WINDWALKER
My dad asked why I decided to buy a boat
I said “there was a sail”
April 20th
5am
Up early with the worms and a bit of a hangover at Daryls place in Carstairs, Alberta. We arrive and check into the aiport problem free. 4 hour flight to San Jose Cabo, we are fortunate enough to get a clear view of southern Alberta and the USA. We get a great view of the Grand Canyon from the sky! We arrive at noon to sunny skies, light breeze, and +28 degrees of heat. We meet up with Heidi who has kindly offered to meet us and drop us at the bus stop. She is the mother to Casey who sold us the boat! What a nice lady to come and say goodbye to the boat. Hop a full bus of locals and make our way north to La Paz. The distance is 200km but the ride takes just over 4 hours. We exit the bus with huge smiles and begin the walk on the boardwalk to the marina.
We quickly meet up with Mike, the owner of Windwalker before Casey. He gives us a few tips about what’s broken on the vessel and we skip on down the marina and continue the search for Maxime from Quebec! My old captain from my recent passage from LA to Mazatlan yells out from a bar stool “Hey Captain, first mate at your service.” We cheers with a cold cerveza and get caught up. I ask a kind lady hopping on her dingy if we can jump a lift out to the boat.
We arrive at the boat at sunset all with nothing but big white smiles.
Drop the bags and lift the dingy from the bow into the water! Pump up the air, top up the petro, and boogy across the lagoon to town. I take the buoys to the same restaurant Casey and I shooku hands and made the boat deal less than a month earlier. A slow night slowly turns into karaoke and we all make our way up to sing a few tunes in English to an all Spanish crew. This is unbelievable.
Back to Windwalker at 11:00pm for a celebratory cigar and we crash. I take the quarter berth to port, my first mate Max takes the sattee in the saloon, and Bull lucks out with the private V Berth with a door and personal head.
Good night La Paz.
April 21
5:30am
Up for sunrise and a warm breeze. Peach, coral, teal blue colours change from pastel to bright light in the matter of minutes. Hot coffee up on deck alone. Billy joins me and we take some still shots and test out the drone. It’s a surreal feeling sitting on the boat now. After the morning routine we all start digging into jobs that are crucial for the passage. Billy starts on the navigation lights that are corroded out, Max rips everything out of the quarter berth storage for re organizing, and I take off the wheel mounted autohelm that needs rebuilding. I get it apart, clean it up, lube the bearings, and install the new belt that we purchased and brought down from Canada. It’s a fit! But this this is so sun beaten. It’s crispy as it gets so we name the auto-helm Crunchy Craig. We basically come to the conclusion that this autopilot will not only not get me to New Zealand but would be lucky to stay together across the Sea of Cortez. If you look at it wrong, the plastic cracks and shatters. We put it back together and do what we do best. Do what we can with what we have and move on from there. We hop in a taxi that feels like it has rocks for bearings. I truly have never heard a vehicle sound like this and be operational. Surely the struts are toast and all the bushing and bearings are pooched. We make it to the other side of town and find a place open on Sundays that can fill our 10lb propane tank. We then get dropped at the local supermarket and get provisions and basic equipment for Struggler.
We leave paying $250/each, making the total bill for food and everything we will need for the passage at $500. We get a good pot, pan, plates, bowls, cups, cleaning supplies, broom and all snacks and food for that price.
1:30pm and we make 2 trips back to the boat with propane, gasoline, food, and 25 litres of potable drinking water! We unpack and the buoys take a sunny siesta. Up for a swim, pre trip group photo, and some stories around the cockpit over a 6’r Pacifico cerveza.
As captain of this upcoming passage, the feeling is much different than other sailing adventures. More responsibility and seriousness is taken in managing the passage planning. Not only the correct amount of food, water, diesels, and whatnot but also backup plans and safety redundancies must all be in place before lifting the hook.
5pm came and we all felt like going in for a goodbye dinner and cerveza but we all decided to take Crunchy Craig the autohelm apart again and go over it to make suggestions and recommendations for a fix. We come to the same conclusion that we must leave tomorrow am as planned and take what we have! The worst that happens is we hand steer 240 miles which is not the end of the world and would be good experience for Bill.
Billy gets the bow navigation lights sorted as well as a new bulb in the stern white light. We all agree that besides lifting the dingy up on the bow and filling the diesel in the am, we are as ready as we’ll ever be.
Into the Dock restaurant for a celebratory beer and dinner. Yeah good times don’t bother me!
Back at the boat we make reservations to fill up fuel when the marina fuel dock opens at 9am tomorrow.
Smoke a cigar and early evening for everyone.
Not much sleep with excitement and nerves starting to kick in.
April 22
5:45
Egg scrambler breakfast with coffee. We chat about the passage plan and make a few plan B’s and plan Seas.
Bill and I lash down the dingy to the bow while Max finishes prepping some passage snacks and stows everything we won’t need.
