Let's go to Bahia Santa Maria!

Halloween came the day after the Turtle Bay beach party. We were scheduled to leave at Noon and then for reasons unknown to us the time got changed to leaving two hours earlier. Unfortunately, we were going to take Jesse to town for the first time that morning and had to scrap that idea to get ready to go. This can be the downfall of traveling in a group. The leg from Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria is roughly 2 days, 2 nights so we started out with the crowd.

Judy had a great Halloween outfit for the occasion complete with BOO earrings!


The fleet.

Views leaving Turtle Bay.

Bob from Gate 11 aboard Sceptre. He may be offering up his boat as the next J boat for charter and training since J-World sunk.

Raising the main sail.

Setting up the genekker.

Caught you smiling...

Unsocking the Genekker.

Sleepy cat, sleepy cat what are they feeding you? Maybe he should stop drinking with the chickens.

Sunset the first day of the second leg with Judy and I clicking away on the cameras.

Did someone say "Michael's Shepard's Pie!" Yummy!

Fish on and Kipsa curiosity.

Cheese...and warmer weather.

Da Boyz.

We had 2 shifts each night at sea. Jesse and I took the 10pm to 2am shift and Judy and Michael took the 2am to 6am shift. Often Jesse would go down for a nap at the beginning and through most of our shift because he is not a night owl like me and spent plenty of time at helm during the day. I love the night shift. I listen to my I-pod, do bad dancing for exercise and to stay warm, and I blindly scribble page after page of randomly occurring thoughts.

On the night of Halloween when I was fixing a snack just after the start of Jesse's and my shift and heard a plunk on the cabin top of something metal. The cat even noticed looking up and at me. With trepidation I opened the campanion way and asked if Jesse had heard it too. He was trying to get his PFD (life jacket) on quickly. I was worried and beat him to the punch. I shined a flashlight up at the gooseneck (where the boom is attached to the mast) hoping the sound had not been the gooseneck nut. Sure enough the gooseneck nut was gone and nowhere laying on the deck and the gooseneck bolt had backed out almost completely. Jesse got the tools out and twisted the bolt back into position and checked and tightened it repeatedly throughout the night.

This loss was a little distressing as we had no spare nut, we were soon to be slightly low on fuel, there was no chance to refuel at the next stop with no facilities, and the main sail was unusable because without the nut the bolt kept backing out.

Sunrise the second day of the second leg.

When there was enough light Jesse and Michael assessed the situation.

While at sea Jesse and I use "The Pit" to nap in. This is a habit from our first long trip when we doublehanded from Alameda to Catalina Island in 2007. (We shine a flashlight on the napping person if we need help on deck when we doublehand). The forward berth is a little bouncy underway so we use it to stow stuff. (Judy and Michael had the aft berth which is good to sleep in underway). Kipsa cat is always happy when anyone goes down for a nap because he can either lay on them or curl up under their arm (see below).

Almost to Bahia Santa Maria...