Days 6 - 9 March 17 – March 20, 2000

We crossed tracks with another sailboat, TUCUMCARI from Oregon, in the early morning of day 6 and then swapped tacks with them a couple of times during the day. TUCUMCARI left Paradise Village Marina about an hour before we did. It was comforting to see another small boat on this vast ocean, but at the same time, meant that we had to be on the ball and keep a careful watch. Boats close together tend to get closer for some reason. We sailed within sight for almost two days.

Wind continues very light. We tried the spinnaker downwind for a couple of hours but found it actually slower than the genny, so took it back down. We reset the sails constantly trying for an extra .5 knot. Sometimes we go wing on wing, sometimes we are reaching. When the wind dies completely we motor. It does not seem worth it to just drift since there is no guarantee any wind will appear later anyway. As long as we use low RPM and keep an eye on our diesel consumption, Vlad figures we could motor for 6 hours per day for 30 days. Let’s hope we don’t have to! (By 2400 miles we motored 138 hours and still have about 35 gallons of diesel left).

One afternoon a boobie took up residence on top of the mast but we dislodged him by hoisting a flag pennant on a dowel and poking him in the bum! Dolphins swam by the boat in quite large groups on one day and then we had a small flock of masked boobies (black extending all the length of the wings) which fly round the boat and make it impossible to fish, because we don’t want to hurt them if they go for the lure. On another day a flock of red footed boobies accompanied us. At night we can hear lots of small birds flying round the boat and chirping away merrily, but can’t see them clearly enough to identify. They are ternlike in flight and might be petrels. One evening Vlad was sitting in the cockpit behind the wheel when a flying fish suddenly flew into his lap! He managed to capture the slimy thing and put it back overboard. There are usually a few flying fish and squid on deck in the morning.

Problems continued with the alternator. We tried resetting the Link 2000R but are still charging only intermittently if at all. To conserve power, we have not been using the masthead trilight, instead using the all-around white anchor light (which draws very little current) until we actually see another vessel and then we light the masthead light. The log display is not on at all because the log is not working and we don’t need to know the depth – its 3,000 plus fathoms here anyway. Although we do have to avoid Ville de Toulouse Rock (presumably named for the first ship known to have hit it), which is fairly close to our rhumb line. Vlad rechecked all the wiring and decided to swap the alternator for our spare, which we bought just before we left Puerto Vallarta. This was quite an effort because the mounting brackets are not the same and he had to use a hacksaw to cut off part of the new alternator mounting in order for it to fit. He finally got it all mounted and working. It charged for about half an hour and then gave up, with similar symptoms to the other alternator – occasional very high numbers (200+) then low then finally no charge at all.

We are still able to receive the Amigo Net (the daily net we used in Mexico and which was originally started by Dave Dobson on ASTROLABE) and it is fun to know what MORNING, AMAZON and PARAQUINA are all doing. Reception is still pretty good. Vlad writes down the locations of the other boats on the nets he listens to and it comes in handy. One night, a sailboat approached from the north at about 2330 which, based on our positions earlier in the evening, I suspected to be WILE E. COYOTE, so I called on the VHF radio and indeed it was them. We discussed our relative speeds and courses and agreed I would go astern of them. This made it a much less nervous situation.