In Turtle Bay - preparing to leave.

As reported by my much more reliable co-blogger (Deb not Brian), we are in Turtle Bay. Dan and I hitched a ride ashore with the Enrique water taxi service and found an internet cafe in the town. I had hoped to post a few pictures, but they won´t permit me to connect the laptop and the USB ports are disabled on the pc´s. Pics will have to wait until I find a more accommodating intertube.

Most of the fleet have left or are in the process of leaving. We will head out noonish. #1 is still on board helping Capitano Pego Lego prepare Morpheus for sailing. Our Capitano engaged in his favorite sport of kite sailing yesterday as we were waiting out the weather. A spectacular day for it on the bay, and we have some great pics and video which will be posted later. Watching Jim was quite a hit with the locals and fellow sailors, and it went very well until it didn´t. Regarding aforementioned knee - it appears to be tweaked but serviceable. With that exception, all are doing very well. No sea sickness episodes. No other traveling afflictions.

We are eating too well, have way too much food on board and expect everyone will have gained five pounds on the cruise. Tuesday night´s dinner was typical: Fresh bonito sashimi appetizer, bonito tuna ceviche´ as a salad course, choice of marinated beef brisket or seared bonita tuna for a main course, served on a bed of brown and wild rice, with warm Mrs. Fields Cookies for desert. All washed down with Escanaba Pail Ale (Bottle #1) and other more conventional brews. For the nutritionists out there concerned about the vegetable course - no worries - the seared tuna was encrusted in a wasabi, soy sauce, cashew nut rub.

I thought I should also clarify that the utensil crisis on board is not quite as dire as represented in a previous post. There are actually two plastic spoons on board, and after an extensive labor negotiation, the captain has been allocated one spoon and the crew the other. As a consequence, the delivery crew has now organized into a union and will be bargaining collectively for future deliveries. Utensil allocation is sure to be a sticking point.

As we get closer to the US, I hope my Sprint Pre will again find a cell tower it likes, as it has not found one since leaving Cabo. I am very bitter as everyone else is connecting regularly. When I again get in range, I´ll get a few pictures up - but they are likely to be jumbled mess as far as the timing when the pictures were taken and will have to be fixed later. #1 and I are also maintaining a pen and paper journal on board, and once back will post portions here with more comprehensive illustrative pics.

Sailmail is again working on-board. We will receive short text e-mail messages sent to wda7721@sailmail.com (I think). I may try posting en-route using sailmail.

This will have to wrap it up for now. Brunch will be waiting on the Morpheus - We´re expecting fresh eggs, peppers, cheese and salsa in a Mexican omelet with a stack of banana pancakes. Then off to San Diego.

With a little luck, we´ll be just in time to clean up for dinner at the San Diego Yacht Club on Friday. Adios Amigos.

Hey Mike...

Jim wants you to pick up an ace bandage while in town.

Bienvenidos a Bahia Tortugas Enrique Town

I double bagged the lightweight sleeping bags found on board and bunked in the cockpit, sleeping under the stars. It was a beautiful night but cool and breezy and I am up with the dawn.

Slow start on the boat this morning as everyone else sleeps in late. No one sleeps in later than Dan. We make book on when Dan would emerge from the aft cabin. The "over" on 11:00 won.

Jim gathered his kite surfing gear and we hail Enrique's water taxi service (same as Enrique's anchorage refueling service) for the boat ride into town. We stop by Prevail to pick up up Captain Bill, who insists on paying Ernesto (Enrique's overworked water taxi driver) with cans of spam. Ernesto circles the boat until negotiations with Bill are complete and we finally head for the pier.

That first step on the landing is a doozy.

Jim sets up his kite on the beach south (west?) of the the pier. A small group of kids and locals stop and gather to watch the launch. Jim's kite is a black & gray inflatable scalloped wing. I told the kids he was Batman. I don't think they believed me. Big excitement when he launched - the kids were squealing and jumping.

With Jim now happily threading his way through fishing boats, sail boats, anchor lines and masts of the racing fleet, we make our way up the beach. We intend to explore the town, but get no further than a bar/restaurant at the North end of the beach.

"Enrique's Bar" of course.

