Conference unifix::sailing

2202.0. "San Francisco to Mexico and back" by SX4GTO::WANNOOR () Thu Apr 06 1995 18:20

    Here's the trip report of our voyage from November & December 1995, written
    by my S.O.
    
    Hope you enjoy it!
    
    Ashikin
    
SAN FRANCISCO TO MEXICO AND BACK - THE 
CONTINUING VOYAGES OF THE SAILING KETCH SEA 
STAR

2345 11/6/94 DEPARTING FROM BALLENA ISLE MARINA, 
ALAMEDA

We finally departed the marina after a terrible weekend of 
rainstorms and gales, both inside and outside the Bay. We 
were about 15 hours late, having scheduled our departure 
for the crack of dawn and headed into a flood tide that made 
our exit from the Golden Gate even more arduous. The 
weekend had been so wet that we were late in provisioning 
and making the last-minute repairs and installations for the 
cruise, and we were now tired, cold and wet, and just a little 
depressed. However, while we were waiting for weather and 
tide to change, we were able to catch up on work necessary 
to prepare for an offshore voyage, work that had been 
slowed down due to the weather. Before dark, we managed 
to rig the Tinker inflatable as our lifeboat, lashed it down on 
deck, and then went below for dinner...

Christine, one of our new shipmates, made an excellent 
spaghetti dinner with garlic bread  for all of us, while we 
were stuck in the mud at the marina waiting anxiously for the 
tide to turn!

One of the serious difficulties in cruising to a tight schedule 
is that even minor setbacks can become arduous; one day 
late in setting off can result in a chain reaction of other 
problems down the road, such as missed rendezvous with 
crew and having to install and test equipment underway, like 
last year when Ray had to go up the mizzen mast in the 
bosun's chair, up and down all day, to fit the wind generator, 
after we had fried all our batteries and therefore could not 
start the engines, so we had no running lights, refrigeration, 
radio and electric bilge pumps with bilge water rising and 
therefore having to pump by hand, which meant there was 
little time so mess around installing wind generators...see 
what I mean by chain reactions? Chuck Hawley calls it the 
"Law of Cascading Failures".

We had on board Nelson Lee and David Voris of 
Sacramento, Christine Rhodes (a San Francisco firefighter) 
and Dave Barto with Marietta Baylon, some of whom joined 
the Sea Star last night to prepare for an early departure, and 
others who joined us a few hours ago. They helped share 
the expenses of our cruise, which made this entire voyage 
possible.

Now the weather had moderated, we motored under the 
Golden Gate Bridge and took a left turn round Mile Rock and 
out into the Pacific again to commence what would be a 
3,610 nautical mile voyage over a period of 7 weeks!

0800 11/7/94 N3721' W12243'

US Coast Guard 2108 jet aircraft buzzed us twice and Ray 
called them on VHF channel 16, "This is sailing ketch Sea 
Star, WBR2425: USCG aircraft, are you trying to attract our 
attention, over?". They wanted to know our size, registration 
and last port, destination etc. then flew off after asking if we 
had ever been boarded by the US Coast Guard. We 
continued sailing into what turned into a moderate gale by 
1600 hours, gusting 30 knots apparent from the NW, in clear 
conditions. We started on the starboard tack under 
headsails, then jibed to the port tack.

The new Heart Interface battery monitoring system was 
working well and we were able to determine exactly how 
many amp.hours were discharged from each of the two 220 
AH house banks. The recent seacock servicing and packing 
in the shaft log has had the desired effect of making the bilge 
completely dry where normally it needed pumping at least 
twice daily while underway.

By now, we had settled down to a rhythm, everyone stood a 
watch and rang ship's time on the standard Navy Bell Code, 
8 bells every four hours for a change of watch. For most the 
crew, this was the first overnight watch they had stood and 
most were a little apprehensive at first. The sea state was 
lumpy, up to 8' waves, and almost everyone was sick 
including the Captain who was quite astonished; this was 
his first time sick on board Sea Star after over 11,000 nm, 
and we'd been through some pretty nasty weather at times! 
Probably due, however, more to drinking coffee and juice on 
an empty and complaining stomach before breakfast, and he 
felt no seasickness symptoms before or after....(that's my 
excuse and I'm sticking to it - Ray).

It was spectacular, though. Ray was in the cockpit on the 
windward side and suddenly his stomach gave a lurch. 
While scrambling to the leeward cushion, he just missed 
spraying Nelson directly in the face with a full load of pure 
brown liquid vomit!

The sea was a murky green/gray, showing whitecaps all 
around. The sky was gray/blue but clear. We were well 
bundled up in sweaters, coats, long johns, hats etc. and kept 
as warm as we could in the chill air above deck. Below, 
everyone appeared to be comfortable with the exception of 
poor Marietta in the aft cabin, who continued to exhibit a 
prolonged seasickness.

0400 11/8/94 N3612' W12219' WEST OF POINT SUR, 
CALIFORNIA

Heading 110, the log -signed by Dave Barto- reads: "Clear, 
cold, rocky seas. Only visible land was Pt. Sur throughout 
the watch. Most stars I've ever seen. Magnificent skies."

1600 11/8/94 N3516' W12130'

Dave Voris signed the log at the end of his watch "Lighter 
air, all sails, sunshine warmer. Best sailing yet." We had 10 
knots of NW wind and were steering 170 at 5 knots. Ray 
tightened up the new Powerline 150 amp alternator's belt 
and we were charging well. Later in the evening, the wind 
died down, we had a Thai curry for dinner and settled down 
to very calm seas and motorsailed past the beautifully-lit oil 
rigs off Pt. Arguello and Pt. Conception. We were glad of the 
radar to show us the rigs, shipping traffic, islands and 
mainland all around us.

