effect of the winds means that it really is only about 60 miles or so of that 250 where we would really need to worry about the wind.

We kept looking at the forecast for days as it was changing slightly but still looked like a good window. We had to time the crossing just right. First we decided 6pm Monday would work. But, as it got closer to Monday, we realized we need to leave even earlier. Finally, Monday came and we decided 2pm was the perfect time.

We said goodbye to our friends in Huatulco. Several of them were also going to make the crossing, but they were a bit trepidatious about the window we picked. Everybody has to make their own choices as to when to sail and when not to sail. We certainly would not be pressured to go if we were uncomfortable, and we weren’t going to do that to anyone else either. We made it clear they shouldn’t go just because we were going.

We started out sailing just beautifully, 10-15 kts of wind and not too much swell. As we started to get closer to Salinas Cruz the seas were getting bigger and a bit confused, but we still only had about 10 kts of wind. That changed pretty quickly when we arrived at the “funnel” in the Tehuantepec. As the wind creeped up to 18-20 on a close reach, we put a double reef in the main and pulled in some of the jib.

I had the overnight shift as we headed past Salinas Cruz (the beginning of the funnel effect) and had to drag Mike out of bed twice to reduce sail. We ended up with a triple reef in the main, pulled in the jib completely, and just had part of the staysail out. (Just FYI, we always get the other person up if someone has to go up on deck out of the cockpit, which we have to do to reef the main. We also are clipped in with harnesses to the jacklines.)

The winds settled in at 22-23 for a while and then slowly crept up. I saw it hit 28 and stayed in the 26-28 range for less than an hour before settling back down to 20-22 for the rest of the night. With the wind in my face, I was perched pretty tightly behind the dodger for most of my shift. It wasn’t cold out, but that’s a lot of wind to take for 4 hours!

By the time Mike got up around 5am, the wind had backed down into the teens. The boat handled the wind beautifully, we were properly reefed so the boat wasn’t overpowered, and the hydrovane kept us right on course! But, I was definitely ready for a few hours of rest.

We ended up taking that 16 degree shortcut I mentioned above, but not intentionally. It was just where the wind allowed us to sail. And, we were happy to sail that first 100 miles. We do not like being a motor boat. Unfortunately, after we made it through the funnel, the wind died completely. We only sailed about 3 hours during the day Tuesday, having to motor the rest of the time.

The ONLY advantage to motoring is that it is much easier to fish! If you’ve followed this blog, you know that Mike LOVES to fish. Unless it is really rough out, the trolling lines are off the back of the boat. On Tuesday Mike was in fish heaven.

First we hooked 2 skipjack and threw them back. Next was one of those big jack crevalles. Then we hooked a marlin and saw him jump clear out of the water behind the boat! But, he shook the hook loose (fine with us). Then another jack crevalle. Mike was getting a serious workout at this point trying to drag in those big crevalles.

We had a bit of a lull in the fishing in this point until we hooked another skipjack. But, just as Mike was reeling in the skipjack, we saw a huge dorado going after the skipjack. (I don’t know if he was trying to get the dorado or the lure the skipjack had). Anyway, we tried to get another lure in the water in front of the dorado who was on the surface right next to the boat, but it took off. After throwing back the last skipjack, we were feeling a bit defeated on the fishing front. All those fish, and none that we kept to eat.

A couple hours later, right before sunset, we finally got our fish! After the line started peeling out we saw a huge splash behind the boat and Mike knew it was a dorado. We reeled this guy in and couldn’t believe the size. We measured him at 51 inches! That is the biggest dorado we have ever caught. Mahi mahi for dinner!!!

We had an uneventful last night and the next morning motoring. We arrived at Marina Chiapas around 2pm on Wednesday. We had survived the Tehuantepec and had not become another Tehuantepec Tale.

~katie

Wahoo!

We made it back to La Paz! After 3 1/2 months exploring the Sea of Cortez, we rolled into Marina Palmira in La Paz yesterday afternoon. It was a bit of a strange feeling as we felt like we were coming back home. We had only spent six weeks here earlier this summer, but we had made friends and fell a bit in love with this Mexican town.

When I last wrote, we were en route to Punta Pulpito. From there, we went to Puerto Ballandra on Isla Carmen, Caleta Candeleros Chico, Puerto Los Gatos, San Evaristo, Isla San Francisco, Caleta Partida and then La Paz. Whew! It was a lot of miles to cover, but we averaged about 30 miles a day (about 6 hours sailing at 5 knots) and were able to stop each night in a beautiful anchorage. We had to do quite a bit of motoring as there wasn’t a lot of wind, but we made it work.

