Ophelia Offshore

We had a quick and mellow ~50nm/8hr hop from Cabo to Los Frailes in front of us – so the forecast said. We picked up anchor in the morning expecting to arrive at our destination in the afternoon rested and relaxed from a day on the water.

Instead we arrived after dark, missing all of our mast blocks, and far from relaxed. It was a calm motor until about half way, when the winds from the North picked up to ~30knots on the nose and created short period steep waves we were bashing into. We tried turning off the wind, but then the seas were on our beam rolling us violently. As the unexpected wind and waves battered us, I continued to check the forecasts, all 12 of them, certain if I confirmed the forecasts were still saying it was calm, then the weather would have to acquiesce. Jesse did not share this conviction.

Our VMG was under 1knot. Velocity Made Good is the calculation that combines your speed with your angle and represents the actual progress you are making towards your destination. We use it in sailing, because so often you aren’t able to sail directly where you want to go due to wind angles, so knowing “If you’re going X knots faster but Y degrees off course, are you making better time to your destination?” is helpful. We had 12nms left to Los Frailes. It was supposed to be about 2 hours at our usual speed of 6 knots. With the VMG under 1, we were looking at 12+ hours left…

We hove-to to assess the situation. My phone pinged – a helpful but untimely text from our friend on Wild Blue – “Watch out leaving Cabo, there are strong winds and steep swell around the point.”

We took down the sails except for a scrap of main to stabilize the boat, motored on, and eventually made it to Los Frailes where we dropped the hook in a calm and quiet bay in the middle of the night. The next morning we found the mast blocks scattered around the front cabin. The pounding of the waves had loosened them all and they fell out.

We spent a few days in Los Frailes enjoying the scenic bay and learning how to reinstall mast blocks (actually surprisingly easy to move the mast around with your lines and winches). There was wildlife watching and listening everywhere. Some of the brightest bioluminescent we’ve seen yet. Whales songs we could hear through the hull all night. Rays jumping out of the water, one after another. It was a paradise.

Which I suppose is why billionaires started showing up. As we were sweating through our sun shirts on the deck trying to re-install the mast blocks, Mark Zuckerberg pulled up in his super yacht with his support boat, his helicopter, and his tender. They made quite the commotion arriving, but by the time they got the water-level living room door folded out (very cool) the whales started the most spectacular show we’ve seen yet. Breaching out of the water in the middle of the anchorage with a baby.

There was a bit of a hiccup with the water maker – Being a good sailor and showing strong seamanship, I decided I should check the oil level of the high pressure pump to ensure everything was good since I changed in a few weeks prior. The sight glass is installed 2″ from the wall so the only way to see it is to stick your cell phone back there and take a photo of it. And I panicked – It was empty! I rushed to fill it. But not much went in? It’s overflowing from the top now. I took a million more photos, maybe it wasn’t empty? I drained the oil. Took more photos. Put more oil back in. Took more photos. We eventually decided the oil level had been fine from the start, but hey, now the pump had had a full fresh oil flush – even better than an oil change.