On our morning ice-stock-up-run to shore before setting sail out of San Juanico/Scorpion Bay, we checked Emails one last time. The Captain got a message, if he was able to take part in a delivery of a 100 foot Power Boat from San Diego to Cabo a few days later. One of there planned crew had cancelled and they were now in need to find a replacement quickly. We brainstormed and even if it seemed pretty odd to fly back to San Diego, where we had just come from, the Captain also didn’t want to let anybody down and it seemed doable. We were getting ready to leave anyway, but now had to do a 3 day/3 night nonstop sail to Cabo. We all know, how much I love that!
After all crew members gave there ok, we headed out. The start was awesome. We had great sailing wind and had a double strike of Yellow Fin Tuna just a couple hours in. Here our Exciting Fishing Experiences between San Diego and Cabo all in a clip:
The Fun Sushi Making Experience was dimmed when Mats woke up and complained about stomach ache. It seems, that after every stop of a few days, the little guy now fights sea sickness, which really sucks. Luckily it is only of short time and he manages to pass it by with eating and drinking apple juice.
The days are going by on those long sails with either sleeping when you can, eating, maybe reading or writing and doing your shifts. We had this fresh Tuna and Kruiser showed us some exceptional cooking skills, making the best Seared Tuna I have ever had in my life! Gourmet kitchen. 🙂
Everything went smooth until the third day, except the start we had to motor most of it.
Talking about motoring, after giving the diesel a short break, checking oil and kind of drifting with barely any wind, the Captain tried to start the motor again and it would not start. Just when the men started going through a check list of things which could be wrong, the Autopilot gave an error message and also wasn’t usable. So, we had Kruiser on the steering wheel, Captain reading his “Marine Diesel Engines” “Be your own diesel mechanic” and myself running around with wide open eyes and taking care of Mats, who just had a good nap and was ready to Rock’N Roll.
The next 2 hours were a bit intense, first trying to get the motor running, me and Mats at the helm keeping the course by compass and the man sweating away in the cabin doing there best. And they really did it! After several times of having the key turned 30 seconds, the last time it jumped after I held the key for 35 seconds. Shortly after we tried to turn on the Autopilot again and voila, it also started.
Happily heading our way with 6 knots, we were wondering what Nr. 3 would hold for us. And it happened just when everyone started to relax. I was with Mats in the Cabin and the Captain and Kruiser were lying down talking in the cockpit, miles and miles off shore. We were meanwhile sailing again and the motor was off. All of a sudden we literally stopped. We had hit a crap pot. The lines had caught the rudder and stopped us from moving forward. All tries getting the lines off, weren’t successful, so Kruiser grabbed a knife and a mask and jumped in and cut the lines to free us! Hero’s on board Alsager!
We made it to Cabo at 2am at night and set anchor close to 3 other sailboats.
School of fish jumping out of the water, escaping bigger ones. Cool to watch from the boat.
To Sail or Not To Be 