The second leg of the Ha-Ha was great sailing, with steady winds blowing 10-18 knots from behind. We departed Bahia Tortugas early Saturday morning and hoisted the spinnaker right away, flying it for ten hours straight until sunset. The boat flew along at a steady 8 knots, surfing near ten.
While sailing under the spinnaker was great, more amazing was that our skipper Gary, a young 80 years old, worked the foredeck for the hoist and douse of the chute, tricky jobs in big running seas usually handed to the youngest most fit crew member. He was agile, steady and confident, giving me great hope that I still have some years left in me as a sailor.
We sailed Saturday night in boisterous seas under main and jib, loping along all night. In the morning, Gary was back up on the deck to hoist the asymmetric kite which we ran under on a broad reach most of the day until we had to jibe to make our mark at the entrance of Bahia Santa Maria.
We entered the anchorage here last night around 7:30 in pitch black under a starry sky, a big full moon to rise a half hour later. It was tricky weaving our way through the 20 boats (out of 140) that beat us here in the darkness and our anchor didn't set on the first drop, but we nailed it the second time and were snug on the hook at 8:15.
We ate a quick dinner, somehow managing to down two bottles of Pinot Noir before retiring to much needed sleep.
Today's a lazy day of rest in the sun. We don't have a dinghy so there's no way to get off the boat unless I can charm someone into giving us a lift. Then we have to figure out how to get back..
