On April 8, there will be a solar eclipse. There is an interactive map that you can use to view the path for total eclipse. The path follows open ocean south of Baja and intersects Mexico’s mainland around Mazatlan.
Many of my boating buddies are head to Mazatlan to view the eclipse, but it is likely to be a zoo there, so I have decided to pick a random point in the ocean to view the eclipse. I am currently naming my way down the east coast of Baja. When I make it the Puerto Los Cabos (23.0550o N, 109.6705o W), I am going to head for 22.1211 No N, 107.1240o W (about 150 miles). At that location, the following is expected:
After a near-perfect passage from San Carlos on February 29, Aegir-Ran has been in a slip in Santa Rosalia. On March 5th, I will start heading south. This is the plan for perhaps the next ten days (the waypoint in parentheses is from Breeding and Banister’s book “A Cruiser’s Guide to the Sea of Cortez“.
Santa Rosalia to Santo Domingo (BCS470), 38 Santa Domingo to San Juanico (BCS444), 47 San Juanico to Isla Coronados (BCS420), 20 Isla Coronados to Bahia Salinas (BCS404), 26 Bahia Salinas to Puerto Escondido (BCS351), 20 Puerto Escondido to San Marte (BCS277), 31 San Marte to Puerto Las Gatos (BCS251), 14 Puerto Las Gatos to San Everisto (BCS222), 29 San Everisto to Isla San Francisco (BCS201), 9 San Francisco to Playa Bonanza (BCS110), 29 Playa Bonanza to Ensenada de los Muertos (BCS030), 43 Ensenada de los Muertos to Bahia Los Frailes (BSC020), 46 Bahia Los Frailes to Puerto Los Cabos (BCS010), 28
March 7 – Caleta San Juanico: I anchored here about 5:30 last night. This photo was taken the next morning, the calm after the storm … it blew 30 knots most of the night.
We’re currently experiencing a strong El Niño that’s been creating some wild weather for the past few months. One of reasons I have been concerned is the first leg of my planned circumnavigation, across the South Pacific, may be impacted. The Humboldt Current off the west coast of South America can change direction, the Trade Winds become less reliable. and the ITCZ can shift during El Niño. However, it’s looking increasingly likely that the climate cycle will transition back over to a La Niña in the next six months. In any case, I am hedging my bets and will make my way to Costa Rica in December, where I will make a decision to head west to the Marquessa or South to Easter Island.
Sea-surface temperature anomalies are shown in the area of the eastern Pacific Ocean where a very strong El Niño is present on Wednesday, February 7, 2024. Darker oranges represent warmer than normal conditions while blues represent cooler than normal conditions. These ocean temperatures help determine the strength of El Niño. Source.
For the past three night, I have been waken at 3-4 AM by the sound of fish running into the hull. I went on deck and saw schools of small fish being chased by dolphins. The dolphins had learned to chase the fish into the boat to render them stunned. Last night one of the fish jumped into the dinghy so I could identify it.
The species is Longfin Halfbeak (Hemiramphus saltator), which is characterized by its red-colored beak.
I took a hike above Playa el Burro in Bahia de Concepcioñ. The bay is massive and includes many islands.
I am currently anchored off of Playa el Burro. Aegir-Ran is the furthest boat in this frame.
The hike was vigorous and although it is January, was nonetheless hot. The trail, if you want to call it that, initially follows a dry creek bed that is lined with ancient Amerindian petroglyphs.
On the last day of 2023, I crossed the Sea of Cortez from San Carlos to Santa Rosalia. Since then, I have made my way slowly to Bahia Concepcioñ, where I am currently anchored in front of Playa El Burro. This was my view this morning. Isla Coyote and Isla Guapa are in the background. My plan is to stay in Bahia Comcepcioñ until weather permits crossing back over to San Carlos. There have been week-long violent storms for since I have been here, sometimes with steady 20 knot winds and seas to 5′. Since I need to be back in the United States by the first of February, I will not procrastinate and instead take the next opportunity to cross. Right now, it looks like the 19th may be a good day.
Aegir-Ran was going to splash last Monday. After the trailer was in the water, I checked the seacocks and learned one of them was leaking, so it was back to the hard to replace it. After grinding off the through-hull, I found it was mounted with what looked like plummer’s putty. Furthermore, the backing plate had to be replaced as the caulking that had been used to mount it had decayed. A new backing plate was fabricated out of Starboard and it was mounted with carbosil. The hole in the hull was glassed over, a new hole was drilled, and the new through-hull was seated with 5200 caulking. As the seacock was an inlet for the head, a cover was mounted over the through-hull.
As I had to wait a couple of days for the caulking to cure, I provisioned the boat and had 85 gallons of water with a plan to splash (again) on Thursday. However, when the water was siphoned into the two tanks, I found both were leaking. This was the first time the tanks had been filled to capacity since they were fiberglassed last summer. The leaking stopped after about 25% of the water had drained from the forward tank and about 5% had drained from the aft tank. This indicated the holes were near the top of the tanks. The water was drained from the two tanks, the baffles were cut out, and the tanks were examined. Both tanks exhibited areas that were not properly finished.
The person who originally did the fiberglassing acknowledged the work was sub-standard and he will fix the tanks starting tomorrow. I should be able to splash later this week.
While it is disappointing to not be in the water, it is fortunate the problems were identified when they could be addressed, and not for example 2000 miles offshore.
Once the vanished dried, the excess shells were blown off and the remaining shells were coated with four coats of vanish,
The resulting non-skid is aggressive (what I was looking for), but is still not uncomfortable to stand on with bare feet. Besides looking nice, an advantage of walnut shell is they can be easily sanded off if the ladder needs to be refinished again.
When the bow thruster was installed, two 100 amp lithium batteries were located under the V-berth. These batteries were also used to power the new windlass. The batteries under the V-berth were connected to the house battery bank in the engine room via a Victron Orion DC-DC charger. This approach has the advantage of requiring smaller gauge wire (4 gauge) and the different chemistries of the V-berth (lithium) and the engine room (coiled AGM) are made compatible via the DC-DC charger. During passages (when the bow thruster and windlass are not used), it would be nice to use the batteries at the bow as a rainy day fund for the house batteries. Unfortunately, DC-DC chargers are uni-directional. To solve this problem, a second DC-DC charger was installed. However, there is a problem in that both DC-DC chargers cannot run at the same time (or they would fight with one another. To solve this problem, I used the remote on-off connection on the DC-DC-charger. While the switches on the two chargers could be linked in several ways, I chose to use a STDP (single-pole double-throw) switch connected via the “low” pins on the DC-DC chargers.
The second DC-DC charger was located under the V-berth with the other charger.
The SPDT switch was located in the engine room. Switching it to the right moves energy from the V-berth to the house batteries and switching to the left moves energy from the house bank to the V-berth.
