After a long 9 hour sail I am safely anchored in Bahia Los Frailles. Today was about a 48 mile run from Muertos to Frailles and I must say that it was probably the best sail I have ever had. I pulled anchor at 6am and pointed the Liahona southbound. The winds were light so I ran the motor with the Reacher out front grabbing the light air. Within about an hour the wind picked up to between 4-6 knots from dead off the stern. I figured I could use that and I had the whole day so I shut down the diesel burner and went with the main and the reacher, my light wind headsail. Due to several reefs that lay about 2 miles offshore I broad reached away from the coastline for an hour or two then turned to my heading and went dead downwind wing on wing with the main on one side and the reacher on the other. Sailing like that requires that you pay attention so that you keep the wind nearly directly behind you. However, with only 4-6 knots of apparent wind the Liahona was sluffing along at about 3-4 knots which is dang respectable. At one point around 11 or so it got so light that my speeds were just below 3 knots and I considered cranking up the motor but decided to stick it out. Around 11:30 I was rewarded with a brisk 8-12 knots from the stern and the wind had me going about 6.5 knots. Sweet!
Just about the same time I saw a huge spout from a whale off in the distance maybe a mile or so away. Over the next half hour I watched as the whale breached several times, spouted many more and also was completely out of the water twice, landing with an enormous splash like someone had thrown a bus into the water. I think it was a humpback but from that distance I can't be sure. About an hour later I saw a strange fin just off the side of the boat. It was a marlin. I was pumped and hoping he was hungry as I had my lines out. He wasn't interested but about a half hour later I saw another Marlin only 20' off the side of the boat that then swam back toward my lures but he wasn't fooled either. Dang! Pretty awesome though to see those amazing fish so close even though I wasn't able get any action on the lures today.
For a good part of the day I sailed with another boat that I tried to hail on the radio but had no luck. He left Muertos after I did and in the calmer winds of the morning when I was pure sailing he was motorsailing and caught me. Upon catching up he put out a genoa to compliment his main and at that point must have turned off the motor. He was a single hander as well and we were quite close to each other for a few minutes before my girl decided she had enough and we gradually pulled away. He pulled into the anchorage about an hour behind me. Nice guy named Scott from San Diego.
There are a bunch of campers on the beach here at Frailles, the highway must be reasonably close. That is about it for today but it was indeed a great day pure sailing for over 8 hours today. I now sit about 28 miles north of San Jose del Cabo where I need to be to pick up Dave and Stephanie on the 14th. Super pumped to have some friends aboard for a while. L8R...'til tomorrow.
Bret
SV Liahona
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