And They're Off...

4/15/13 - 10:39 local, 15:39Z

We have left Mexico!  The sign-out procedures were (as anticipated) a bit of a circus but both immigration and the port captain were very helpful to make sure we were able to leave with all of the necessary paperwork.  We left at 3:20PM on Sunday and are now just beginning day #3 on the sea.

Although winds were predicted to be from the northwest we found out very quickly that they were actually coming from right where we wanted to be going!  Sailboats cannot sail directly up wind.  Instead you have to tack back and forth in a zig-zag pattern so that the wind hits your sails at an angle and (just as in an airplane) uses lift and the momentum of the wind to propel you forward.  When tacking to get somewhere up wind you not only move slower because the wind blows you back a bit but you also have to cover twice or more ground than you would if you were headed straight from point a to point b.  So this is where we are.

Luckily the wind was reasonably strong and the swell was low so we covered 60+ nautical miles towards Hawaii in the first 24 hours and by now have covered close to 180nm.  This is definitely progress but we are a little bummed because our boat can easily sail 125+ nm per day.  At least the trade winds wont be right in our faces but we have to get there first!  

Other than the wind, so far everything has gone smoothly and we have enjoyed the company of hundreds of dolphins and 20 or so sea turtles.  Some little suicide squid jumped up onto our deck last night and Adam just put them on our lures as (used to be) alive bait.  I am always amazed by the stars when we get away from land but over the last few nights we have seen a number of meteors which has been a real treat!

We are currently checking in with the Pacific Seafarers Net (www.pacseanet.com) and continue to put our position reports in YOTREPS.  You can go to www.shiptrak.org to see a video of our progress.  Unfortunately some of the reports are under our ship station call sign: WDG8553 (all up until now) and others are under Adam's ham call sign: KD9AFE (because that is how the Pacific Seafarers Net logs them).  I tried sweet talking them into combining the two but no can do.

That is it for now and I hope this message makes it over the radio waves to you all!
 

While at Zihuatanejo, MX. Our boat is the one by Adam's head!

Anchored in Zihuatanejo (no more!)

Posted for Rachel and Adam by Lori Hughes