I have often told people that sailboat racers need more patience to go slow than cruisers or day sailors. This is because unlike those less competitive venues, races do not allow any motoring (at least not without a penalty.) I decided that we would try to sail the whole leg without the use of the motor except to charge the batteries if needed.
We left Turtle Bay on October 31st. The day was spectacular, but alas without wind. The Grand Poobah allowed us to do a rolling start. That is we could motor at no more than 5 knots without penalty until the wind freshened. For a while Virago was near the head of the pack, but as the wind built and the racing chutes were hoisted, we were left in the "dust".
In very light air the key to victory is patience. Keep your hand off that start key! We are sailing this leg. The captain had to restrain himself by putting on the sombrero of command and practicing deep meditation.
As it turns out Roger Elliot is also a practiced meditator.
The Work Still Goes On
We had noticed a troubling groan in the starboard side steering mechanism during heavy following seas. There was a slight rubbing sound even in light seas. Roger being the tallest (and having volunteered) he went into the lazarette to find the problem.
Fortunately, he was on good terms with the rest of the crew and had no fear of being locked in.
Of course, the source of the noise was not going to be so easily uncovered. With some moral support from Roger I decided to lower the panel that shields the after cabin berth from the steering quadrants and cables. It seemed like the cable and or sheeves were groaning when under strain. He applied WD40 and the squeaking drastically diminished. At some point I will need to repeat the exercise with some grease as recommended by Edson who makes the steering system.
Just to show that our troubles were relatively minor, I have included a picture of a boat being towed. The tower is the littlest boat in the fleet: a 24 foot Dana. The towee is a Catalina 27 with fuel problems in its outboard engine.
I Can't Believe I Sailed the Whole ThingAs you see from the pictures the sea state was flat with hardly a wind wave to be seen or felt. Much of the time we saw less than 5 knots of wind from behind. With the asymmetrical poled out on the main boom and the jib poled out on its whisker pole we still struggled at times to maintain 2 knots of boat speed. It was only the steely resolve (some would say madness) of the skipper that kept the crew from walking because it would have been faster. In the end we did sail over the finish line.
It had taken just over two days to sail just under 225 miles. It's the kind of performance that only racers or passage makers will put up with. Notice: zero hours of motoring.
We did drop anchor at Bahia Santa Maria and found it to be even more desolate than Turtle Bay. The natural features are similar, but BSM has no town--just a few fishing shacks. There is another beach party with food provided by some of the fishermen's wives and a rock band that drives in from Cabo San Lucas for just this one event each year Bill and Bob took in the party, but Roger and I stayed in for the evening.
It had taken just over two days to sail just under 225 miles. It's the kind of performance that only racers or passage makers will put up with. Notice: zero hours of motoring.
We did drop anchor at Bahia Santa Maria and found it to be even more desolate than Turtle Bay. The natural features are similar, but BSM has no town--just a few fishing shacks. There is another beach party with food provided by some of the fishermen's wives and a rock band that drives in from Cabo San Lucas for just this one event each year Bill and Bob took in the party, but Roger and I stayed in for the evening. 
We did assemble the inflatable dinghy with some effort and all agree that it is truly a PITA. We all agreed that it was good thing we carried a life raft and did not count on the inflatable for our safety at sea. In spite of my usual lack of faith in the old Johnson outboard it did fire up and run fine. I took a run to the end of the fleet and back just to prove that we had a working dinghy just in case we had to anchor out at Cabo San Lucas. After that brief flurry of activity, we disassembled and put the dinghy away under Toyot.
Roger showed another of his many talents by cooking our steaks on the barbie.
Roger showed another of his many talents by cooking our steaks on the barbie.
Behind him you see a curious ship named the Pacific Provider. It appears to be a mother ship for some sort of fleet of sport fishing boats. We guessed that it would provide sleeping accommodations, fuel, and food so the short range sport fishing boats could be stationed here without the need of an actual port.
By November 2nd there was a full moon. Thankfully all on board resisted its romantic influence, but Bill does look pretty good with the moonlight streaming through his hair. But, I digress.
With a couple nights rest for all and a small amount of partying by some, we were ready for leg 3.
With a couple nights rest for all and a small amount of partying by some, we were ready for leg 3.
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