Fighting for every inch.

Day 3, April 1. 2010
18 45N 107 47W, course made good in 24 hours: 22.7 miles.

We have been plagued by calms. Despite our productive first day out, we have been working for every meter we gain. Unfortunately this is typical of the first part of this passage and we are not alone. The coast of Mexico, South of the Baja typically has very little wind until you get out 2-300 miles out and reach the North-West trade winds. While we did leave during a local windy period, when that system died it unfortunately left us sitting in the middle of a no-wind hole. Of course our weather forecasts told us that we should have been in 5-7 knots of wind the whole time. We sat becalmed for almost 36 hours until yesterday afternoon when a 8-10 knot breeze picked up out of the NW and carried us a whopping 26 miles before it died in the middle of the night. Thankfully the last two nights have been full of sleep since we basically turned the anchor light on both just went below and slept. One of us would get up every hour or so and check for wind and ships. It has been so flat that it has made the anchorage in La Cruz look like a storm tossed sea! This morning we also have a nice 8-10 kt Northwesterly which is pulling us along on a completely flat sea. This has also confirmed our suspicion that we are destined to always sail up wind, even here on this typically downwind leg. Those trade winds better be in fine shape or I'm going to be disappointed.