I don't know why they do not just rename this place "Enriques's Bay" and "Enrique Town". BTW - that dot floating over the horizon in these pics is Jim's kite.

We grab a table on a terrace overlooking the bay so we can keep an eye on Jim. While he plays in the bay, we order a round of cervesa and a plate of lightly breaded and fried camarones, accompanied by fresh, hot, flour tortilla's, frijoles, salsa and chips. We are nervous about the fresh salsa, but dive in anyway. Delicious. No harm, no foul.

A tortilla chip blows off the table and we are overwhelmed by a hitchcockian swarm of sea birds. Distracted and beating a hasty retreat to a more protected table, we failed to notice our captain had gone down and was floating out to sea. After finishing the meal, and another round or two of cervesa, Brian notices that Jim was nowhere to be seen. A quick survey of other patrons in the bar yields the information that he had disappeared heading Northeast. We are very concerned and order another round of cervesa to discuss the situation. Finally we decide the best course of action is to explore the north side of town and go looking for him.

We soon find Jim limping up the dirt road near the cemetery. He tweaked his knee on a bad landing. I am the first to welcome him to the Old Man Club. Brian relieves him of the board and he hobbles down the road to Enrique's for a medicinal dose of alcoholic beverages to ease the pain. We continue our tour of the eastern hills, the cemetery, and the spectacular vistas of the bay and fleet. All this touring makes us thirsty, so we return to Enrique's to see how Jim is recuperating.

The Three Amigos?

Over the course of the afternoon, most of the fleet crews make it to the bar. Much sail talk, race talk, weather talk, fish talk and beer consumption ensues. Enrique's staff is overwhelmed and cannot keep track of the bills and bottles, much to the dismay of those left explaining they were not responsible for the food consumed by the people who sat at the same table earlier in the afternoon.

Eventually we pick up some additional supplies and make our way back to the boat. Dan prepares a fine dinner of cheese ravioli in red sauce with Johnsonville sausages. I contribute an avocado,onion, blue cheese salad with oil and vinegar dressing. Since we forgot to bring balsamic vinegar we substituted distilled white vinegar scavenged from Jim's cleaning supplies in the aft deck locker.

Tonight's Movie Night Feature - "Inglorious Basterds". My first viewing. Great flick.

Summary of the race by Jim....

Via text, I have heard they are fine except that they are down to only 1 spoon. This is very typical of Morpheus races and deliveries. They have successfully transitioned straight from coffee to beer today, and Jim is Kite surfing.

Here's the summary....

Am sure you heard from Deb that our communications went
away along with the computer on the morning of the race!!
Ugh.  Not one of my favorite moments.  Check ins were
supposed to be done by email or sat phone and suddenly
I had neither.  We managed to rent a sat phone out of
San Diego and have it delivered 2 hrs later in time to
leave for the starting line and head out to the race
course with no weather info and no "racing features"
like optimum routing onboard.


That actually turned out to be a blessing perhaps
in retrospect as everyone else seemed to have data
that told them to head offshore for wind.  We on
the other hand thought we had plenty of breeze where
we were and stayed with our code0 rather than going
with a small headsail and heading offshore with
the rest.  The breeze held and I thought we'd be
launched but two boats sailed even more direct
(plus we sailed some bad gybe angles that first
night) and we were mid fleet after one day.

From that point on, it was a lucky/good race
where every move that we made seemed to work
out.  That plus the fact that the bigger boats
in front were constantly seeing less pressure
than we had so we compressed. We had a great side
by side battle with the sc52 (Prevail) for two days.
They were always in sight sometime faster,
sometime slower and I know that kept the
intensity up on the boat.



The last night we knew it was going to be
close for 1st and given the boats history knew
we'd be finishing at night.  It was light 6-8
knots in the early evening and there was no
clear benefit to staying out or going in.
So....we did the traditional sail the
favored leg until about midnight, but the
shifts seem to follow us regardless as we
remained dead upwind of the finish and projected
to be an hour late.

It came down to a final call.  A swing for the
fences, so based on the forecast we were supposed
to be watching for a port gybe lift and I made the
call to take off on port and head for the beach
hoping for some more pressure as well.

