Hurry up and…

It’s hot out here today, and we know we’re only just getting started. The last couple of days have seen quite the variety of conditions here aboard Flyer. Rounding Cabo was boisterous. Decent following seas and a fresh 25-30 knot northwesterly breeze meant we were making good time around and out in to the Pacific. It was not to last unfortunately and we promptly hit a wall and were becalmed for an hour or so in the lee of Cabo. Hard to believe that there’s a wind shadow that lasts over 80miles south of the last bit of land there! 

Since then the sailing has been a bit frustrating, characterized by light and variable conditions. Flyer is a great boat for many things but light wind sailing is not one of them. The boat is a bit heavy for its length and very beamy, which means we have a high wetted surface area ratio to the length of the boat… so it sails a bit more ‘sticky’ at low wind speeds. We’re even heavier on this trip than ever before – and we’re really glad that we raised Flyer’s waterline 3” a year ago at CSR… the boat is REALLY low in the water right now!

In the last 36 hours we’ve seen the light winds slowly clock to the north east which means dead downwind sailing if we were to sail a direct course towards French Polynesia. We believe there is likely more pressure to the north and west of us so we are choosing to sail a bit faster through the water but indirect to our course, aiming more NNW than SW! It’s a bit counterintuitive but we’re hoping we’re doing the right thing.

It’s a bit frustrating to have such light conditions so early but looking at the evolving forecasts, we left at a really good time. The conditions in the Sea of Cortez are getting lighter by the day, and the zone of high pressure offshore where we are now is only going to grow larger in the next 10 days. So a later departure would have been even slower!

We’re also really glad to have left when we did given the news about the escalating cartel war going on in Mexico. We are so saddened to hear about it and hoping the best for our friends (both locals and cruisers) back in Mexico. We’re hoping that cooler heads can prevail soon and life can return to normal for everyone. 

Since I began writing this post we’ve made the challenging decision to start motoring. Sitting becalmed with the potential for wind just a few hours away was too much to bear, so we fired up the old iron genoa to get some forward progress again. The sun is setting while Kristen helps Paul with his homework and we begin to think (again) about what we’ll eat next!