You may recall that we had complained a bit that we hadn’t had much fishing luck in the southern part of the Sea earlier this summer. It didn’t seem like the fishing got good until we got north of San Francisquito. Now back down south, we weren’t too optimistic about our fishing prospects. We had gotten a bit spoiled eating fresh fish every night up north and we were now reduced to eating frozen hamburger patties and questionable chicken I found at the bottom of the freezer!

Mike, ever the fisherman, always has the trolling lines out. We had pulled in several skipjack over the previous few days that we threw back. So, when we were just a couple of miles out of San Evaristo and the line started to zing, Mike was sure we had another feisty skipjack on the line. We slowed the boat down and Mike started fighting the fish into the boat, but we couldn’t yet see him.

Suddenly, as the fish got closer and must have seen the boat, he took off like a bullet peeling out line and creating a huge splash at the surface. Mike turned to me with a huge grin and said “that’s no skipjack!” It was a few minutes later that Mike got him close enough to identify him, and it was a wahoo! We were both shouting wahoo! and jumping up and down. This was the first wahoo we had caught, and this was a big one!

We measured him at 50 inches, and Mike says he was at least 50 lbs. He wouldn’t even fit on our filet table! It took Mike a couple of hours to clean the fish and the mess left on the boat. Thankfully, we got all the fish in the freezer right before we pulled into Isla San Francisco. We shared a bunch of the fish with our friends on Adios who were also in the anchorage, and we’ve now given more fish to some friends here in La Paz. Even eating wahoo for lunch and dinner everyday, it is a lot of fish for two people to eat!

We’re in La Paz for a week to do some serious cleaning of the boat and a couple of maintenance projects. Next, we will be crossing the Sea of Cortez to Topolobampo on the mainland. Our plan is to see the famous Copper Canyon there that is four times a big as the Grand Canyon! I hope to have a lot of great pictures to share with all of you.

~katie

Yellow Butterflies

The locals say that when the yellow butterflies appear the hurricane season in Mexico is over. Well, let’s hope so! We are seeing the yellow butterflies everywhere. They just started appearing one day, and now they are everywhere you look.

We decided to begin the journey back south to La Paz where we will cross over to mainland Mexico. It was hard to make the decision to go, as we loved the northern part of the Sea and we were sad to leave friends behind. One of the great things we discovered about cruising was meeting all of the other boats. But, inevitably our paths will diverge and we have to say goodbye. We were especially sad to say goodbye to our friends on Kenta Anae. Merle, Allison and their two boys Shandro (14) and Matero (11) had been traveling with us for about the last month as we went up to Puerto Refugio, out to Isla Partida and all the stops in between. So many of the cruising boats are older retiree couples that it is fun to meet a younger boat. We all had so much fun snorkeling, diving, hiking, fishing, having fish feasts, making bonfires and just hanging out that we regretted leaving. But, we know that our paths will cross again, hopefully sooner rather than later!

We left Isla Partida and made the 30 mile journey to San Francisquito. We had a calm night’s sleep in the little cove called Cala San Francisquito and prepared to leave the next day for Santa Rosalia. Santa Rosalia is 77 miles south, so we would have to make an overnight trip in order to arrive in daylight. We left San Francisquito in the afternoon and turned south.

We had an interesting night sailing to Santa Rosalia, as the wind just couldn’t decide what it wanted to do! Initially we had some light winds, but enough that we could sail for a little while. But, the wind kept changing direction. So, we kept changing sail configurations. We’d put the pole out on the jib to sail wing and wing, but as soon as we got it up, the wind shifted. Then we put up our reacher asymmetrical spinnaker, but then the wind died down completely. Ugh.

The wind finally appeared to hold a steady 8-10 knots for a couple of hours. I was on watch just cruising along when I noticed the wind start to climb. Mike came up from resting downstairs and we decided to proactively put a couple of reefs in the main. We were approaching an area called Las Tres Virgenes, which is named after three prominent volcanos. The area is known for funneling wind from the west, so we were expecting it to pick up. Well, about a half hour after we had reduced sail the wind was up to about 28 knots! Good thing we reefed that main!

Mike was able to get some fun sailing in and see how the boat performed in the big winds (pretty well), but the winds had calmed down by the time I was back on watch. It was early morning and the wind was almost completely gone, so we made the decision to take down the sails and motor the last couple of hours to Santa Rosalia. Well, the wind didn’t listen to our decision because about an hour later the wind was back up to 25 knots. What??? Mike came back up to the helm just as we were about to round the corner to enter Santa Rosalia harbor when a huge wave swamped the cockpit and drenched him. Welcome to Santa Rosalia.