We never saw that port lift, but what we did
see was constantly increasing pressure as we
approached the shore, and the most amazing miracle
shift ever where we got headed at least 45 degrees
in pressure, made it around the point without gybing,
and blasted down the last 3 miles within a quarter
mile of shore in 20 knots of breeze on a beamy broad
reach in absolutely flat water (wind off beach)
with a full moon and the spectacular rocky cliff
scenery ashore.  It was spectacular!!!!  And, we
ended up winning by over two hours!!!

You can probably easily imagine what happened then.
It involved beer, rum, tequila, etc.  we finished at
3am or so, and didn't really stop until 4:30am the
next morning!!

It was fun!!  I was/am happy!!

?? ETA ??

So the boys are happy in Turtle Bay. If you check the tracker, they have LOTS of company, so don't feel bad for them. They have food, books and I'm sure someone has some cards...

After checking with our weather Guru on the east coast, it looks like the wind will drop enough so the boat may be able to leave TB Wednesday afternoon. It's about 350 miles from TB to San Diego, so that's at least 2 days to get to SD. So, my best guess is that the boat should get in LATE Friday night, but more likely, Saturday some time...

Brian's Morpheus Blog Sea-date 04/05/10 We Arrive in Bahia Tortugas & Drink Escanaba Pail Ale Bottle #1

12:01 AM
"Mike!" [leg shake] - nothing. "Mike!" [leg shake] - nothing. "Mike!" [leg shake] - nothing. "Mike! Mike! Mike!" - nothing. "Mike!" [shoulder shake] - nothing. "Mike!" [shoulder shake] - nothing. "UNCLE MIKE!" [shoulder shake].

"Huh??"

With that my relief finally woke up and rolled out of bed. He should have relieved me 15 minutes ago because he owed me some watch time, but who keeps track of little things like that. I explained what heading we needed to follow, when he should wake Jim up, and with that I went to bed.



6:00 AM
Time for my morning watch. Grabbed my book and couple granola bars and up to the cockpit I went. I really enjoy the 6AM watch because I get to see the sunrise every morning. Today it rose over the coastal mountains. It made for a great picture. But even the picture didn't quite do it justice. My watch was pretty uneventful and my relief was already awake and drinking his morning coffee.

I was tired and went back to sleep.


11ish AM
I was awakened because my help was needed on deck. We had arrived at Turtle bay Bay and Jim wanted to take down and cover the main sail. For an unexperienced crew we did a pretty good job.

We cruised around the bay to find the perfect spot to park and lowered the anchor. We were very very careful to avoid hitting the boat with the anchor or letting the chain rub against the boat. Jim was happy that we did that job well.


Enrique came out to get us gas. Jim's tank doesn't vent very well, so we had to get gas out of cans using a unique method. We put two tubes into the gas can opening, cover the hole with paper towels and then blow into the tube. This creates a vacuum which sucks the gas out of the can and into the tank. This process need to be repeated several times. Just an fyi... Diesel doesn't taste very good.

Mike and I jumped into the Bay. It was cold. Well... about the temperature of Lake Superior. It was a very short swim to say the least. The rest of the day was spent on the boat relaxing and drinking beer.

7:00 PM
Mike and Dan prepared a great dinner.

They made sashimi, ceviche, seared tuna, marinated beef brisket, served on a bed of brown and wild rice medley with jelly beans and Mrs. Fields cookies for desert. My favorite was the ceviche.

We toasted the meal with a bottle of EPA home brew and all wore festive sombreros during dinner. I volunteered to do the dishes due to the fact that I didn't cook anything. We ended the day by watching The Hangover - a great way to celebrate the half-way point.

Did I mention Mike is the only one without cell coverage?

They are in and safe...

Just got a call from the boat. They are anchored, safe, happy and well. Jim just had a beer, and the rest are making lunch. They have plenty of food, coffee and company in the bay. Now just to wait out the wind...

Turtle Bay?

According to the tracker, they've made it to Turtle Bay.