We noticed that the port main lazy jack halyard had broken 
and took it down. Rigging the bosun's chair, it was an easy 
job to practice marlinespike seamanship and eye splice a 
hook for the lazy jack, then re-reeve the halyard through a 
turning block at the bottom of the mainmast port upper 
spreader. First Ray was hoisted up on the mainsail halyard 
with a stays'l halyard safety line, then Nelson and Christine 
wanted to ascend the heights to see the scenery. Dave Barto 
took some excellent video of the occasion and indeed the 
whole first leg of the voyage and forwarded a copy to Ray 
(thanks, Dave)!

Throughout the night, the wind continued to die and by 
morning we were in warm, shirt sleeve & shorts weather in 
the Santa Barbara Channel with a good view of the outlying 
islands.

1200 11/9/94 N3410' W11958' SANTA BARBARA 
CHANNEL N OF SANTA CRUZ ISLAND

The glass read 29.9", the wind SSW at 4 knots and we were 
steering 90 in the right side of the Santa Barbara Ship 
Separation Channel towards San Diego; we could see the 
Los Angeles coastline off the port bow. Marietta came on 
deck in the morning and proclaimed she was feeling much 
better, to Dave's relief! Our Autohelm ST6000 hydraulic 
autopilot has steered for most of the time so far.

0400 11/10/94 N3344' W11827' SW OF PT FERMIN (LOS 
ANGELES HARBOUR)

Tried to pass Point Fermin close-hauled on the starboard 
tack but failed due to the wind strength increasing to 20 
knots and becoming variable, so we tacked and bore away 
again towards the ship channel; unfortunately, we found 
ourselves in squalls and rain for this watch and with the 
winds from around SW we were not able to make much 
progress, tacking around the channel with ships on our 
radar coming from all directions, some quite close. A few 
thousand tons of steel can be intimidating, and they could 
not maneouver as well as us, although it did not feel like it at 
the time with the wind gusting an extra ten knots or more.

We found ourselves, on multiple occasions, on collision 
courses with ships observed on radar but could not see 
them through the rain: we were forced to change tack to 
avoid them despite the right of way a sailing vessel has over 
a power vessel. Frankly, the big bright spots on the radar 
screen can be very intimidating and it's difficult to determine 
course and speed - better to be safe than sorry. We were all 
soaking wet and thankful that this was not further north and 
colder, but exhilerated after an exciting night at sea. We 
came within 3 miles of Pt. Vicente.

The wind dropped after dawn and we found ourselves 
motorsailing in light NE air at 5 knots, grateful to have a calm 
breakfast after such a hard and wet night.

The rest of the day was uneventful as Ray replaced the 
primary fuel filter on the engine (a regular exercise) and we 
motored directly towards San Diego on autopilot with the 
glass steady at 29.8", relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine.

0130 11/11/94 N3352' W11713' ANCHORED OFF 
SHELTER ISLAND, SAN DIEGO

After a nervous time motoring into San Diego Bay, trying to 
follow badly lit and unfamiliar buoys into the harbour 
amongst the brightly lit city skyscape, we dropped the hook 
in 50' of water near dozens of other cruising boats, after 450 
nautical miles from Alameda. No sooner had we anchored, 
when two San Diego Harbour Police boats zoomed up to us 
in an  aggressive manner, and we recalled the US Coast 
Guard pilot's radio question "Have you been boarded by the 
USCG this year?" This is it, we thought, we're going to get 
boarded and spend the night opening every locker and 
hatch for the Coast Guard...

Then the policeman shouted, "Have you heard any gunshots 
here in the last 15 minutes? We're trying to follow up on a 
report". Ray replied, "we've only been here for about 5 
minutes-try another boat!"

It was much later that we found out the Harbour Police here 
are known as the local Gestapo, and their arrogant 
behaviour was apparently typical, although in the case of 
firearms discharge, perhaps understandable.

11/11/94 MORNING- MOVING TO CABRILLO ISLE MARINA, 
SAN DIEGO

Chris, Ray and David got into the dinghy while out at anchor 
to visit Cabrillo Isle Marina and scope out the slip assigned 
to the Sea Star. We got a bum steer and motored for 20 
minutes to the wrong end of the Island and had to motor all 
the way back, running out of petrol and forced to row for a 
while. We checked in, got instructions and returned to the 
Sea Star, dropped Nelson, Dave and Marietta off at Shelter 
Island then Christine, Ray and David weighed anchor to pull 
into our slip, which we did in Captain Ron style, driving 
straight at the dock and twisted broadside to the walkway 
under propeller torque as the bowsprit hung over the dock!

As we tied up on time for our schedule, we found two 
Canadians standing there (Richard Slamon and Steve 
Freeman). Steve told us "We've been standing here thinking 
that we must be crazy, eh, having send our money in 
advance to join a boat from San Francisco and expecting it 
actually to be here in San Diego, and for the last couple of 
hours our worst nightmare was true! Then we saw you cruise 
in..." Rick said "If you didn't turn up, we were going to hitch-
hike to Cabo, eh, and tell our wives what a wonderful time 
we had. We've got the stories all lined up!"

At this point, we said good-bye to another shipmate: David 
Voris, but gained more: Chris Paulsen and Glen Niesen from 
Sacramento.

Steve, Rick and Ray went shopping by taxi and were picked 
up by Paul the Persian Cabbie, who told us that the Arabic 
word for captain is 'Nol Haddol'. Ray was chuffed to discover 
that the literal translation is "Next to God". Most of the 
shopping was for beer and liquor of various descriptions, 
especially as Glen declared a Marguerita mixing contest, 
and the Canadians, true to national form, refused to accept 
that an American could possibly make better drinks than a 
Canadian, so bought various Tequila and ingredients so that 
battle could commence.

