Since we arrived 2 weeks ago, it’s been continual boat work. The marina is hot with little breeze and there are a lot of boat chores. Our plan has been to go North into the Sea of Cortez in November as soon as storm season is over. A 3 1/2 day weather window was opening on Monday, November 4th so we completed last minute preparations and untied from the dock. Our plan was to make one long Northeasterly arc from Puerto Vallarta to the inside of the Baja peninsula, a 280NM trip that would take continuous travel for about 3 1/2 days (the same length as the weather window). Our arrival would have been 1/2 a day before a wind system arrived that would have made for very unpleasant travel.
We left Paradise Village just North of Puerto Vallarta during high tide. The entrance to the marina is narrow and shallow but they run a dredger continually so deep keeled sailboats (like Island Summers) don’t get grounded. We will move over to La Cruz and check the weather one last time before we attempt our crossing to the Baja side of Mexico.
A couple hours after we left the dock in La Cruz our engine gradually overheated and we found ourselves turning around with more boat work on our hands. We were both a little discouraged questioning our whole decision process to cruise. Stupid boats!!! Since we had checked out of the marina, we were now at anchor outside the entrance troubleshooting our cooling system. We went to bed with some ideas of where to look and in the morning we were able to track the problem down to bits and pieces of a shredded impeller (from 3 years ago) that had finally made their way to the inlet of the heat exchanger and restricted the water flow. We could use the motor if we went slow but the motor would overheat if we tried to go fast.
Our very kind dock neighbors on SV Hiva Oa loaned us their marina keys to use the VIP Lounge, restrooms and showers while we cleaned and tested the cooling system. By Tuesday afternoon we decided to make the best of the 2 1/2 days remaining of the weather window and go to Mazatlan. Mazatlan is not on the Baja peninsula but is 165NM North from La Cruz. This simplifies our travel planning for a crossing next week and Mazatlan is a fun place to visit anyway. We’re on our way and while overnight crossings are tiring they’re also beautiful. Bev woke up this morning to dolphins swimming next to the boat.
If you’ve read this far and want to read more you can also check out our tracking page where Kevin will occasionally write his thoughts in the middle of the night. https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/IslandSummers/ or you can click the where-are-we link on the website home page.
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