Day 1: March 12, 2000

Vlad cleaned the bottom of the small amount of growth since we last did it in Tenacatita Bay a couple of weeks ago. He also cleaned the paddlewheel for the log, which had not worked when we crossed Banderas Bay. The log worked for less than a day before packing it in due to growth on the paddlewheel anyway!

Finally, after putting everything that can shift, move or fall away, we weighed anchor and left the anchorage at 10:00 a.m.

There was not much wind to begin with and we motored out past the Islas Tres Marietas at the entrance to Banderas Bay but we started sailing after about two hours. The winds picked up so that we were doing six knots but then calmed down again towards evening. There was a fair amount of freighter and fishing boat traffic about 24 miles out and at dusk, we must have crossed a whale highway because there were several pods of whales very close to the boat, travelling northwards. It was a little scary having them so close and hearing them exhale forcefully as they surfaced, but it lasted only about half an hour and then they were gone. The water is still a greenish color this close to shore.

We started keeping watches immediately. We run a three hour watch system starting from 0700 which is Vlad’s watch. We don’t change watches, but always keep the same hours so that it is easier to develop settled sleep patterns.