Hurry up and wait! Crossing the Sea to San Carlos…

Hola Amigos! It was officially time to leave our bee friends behind. Our next stop, 70 nautical miles away in San Carlos. Magic Dragon was also making the trek and left at 9 in the morning, we planned to leave around 5pm. We chose the departure time based on our expected ETA in San Carlos. We wanted to arrive during the daylight and this would give us plenty of cushion in case the winds died down. Speaking of the wind, the forecast showed the winds blowing all day and night with a break from 1am to 4am.

With all the bee action, we couldn’t wait any longer. Brad pulled the anchor at 3pm while I steered us out of the cove. We hoisted the main and waited til we got around the cove to unfurl the headsail. Once the sails were out the wind seemed to die. Brad decided to wait it out based on the land near us, and he made the right choice. Once we got around the island the winds picked up and Perspective propelled forward like a freight train!I watched as the winds crept up from 12 to 23 knots and we decided to reef the main. This would flatten the boat out and make for a more comfortable ride, and as a bonus we would be prepared should the wind get any higher. Reefing involves Brad (or occasionally me) going to the mast, carefully lowering the sail to the marked point, clipping onto the reef point, hoisting the sail til it’s tight along the mast, sheeting in the reefing line and then coiling up the main halyard. This is not something you want to be doing when the boat is really heeled over, so it’s best to reef early. Brad has done this so many times that it takes him just a minute to do and during that minute I’m on pins and needles waiting for him to get back in the cockpit. What can I say, I’m still a nervous nelly!

We discovered that even with the reef we were going well over 8 knots which is usually an excellent pace. In this case it was a pace we were not planning on when we decided on our departure time. This made our ETA into San Carlos way earlier than expected and we would be arriving at night. Ugh! Other than reefing the main we didn’t try very hard to slow Perspective down because we were too busy enjoying the amazing sail. Perspective handles herself so well and is so comfortable while under way. It would have been a shame to reign her in while she was stretching those legs!

A few hours into the crossing we spotted Magic Dragon on our chart plotter via AIS. AIS allows you to see other registered vessels, including their speed, closest point of approach, distance from your vessel and bearing. Basically AIS is SUPER handy to have in addition to radar. We gave them a call once we were in radio range to see how they were doing. Jamyne mentioned they were having an issue with their transmission and were fine to continue sailing the rest of the way. The winds were steady around 17 knots on our beam giving both Magic Dragon and Perspective a great sail.

Our new ETA into San Carlos was around midnight. Around 10:30pm we were faced with thunder, lightning, and strong winds. Our position was only a few miles offshore but based on the conditions we decided to practice heaving to. This was something we did on the previous boat, but hadn’t tried on this one. Brad did the appropriate steps and the boat sat comfortably in the water going 1.5-2.5 knots. According to the forecast, the winds would be dying around 1am but they kept steady. At one point the winds gusted well over 30 knots. With us being a few miles ahead of Magic Dragon we gave them a call on the radio to give a heads up. It turns out we were too late and they had suffered a torn headsail.

We kept the boat in the heave to position until the winds died down. It was bad enough to arrive in the dark in an unfamiliar place, and we did not need high winds to further complicate things. Around 5am we finally had our chance. We still had some moonlight to help us navigate in, along with our charts. Once our hook was down we called Magic Dragon and offered assistance to help them anchor since their transmission was on the fritz. Turns out they were able to come in and anchor just fine! Yay! We caught up on some precious sleep and reflected on our passage. Overall it was the finest sailing experience we’ve had so far. It reminded us just how great of a vessel Perspective is and how well she takes care of us. I’m also thankful to Brad for keeping calm with all the wind and lightning. His calmness and actions kept me sane! If you’re into stats, here are the stats from our trip…it’s a bit blurry because the boat was rocking around so much when the photo was taken. 😉Well there you have it folks, the story of our crossing! Next up will be more about San Carlos! I hope this blog finds you happy and well, cheers!!!