Intermezzo arrived at Marina Chiapas early this morning, completing Leg 2 of The Voyage from Ixtapa, a passage of 589 nautical miles.
The highlight of the final day and night of sailing was yesterday afternoon’s booming reach under full mainsail and Code 0. We hissed through the smooth water at 7 knots sailing as close to the wind as the Code 0 would allow to stay on our rhumbline. Looking at the wind instruments, I thought they weren’t working right. How could we be sailing at 7 knots boast speed at an apparent wind angle of 60 degrees in only 8 knots of apparent wind speed? I puzzled over this until I figured out that the boat was going so fast in such light wind that we had turned the wind blowing behind us into wind ahead of us. Just like a fast racing sailboat would do. I’ve never done that on Intermezzo before, a heavy, short waterline cruising cat. It was a blast for three hours until it got dark and not prudent to have so much canvas up only one of us on watch, so we rolled up the Code 0 and unfurled the jib. We continued sailing at a more moderate pace until midnight when the wind died completely and we motored for the rest of the night in no wind, almost mirror-calm seas.
We tied up in the friendly and professional Marina Chiapas, which Intermezzo has visited twice before and washed the boat before it got too hot. We chased that with a cold beer at the restaurant next door. Then Roy cleaned up his side of the boat so that he could leave to fly back to Canada to catch his daughter’s regional basketball games.
So, now I’m solo again until I fly out on Friday. Before I leave I’m going to tackle a significant project, in addition to all the minor "leaving-the-boat-behind-chores"; re-caulking the bow windows which leak a bit in big head seas.
I can’t upload pictures when I post to this blog via satellite, so catching up here with a few pictures from Leg 2:
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| Piedras Blancas outside Bahía Zihuatanejo |
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| The gale forecasted for the Golfo de Tehuantapec that we had to wait out |
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| Intermezzo at anchor in Bahía Organo, one of the nine Bahías de Huatulco |
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| Returning from our kayaking excursion to Bahía Maguay |
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| Sunset enroute to Puerto Chiapas |
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Captain and Crew at the end of Leg 2
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| Intermezzo in Marina Chiapas, waiting to start Leg 3 to and through the Panama Canal |