The Canadians won.

In the meantime, Christine had decided to provision for 
groceries and set off in another taxi.

In the evening, there was a party aboard, with drinks flowing, 
then Cory Robinson from San Diego joined us making 
seven shipmates the next leg down to Cabo San Lucas. 
Cory brings Tracy, his girlfriend and two other well-wishers, 
and the party becomes a roaring hubbub (another Arabic 
word, perhaps?) until the early hours of the morning.

Ray spent a lot of time taxiing around San Diego trying to 
find a Mexican fishing license to no avail. The first place he 
went to, where the license was reserved, said that they had 
sold it. They referred him to another store about 15 miles 
away, and phoned ahead to reserve a license. When he got 
there, they had sold that one (the last one in San Diego!!) to 
someone else a few minutes before. He was, to say the 
least, grossly pissed off past the eyeballs! Then it turned out 
to be next to impossible to find charts for Mexico, so we had 
to make do with two large-scale charts reaching as far as 
Cabo San Lucas. Some might say that it was stupid to leave 
San Francisco without Mexican charts, but the word was out 
that the best charts were available in San Diego, a rumour 
that proved to be false...

SATURDAY 11/12/94 DEPARTING SAN DIEGO

The log says:   "1500-Left Cabrillo Isle Marina"
                           "1600-Yahoo!!"

The latter means that we had finished refuelling and were 
underway, as we slid past the US Navy shipyards under 
power and into the open Pacific. We crossed the Mexican 
border at 1740 and thus began the international phase of 
our voyage, we were playing Mexican music, singing "The 
Mexicans dance on their hats" and drinking Margueritas 
copiously.

It was light air and we motored until early morning when the 
wind rose with the barometer and allowed a beautiful beam 
reach to the south east.

SUNDAY 11/13/94 1200 N3107' W11723'

The log says "Course 120, speed 4 knots, partly cloudy, 
wind on the port quarter at 12 knots, glass 29.99, batteries 
well charged, bilge dry".

MONDAY 11/14/94 1600 N3045' W11713'

Ray caught our first tuna, a good size fish that made two big 
steaks each for all the crew. Ray wrote in the log "From 
Monday morning, we have been making great tracks in a 
deep broad reach, only needing to run the engine to charge 
up the batteries which we have deep cycled twice. I fixed a 
leak in the salt-water washdown plumbing and before 
leaving San Diego replaced the fuel transfer pump-I must 
rebuild the old one ready to put it back if necessary."

TUESDAY 11/15/94 1600 N2735' W11520'

Had fresh Mahi-Mahi for lunch on a clear day, wind astern at 
16 knots heading 120 at 6 knots and the weather warming 
up nicely. We were cruising quickly but uneventfully, 
catching one fish per day on our rod gear.

WEDNESDAY 11/16/94 1800 SOMEWHERE WEST OF 
BAHA, MEXICO

Enjoyed a wonderful Mahi-Mahi dinner with carrots and 
baked potatoes cooked by galleymeister Glen.

THURSDAY 11/17/94 1227 N2604' W11551'

The above fix was by Rick, learning how to use the GPS 
(Grey Plastic Sextant), confirming that the other GPS 
(Garmin) was accurate within about 15 nautical miles....

The Sea Star was rolling quite heavily due to the swell and 
the fact that we were in a deep broad reach under jib alone 
and still charging along at over 5 knots with 25-30 knots of 
wind over our shoulders and 6-8' seas, which would rise to 
10-15' by morning. This was a moderate gale from the NW, 
the glass steady at 29.9". We hadn't taken a drop of water 
into the bilges, and on Wednesday we logged an excellent 
128 mile day.

FRIDAY 11/18/94 0800 SOMEWHERE NW OF CABO SAN 
LUCAS, B.C.S., MEXICO

We logged 130 nm for the day and were now becalmed, so 
were motoring directly towards Cabo.

1200 We swam on a calm sea and drifted away from Steve: 
mounted a rescue operation.

1600 Held a memorial service for Glen's Tilley hat that was 
blown overboard in the gale yesterday.

2300 Arrived in Cabo. Ray wrote in the log: "This has been 
the most enjoyable offshore passage I have ever sailed. My 
shipmates were superb, food was very civilized, the sailing, 
at times, was wonderful; we saw pilot whales, dolphins, sea 
birds, swam in the open Pacific and had a safe and 
memorable voyage!!"

CABO SAN LUCAS, B.C.S., MEXICO N2254' W10954'

In Cabo, some have come, others have gone. Glen Niesen 
was ashore in Cabo for one minute and then he was headed 
for the airport! Chris Paulsen's girlfriend arrived and they 
went off to a hotel and Christine Rhodes flew back to San 
Francisco to fight fires. The two Canadians, Steve and Rick, 
met their wives and went to their condo. Before we set off 
again, they brought along a nice present of a case of 
Pacifico beer for the next passage. 

The next couple of days saw Ray running around 
Immigration, Port Captain and Customs on a crazy series of 
obfuscation and redundant paperwork. He was to be seen 
on his folding bicycle, from one end of the town and back 
again, muttering, sweating and cursing Mexican authority. It 
was to be Customs Brokers from then on, and damn the 
expense! Then he found that it was impossible to find charts 
in Mexico; we had attempted to buy good Mexico coastline 
charts in San Francisco and San Diego, to no avail, and he 
eventually found another cruiser with a chart book and 
photocopied the pages for the next section of the cruise...

