Malo, A Boat Named Bad: Ensenada to Turtle Bay

Things have been speeding up for me and I am way behind on my blog. Dan has managed to stay ahead on his, but I have not found it so easy. We left Ensenada, Mexico with calm seas and a blue sky. We figured it would be a 3 night sail to Baha Tortegas or otherwise known as Turtle Bay.

Eventually the winds picked up and we had a terrific sail. It took me awhile to get used to the higher winds 15 to 25 knots with 6 to 8 foot waves coming from behind. these waves had a short period between sets, so it made for a very rolly ride. I did well with the scopolamine patch and was not sea sick at all. Once again we were able to sail with mostly the jib and Malo really, really liked to surf the waves. It was a cool feeling and took awhile to become more comfortable with helming under these conditions.

We had great sunrises and sunsets as you can see from the pictures below. After awhile it all becomes a blur and we hardly know what time it is. The night watches are still tough for me though. I take naps during the day when I can. Below Dan is doing a heave too procedure to drop the main sail. It always makes mea little nervous.

We were making incredible time, with Malo sailing 7 to 10 knots for much of the time. After the second night however, the winds stopped suddenly and we were hardly moving. Dan went to start the engine and it would not start! Oh no, not engine trouble again! We had about 30 nautical miles to go to get to our destination. All sorts of ideas went through my head. Dan stayed calm through it all and said we would just sail into the bay and drop anchor. Great I thought, but we would have to spend another night at sea, as we were hardly moving even 1 knot at that point and we had 30 nm to go. I suggested we contact our friends on InReach (our satellite communication system) and let them know we had no engine incase we needed help in the bay. Curt from S/V slow Motion organized a crew to be on alert. I felt better.

We sailed on at our slow1 knot speed, as there was little wind, and noticed a huge kelp bed ahead of us. We have had trouble with collecting kelp on our keel and our prop and Dan has already had to dive under the boat 3 times to clear off such a mess. We were able to navigate through a lesser helped area and made it through without picking up much kelp.

Then Dan decided to try the engine one more time and like magic, it started up! Hurrah, we kept the engine going for the last 20 nm and motored into Turtle Bay. Our backup support was not needed, but it was nice to know they would be there if needed.

Hello Turtle Bay.....