Notes on a crossing

We can check off another one of our longer passages, crossing the Sea of Cortez. From Cabo Pulmo to Puerto Vallarta is about 280 nautical miles. We had great wind the first 24 hours, but spent much of the second day motoring. Luckily, the wind came back up in the evening and we sailed through the third night at sea, making it to Punta Mita a bit before daybreak. We didn't see any other boats till our third night, when we passed a panga close by and then met a few cruise ships as we got closer to Puerto Vallarta. Besides all the normal fun of sleep deprivation, constant movement and cooking being a pain in the butt, we had a few small tragedies.

While motor-sailing the second night, just as I was waking up and coming up to watch, Amanda yells for me. I come up on deck, half awake, and nearly have my head taken off by the mainsail boom, which is completely loose, and now far off the starboard side. It swings back over my head one more time and stays a few feet off the port rail. I quickly secured the boom with a spare line and then started to find out what the heck happened. Years of abuse and gybes and rockin and rolling had taken its toll on our boom bale (not sure if its bail or bale in this instance), which is the metal fitting on the bottom of the boom which the sheet tackle is attached to. The bale had snapped right off at the screws. I remembered a fellow ex-coastie, Winn, who kept his boat in Loch Lomond before moving to Sausalito. He had shown me once how he used half inch three strand, wrapped and lashed around his boom to create bales for his mainsheet. I whipped one together pretty quickly, reinforced it with a little nylon chafing gear the next morning, and I think we're good to go. Thanks Winn. While not a true tragedy, things breaking onboard is a bummer and I did almost get my head knocked off.

I already mentioned that we didn't see very many other boats on our way across. We did see plenty of wildlife though. We've started seeing new and bigger sea birds. We're a little unsure of our ornithology, but they are big, giant sea gulls, a bit darker in color. There are also some that fly super high and resemble pterodactyls. We saw plenty of the normal wildly leaping dolphins. Then we had an unexpected visitor. About 150 miles from Cabo, a little more than halfway, a little brown sparrow lands on the dinghy davits. All day this little bird hopped around the boat, checking things out. Eventually he went down the companionway for an inspection of the cabin. I set some seeds around for him in case he had the munchies. When night came we lost track of him, but figured he had either flown off or was hunkered down somewhere onboard. The next evening I was looking in the forward bilge for some gnocchi to make for dinner. I wanted to get to the most forward boxes, so I moved a few things from the floorboard in the berth: a yoga mat, a camera tripod, and oh damn...a dead bird. I have no idea why he ended up tucked behind a yoga mat, but there he was. I wasn't sure whether or not to tell Amanda, but since I'm horrible at secrets, and she deserved the truth, I let her know. So, a bit of a bummer. Rest in peace little bird.

We're safe and sound, anchored off of La Cruz, near Puerto Vallarta. We'll stick around for a day or two, then start heading for the Gold coast, Chamela and Tenicatita Bay.