Cabo San Lucas has been convered from a sleepy desert 
town with a handful of bars and night clubs in the mid 
seventies, to a big town full of large hotels, a massive and 
expensive marina, restaurants and hundreds of sportfishing 
boats. A number of cruise liners stop here, and there is night 
life to make everyone happy.

First Ashikin arrived from Alameda, then Marc Hamilton from 
Rochester, New York, then Bill Earlywine arrived from La 
Paz to join the ship, and off we went!

TUESDAY 11/22/94 1430 DEPARTING CABO SAN LUCAS 
FOR POINTS SOUTH

The original plan was to head for Mazatlan first, but the 
winds pushed us further South, so we set course for Isla 
Isabela instead.

WEDNESDAY 11/23/94 0800 N2214' W10828'

Heading 120 at 5.5 knots, having run 88 miles since 
yesterday afternoon, under a clear morning sky with wind 
moving from NNW to NE. We ran through a moderate gale 
last night and the winds are still 20 knots with a sloppy sea 
due to the confluence of weather from the Sea of Cortez and 
the open Pacific.

WEDNESDAY 11/23/94 2200 

Excerpt from the log: "Steering 080 at 6 knots, Ray at the 
helm. Wind NNW at 6 knots, glass 29.8 ins. Strange to have 
been ghosting along at only 2-3 knots for the past couple of 
hours under jib, stays'l & mizzen, after charging along with 
short canvas since leaving Cabo San Lucas. Seas have 
now flattened out and the motion is far more comfortable. 
Now motorsailing and hope to reach Isla Isabela before 
noon."

THURSDAY 11/24/94 1200 N2151' W10553'

Excerpt from the log: "Anchored in the lee of Isla Isabela, off 
Bahia Tiburonos, there are people ashore, probably fishing 
camps. Anchored with rope and chain, observed some 
rumbling of the chain but not too bad. Went ashore and met 
biologists studying Frigate Bird mating behaviour. Saw the 
Magnificent Frigate Bird but no Boobies. Saw 4 hump-back 
whales swimming by and enjoyed the hospitality of Captain 
Guillermo Millan on fishing vessel ESCADA IV, saw his 
bridge and canteen, he came to Sea Star and we all drank 
until late." 

In case you want to correspond, Guillermo's (Bill) address is:

     Priv. Lic. Arnaldo Millan #25
     Plaza Sta. Virginia
     Mazatlan Sin., Mexico

The above GPS co-ordinates are the best position available 
for the anchorage and is far more accurate than any other 
existing charts.

SATURDAY 11/26/94 ISLA ISABELA TO CHACALA, 
NAJARIT N2126' W10529'

0630 Weighed anchor and set sail for the 50nm run to 
Chacala, a day cruise.

0930 In these incredibly fertile waters, we caught three 
medium size bonito on the red/white feather lure that was 
trolling behind,  while we were motorsailing NW on a flat, 
crystal-clear blue sea. All day we motored through giant 
patches of fish boiling on the surface; the fertility of the 
ocean is greater than we've ever seen.

1630 Anchored in the large lagoon off Chacala. We had 
some difficulty finding the entrance to this bay because 
Charlie's Charts had some misleading sketches, and the 
position on the chart was at least 2 miles off, but when we 
arrived were all very happy to anchor off the beach, where 
waves were breaking all day. 

Ray and Ashikin tried to row the blue Tinker Funsail on to the 
beach, but were caught by a 12' surf which flipped the 
dinghy, depositing them both into the water: no damage 
except bruised pride and seamanship.

Sunday 0800 To our amazement, Captain Guillermo Millan 
on fishing vessel ESCADA IV appeared in the harbour! Just 
before lunch, he appeared with most of his crew in their big 
Panga (equipped with a huge 240hp outboard) and invited 
us to a fabulous, slap-up meal on shore at the Palapa 
restaurant, that looked like it would not be out of place on 
beach on Bali, with the poles supporting a grass roof. We ate 
barbequed Parago (Red Snapper) with two kinds of salsa 
and corn tortillas, and drank enormous quantities of Pacifico 
with pieces of lime. 

Captain Guillermo would not hear of us paying for our share, 
and everyone was toasted all round. Bill, fortunately, had his 
pocket electronic Spanish to English dictionary with him, 
and we spent the afternoon trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to 
learn each other's languages. Your chronicler cannot 
remember anything that happened the rest of that idyllic day.

MONDAY 11/28/94 CHACALA TO NUEVO VALLARTA 
N2041' W10518'

0910 Armed with vital tide information from 'Romance', a 
large black ketch, we weighed anchor and set course to 
round the Punta de Mita to catch the necessary high tide for 
an entrance to Puerto Nuevo before dark.

1730 After 23 miles of motorsailing in light airs, we motored 
over the sand bars that shoal in the Nuevo Vallarta Harbour 
entrance, grounding gently then powering through, just in 
time before darkness descended and the tide went out too 
far! Tied up at the concrete pier and went to a restaurant for 
dinner. We all drank two-for-one Margueritas and nobody 
could remember going back to the boat the next morning...

Tuesday. Marc Hamilton connected our ship's power to the 
outlets on the dock which were all wired with plugs instead 
of sockets! He had to dismantle one of our plugs to connect 
the bare wires to the live connections, and managed to do it 
without any fatalities but with a minor short that partly melted 
one of our connectors. Bill Earlywine left us at this point, to 
take a hotel room in Puerto Vallarta.

Wednesday. We all took the bus to Puerto Vallarta, did some 
shopping and wandering around this fascinating town, 
which is a boldly demarcated mixture of new and old: the 
new town with bars, hotels and other attractions, the old 
town looking typically seedy and run-down, a la 'Night of the 
Iguana'. 

