Cape Mendocino

Cape Mendocino is the western most point in California. It is also one of the most dangerous points of coastline in the state.

bashing along the coast

The roller coaster ride was getting rather annoying after about 16 hours of getting hammered. I survived on Gator aid and crackers and Michel could not keep anything down.
The rough seas stirred up sediment in the fuel tank enough to clog the intake line of the fuel filter system. We managed to jury rig a dingy pump to push the fuel back into the tanks in order to prevent stalling. ( we stalled once and that was not nice) We pumped pretty much on the hour as we did our log updates
I think we all had a 5 minute thresh hold "down below" before the queasy sea sick gremlins kicked in.
The winds were about 20-35 knots on the nose with seas at 18-20 feet swell. Add in breaking waves and it was pretty a heck of a wet ride. We soon learn why there are cockpit drains.
The seas and winds bust apart our window zippers which had to be"speedy stitched" back closed. The bow was burried often which lifted our liferaft from the deck.

Point Reyes

As we rounded the point we got hammered and had quite a ride.
Jovietal pounded through the night and no one really got very much sleep.
Michel became quite sea sick at day break and was pretty much incapacitated.

rough seas

Around midnight the wind and seas began to build especially as we neared Point Reyes

Passing under the Golden Gates

Pete and Sue have joined us to sail to Canada and celebrate with a kiss under the bridge.
The Seas were brisk with a 10-15 knots of wind on the nose of course.
Shortly after we exited the Harbour a coast Guard helicopter buzzed us from above and we were asked if our EPIRB had been triggered. (The emergency beacon transmitter)
The boat in question was a 42 foot blue boat American Registered.
It was nice to see they double checked.
Passing the infamous Potato Patch which is reputed to throw some nasty seas was pretty easy much like a choppy day on the straight of Georgia. The "patch" is the Northernmost area of San Francisco Bar alluvial silt deposits, which bar entry to the Golden Gate and require dredging. Occasionally a potato boat would capsize on the sand bar, spilling its load.

Leaving San Fransisco

We loved the new friends we made at Alameda Marina Village Yacht Harbour.
What a surprise to see some of our friends wave goodbye.
Marina Village is affordable luxury at around 20 dollars per night.

sampling

The boys enjoy Sampling a variety of California wines with "Penny" and the Crew from
Festina Lente.

San Fransisco

The trip to San Fransisco proved to be quite easy with a clear calm day quite out of the norm.
San Fransisco is a windy city with a lot of sailboats.
The crew rest for a few days then fly back to Canada.

Catilina Island

I am told that the crew loved this island and wished they could visit longer.

On to San Diego

Rounding into San Diego proved to be interesting as Jovietal found herself in company with aircraft carriers, nucular subs and war ships. Jovietal was told to keep clear within a mile of the nucular sub.
oops..we were just tying to take a picture.

Cabo to Turtle Bay

As soon as they left Cabo the weather got cooler and the weather increased somewhat to give the crew an introduction as to what was to come.
At Turtle bay a fuel "jockey" is easy to find to provide fuel to get Jovietal to San Diego

more from Cabo

Cabo San Luca

Expensive, tourtisy and noisy is all Michel had to report about Cabo
he was happy to leave.

On the way to Cabo

Apparently the fishing was great and Don made some amazing dishes with the 60 lbs of tuna that they managed to haul in.

Don Settles in

Don somehow wound up with the roll as the Galley Master. I am told his meals were fantastic.

Puerto Vallarta

At Puerto Vallarta we change crew- Giles has to return to Quebec and Don Ewing from Victoria BC is anxious to come aboard. The SWINE or H1N2 flu virus has hit Mexico and travel advisory warnings are amped up enough to cancel many charter flights
to Mexico

Celebration

The Crew from Jovietal celebrate with the crew from Imagine
a toast to a completed circumnavigation.

On to Zihautanejo

From what Michel tells me the sail to Z town
was
beautiful
However
Z-town is rather
"touristy"

on the way to Haultulco

After 3 days of motor/sailing Jovietal lands in Haultulco.
Michel notes that the area is much more "cruiser friendly" meaning that there is access supplies.
Huatulco is th resort area Bahías de Huatulco or the bays of Huatulco. The four main parts of Huatulco are Tangolunda, the area where the more upscale resorts are located, Santa Cruz, a small town with more hotels, the marina and Santa Cruz beach, La Crucecita, another small town just inland from the beach area having a more genuine Mexican ambiance. The area is known for its beautiful isolated bays separated by rocky hills set against the backdrop of the Sierra Madre del Sur. Huatulco is 450 or 3 days from Barillas marina - a welcome rest.

working backwards T-peckers?

The best way to catch up to this blog is to sum up the trip in a few pictures. I was not there for this leg of the journey and getting "stories" from Michel is next to impossible. He seems to have a hard time remembering where he stopped and he did not take many pictures. He was pushing hard to get Jovietal back home.
I was on Thetis with the girls emailing weather information via the SSB.
We were all anxious about getting the right weather window as there are plenty of horrific stories of the T-Pecker winds aka the Tehuantepec.
On the Pacific Coast of Mexico, at the southern end of Mexico, there is a large body of water called the Gulf of Tehuantepec (teh-WAHN-teh-pec). North of the Gulf of Tehuantepec there is a skinny strip of land, an isthmus, which separates the Gulf of Tehuantepec from the Gulf of Mexico on the other coast. This piece of geography has a weather system all its own.

Winds start in the Gulf of Mexico, hit Mexico at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, scream across land and are funneled through two mountain ranges. The winds are amplified up to 3 times and then are shot out the back side, and hit the Pacific in the Gulf of Tehuantepec with gale force and up to hurricane force winds.
It's almost embarrassing to post that crossing the Gulf was rather boring.

Mexico

After 30 hours the crew arrive in Mexico in the town of Huatulco Mexico

Usulutan El Salvador

A great place to provision the local markets provide a labyrinth of assorted wares
Fred has several women shouting in halting English "I love you"

Note to self -

Gilles is rescuing the 3000$ SSB radio we had so carefully stored away at The Dardano's
Michel had wrapped it in a thick towel to protect it.
Unfortunately the towel was used as a beach towel and full of salt with absorbed water from the humid air- the corrosion was excessive we were days away from loosing our radio.
We took out all electronics to avoid the disaster we had last year when everything electronic was destroyed by a lighting strike.
Canada is looking like a better idea every day.

Note To Self: when storing electronics use platic wrap and not beach towels in the tropics.

New Crew

Gilles Bouffard is a friend of Michel's from Quebec. Together they have shared several canoeing adventures albeit a few decades ago.
Gilles aka Mr. "fixit." or inspector gadget was a gift.
We were lucky to have him join us as his knowledge in electronics and his uncanny zest to fix things got us going...

Our new crew

Frederick LaChance is Michel's nephew from Quebec.
He has been working as Carpenter with us on Thetis since we returned home from our last sailing adventure. We are happy to have him aboard as he is a computer whiz and can lift about double of what we can.
He will sail with Michel to San Fransisco.

getting ready to go May 09

It took a lot of "fixing" to get ready mold, corrosion and a delaminated dighy put us to work despite the humidity