We spent a couple of days cleaning up the boat and reprovisioning in Santa Rosalia. And, we had to make several trips to our favorite ice cream shop Splash while we were there. Seriously, they have the best homemade ice cream! Then, we were off again headed to Punta Chivato.

We had a fantastic sail to Punta Chivato. The best part for me was the dolphins. I never get tired of seeing dolphins. Often they will come and swim in the bow wake of the boat, but usually it is just for a minute and then they head off. But, this time the dolphins hung around for almost an hour. Not only did they swim in our bow wake, but a couple of them jumped clear out of the water putting on a show. There was a bit of a swell and the dolphins just surfed the swell right next to the boat. So fun to watch. I was up at the bow at one point watching them when a mama and baby dolphin came to swim in the bow. The baby was only about two feet long and swam right above mama. So cool! I’ve never seen a dolphin so little!

Mike, always the fisherman, of course had the trolling lines out. First we pulled in a really big skipjack, so he went back. A few hours later the line started peeling away, so we knew we had something big. It took Mike a while to reel him in, but we had a 45 lb jack crevalle! Not an eating fish, but Mike had fun fighting him into the boat. We took a picture and let him go. But, third time is the charm. Just as we were about to get to Punta Chivato, we picked up a nice sierra! The sierra is by far my favorite fish we have caught in the Sea. Not only are they beautiful with their silver and blue skin with yellow dots, but they are delicious. We had some of it as sashimi and cooked the rest in just a little lemon butter and garlic. We’ve now hooked a couple sierra with our rapala lure, so we’re nicknaming it the sierra slayer.

Here is the Jack Crevalle…

We got to Punta Chivato just before dark and were the only boat in the anchorage. The next day we decided to drop the paddle boards in the water and go exploring. Right at the point behind which we were anchored was a hotel. We had been told by other boats that the hotel was closed and the property abandoned but that you could walk through the grounds. There is a private airstrip at Punta Chivato, and apparently the hotel was once popular with private aviators that flew in. We walked around the grounds and found what was once the outdoor bar overlooking the water that still had tables with benches set up. The view from that patio was fantastic.

While we were playing around a few other boats pulled into the anchorage. We had seen a couple of the boats before but didn’t really know them well. We decided to paddle over to say hello and suggested that we all get together for sundowners at the abandoned hotel bar. So, an hour before sunset we paddled back to hotel with a bottle of wine and the baba ganoush I had made earlier in the day. (I was excited to find eggplant in Santa Rosalia!) The other two boats also brought some wine, apples, cheese, crackers and smoked oysters. We seriously couldn’t have had a better happy hour with the most amazing sunset views. It’s always fun to make your own party, even if it is at an abandoned hotel!

We’re now off again sailing to Punta Pulpito. It is a gorgeous morning, and I’m watching the yellow butterflies come out to our boat from shore. I don’t know if they really are a sign regarding hurricane season, but they sure look like a good omen for something.

~katie

Which Way is the Wind

After stocking up on groceries and fuel for a month, we departed Santa Rosalia for Isla San Marcos. Isla San Marcos is about 10 miles southeast of Santa Rosalia, and we had past it when we came north. However, we wanted to make the stop to check out the island before heading north again.

While in Santa Rosalia we met up with Adios, a Canadian boat, that we previously met in Bahia Agua Verde. Aboard Adios was Dale, his girlfriend Lana, and Lana’s two kids, Richard (18) and Alex (15). Lana and Alex had to fly back to Canada for the start of the school year, but Richard was staying aboard with Dale for the next few months. They were taking a similar path north as us, so we decided to buddy up with them for this part of our trip.

We left Santa Rosalia late afternoon as the sun was heading for the hills. There was no wind, so we had to motor to get there before dark. We always have the trolling lines out, and just as we were approaching the island we hooked a Dorado (Mahi Mahi)! This was the first one we have seen all summer, despite it being the right season to catch them. It was a little one and Mike didn’t feel right about keeping the baby Dorado, so he got to swim on. But, we thought this was a good sign and maybe our fishing luck was going to turn around.

We anchored in a beautiful, rocky anchorage called Sweet Pea Cove. It is protected by some rocky outcroppings to the north. There isn’t a beach to land on shore, but there were lots of interesting rock formations. I took the paddleboard out several mornings along the coast line to check out the shore. There are hidden caves where you can hear the water rushing in and out under the rocks. Along shore there were lots of bones of fish and birds, and I saw one set of bones that must have been a dolphin or whale. The vertebrae were huge!

