Friday, 2 May 2015 – By 2:00 am we were off the entrance to Magdalena Bay still in a patchy sea mist heading for Bahia Santa Maria. The night was cold and wet due to the mist. The inside of the boat and all the deck and rigging were dripping with moisture; everything was soaking wet. When George took over the watch at 3.00 a.m. we had covered 180 miles and the mist finally began dissipating. By 8:00 a.m. we had cleared Bahia Santa Maria and were rounding Cabo San Lazaro headed north directly to Turtle Bay. We had decided not to stop in Bahia Santa Maria.
The sky cleared, the sun came out and the humidity dropped. By mid-morning, we had dried out and we had a fine day at sea relaxing and fishing in the warmth of the sun. While we were mostly motoring at 5.5 Knots our speed over ground (SOG) ranged from 4 – 4.3 Knots against the southerly current. The recommended coast hugging approach we used did seem to work until leaving Cabo San Lazaro; it was here that the southerly current became obvious.
At 9:00 p.m. we had covered 244 miles all with the motor. At 9:00 p.m. when we started our watch routine, we had covered 266 Miles with the wind out of the northwest at 3 knots.