Saturday 17 November 2012

Departed Cabo San Lucas (Attempt #2)

Our previous attempt to leave Cabo was thwarted about 25 nm miles out when something went wrong with one of the house bank alternators - bad burning smell and no alternator output. We shut down the engine and drifted for awhile to determine the extent of the problem. When switched over to the other alternator it was not clear if the burning smell was getting worse or not and the engine was too hot to do any real troubleshooting. We turned around and had a fun sail in shifting winds (boat speeds between 0.5 and 8.1 kts) back to the anchorage in Cabo with a 0500 arrival.

Still not sure exactly what caused the failure but it appears isolated to that alternator/regulator system so after some testing we left yesterday evening just before sunset. Since then we have been alternating motoring and sailing in the lights winds. For a heavy old boat she does well in light winds. TWS has been around 4.5 to 5.5 kts and we are doing about 3.5 kts through the water. With the beam seas across the Sea of Cortez though it is rolly and hot. Water temp is between 28 and 29 degrees C.

ETA in Mazatlan is sometime tomorrow (Sun).

Max
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At 09/11/2012 03:01 (utc) our position was 23°07.80'N 110°28.92'W

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