At night, two tiny white kittens appeared on the dock and sat 
mewing at the Sea Star pitifully. Knowing that the Mexicans 
have little regard for their animals, we deduced that the 
kittens were abandoned. We left them some food and milk 
on saucers n the dock. In the morning, Ray rose into the 
cockpit to find both kittens snuggled up together by the 
hatch! We were mortified to have to leave them on the dock 
when we cruised out, hoping that there was a mother cat 
around to look after them.

THURSDAY 12/1/94 NUEVO VALLARTA TO PUERTO 
VALLARTA N2040' W10515'

0730. Unmoored just in time to catch the high tide over the 
harbour entrance sand bar, then motored 8 miles to Puerto 
Vallarta, a huge commercial cruise liner port which has a 
large modern dock. We took a slip with all the amenities 
including water and power. With both Tinker dinghies in the 
water, we had lots of fun sailing or rowing around the 
harbour, visiting the local restaurants and attractions, and 
generally lazing around.

On Sunday, Marc Hamilton left the crew's complement, and 
Ken Smith joined us a few minutes later, having just flown in 
from England via Houston, Texas! Ken managed to cruise 
Puerto Vallarta for the one night with Cory before setting off 
for points north west...
Monday 12/5/94 Puerto Vallarta to Cabo San Lucas

Monday 12/5/94 1400 Ashikin had to fly back to Alameda to 
go to work, leaving just the three of us: Cory, Ken and Ray. 
We refueled 600 litres of diesel (157 gallons US) at Marina 
Seca, and Ashikin left to find a taxi to the airport. By 1600 we 
had the Punta de Mita bearing 300 magnetic on our port 
bow, sailing at 3 knots in 7 knots of light air from SW.

Monday night. We circled Islas Tres Mariettas, trying to find 
an anchorage in the pitch black, to no avail. Even the radar 
would not give us a clear idea of the shape of the islands, 
and the GPS was useless because the charts were not 
accurate; eventually, we gave up on trying to find a place to 
drop anchor, and bore away for as direct a course to Cabo 
San Lucas as we could. Due to the strong NW breeze, we 
found that we had to tack frequently into the wind and did not 
arrive in Cabo until 2200 Thurs 8th December, after 442nm 
from Puerto Vallarta.

Excerpt from log 12/8 0400 "Heading 30 True at 5 knots, 
Ray at the helm. Sky clear, wind NW 19 knots. Glass 
29.71ins, batteries fully charged, bilge dry after 5 mins 
pumping. High winds, beating into 21-25 knot apparent 
winds. Main mast is creaking loudly in the deck hole, 
somewhat disconcerting. Added engine oil, bilge very high - 
I believe it is diesel fuel leaking from a split tank. Needs 
investigation in the morning and close monitoring".

SUNDAY 12/11/94 CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO TO SAN 
DIEGO, CA

Cory Robinson had to leave to fly back home to San Diego 
and could not afford the time to sail back there with us, 
leaving just Ray and Ken to get Sea Star north 730 miles 
(the way the crow flies), NW in the face of a prevailing NW 
wind. We unmoored 1445 after nearly snagging another 
crewmember who could not make it at the last moment, so 
set sail for San Diego with a little apprehension. After all, we 
were to spend the next indeterminate number of days watch 
and watch for four hours at a time; not as arduous as Joshua 
Slocum's voyages, perhaps, but a lot of work nevertheless! 
We had an easy start, sailing well on a beautiful course up 
the Baja coast, until...

0000 12/13/94 Log extract "Course 270, 2.5 knots. 138 
miles out of Cabo San Lucas, Ray at the helm. Partly cloudy, 
wind N at 20 - 25 knots, glass 29.85ins. Batteries well 
charged. Beating W into strong winds, with 6-8' swells to 
contend with. We are down to a double-reefed mainsail and 
motorsailing to gain some small amount of Northing, if 
any...the main mast is creaking badly in its socket and needs 
adjustment".

1600 12/13/95 Tuesday Log extract "Course 280, 6 knots. 
206 miles out of Cabo San Lucas, Ray at the helm. Partly 
cloudy, wind NNW at 18 knots, bilge dry. Beating hard with 
20 - 24 knots wind. We are making very little Northing, but 
tacked to port tack to head in close to land to try to take 
advantage of what we assume are Westerly offshore 
breezes in the mornings. At 1400 a US Coast Guard plane 
buzzed us asking if we had seen a lost 23' sloop Bataan, 
heading for the Polynesian Islands!"

0720 12/14/94 WEDNESDAY. ANCHORED IN BAHIA 
SANTA MARIA FOR THE DAY N2446' W11216'.

We had only sailed 281 miles since Sunday, tired and 
discouraged. We decided to put in for a rest, and stayed for 
ten hours in this beautiful wild bay, to the north of the 
entrance to Bahia Magdelena (usually known as 'Mag Bay'). 
We were hoping that the wind would drop allowing us to 
make more Northing, so we weighed anchor at 1710, 
motorsailed out on jib and mizzen, but by 0400 the next 
morning we had only made 46 miles and had lost 2'N! We 
hove-to at eight bells for breakfast with the wind shifting to 
the North, and by 1600 and a total of 378nm from Cabo, we 
looked at the fuel situation and decided to put back into 
Bahia Magdelena (Mag Bay) for more diesel.

This was a very difficult decision; however, if we kept on as 
we were it may not have been possible to make Turtle Bay, 
the next refuelling point north on the peninsula, without a 
few hundred miles tacking offshore, a risk we did not want to 
take. So with heavy hearts, we struck the mainsail and 
turned around to make the narrow entrance to the bay by 
morning.

