I guess all I needed to do was mention rain. Want and ye shall get, or something like that. Sampaguita is anchored in Bahia Tortuga, Baja, Mexico. We arrived this morning. Well, actually, we arrived last night in the classic two-hours-late fashion. Scott and Emily of Committed Sardine were kind enough to give me some coordinates of four lobster pots near the entrance as a guide/hazard lane. I figured out how to put them in Navionics, which was new for me. However, the skies were overcast, so it was very dark when I got there. Plus, the wind was being quite variable, coming and going as it pleased. It’s one thing to pick up a pot with the rudder or engine when the conditions are calm and there is light. I can sort through that. But in the wind and dark, that’s no bueno. I opted to heave to and spend the night offshore, which was quite pleasant. Hardly any rolling and no traffic. I slept pretty well. I had a west-ish drift which was all I cared about. I could drift that direction for months, while an east-ish drift would have put me on the rocks fairly quickly.

About five in the morning an offshore breeze picked up and I quickly made up the four miles I drifted on one port tack, straight to the bay with the sunrise. I was able to beat into the bay and anchor without starting the engine which is true Sampaguita style. Small boats don’t take much wind and a patient sailor is also important too. I haven’t encountered any other of the two since I left Port Townsend in August. It’s a diesel fest, whereas Sampaguita’s Tohatsu has used about two liters of gasoline since Ensenada. I’ll top that off as per usual at the local Pemex station.

It’s overcast now and a light, but continuous rain has been falling. The caveat is the solar panels aren’t producing much charge. That’s another angle of the diesel engine. I’ll just conserve even more. My two-battery set up run independent of each other, so I can get one nice and full while I use the other. Being Lithium, they don’t demand to be fully charged the way lead acid batteries do for long life. It’s OK to run them down to 20% over a several days.

We left Isla Cedros the previous morning, sailing off anchor. Ok, it wasn’t so much sailing than drifting, but once again, if its an offshore direction, it’s fine by us. After about an hour, a light headwind filled in and will full main and the 140% drifter we tightened up the sheets, making a little more apparent wind, and off we went. I hadn’t planned on getting to Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay if you hadn’t bothered to look it up yet) until the next day, but the sailing was so good, we ALMOST made it in one day. So, it was no disappointment to spend the night at sea. In fact, I never look at it as a disappointment. I signed up for this and it would be bad for morale to think of it as a disappointment. Another reason why I sail alone and all the other boats probably motor most of the time.

I really liked the town of Cedros. Poor as mud, but the people were not unhappy and were friendly. It is difficult to describe the level of poverty and decay going on, but I enjoyed trying to communicate with the people and explore. I’ve noticed a clannishness between other boats. Sampaguita is the runt of the litter and left to fend for herself and make her own way. There were several family boats and it seemed like a cultural opportunity for the kids to go ashore, but I’m not convinced they did much. I’m not a family man so I guess I don’t get why not. The island kids were all very curious and I had some interactions, though, mi Espanol is so bad and their ability to improvise was not developed. The use of mobile phone translation apps helped in a few cases, but I decided I wasn’t a fan. Like most crutches, it does allow communication, but not really a learning of the language.

Experience: I walked down an alley, or maybe it was a street/dirt road(like most were) that it wouldn’t surprise me if no white person had ever walked down. I would love to be wrong in that. I heard drumstick like tapping. I look over into the yard (not a yard but with a present lack of what else to call it) and there was a young girl tapping on her house. “Ah, tambour” I said and she and her sisters ran in the house. I continued on for a short distance, but the street was a dead end, so I turned around and returned. They had also resumed. When I walked by, I motioned them to bring me the sticks. The house was a foot off the street, so it was not an intrusion. The girl came over. She had two sets of sticks and handed me a pair. (She explained later that they can’t be bought in the store. A local carpenter makes them. This is obvious.) I started playing and, for those who know my previous life, it became obvious that it wasn’t my first rodeo. She wasn’t very good, but was a good student, and I taught her a few things. Eventually her mother invites me in and feeds me three delicious carne tacos. ( I regret my inability to say what a treat this is. I don’t get to have fresh meat on the boat unless I buy and eat it right away. No refrigeration, remember? They do have a refrigerator.) They have no English skills and my Espanol is terrible, so communication was slow and awkward. They offered me a glass of water from the water cooler to go with it, apologizing it was all they had to offer. (It’s all I would have wanted.) As an aside, I never saw any of the three girls or their mother have any of the water. I know it was good drinking water. My point is that fresh drinking water is very valuable. (None of that Martha Stewart “Drink eight glasses of water every day, sipping as you go.”) I recognized this gesture. There is much more to say on this encounter, but I will save it for a full-length essay. This is an example of taking a detour in life and the unexpected encounters of doing so.

Boat Hack #1: Every sailmaker I got a quote from thought I should have a drifter. This is a light cloth sail for very light winds. Having never had one, I wasn’t convinced, but also never having bought sails before, I recognized the repeated suggestions. It wasn’t inexpensive. Like many things, it’s not so much the material, it’s the labor. It’s big, so it takes a bit of both. They are often made of nylon, which is very light. But in conversation with the sailmaker, I decided to go with a lightweight dacron cloth. This is because I am rough on everything, and it theoretically would be a bit more durable, though not quite as light wind-ish. When conditions are right, it is really an effective sail. 

Boat Hack #2: Starlink seems to be the new go-to for cruisers. The Emperor of the Western World has done it again. First PayPal, then Tesla, and now Space X/Starlink. My understanding is it has become semi-required equipment for boat-schooling families. People working while cruising need it to maintain, and generally, other cruisers are using it too, because being connected via the internet has become a normal way of life. I guess normal has never been Sampaguita’s way. I see the value in it for sure, in particular, for weather forecasting. Sampaguita requires a bit of extra strategy weather-ways because of her size, but it is quite costly still to get the hardware and subscriptions. The other, and more decisive factor with Sampaguita, is the energy requirements. It’s an AC product using several amps while in use, and we don’t have the energy replacement capabilities to keep up with that and our other needs. (Especially apparent with multiple overcast days.) Starlink needs that diesel engine. Sampaguita will never have a diesel engine and her supervisor has no desire to drive everywhere. So, it’s presently not in the cards for her, and well, another boat is not presently in the cards for me. So, it’s old-school for us. We’ll manage the best we can and it will work out if it works out.