1) The sailing here s u c k s
In the summer, although the winds are perfect, it is too hot to sail during the day (105 or so average) - - - so there remains a very small sailing window of opportunity in the early evening only - - - and it is STILL very hot then - - - so four months out of the year sailing opportunity is limited, and I’m a guy who got out 250 times in 2007 while I was in Marina Del Rey, so I like to get out A LOT - - - but I DON’T like sailing at night. At this time the temperatures are better for sailing, but the winds are way too strong for me - - - for me that is not fun as most days I singlehand.2) The marina here REALLY s u c k s! It is basically unprotected from the Sea. If you go to Google Earth and type in San Felipe, BC, Mexico, and then go south from town along the beach you will see the Sea Wall with three sides and an opening to the Sea on the east wall. The engineers who built this wall really messed up because there is no channel out to the Sea to protect the harbor, just a hole in the seawall. Basically then, when the wind gets up to about 30 MPH (basically every other day since summer ended), the water comes both OVER the wall from the north or through the entrance from the east and you can surf inside the harbor if you so desire! Add to that the fact that they put the recreational docks and fuel dock in the worst possible place (in the southwest corner of the harbor instead of the much preferred northwest corner) and we wind up with an ABSOLUTE DISASTER on our docks when the wind blows!!! The water CRASHES over the docks and rocks even the big boats unmercifully! The experienced guys who know tell me that these brand new docks will not last through their first year - - - they are getting ripped apart already. After the first weekend of wind here, my Mac sustained a bunch of damage, including a five inch vertical split in the hull from crashing against the dock after not one, not two, but THREE lines broke, which I think goes all the way through - - - hard to tell because the inside wall in the V berth is covered with a carpet like wall covering. I had the boat secured no where near the docks - - - a LOT had to happen before it could bang against the dock - - - and it all DID!! Fortunately the split is very high on the hull, just below the deck, so the boat did not take on any water. The split is about at the end of the forward windows on the deck.
Another major piece of damage occurred to the shore power receptacle, which was ripped completely out of the hull. The wiring is still there and apparently intact, but it will take a new receptacle and some careful fiberglass work to repair correctly. I had two coils of the shore power line around the safety lifeline before it was plugged in - - - so it must have taken a heck of a beating to sustain that much damage.
I am now told by the other recreational sailors here (all of whom are more experienced and know much more about the area than I) that the winds will sustain at 30 MPH+ for much of the time until summer arrives again - - - so I had to pull the boat out of the marina, both to protect it from further damage and to get it repaired (my deductibles are high enough that I will just have to eat the cost of repairs). After I got “The Nuts” back on its trailer I noticed another problem: when I put the boat in the water on 9/9/08, the bottom paint was in LIKE NEW condition. When I pulled it on 10/14, the paint is GONE on the front half of the hull and almost gone on the aft half (another dime ($1,000) down the tubes)! So I said to myself “self, how the h e l l did this happen”? At first I thought it might have been a result of some kind of electrolysis - - - but then one of the “old salts” explained it to me. Because of the monster tide fluctuations here (21 feet now) the sand on the bottom of the first mile out into the Sea of the water REALLY gets stirred up, causing the water to take on a greenish, gray-brownish color and causing the water to be VERY concentrated with sand the first mile out - - - which acts like sandpaper (pardon the pun) on the hull when it slices through the water - - - which has in JUST ONE MONTH sanded the paint off the bottom (BEAUTIFUL – JUST BEAUTIFUL). This, of course, would be a recurring problem if I stayed here (I wondered why the fishing Pangas don’t have bottom paint).
I knew conditions would not be perfect here for sailing - - - and I AM SPOILED having previously been based in MDR - - - but this is awful and I can tolerate it no longer! It’s not that I didn’t do my homework before moving here - - - I did - - - but nowhere were these kind of winds mentioned as prevailing most of the year - - - I was very specific in trying to obtain that information. Add to that the fact that the Mexican Government could not have located the recreational docks in a worse place in the harbor (and this is the last one they built in the ladder around Baja - - you think they would have learned something), and the fact that the fishermen (in the Pangas) hate recreational boaters for being in their harbor in the first place, and boating here has become a most unpleasant experience!! I surrender - - - time to go - - - without sailing, this is a nice place to visit, but
Now I want to ask you guys who live around Las Vegas and Lake Mead (I know about Lake Mead and Calville Marina - - - I was there for Mead Madness in 2006), what other bodies of water exist around there which are suitable for a Mac??? It seems to me Calville is a long way to travel to get out on the water. How big are the alternatives and how far from maybe the 15 and 215?? I need to be on the water in a slip!
We have learned much here and I don’t regret the experiences, but it is time to return home.
Rick