It was to be a beautiful sail back under a full moon, losing 
more than twenty miles South, then back North up to Puerto 
San Carlos, the only fuel dock between Cabo San Lucas 
and Turtle Bay.
1000 12/16/94 Friday. Taking on fuel at Puerto San Carlos. 
N2447' W11208'. 

We tied up at the concrete dock in front of a fishing boat and 
while Ken looked after Sea Star, Ray trekked over a mile to 
the petrol station. No-one there could speak English, so in 
broken Spanish he managed to find a man who would bring 
his truck, go home for empty drums, then filled the drums at 
the diesel pump and drove back to the dock where Sea Star 
was waiting. This whole operation took about two hours, and 
when we got to the boat, the dockmaster found a hose, put it 
to his mouth and sucked the diesel until he had a syphon 
going, literally drenching himself in fuel before he got the 
end of the hose into the fill nozzle! After three 55 gallon 
drums and paying a small tip to the dockmaster, we 
immediately fired up the engine and started out for the 
Pacific again.

It's hard to describe the scenery in this incredible enclosed 
bay with dramatic hills all round and sandy beaches inside, 
and we motored out, encouraged by the almost flat calm, 
with a four knot tide behind us to speed us on our way. This 
was to be the beginning of calm weather in which we 
motorsailed under autopilot, close-hauled to the wind and 
making between 4.5 and 5.5 knots, until we made it to Turtle 
Bay.

Our CNG situation was not looking good, down to only 
700lbs pressure in the last tank, so that we had to be very 
careful about our cooking; while motoring however, we were 
making plenty of electricity for the batteries so we were able 
to use the microwave for many food preparations to 
conserve gas. with spare propane bottle on board for the 
camping stove, however, there was never any concern 
about being able to cook.

One concern was the continued leak of diesel fuel into the 
bilge; we were not able to find any burst pipes, so the 
consensus is a split seam in one of the tanks, possibly the aft 
tank. We calculated that since Puerto San Carlos, we had 
lost 48 gallons of diesel fuel, and it's a damn good thing we 
pulled in to replenish supplies!

Excerpt from log: 1800 12/18/95 Sunday "Tacked and close-
hauled on the starboard tack while motorsailing to avoid 
Bahia de San Cristobal, making Westerly in WNW winds, 
which have increased to 15 knots. Canvas is a double-
reefed mains'l and mizzens'l. Having had pancakes for 
breakfast and an excellent Boboli pizza for lunch with a 
bottle of Bull's Blood, we are eagerly anticipating a turkey, 
tomato and vegetable soup for dinner having seen a 
spectacular moonrise over Isla Asuncion."

0800 12/19/94 MONDAY. ANCHORED IN TURTLE BAY.

We sailed on and off our anchor, demonstrating much pride 
in our skills. Arriving in a beautiful sunny morning, we 
arranged with the fuel dock to take on more diesel and 
water, and motored past the pier, dropped a bow anchor and 
motored back to leave the stern almost touching the fuel 
pier. We got so close that our old (useless) stern light was 
knocked off in the swell!

After taking on 116 gallons of fuel, enough to easily reach 
San Diego in most circumstances, we moved off again to 
anchor in the bay and dinghied to shore for breakfast. This 
town is a shanty town, with shacks displaying corrugated 
iron roofs, no paving in the roads but sand and rocks and 
little obvious in the way of utilities but electricity. It was a 
strange feeling to appear the 'affluent westerners' in such a 
poor location.

After only five hours, enough time to shop for fresh food and 
eat breakfast, we deemed it time to move on. There was little 
more to see here, so we weighed anchor under sail at 1300 
and motorsailed into head seas and winds to parallel south 
of Punta Eugenia until we could turn North and try to sail in 
the lee of Isla Cedros, a 25-mile long island, which gave us 
25-30 miles of light air as we motored through massive 
clumps of Sargasso seaweed.

From here, and all the way along the coastline up to San 
Diego, we found ourselves in an extraordinarily flat calm 
sea. The Sea Star barely seemed to roll or pitch, and at 
times if it were not for the sound of the engine, we might 
have been on the blocks in a boatyard!

Excerpt from log 2000 12/21/94 N3142' W11652' "Course 
330, speed 5.5 knots, 1074nm out of Cabo San Lucas, Ray 
at the helm. Sky clearing, wind N 4 knots, glass 29.92, 
batteries full and bilge dry. The moon is late in rising and 
there is a surrealistic feel to gliding along on flat water on the 
Pacific in our own lit bubble of civilization.

0900 12/22/94 THURSDAY. LANDED AT THE SHELTER 
ISLAND POLICE DOCK, SAN DIEGO. N3243' W11714'

After  11 days and 1139 nautical miles from Cabo, Ken and I 
had made it, tired but jubilant that we had been able to 
accomplish so much with so little trouble. After this entire 
voyage from San Francisco, we were now only three days 
late, a remarkable piece of timing. We discovered that in the 
last couple of days the Mexican Peso had been devalued, 
from N$3 to N$4 per US$, which meant that we could have 
saved over $100US in diesel fuel if we were a few more 
days late! The Peso was to continue to drop for days 
afterwards.

We had to motor across the bay to go to US Customs to 
arrange our new 1-year 'License to Cruise US Waters', and 
docked at the restaurant next to the Star of India, a full-
rigged ship, had a meal at the restaurant (the first meal off 
Sea Star since Turtle Bay, Mexico) and looked over the ship.

