Another passage, another problem!

Zihuatanejo, Mexico

With the headsail (Genoa) jury-rigged repairs completed and what looked like a good weather window for a longer, 3-day, passage to Zihuatanejo, we topped up our diesel at the somewhat inconvenient fuel dock and were on our way out of Marina Chahua by 10 AM on Tuesday.  We knew we would be fighting some nasty currents in at least three spots on this passage but the winds promised to be light (and even possibly sailable, albeit very close hauled).

The currents were certainly there, but the winds really did not cooperate at all.

The first day was slow, the first 30 miles bucking a 1 to 2 knot counter current, with about 10 knots of wind on the nose.  The seas were a bit choppy, keeping our speed down to 3 or 4 knots most of the time.  The first night was nice and calm.  Pretty much what we were expecting.  We saw a few dolphins but not much else in the way of excitement.

Sunrise behind us

The second day was pretty uneventful, light winds and mild currents, until late in the afternoon.  From 5 PM until around midnight, we fought against a moderate current, a 10 knot headwind and some nasty chop.  In the morning, conditions were good and we decided not to stop in Acapulco - the latest weather predictions led me to believe that this would be our best opportunity for the push to Zihuatanejo - somewhat stronger winds but a little less current than later in the week.  Not one of my best decisions as it turned out.

Everything was fine until early afternoon, no wind and no current - motoring at better than 6 knots most of the time and way ahead of schedule for an early morning arrival at Z-town.  We were joined by a lively pod of dolphins for while and we spotted a whale breaching in the distance. Just as we started into the longest stretch of contrary current, the winds started building.  I knew that was going to happen - the weather app predicted the winds to peak at 15 knots around 3 PM, then die off around 6 PM.  I was prepared for that.

What I was not prepared for was for the winds (right on the nose of course) to continue to rise into the night, settling in around 20+ knots until 9 PM.  This strong wind on top of the strong current led to some impressive seas.  Large, short-period waves that would cut our blistering top speed of 2.8 knots down to 1.5 every time we slammed into them.  Needless to say, my crew was sick.

Just before dark, I decided that we should try sailing - the motion couldn’t get any worse and we might make a bit more speed (albeit in the wrong direction).  We already had our usual double-reefed mainsail flying, just to give us some stability when motoring.  We unfurled as much of the possibly compromised headsail as we dared and tried for some closed-hauled action.  The good news was that the Genoa worked flawlessly.  The bad news was that the entire mainsail became detached from the mast - every one of the sail slides tore right out of the track.  With nothing but the halyard holding it, and the boat trying to buck me off, I had a fun time getting it down and mostly into the sail cover.  Susanne did a great job of steering the boat to minimize my struggle.

The only sailslides still in the track

Gouges torn out of the track

Once we had the sails down and the boat back on course, we just hung on and motored through the night.  By morning everything was sweet and nice again.  In spite of all the slow-going and unexpected delays, we arrived in the bay at Zihuatanejo around 9:30 this morning.  The anchor is down (hurray, something worked) and we are resting up from one of our more harried passages of late.

So far on this journey, we have made 3 passages.  We have flooded the engine with salt water, torn the halyard off the headsail and now put our mainsail out of business.  These 3 items make up our entire means of propulsion.  It is a little discouraging!

Oh, I forgot to mention, our Radar is not working properly any more - kind of minor in the great scheme of things.

{GMST}17|38.128|N|101|33.28|W|Zihuatanejo, Mexico|Zihuatanejo, Mexico{GEND}