May 2, 2024-Sailing Upwind on a Windy day with Sarah

wingssail images-fredrick roswold  

 

07:00 AM Thursday and it’s a beautiful day. 

We see dark water outside the anchorage and decide that since there might be wind maybe we should set sail to Espiritu Santo today. That way we can stay there an extra day and still have time to visit Balandra before heading back to La Paz on Monday.

The breeze is out there right now and we think and it might not be there later so let’s get going. We hurriedly get the boat ready, weigh anchor and set sail. At 7:30 AM we’re sailing out of the anchorage under main alone.

As we clear the point the boat heels sharply and, yeah! There’s wind: 18 knots true. The #4 is ready and we hoist it and sheet in onto a reach in what we think is a westerly breeze.

At first we’re lost; which way is Espirtu Santo? It should be ahead but we can’t see it. We hadn’t done any navigation but we see now that the wind is 180 degrees, due south not westerly. I punched in the waypoint for Calita Partida on Espiritu Santo and we get a heading: 150 degrees! Looks like a beat.

We come up to close hauled on starboard. We see that can’t make Espiritu Santo on one tack but and the sailing is beautiful and we’re going 7+ plus knots.

We set the wind vane and settle down for a long day of tacking.

At 10:30 the wind is shifting right. We are lifted up almost to the rumb line, no need to tack, but the wind has increased to 24 true. We reef.

Half an hour later we are playing the shifts in the lee of Espiritu Santo so we tack and get lifted again, this time on port tack. We are easily inside of Isla Islotes.

Now we have just a few tacks to go up the east side of Espiritu Santo in a softening breeze and we shake out the reef. We arrive at Calita Partida at 1:00 PM and get the hook down in our favorite place tucked in by the little fish camp.

wingssail images-fredrick roswold Chart Showing our track

In the log book we write, “This was a wild upwind sail in 20-24 knots, wet, fast, fun”

fredrick roswold with sarah lace, s/v wings, mexico

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