One of the reasons we wanted to stop at Isla San Marcos was to explore a couple of sea caves that were mentioned in our cruising guide. The first morning here, Mike & I picked up Dale and Richard on Adios with all our snorkel gear and headed about a mile northeast of Sweet Pea Cove to find the sea caves. These were definitely different caves than we discovered at El Refugio. The openings to the two caves we found were not quite big enough to squeeze the dinghy into. So, we anchored the dinghy, put on the snorkel gear and swam through the opening. Inside the caves the ceiling had eroded so that they were open to the sky. The larger of the two caves we went into had a rocky beach that you could walk on. They really were cool to see and definitely worth the trip.

After exploring the caves, we swam out to do a little snorkeling. Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed with the snorkeling. The water was quite a bit colder here than when we were farther south at Isla Carmen. I don’t know if the water temperature was the cause, but we probably only had about 10 feet of visibility. We saw some cool fish, but not nearly in the numbers or variety that we saw south of here. The water was also thick with some type of jellyfish. These were not what I normally think of jellyfish, as you could not even see them. They were more like strings in the water, no thicker than a strand of hair. But when they wrap around your hands, arms, ankles, face, etc. they sting like crazy. Fortunately, they only sting for a couple of minutes, but it was still pretty annoying and did not make us want to stay in the water for too long.

Having seen the sea caves that we came for, and given the lack of good conditions for snorkeling or diving, we were ready to head to our next destination, Bahia San Francisquito. Bahia San Francisquito is 90 miles north, which means at 5 kts it will take us about 18 hours. So, our plan was to leave late afternoon and do an overnight sail to Bahia San Francisquito. Other than Santa Rosalia, there really are not any good anchorages in between Isla San Marcos and Bahia San Francisquito.

The winds in the Sea of Cortez are generally predictable based on the season. In the winter, there are mostly northerly winds, and in the summer there are mostly southerly winds. But, of course, sometimes nature just isn’t predictable. We started looking at the weather forecast and saw that the winds were predicted to come out of the northwest for the next couple of days. This is exactly in the direction we need to go to Bahia San Francisquito. If you sail, you know what that means! You can’t sail directly upwind. And, we really did not want to motor for 18 hours. So, we made the decision to wait.

We’ve now been here for 4 days and are ready to go. The winds have finally shifted around from the south which will make for a pleasant downwind sail this afternoon and evening. So, what have we been doing for 4 days? Normally I would hope to tell you that we have been doing a lot of swimming and snorkeling, but with the visibility and jellyfish we haven’t been in the water much.

Mike has been out fishing every day and took Richard along a few times for company. And, they had great success. The first day Mike caught a Sierra. We were surprised by this as our fish guide said winter was the season to catch Sierra, not summer. They are beautiful fish. They are long, narrow fish with silvery blue skin with yellow spots on them. When Mike filleted the fish it was almost meat. I had never cooked or eaten Sierra, but it turned out perfect. It was such a light and flaky fish and absolutely delicious!

Then, Mike & Richard came back with two Dorado. They weren’t huge for Dorado, but they were big enough to eat. They are also very beautiful and colorful fish. After cleaning the fish and putting them on ice, we had a happy hour with Mahi Mahi sashimi. We sliced some jalapeno on top and a little ponzu sauce. So fresh and delicious! The rest of the Mahi Mahi was baked for dinner.

Aside from my daily paddle boarding here, I’ve been practicing my ukulele while Mike has been out fishing. I’m still pretty terrible, but getting better! Hopefully I’ll have a few songs in my repertoire before long. It’s fun though.

I’ve also been playing with the Starwalk app on the iPad that I previously mentioned. There is no moon right now in the night sky (I forgot what that is called). It is deliciously dark out at night. The stars are absolutely amazing and the Milky Way streaks across the sky. So, I was out on deck the other night and it was so still and calm with absolutely no wind. But, all around us I could hear the sounds of the sea. There was a pod of dolphins not too far away, but in the dark too far to see. I kept straining my eyes to see if I could catch a glimpse of them, but I could see nothing. All I could hear was their breath as they came up for air, the splashes as they jumped out of the water, and I’m guessing what must have been some sort of feeding frenzy at one point. Very cool.

Last night we had a bit of rain, so this morning before the sun came over the hills and onto the deck of the boat, there was still quite a bit of moisture. Well, that drew out the bees. I’ve mentioned the bees before. They are really annoying. If they smell fresh water, they come swarming. I’m so glad we got the screens done on the boat, because we were basically trapped in the boat all morning with the swarm of bees outside. Again, annoying. But, once the sun was overhead and dried off the decks, the bees disappeared back to wherever they came from.

So, we’re getting ready to head to Bahia San Francisquito this afternoon. I have my fingers crossed that the water will be better up there, because we love being in the water. So, wish us luck!

~katie