Another unusual trip, from one anchorage to the next without an overnight. Refreshing and relaxing! About 10 nautical miles, a little less than most of our day sails in the San Francisco Bay.

Trip Summary – 03/16/2023

Pulled up anchor at Tenacatita at 10:35, anchored at San Patricio/Melaque at 16:39 on 3/16/2023. We started with 74% of our 48-volt bank and ended with 80%.

We sailed off the anchor with good wind, I actually had to depower the main because we were going to sail right over the anchor with too much chain still out. The water clarity was, of course, the absolute best on the day we were leaving. We saw hundreds of fish and could see the sandy sea floor perfectly. Fish swam through the boat’s shadow against the sand.

As we sailed south out of Tenacatita, there was a standup paddleboarder moving slowly on a collision course with us. Everybody was going slowly, and when we got close enough to talk we exchanged pleasantries, he slowed down to let us pass, and we all kept enjoying our days.

I went below to do some focused work, while Charles solo sailed. A fish caught up with the boat and drafted on our speed for awhile, frustrating to no end because we had just decided to get some better equipment for getting the fish into the boat after we lost 3 fish in a row on prior sails – it just didn’t feel ethical to keep fishing until we knew we could finish what we started. But there was this big, beautiful, highly edible fish, just hanging out directly behind us for 30 minutes!

We got some whale action in the distance, and some dolphin action up close. The dolphins from a distance looked like fishing activity, meaning maybe nets, so we kept the binoculars out and checked them regularly for hours. One of the dolphins was really spotted, unusual for us to see. It was warm and beautiful out, not quite too hot, with fantastic clouds over the land. Charles tightened our inner forestay underway, which had been needing to happen in order to make our staysail more useful.

We anchored in San Patricio with music on shore (bagpipes to celebrate St. Patrick’s day, hilarious) after 8 hours on the water.