From Punta Allen we sailed to Espirtu Santo, about 25 miles south. Dry reef and breaking waves surround this bay as well but we were starting to get the hang of it by now and we entered with no problems. We anchored behind a small island right before a nasty storm was rolling in. The storm ended up being more of a visual show with dark clouds and lightening and not so much rain and wind; but we were glad we were anchored in a good spot anyway. The next day we paddled the canoes with Ted and Shannon around the island to check it out. We saw remnants of Hurricane Ike, kept an eye out for square groupers, and gathered fire wood for later that evening. We had a nice sized bonfire on the beach that night, a spectacular sunset, some boxed wine and lots of laughs. We hung out in the calm waters of the bay for a few days and then started to think about the next place we wanted to explore.
We left Espirtu Santo with an unknown destination in mind. Our plan was to get ourselves out of the reef passage and see how the wind and waves were behaving and then decide whether we wanted to head to Chinchorro Banks or Xcalak. Chinchorro Banks is a coral atoll located 30miles southeast of us; one of only three in this hemisphere. The Gualby crew was definitely leaning towards this destination. The snorkeling was predicted to be awesome, tons of reef and ship wrecks to explore and fish for us to spear. Xcalak is the southern most town in Mexico and would be our destination after Chinchorro Banks if that was to be our decision first. Our starboard engine has been acting, well to be honest, shitty. It doesn’t shift into gear smoothly, if it shifts into it at all. It sounds way louder than the port engine and the trim/tilt only occasionally works. It’s our problem engine. We pulled anchor at 4:30pm, thinking we were giving ourselves enough time to make our way to the reef with enough daylight to see the breaking waves. We no longer trust our GPS to tell us where the reef lines are. At times I want to turn it off because it gives me a false sense of security. The wind was about 7-10 knots stronger than projected and our one good engine just couldn’t push us as fast as we would have liked. So going through the reef pass we had less than ideal light and more wind and seas than expected blowing right at us. We got ourselves safely past the reef but the seas were all confused and we had 20-24knots of wind blowing out of the E-SE . Headed South, against the current, we could barely make 2-3 knots without the engine. We couldn’t believe we were going that slow with all that wind. The Salty Dog couldn’t stay over 3 knots either and they were getting tossed around by the disorganized seas as well. Considering these conditions could last all night or worsen, we made the decision to head to Xcalak, which was a slightly nicer ride straight south and a more secure anchoring situation once we arrived. The seas and winds stayed strong and confused for about half the night and then the weather started to progressively get better. As the sun was rising the next morning we looked out over settled 2-3 foot seas and we were sailing along beautifully with just the code zero out averaging 5 knots. We definitely thought, “Damn, wish we were in Chinchorro Banks right now!” But if we could see the future, it would certainly dim our spirit of adventure! So, Xcalak here we come!
M.
We left Espirtu Santo with an unknown destination in mind. Our plan was to get ourselves out of the reef passage and see how the wind and waves were behaving and then decide whether we wanted to head to Chinchorro Banks or Xcalak. Chinchorro Banks is a coral atoll located 30miles southeast of us; one of only three in this hemisphere. The Gualby crew was definitely leaning towards this destination. The snorkeling was predicted to be awesome, tons of reef and ship wrecks to explore and fish for us to spear. Xcalak is the southern most town in Mexico and would be our destination after Chinchorro Banks if that was to be our decision first. Our starboard engine has been acting, well to be honest, shitty. It doesn’t shift into gear smoothly, if it shifts into it at all. It sounds way louder than the port engine and the trim/tilt only occasionally works. It’s our problem engine. We pulled anchor at 4:30pm, thinking we were giving ourselves enough time to make our way to the reef with enough daylight to see the breaking waves. We no longer trust our GPS to tell us where the reef lines are. At times I want to turn it off because it gives me a false sense of security. The wind was about 7-10 knots stronger than projected and our one good engine just couldn’t push us as fast as we would have liked. So going through the reef pass we had less than ideal light and more wind and seas than expected blowing right at us. We got ourselves safely past the reef but the seas were all confused and we had 20-24knots of wind blowing out of the E-SE . Headed South, against the current, we could barely make 2-3 knots without the engine. We couldn’t believe we were going that slow with all that wind. The Salty Dog couldn’t stay over 3 knots either and they were getting tossed around by the disorganized seas as well. Considering these conditions could last all night or worsen, we made the decision to head to Xcalak, which was a slightly nicer ride straight south and a more secure anchoring situation once we arrived. The seas and winds stayed strong and confused for about half the night and then the weather started to progressively get better. As the sun was rising the next morning we looked out over settled 2-3 foot seas and we were sailing along beautifully with just the code zero out averaging 5 knots. We definitely thought, “Damn, wish we were in Chinchorro Banks right now!” But if we could see the future, it would certainly dim our spirit of adventure! So, Xcalak here we come!
M.
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| The sky just as we were dropping the anchor |
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| Ted, Giimpy, and Shannon (in that order) exploring with us in the red canoe--They have their "Team Traynor" matching outfits on--Gimp Dog's mini shirt should be arriving soon |
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| The other, much windier side of the island |
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| Meg thought these trees looked like they were posing for a picture |
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| Gualby at sunset on the less windy side of the island |
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| Conor tending to the bonfire |
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| Mike and Meg finishing up Mike's first overnight passage--He did awesome at the helm! |
They totally look like they are posing for a picture!!
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