mvweebles
Guru
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2019
- Messages
- 7,248
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- Weebles
- Vessel Make
- 1970 Willard 36 Trawler
It's been 3-weeks since we left Ensenada with the Baja Ha Ha fleet and we are now anchored in La Paz, something close to 900 nms away from Ensenada. Time for some random thoughts.
Weve averaged around 6.4 kts, burned around 1.4 gph. I don't track these very closely so best-guesstimate.
Longest leg was Leg 1 from Ensenada to Turtle Bay, about 250 nms - two overnights. Overall, have done 4 or 5 overnight runs so far. We are a crew of two.
We keep a defined watch schedule. I fade early so Cheryll takes 8PM-11PM, I take 11PM-2AM; Cheryll 2AM-4AM; and I take 4AM to 7PM. I take the linon's share of the night watches is fine by me. Daytime is a bit more flexible. We have found that if we don't keep a watch schedule, what invariably happens is we both need a break at the same time. Overall, having just two aboard has been easier than we thought. And our boat is a small 36-footer so a third person would be difficult.
Maintenance and repairs. A recent thread on Diesel Ducks asked why so many of them come up for sale so quickly? I'm not sure that's true, but if it is, I suspect that newbie entrants to long distance cruising vastly miscalculate the mechanical aptitude and effort needed to keep a boat running. If you either don't enjoy working on boats are do not posess the ability, long distance cruising will be scary, frustrating, and your destinations severely limited. This goes way beyond single/twin debate. This is about keeping refrigeration cold, pumps pumping, watermakers making water, generator generating, inverters inverting, solar charging, etc. It's an endless list of to-dos, some more serious than others. I don't know why this topic is so rarely discussed on this forum (and other forums). But the amount of mechancial work required to keep a boat moving is astonishing.
We both started the trip with the Flu which sucked. Cheryll was slower to recover than I was, but for the first 4-5 days, we barely ate. Frankly, we still haven't eaten much and when we do, tends to be one meal for the day. Our appetites have evolved and adapted which is fine. Cheryll has developed a sciatica (sp?_ issue that has made getting on/off boat to dinghy sometimes difficult (we have not been to a marina since we left Ensenada).
In a few days, we'll hop to the mainland side of Mexico and start meandering south to Mazatlan. We've enjoyed being part of the Ha Ha fleet and highly recommend it to others, but frankly, we look forward to getting outside the Gringo Zone of Baja. The influence of Americans has been surprising to us - Ensenada, despite being a mere 80-miles south of San Diego area, seemed more authentically Mexican than La Paz (and certainly Cabo, though both are thoroughly Mexican once you get a half-mile inland from the marinas).
Our destination plan is to get south of hurricane zone by May, which is Costa Rica in these parts. Our commitment is to keep going until it isn't fun anymore or we hit Florida. My guess is we'll put Weebles on a ship somewhere near Panama rather than head north in the Caribbean, a difficult run.
Peter
Weve averaged around 6.4 kts, burned around 1.4 gph. I don't track these very closely so best-guesstimate.
Longest leg was Leg 1 from Ensenada to Turtle Bay, about 250 nms - two overnights. Overall, have done 4 or 5 overnight runs so far. We are a crew of two.
We keep a defined watch schedule. I fade early so Cheryll takes 8PM-11PM, I take 11PM-2AM; Cheryll 2AM-4AM; and I take 4AM to 7PM. I take the linon's share of the night watches is fine by me. Daytime is a bit more flexible. We have found that if we don't keep a watch schedule, what invariably happens is we both need a break at the same time. Overall, having just two aboard has been easier than we thought. And our boat is a small 36-footer so a third person would be difficult.
Maintenance and repairs. A recent thread on Diesel Ducks asked why so many of them come up for sale so quickly? I'm not sure that's true, but if it is, I suspect that newbie entrants to long distance cruising vastly miscalculate the mechanical aptitude and effort needed to keep a boat running. If you either don't enjoy working on boats are do not posess the ability, long distance cruising will be scary, frustrating, and your destinations severely limited. This goes way beyond single/twin debate. This is about keeping refrigeration cold, pumps pumping, watermakers making water, generator generating, inverters inverting, solar charging, etc. It's an endless list of to-dos, some more serious than others. I don't know why this topic is so rarely discussed on this forum (and other forums). But the amount of mechancial work required to keep a boat moving is astonishing.
We both started the trip with the Flu which sucked. Cheryll was slower to recover than I was, but for the first 4-5 days, we barely ate. Frankly, we still haven't eaten much and when we do, tends to be one meal for the day. Our appetites have evolved and adapted which is fine. Cheryll has developed a sciatica (sp?_ issue that has made getting on/off boat to dinghy sometimes difficult (we have not been to a marina since we left Ensenada).
In a few days, we'll hop to the mainland side of Mexico and start meandering south to Mazatlan. We've enjoyed being part of the Ha Ha fleet and highly recommend it to others, but frankly, we look forward to getting outside the Gringo Zone of Baja. The influence of Americans has been surprising to us - Ensenada, despite being a mere 80-miles south of San Diego area, seemed more authentically Mexican than La Paz (and certainly Cabo, though both are thoroughly Mexican once you get a half-mile inland from the marinas).
Our destination plan is to get south of hurricane zone by May, which is Costa Rica in these parts. Our commitment is to keep going until it isn't fun anymore or we hit Florida. My guess is we'll put Weebles on a ship somewhere near Panama rather than head north in the Caribbean, a difficult run.
Peter