After a day and back at the Police Dock, Ashikin and 
Wellington the cat joined us here to celebrate Christmas, 
and she informed us that because of the delay, we had lost 
two planned crew members, but she had brilliantly been 
able to find two more to join us, which worked out very well 
indeed.

Ray changed oil, transmission fluid, fuel and oil filters and 
did other maintenance, while Ashikin and Ken went 
shopping for provisions. Wellie got himself into trouble on 
the dock, and at one stage got lost. Ray found him hiding in 
the engine room of a steel harbour police boat and later in 
an old derelict fishing boat - we somehow got the feeling he 
knew we were about to go sailing again soon!

SAN DIEGO BACK HOME TO SAN FRANCISCO BAY

Although Ken was originally destined to fly home to England 
by now, he was easily convinced to stay with us for the final 
leg home. As he was taking the RYA (Royal Yachting 
Association) course in England, he wanted as many hours 
as he could get in his personal log book, and this meant an 
opportunity to boost his sailing to about 2,000nm and 
over 19 days at sea.

Tom Zinn joined us, a very experienced sailor we had met in 
Ayala Cove, Angel Island (San Francisco Bay), and with him 
came his friend Richard Anderson. Tom called Sea Star on 
his new hand-held VHF as he was in the taxi on the way 
from the Airport to the Police Dock, and we had the engine 
running as they came down the ramp! They piled onto the 
boat, we moved off to get some final provisions and, most 
importantly, beer, then we were off at 1600 on Monday, 
Boxing Day (that's the day after Christmas for non-Brits and 
Canadians).

2000 We all saw the conning tower of a submarine 
submerging and then rising again.

0400 12/27/94 We observed what was later reported by the 
Coast Guard to be a meteor. A number of boats called in a 
flare sighting, as did we, but if it was a boat in distress, they 
had sunk before anyone sighted her!

Extract from log 0400 12/28/94 "Course 265 speed 5.5 
knots, 203 miles out of San Diego, Rick at the helm. Clear 
skies, still wind, glass at 31.8" and batteries fully charged. 
So far it has been light seas and air and we've made good 
progress - now the seas are increasing as we round Point 
Conception and our headway is much reduced due to head 
seas - we are hobby-horsing. I'm considering putting up 
some canvas and bearing off for stability and speed."

Extract from log 0745 12/28/94 "Light wind from 0400 to 
0600 gusting up to 27 knots. Aft port chainplate parted. 
Rigging slack. Will run spare halyard. Could not transfer fuel 
to day tank due to air in filter. 0800 Jury-rigged main port 
backstay to aft port cleat and mizzen winch. Mizzen-mast aft 
port backstay now unsupported."

We successfully jury-rigged the mizzen and main port 
backstays, and carried on under light canvas through heavy 
weather off Point Conception, through the well-lit oil wells. At 
some times it was difficult to see any progress around the 
point, because every time we tacked back it appeared that 
the rigs were still in the same place!

All tough times eventually come to an end, and at 0000 
12/29/94 (Thursday) we broke through into light air and 
motorsailed with double-reefed mainsail, then as the 
morning wore on, we shook out the reefs and started making 
five knots and more directly for San Francisco. An uneventful 
voyage ensued, and as we came to the Golden Gate Bridge, 
we looked into the tide tables and discovered that we would 
be heading into a predicted 5.7 knot ebb flow! We cut close 
to the south stanchion of the bridge, and slowly nosed our 
way into the Bay. At 1600 on Friday 12/30/94, we tied up at 
Gas House Cove for the night to discharge Tom and Rick, all 
amazed that we had managed to conclude this final leg of 
the voyage in just under four days.

We went off for pizza and an excellent booze-up at a local 
bar that had a great selection of good ales.

Saturday, 0930 New Year's Eve, Ashikin, Ken and Ray 
unmoored and bagged all sails while motoring down the 
Bay to Alameda, tying up at Ballena Isle Marina 1100.

LOOKING BACK

Ray commented that he felt a tremendous sense of 
accomplishment, but also a feeling of anti-climactic sadness 
that this phase of the Sea Star's voyaging was over, 
perhaps for another year.

In completing the log, we discovered that since June 1993 
we had sailed 14,454 nautical miles, well over half-way 
around the world in linear distance, in about 25 total weeks.

The entire voyage from Alameda down to Puerto Vallarta, 
and back home, took 3610 nautical miles and over seven 
weeks. The sailing, in general, was excellent, and the 
weather superb, especially south of the American border. 
We did not have much time to mix with the indigenous 
population, but the people seemed friendly and willing to 
help, even though our command of their language was 
sparse. We had a special time upon meeting the captain and 
crew of the fishing boat ESCADA IV, who proved to be 
wonderful ambassadors for their country.

All the places we visited were fascinating, such as Turtle 
Bay, Mag Bay, Cabo San Lucas, Isla Isabela, Chacala, 
Puerto Vallarta, etc. There are many other places we 
missed, such as La Paz on the eastern side of the peninsula, 
and Mazatlan or San Blas. The differences were striking, 
each location had its own unique scenery and attraction for 
us.

There are things we would have done differently, if it were 
possible. For example, an extra month would have been 
wonderful, with time to provision slowly and enjoy the 
shopping, repair ship without a time pressure and, more 
importantly, to look around the magnificent Baja peninsula 
and rugged Mexican mainland. 

We would especially have loved to go on a jungle tour, and 
to have had the time to sail far enough to visit ancient Aztec, 
Inca, Toltec and Mayan ruins, Mexico City, Acapulco and 
other enticing places. This time, however, neither Ashikin 
nor I had the time. Maybe next year...

