Turtle Bay to Abreojos

Turtle Bay to Abreojos

We sailed a whole week without stepping foot or paw on land.  We left Turtle Bay praying to Poseidon for calm seas.  The first day we sailed to Asuncion.  This took 10 wrenching hours.  The wind was so light that we had to motor sail all day.   The motor was so loud and after 10 hours of this I had the worst headache of my life.  My sunglasses fell overboard during one of our crazy night sails so I had sun blaring into my eyes all day too, which added to the headache recipe.  Oh yeah, and the waxing moon blessed me with my first period on the boat.  Oh joy the cramps were fierce! Jason was really worried and wanted to take me into town to see a doctor.  I told him that I just needed quiet and sleep.  I got 8 hours and woke up almost brand new.  Just in time to start up again for Abreojos.  Abreojos means open your eyes.  This is because this area has tons of hazards to look out for including underwater rocks, shallow shoals, and even mating grey whales.  There is an estuary here where the whales come to mate and give birth to young.  This leg was super exciting and fun because we saw tons of whales.  We even had to slow down once and turn course because one was too close in front of us and whales can sink your boat in minutes if they hit you.  Not to mention, that I would hate to hit a whale.  How could I show my face back in San Diego at Project Wildlife after crashing into a whale with my sailboat?  The dogs seem to be enjoying the sail but had no idea why Jason and I were hooting and hollering.  Winston looked totally confused.  When we arrived to the anchorage there were giant swells, which rendered the anchorage useless for us because we would get swept right on to the shore.  Luckily there was another anchorage a couple miles away.  We tried this one in hopes for better results and we got them.  We dropped anchor, ate dinner, and slept like babies. 

The next morning we woke and headed to Bahia Santa Maria, which was the next anchorage.  This took 30 hours.   The day was beautiful with perfect wind and sunshine.  We turned the autopilot on and sat at the front of the boat for most of the day.  We were graced with dolphins, sea lions, and tons of sea birds to watch. This was the nicest day yet.  It was our first taste of what we had envisioned our trip would be like.  We had high hopes for a calm night.  But our hopes were destroyed at 6 pm when the seas turned ugly.  I had just gone down into the cabin to cook dinner and the boat started rocking like a bad carnival ride.  I had to hold a pot of water waiting for it to boil while getting tossed around.  I was making spaghetti and half the sauce spilled everywhere.  I almost got soaked with boiling water with one of the swells.  I finished as quickly as I could and carried the bowls up.  We did not get a minute of sleep that night.  We put the dogs down below for safety.  They both looked really alert and stressed.   What am I doing to my poor dogs I thought?  I wonder what is going through their heads right now?   Finally the sun came up but the seas did not ease.  They tossed us all the way to our anchorage.  When we arrived we watched a movie on the computer while monitoring the anchor to make sure it would hold.  We were both afraid to fall sleep for fear that we were so tired that we would sleep through the anchor alarm and crash into the shore.  Jason drank tequila and watermelon tang to calm his nerves.  I took a sip of his drink and it was totally disgusting.  But it did the job for him and we both slept well that night.  The anchor held and we got 12 hours of sleep.  We planned to sail four hours to a harbor and take the dogs to the beach for much needed exercise.  As we started to sail, we found perfect wind.  This led us to decide to skip the beach and start the last leg to Cabo San Lucas.  The last overnight leg we will have on our way to the promise land.  The last and the longest trip took 36 hours.  A lot can happen in that time.  And a lot did happen.