Engine on at 7:45 and the anchor is lifted at 8:03 Monday morning! The excitement of lifting the anchor for the first time on Struggler is a surreal feeling. I’m on the helm taking us out of the 3.5 mile passage to the marina fuel dock. They boys take that time to brush off the anchor and rinse and dry it on the dock. Since the anchor locker is right in front of the V berth and not in its own compartment, we make sure it is put away clean and dry.
We arrive at the fuel dock at 9:03 am.
Max guides me in with 3 workers in their professional gear wave us in. I bit of stress as I keep it together and go through all the exercise drills we did on the skipper course in Nanaimo in docking in windy conditions. The last few years of summer sailing in the club has taught me so much about navigating inside marinas and bays.
We land between 2 super yachts and I let out a breath of relief. We’ve all got huge smiles on as the workers slowly and casually begin helping us fill the diesel.
We pay the pesos and leave the fuel dock at 10:10 with 35 gallons of fuel. We are underway on our first shakedown passage on the Struggler. This is truly insane. And I think I’ve just officially named this boat.
10:40 sails up, engine off. Huge smiles on these guys. With full main and our 130% Genoa we glide along at 2.5 knots. We get familiar with the lines and set up a wing on wing with preventers in place.
13:00
We pull out the new to us A-symmetrical spinnaker and find it rigged up and ready to go in the sock! We set it up and lift the sock gracefully up to the masthead. Perfect full spinny launch.
17:45
Spinnaker doused and full sails up as the wind shifts to stern. We steadily gain speed until 7.0 knots flashes on the meter! Full on beam reach and we are healed over.
And just like that, “Roberts your Dads brother”
Our initial plan was to sail 40 miles and drop anchor at the world famous Isla Espíritu Santo for the night and get up and make the remainder of the passage. We decide that we know the wind will be good through the night so we shoot to arrive at Guaymas as early as we can and possibly spend a night there at an anchorage before being hauled out. It’s kinda of a disappointing decision but we all agree we need to make the miles and make sure we hit our Friday haul out deadline of 3pm. This is truly insane.
18:30
While preparing dinner we hear the zing of the fishing reel that’s set up with a 6” squid patter. FISH ON! The line screams out for a minute as Bill tries to take control. He yells out “Marlin!”
We see it flying through the air trying to shake the hook 3-4 boat lengths back. All hands on deck as Bill fights the giant fish. And as soon as it all came together it was over. Our fishing gear is not yet set up for such a fight. Line snapped and we lost one of the few lures we had.
As things settle we dig into our first meal of the passage. Our watch schedule starts to form. I’ll take 8-12, Billy will be sandwiched between us with 12-4, and Max takes the traditional First Mate watch of 4-8.
Sail into the night.
Sail on, Sail on
Confused variable seas all night. We keep up a 3.5 - 4 knot average but it’s pretty wobbly down below. All is fine as we Struggle through the perfectly clear night. All stars and almost a full moon.
April 23
Up to another bluebird day with light winds. Our autopilot “Crunchy Craig” has trouble steering in light winds and even a harder times under engine power. It does best right now in good beam or winds from ahead when we can balance the boat. Max comes up with an ingenious idea to hang a 4lb diving weight from the wheel to counterbalance the small autopilot motor. It works great for the whole day!
Steady sailing under full Gen and Main. With energy returning to us all, we start on some boat projects. Bill and I find a new fish finder gps in a closet and get to work mounting it on the Bimini/solar panel frame. The exterior VHF doesn’t work on the boat so we rip it down and use the 12V power going to that until to fire up the fish finder. The new 10” digital display Simrad turns out to have built in navigation charts. Once installed we now have a display right in the cockpit showing our detailed course with tracker, SOG (speed over ground), water depth, COG (course over ground), and water temperature. Bonus!
Now into our watch schedules, typically one person is always sleeping and obviously one person is always up on watch. Our first 24 hours since departure and we have travelled 94 nautical miles.
“A captain never sleeps. He only rests”
We hit a stride. The afternoon turns into another hot calm day. I start taking measurements to build window curtains and replace all the cushion covers throughout the boat. A major summer project ahead.
Late afternoon brings us all up on deck to get some pics and shots of Struggler sailing. Winds are light so we come up with a plan and convince Bull to fly the drone while we sail.
I recommend having the engine warmed up and on as we have all the sails up. We then launch the drone, get the shots of the boat, head up wind, drop the sails, then land the drone up on the bow. Plan A works as planned and we get some stunning scenery shots of the Struggler. Ever since being on sailboats I’ve wanted to jump off the spreaders on the mast. Each captain I’ve sailed with has always said it’s not safe. So of course we get our first spreader jump into the water. Super wild experience.
The spinnaker goes up next with what turned into an 8 hour spinnaker run with very little trimming. This kite run brought us over the halfway mark of the passage at 120 miles travelled.
