It’s wet, bumpy and FREEZING!
Traveler Family and Friends,
Saturday, June 26
28-32 N, 115-13 W
210 miles S of Ensenada
COG 322M, SOG 3.5 to 5
Right now, it is 0300, we are ten miles N of Cedros Island, I’m on watch, and we are just getting the shit kicked out of us in rough conditions. We’re motoring uphill (sure feels like it), against a strong current and straight into 20 to 25 knots of apparent wind, with waves breaking over the bow, washing over the deck and smashing into the dodger. And it is freezing cold!
The waves hitting the bow really slow us down, like from 5 to 3.5 knots. Then the engine slowly makes way against the wind and chop, fighting the current, to give us a full 5 knots speed over ground. Then BAM–another horrendous crash! Hit by yet another wave, and our speed drops back to 3.5 knots SOG.
It’s like being in a low-speed car wreck every two to four minutes, and being on the Indian Jones ride at Disneyland in between the car wrecks. Nonstop. While shivering in your foul weather gear. Maybe when the sun comes up it will at least seem better, and we’ll be able to see what is going on.
The radar is not working. But we’re thankful the engine, autopilot and chart plotter are all working well again. And we just re-fueled at Turtle Bay. With the autopilot keeping us on course, we are back to one person on watch at a time, so the watch schedule is three hours on, six hours off. But it’s somewhere between very hard and flat out impossible to sleep in these conditions. If you do happen to doze off, it is just for a couple of minutes, then BAM!, another wave hits. You can’t sleep through these ‘car wrecks.’
Bottom line: A lot of noise and bouncing around on a wet, bumpy and freezing ride.
Barbara, Brian and I are all very much looking forward to Sunday evening when we arrive Ensenada and taking a long hot shower. Then we celebrate our last night in a foreign port.
The end is near, and I can smell the barn.
Michael
bb here for a postscript:Â Many of you wonder if there will be a last chapter to my tales of laundry in foreign ports. Nope! I didn’t bring any clothes to wash!! What was I thinking?? I threw in a bathing suit, a sarong, of course, and not one piece of clothing to keep me warm!! Therefore I borrow M’s stuff and since we do separate laundry, well, there you go . . . why didn’t I think of this before???? Hugs to all, bb