Sailing Encore

So later Thursday morning (after my Flu night) we listen to the weather forecast and there is a storm warning for the coming Saturday night. The same big Storm that will hit family in So Cal on Friday will be heading our way by Sunday- big seas and swells and winds in high 20-30s. But for the next few days sunny, mild 10-15 knots– usual weather. Local boater network predicts the same over the VHF radio. Great – let’s take the boat out at 1pm (that is the high tide window we have to use to get in and out of marina) and sail around and go anchor at La Cruz for the night. “You were sick all night, sure you feel like it, Terri?” “Sure, it will be nice to sail and get back to the marina before the weekend storm”. Vernon readies up top and I ready below. This means we prepare the boat to sail. Up top- remove covers, re-tie dinghy, run lines. Below- store gear, secure cupboards, lock hatches. We motor out the jetties in the clear blue sky to find a good bit of breeze already exists. Along with it some swell has grown in the Bay. “So, it is a little more than they predicted” no biggie, and we roll out the sails and head across the Bay. Wait… this is more than ‘a little more’. The wind has already built to 22-24 knots. Vernon spills some of the sail pressure as we start to feel swells in the middle of the bay–K THUNK, K THUNK goes the boat as it hits the confused swells. Then a crash below deck. Sounds like something came out of a cupboard. (OOPs). It is the tea pot and a big coffee mug. “This isn’t fun- and if it continues the anchorage will be rolly. Let’s Go Back” I say. Vernon looks at me. “Can’t now” The tide window is closed. We can’t get back into the marina till tomorrow about noon. We continue to sail watching the wind hit some gusts of 28 knots. “REALLY! REALLY!” Vernon curses to the sky and mimics the local weather forecaster “10-15 with occasional mid-teens” “COME-ON!*$%!!!” “We haven’t had one good forecast yet!” K-THUNK, the waves lash out and hit us both with a salty sting. But the sun is out and it is warm so we roll up the jib to de-power and continue to sail across the bay. We see a tourist sail boat rolling up their sails and turning toward the other marina area downtown. Sometimes this type of sailing is fun, especially if you have a crew of 8 to hold down the rail, reef in the main and change sails. Kind of like the racing we did on Corpus Christi Bay when we lived there. But today I am not really in the mood. Those of you that have sailed with us in Long Beach probably remember an easy breezy day, maybe a little tilt to the boat- something like this:

But never salt water splashing up and into your face due to the choppy sea and wind conditions. My polished windows are a salty mess. I climb down below to pick up the gear that has been miss-placed. Poor stow job on my part. But worse yet, when a wave hits the front deck up top I see the water coming in the forward hatch. OH S****! I hurry up to the hatch and notice that I only latched it midway – not ‘double dog latched’ secure. Everything is wet. I latch it and climb back up and let Vernon know. “We can clean it all out back at the dock tomorrow”. We continue to sail. We tack away from the approaching beach to not get caught and pulled in the surf. I let Vernon take the helm because I am tired. In hind sight this wasn’t such a good idea. But It starts to die down to lower 20s and I take a moment to try to capture some video on my GoPro but you never really capture the feel of rough sea. Anytime I have video recorded I am always like “that doesn’t look bad… and at least the sun is shining”. Anyway here is my attempt:

We sail on for a couple more hours until the wind has died down because it is very difficult to try to anchor in high wind. Not worth losing your fingers in the chain. By 5:30 it is dropped to 18 and we head to the anchorage. Drop anchor and roll in the remaining swell along with the other anchored boats. Time to open the one last bottle of Justin we brought with us. I make Tortellini and Sausage with Pesto sauce to go with the Justin (cooking in a swell is tricky- you have to stand guard and protect yourself from boiling water slosh).  We toast to lousy weather forecasts, not losing the dinghy (we towed it behind us and have a history of towed dinghy problems…) and to being sailors. We watch the Bond movie- Casino Royal-one of the many DVDs we got at a used Book store for pennies before we left home. I think Daniel Craig is an awesome Bond. The swell stays rocking the boat till late at night. When we get up the next morning the anchorage is calm again. We decide to take the dinghy ashore to La Cruz marina and town since we haven’t seen it yet.It is a clean marina. There are lots of Panga fishing boats tied up here and a fresh fish market (not as cool as Seattle’s but I did see a guy throw the fish).

We walk to the town and see the local kids at school, local market and shops and familiar look of run down or half constructed buildings the locals live and work in.

We head back to the boat.

I make some pancakes for breakfast and we sit and read.After pulling up anchor we sail back in a beautiful 10 knot breeze in the warm sun to the marina to get into the jetty within our tide window. We clean the boat and start to take the wet stuff from the forward area and OMG is it wet. ‘Salty won’t dry quick’ Wet. Gear bags, sail bags and even the cushions- soaked. Great job prepping down below Terri. Dang, it sucks to have caused such a mess. Maybe I can blame it on post sickness stupidity. We lay it out to dry in the sun on deck and I wash down the shelves, floor and gear. What a mess. But once it is all done we have it organized better. And I tell Vernon that each time we sail let’s really secure it all because we never know what the real forecast is. “It is like a James Bond adventure each time” and of course Vernon is my Double O.