We had a problem with charts and it would have been a 
boon to have been able to find the William's chart book, 
which is currently out of print. CNG proved to be impossible 
to replenish and we are already converting the ship's stove 
and heating to Propane, so next year will be much easier for 
cooking. This time we had to very carefully conserve our 
cooking gas.

The toughest part of the trip was sailing north, and in 
hindsight it would have been better to double the allotted 
time to sail from Cabo San Lucas to San Diego, and then 
back up to San Francisco Bay; although we did very well this 
time, we might not be so lucky next year. Arranging the 
voyage to run from early January to March - instead of over 
Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's Eve - will 
probably make finding crew easier, too, although we did 
very well in that respect. We had been searching for crew 
since April 1994, so the whole trip was very well planned out 
in advance.

Perhaps that's the main reason why things ultimately worked 
out so well! Personalities meshed well and we had people 
from four countries on board: England, Malaysia, Canada 
and the USA, plus Marc Hamilton from Alpha Centauri and 
we couldn't guess where Bill Earlywine came from! We all 
had different objectives for the cruise. The Canadians Steve 
and Rick were especially eager to learn everything about 
sailing, including celestial navigation, heavy weather ship 
handling, drinking to excess and puking, and excelled in all.

There were tough times under sail, and there was fabulous 
sunrise to sunset cruising. We had the finest food in the most 
romantic settings, or we ate fried Spam and bread while the 
rest of the crew was seasick. We lounged in deck chairs and 
hammocks drinking Margueritas and slept on deck, and we 
shivered in blankets cold and damp in the cockpit. We had 
singalongs to the CD player and keyboard, and we 
hunkered down to gale-force winds while rolling from beam 
to beam. We learned to navigate by the stars, and we slaved 
over the bow pulpit to pull up muddy anchors. We broke a 
halyard and lost another, then we laughed while being 
hoisted up the main mast in a mild sea to fix them.

We had our difficulties, we had our triumphs. But best of all, 
we enjoyed each other's company, we met new people in a 
foreign land, and most of all - we travelled the equivalent of 
one sixth of the distance around the world...
					...under sail!


CAPTAIN RAY THACKERAY AND ASHIKIN WAN NOOR OF 
THE KETCH SEA STAR.

Ballena Isle Marina
1120 Ballena Boulevard, Suite B
Alameda
CA 94501
Tel: (510) 769-0744
FAX: (510) 814-8030
[email protected]
.(tm)N':XOp/HmB/-FNHmBN-@Og/.N&i-@(tm)XOf$p-@/NZ <AeAeAE/HmCNGXO0.H?//.(tm)/-FN(n(tm) .rNFF-@""A -Ae"Ae-A/N&.-@PIOf$p-@/N <AeAeAE/HmCNFO-nPI~`,/N n0AeTa/N n!@Xa .\AEPO RaaeAEeOE-nPI/.(tm)N&.XOp/HmB/-FNHmBN--@Og/.N%a-@(tm)XOf$p-@/NN <AeAeAE/HmCNFLO0.H?//.(tm)/-FN(tm)(n(tm) .rNE:-@""A -Ae"Ae-A/N%"-@?Of$p-@/N <Ae(R)=

% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail1.digital.com by mts-gw.pa.dec.com (5.65/09May94) id AA00476; Wed, 5 Apr 95 10:49:55 -070
% Received: from dub-img-2.compuserve.com by mail1.digital.com; (5.65 EXP 2/22/95 for V3.2/1.0/WV) id AA25107; Wed, 5 Apr 1995 10:16:04 -070
% Received: by dub-img-2.compuserve.com (8.6.10/5.941228sam) id NAA08462; Wed, 5 Apr 1995 13:13:01 -040
% Date: 05 Apr 95 13:11:02 EDT
% From: Ray Thackeray <[email protected]>
% To: "Ashikin Wan-Noor, Digital Equipment" <sx4gto::wannoor>, Steve Freeman <[email protected]>, "Riley, Mike" <[email protected]
% Subject: Sea Star's Mexico Trip Report Nov/Dec 1994
% Message-Id: <[email protected]>

    Great story Ashikin!  Sounds like a great adventure. 
    
    Brian

    
    Brian - Good to hear from you!
    
    Yep - it was great, but I only had 2 weeks or so with the cruise -
    gotta work for Digital, right?
    
    The next great Sea Star adventure will probably be next Jan-Mar,
    down to Baha and Mexico mainland, but this time, it'll be fine-tuned 
    to have more on-shore R&R. If you're interested, pls let me know
    sometime.
    
    Happy Sailing to all!

    As with Brian, I found the story very enjoyable, what a great time. I
    ended up printing a copy of the story so I could share it with others.
     
    Although I had a question about the size and hull design of Sea Star.  
    I kept reading about all the events and wished I knew what the size was to 
    give myself a complete visual picture of each of the settings described in
    the text.  I am very glad someone took the time to write out the
    details of a trip like this so others can enjoy it as well.  Especially
    those of us who have yet to take our vacation this year.
    
    I don't know what the expectations are for the crew list for trip
    planned next year, but I would be interested to discuss them if
    additional crew is needed.  I may be contacted @DVO in all-in-one.
    
    Scott

    The Sea Star is a William Garden Offshore 51' Ketch built by Marine
    Trade International in Taiwan. She's 57' LOA and by now we've got her
    set up nicely for cruising, with wind generator, double alternators,
    triple regulators, etc... She's a centre cockpit vessel (54,000lbs) and
    we'd still like to build a hard top dodger with surround curtains, and
    as for propulsion we have a 6-cyl Ford Lehman that gives us a motor/sailing
    range of about 1200 miles...the next sail project is an asymmetrical
    spinnaker for downwind sailing.