4am April 5th

this has to have been one of the all time
strangest nights onboard.

with a weather forecast for 15 to 20 out of the NW,
we get full on victory at sea conditions from sunset
through about midnight with a steady shift from
the nw to the ene!!  spent most of the night with
engine off reaching along with double reefed main
while dropping off huge waves and then having the
next few wash over us.  the crew has been initiated
and now clearly understands what the baja bash is
all about!!

Now to top things off at 4am the wind has died down
to 5 knots out of the nw again???  what is up with
all that??  turtle bay in about 8 hours for
some rest and to let a bigger blow slide by.

more later.

jim

Brian's Morpheus Blog Sea-date April 4, 2010 Late Watch

I am already in danger of falling hopelessly behind on the pen and paper log of our journey and need help. Brian volunteers. His first entry:

I was shaken awake around 9:50 pm for my watch and was told to put the foul weather gear on. That is not the first thing you want hear upon waking up. It is also not the easiest thing to do, especially wen you are half asleep and the boat is rocking. After a brief struggle and a little help my space suit was on.

I went up for 10:00 - 12:00 pm watch and Captain Jim met me on deck. He killed the engine and told me we were going to sail for few hours. This would allow for a smoother ride and Jim to get some much needed sleep. He briefed me on what I needed to know, stayed on deck with me for another ten minutes (at which point he felt that I wouldn't screw up too much) and went below to get some sleep.

Angry sea in the evening.


It is the same at night...

...except you can't see it.

That left me alone under the light of a million stars, on top of an angry sea with 15 foot swells, 5-6 ft waves, and 15-20 knots of wind at my back. I managed to keep us on course and 25 degrees left of where the wind was blowing.

The boat sailed between 4-8 knots during my watch. I got sprayed a little bit when I would stick my head above the dodger to take a look around. Other than that, It was an uneventful watch.

Time to wake up my relief. - Brian

April 4 Morpheus Delivery Journal - Fish Story

Last night we saw Pendragon's sail on the horizon, and overnight watched her lights shadow us a few miles off the starboard aft. She was gaining on us earlier, but was nowhere to be seen by my morning watch. We were a little concerned as we heard they had some problems during the race with the construction of the new boat. The morning radio call revealed that she had pulled into an anchorage for the night.


After the watch, I dropped the hand line back in the water. I used the same rig as yesterday, but let out more line - dragging the plug about 45 yards behind the boat. While in the cockpit enjoying my morning coffee, I notice a distinct metallic blue-green flash in the water behind the boat near the lure. I tell Jim and Dan "There is a fish going after the bait right now." I don't think they believed me. In seconds we had a fish on the line. This is the fishing equivalent of Babe Ruth calling his shot in Wrigley Field.

We still have no net on board, but did at least learn one lesson from the last delivery. This time we waited until the fish rolled over before attempting to bring it on board, and then grabbed it under the gill rather than by the leader.

photo by Dan

It was a smallish bonito tuna, but big enough to feed the four of us. Killed it, bled it, and filleted it while hanging off the aft transom step.


So I got a little fish blood on my cargo pants while balancing on the eight inch step with a knife and a slippery fish. Jim insists I bag the pants and and bans them from the boat for the balance of the delivery. WTF. Anyway - tuna sashimi, tuna ceviche', and and seared tuna is on the menu. Brian tries his first ever sample of sashimi. The verdict?

"It's Ok."

OK? OK?!?! Sigh. What did I expect? I am putting pearls before swine.

I understand if The Reader thinks I have gone a bit overboard and over-documented this one smallish catch. But after the fishing frustrations of the Hawaii to SF passage, and given that this is my first tuna ever, it just seemed like the right thing to do. After all, with this catch we were 1-0 on this delivery. Scored one fish, in one day, against no lost lures.

Message(s) from the boat...

Via text, all is well on the boat and they seem to be having a great time. Pendragon was sailing "side by side with them under more stars than you could imagine." Jim was wishing he could take a picture of last night and hang it on the wall. They are heading directly for Turtle Bay, Lat 27.65, Long 114.85, which is a bay just below the next big point of land. Their plan is to tuck in there and wait for some bad weather to pass, then continue on to San Diego. They haven't gotten sail mail up yet, but Jim's working on it.

That's all for now...

Sunday 04/04 9 CDST AM