Wednesday - 3/20/02

We got a very nice slip at Marina San Carlos with water and power for 40¢ a foot per day.

Had an inordinate amount of trouble starting the outboard. So we motored over to the slip with the lectric trolling motor instead. Our slip was on the opposite side of the marina which has showers and is quieter thatn the office side.

I was very excited to go for a sail but by the time we had everything together it was about noon and this being the third day of a norther as it was called, the wind was blowing briskly through the harbor "slot".

We continued to have trouble starting the outboard. But a local cleaning a boat next to us said, "I used to have one of those engines - they flood. Pull the cord dry 3x and sure enough it starts. we let it run there in neutral for a good five minutes. Much as it has run in buckets at my house and at the outboard shop countless times.

As we slipped out of the marina and into the harbor entrance bay the wind was really whipping with whitecaps in a very enclosed area.

The motor ran just long enough to get us into some real trouble. About 2/3 of the way out of the harbor bay is a private beach with half a dozen luxury yachts moored fairly close to shore. The motor just quit suddenly at a fairly high throttle and smoke billowed out. I was pretty sure it had seized.

 

The Marina office is in the building. The ramp is just to the left. further to the left is the Plaza Las Glorias hotel. There is plenty of room to rig here in the parking lot. And at least during this "slow" time plenty of places to leave your vehicle. Just ask at the office.

The mooring area of the harbor. The marina is to the left. The entrance to the harbor is around the point on the top left. We landed the boat during our accident drill right down in front there on the breakwall. When the wind is coming from the north it blows hard through those rocks on the right and through a very pronounced canyon further to the right. The air gets quite excited being squeezed.

There was no time to ponder, as the luxury yachts were less than 100 yards away and closing fast. The sails were quickly hauled despite this howling wind. Of course, my reefing system was not entirely installed so we had to dump the wind out and careen wildly on a beam reach away from the yachts towards a beach on the other side. there were easily 2 dozen large yachts moored in this outer entrance bay. to make it all the way mack into the marina would require a minimum of two high-wind ( right in the mouth of the slot no less) gybes and a downwind run through the marina. My son was not up for that which is good because I would have been foolish enough to try. This day was probably my sons 10th time sailing with hardly any of it being in high winds before. The slot was easily creating 25+ wind - so, I tacked our way through the moorings and chose a landing against a break wall on the civilized side of the bay, near where we could tie up to some dilapidated fishing boats. I called San Carlos marina on Ch16 and notified them of our plight. In moments a huge ferry type boat showed up and proceeded to take us back to our slip.

I sure was happy to have a small boat with a swing keel. We just lowered the sails and had a gentle crash into the rocks. A couple of gelcoat scrapes.

A very good lesson was learned today: Do not spare any expense on a reliable outboard if you are going to do things that require you to depend on it.

Of course, our accident caused quite a rukus which brought about a wild adventure for the rest of the afternoon. A local insisted on having the motor fixed and I was insistent that it could not be trusted. But we went to the motor shop on the hill and they promptly tore it down and put it back together - plopped it in the tank where it promptly ran. but I said, no, no I want an engine I can trust to get in and out of that slot. So off we flew on a hunt for motors to no avail. But it was fun chasing people and running into shops madly searching for a small hp long shaft outboard. The Marine Mart thought they could have one in a day or two from Tuscon.

This is the mooring area looking at it from the entrance pass into the harbor. The pronounced point in the top left of the picture above this one is off this picture to the right. Coming in, you want to stay as far right as you can, because the boats coming out dont have alot of room to their right with the moorings. During our week of sailing it was always blowing from the North, harder in this bay than it actually was out of it in the sailing grounds. So much so, I think, that many of the cruisers didn't head out of the marina because it blew so hard in there.

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