Voyage of Traveler / Blog

Sunday, June 27
Traveler Family and Friends,

Yesterday was a rough ride.  Traveler and Crew are thoroughly Baja Bashed, and we are so ready for dry land and hot showers.

The worst part of the passage from Cabo San Lucas to Ensenada is behind us now, and we are motoring in much more comfortable weather and sea conditions.  Because the wind is down to 18 knots apparent and the waves are moderate, we are able to do 7.5 knots, and at 0600 we are just 82 miles SSE of Ensenada.  It is still cold, but we can deal with that.  We expect to arrive at the Coral Hotel and Marina, just N of Ensenada, at about 6pm this evening.

An interesting thing happened at 0400 this morning while I was on watch sitting in the cockpit. We were approached by a speed boat from the stern, with no running lights on.  They came right up to our stern, just a boat length behind us, and then turned on their high-powered spot light and running lights.  When their big spot light lit up my cockpit and I realized there was a boat right on my ass, it really startled me. I jumped to my feet, spilling some of my coffee.  I woke up Barbara and told her it looked like someone wanted to board us.  I called on VHF Ch 16, but no response.  A couple of minutes passed and I tried to reach them again on the radio, and again there was no response.  Who are these guys, and what do they want?  I told Barbara that I suspected they were navy and were planning on following us until daylight and then would board us for an inspection–but that was just a guess.  But recent reports of piracy on the Mexican coastline raced through my mind.  I asked Barbara to monitor the radio at the nav desk while I watched the situation from the cockpit.  Were they really going to try an board us? At night? Who are those guys?  Eventually, after 20 minutes or so, they identified themselves, in English, over the VHF as Mexican Navy and asked how many people we had on board.  I told them we have just three persons onboard, all US citizens, and that we are a US-flagged vessel with all the required US and Mexican documents and that we are on passage from San Jose del Cabo to Ensenada.  They asked if we needed anything, and I said no thank you.  Then they said have a safe passage, and turned their boat away in another direction.  An hour later, in the early light of dawn, I scanned the horizon but could not see them.

Melissa, I am half way through reading “Getting Stoned With Savages” and love it.  Barbara read it first and loved it, too.  Thanks for the great book.

Kurt, thanks so much for getting us a berth at your YC in San Diego.  It will be great to get back to the US! Hope to see you there.  If not, then at the BYC on July 3.

Michael
with Barbara and Brian (both off watch and sleeping)