We left El Cardonal on Isla Partida in the morning with flat water. As we picked up are anchor Tim and Robin of Nani Ola came up on their tender. Nani Ola was the boat I help into the anchorage the night before. TIm and Robin thanked us again while asking where we were headed. We mentioned a couple of spots. They suggested we go to Evaristio, which is just across from where we were thinking about going. After some small talk about engines, we headed out
We figured we would be motoring all the way, but were surprised by a 6 knot breeze blowing from our aft quarter. We had not been in good conditions to put out the new asymmetrical spinnaker since we received it. The day before I made the pendant for the clew out of the dyneema I had purchased prior to leaving Oxnard. This was the perfect time to put it up.
It is a big sail. Just pulling out of the forward berth is a chore. Then you have to rig it. This entails hooking the clew pendant to the anchor roller, running the tack sheeting line back to the cockpit through the appropriate block, hauling the sail and sock up, and then pulling the sock up to deploy (don’t forget to tie the sock dowsing line to the pulpit rail or other spot. Would hate to see that get loose.)
After letting it out we had about 3 knots of speed. This lasted all of 10 minutes before we were down to 2 to 3 knots of wind with maybe 1 of speed. In a matter 15 minutes we had deployed the spinnaker for the first time and dowsed it. At least we now know how to do it.
Me motored the rest of the way to Evaristo, a beautiful and well protected bay. The winds were predicted to pick up and this place is very well protected. It was pretty packed with boats causing us to take a lap or two around to find a spot in 30 feet on the outside of all the other boats. Emily dropped the anchor and after 120 feet was down, I backed it down hard. The boat came to a sudden stop as the anchor dug in. I will never regret buying the 85 lbs Rocha anchor. It gives me piece of mind
Nani Ola showed up several hours later. We had talked about the issues with their engine back at Partida. I felt the plug in the fuel line had to be between the tank and the filter or the vent hose. They managed to FaceTime with a mechanic back in the States who thought the same. They used their priming bulb in reverse to blow out the lift tube in the tank and were on their way. It is always good to find a simple solution to such a stressful problem.
as the sun was setting, Tim called up on the VHF to ask if we wanted fish tacos. We did not even realize there was a small restaurant on the beach. We hopped in the tender, made our way over to end the day with fish tacos and good company.