This evening provides a perfect sunset with little cloud coverage and the Serra de la mountains in the background. We launch the drone and I climb to the top of the mast for a wild shot of sunset with full moon popping up in the background. Surreal night with everyone excited with the passage so far.
Running a spinnaker, alone in the middle of the night, under a full moon. Can see everything around. Calm seas doing 4 knots downhill. This is one of those sail moments that you can’t run away from. Pulls you in.
April 24
Midnight until 0200 is calm and Billy has another shift motor sailing. At the midnight watch change I could tell he was slightly down with the lack of winds right over his watches. I tell him he’ll get sailing and this is all part of the process. He gets it.
0200-0400 Billy has a full on sail where he unfurls the Genoa alone, trims the sails, and hand steers for 2 hours straight. Huge.
I come up on deck at 7am to see the spinnaker back up under Maxs watch! He was able to furl the Gen in and launch the spinnaker alone. Not only that but he turned our A symmetrical spinnaker into a symmetrical spinny by attaching the pole to the tack and extending it out and catching much more breeze while sailing downwind. We are doing 3.5 knots in what feels like very little apparent wind. He says “This here is a good boat. You will be going places”
48 hours in and we inch over 175 miles travelled. Just Putzin’ away. We drift for the afternoon with no engine or sails. Just relaxing on perfectly glass calm seas.
1630
We find a flying fish on the deck from the night before and Billy ties it on a string of red fly looking hooks. This hook setup was found in a bundle of hooks given to us from Mike (the original over of Windwalker who watched over it the past month)
Trolling the fish wrapped in 3 big fly setup and we hear a feel screaming out. FISH ON! After a big fight Bull has a large glowing gold/green dorado at the boat. I grab the boat gaf hook one quick shot right through the eye and we haul him on board. All 3 of us all hooting and haulering. What a gorgeous fish maybe 20+ pounds. Thank you fish. He fillets the fish and we clean the deck. The freshest mahimahi fish tacos for dinner. Wow what a treat. This fish will feed us for 2-3 meals for sure.
We fire up the engine and make our way. The compass leads us due North.
1910
A light misty smoke appears in the galley while we clean up. Bill asks if it’s smoke and we both agree it’s more of a mist!!? In hindsight that’s a lesson. Coolant burns like a mist and doesn’t smell all that horrible. More and more smoke piles out of the engine as it suddenly shuts off! We open up the engine access and get a temp reading of 250 degrees F on the thermostat! Well shit, This wasn’t in the brochure.
I notice heaps of coolant below the engine and a main heat exchanger/hose is popped off the back. We turn the engine over quickly every minute or 2 while it cools off. Once fully cooled we dig deeper to find a cast bracket that holds the heat exchanger had snapped off the back of the engine. We find a large hose clamp and secure it back in location. Tighten up all the hoses again and fill the engine with a mix of coolant and our purified drinking water. She fires right up and we slowly take er up to speed and the temp stabilizes at the operating temp of 161 degrees F. That was a close shave. At that price, it was a cheap lesson for us boys to learn. More diligent engine checks are a must on this ol sweetie.
Through the night we see whales and dolphins all around the boat. The sea of Cortez is full of life.
I swear to god we could pull this whole thing off.
April 25
Up at the first light that starts to reveal mainland Mexico over our bow. Max is on the helm hand steering as Crunchy Craig autohelm finally decided it was too much. He did well steering for 2 days but he has retired gracefully out here at sea. We hand steer towards land with gorgeous rugged mountains everywhere you can see. With differing opinions, we slowly pull into Catalina Cove just outside the entrance to Guaymas. Max’s idea is to get right in where we have cell service and start on tearing down the boat at anchor by the marina. I decide as captain of the ship that our haul out appointment is the next day at 3pm and there’s no way of moving that appointment forward so we go into this beautiful bay, decompress, and start our jobs. To me it makes much more sense to be out here and slowly pick away at the boat projects throughout the day and not have the worries of land just yet. “Try Slow”
0730
Anchor down! First time arriving at a secluded bay and dropping anchor on my own boat. This right here has been many years in the making.
I remember the exact second when this idea was born. January 2015 while snorkelling in Honolua Bay, Maui, Hawaii with Britt. I looked up out of the clear coral filled waters to see a monohaul sailboat sail in, drop anchor, and dive into the water. That second changed things forever when the realization that sailing to remote bays is possible for anyone.
“If the winds are blowing, let’s just go sailing”
We are anchored in 20 feet of water with 80 feet of chain out hooked into an all sand bottom. Smooth waters with no swell and birds and seals all around. Since passages are always drug and alcohol free under my watch, we go below deck to cheers and crack a cerveza to celebrate our first successful 242 mile passage.
I remember max saying something on our last passage about hierarchy on a boat and how important it is to have a leader. This passage has been a bit of a learning curve for me. I’m learning how to make the calls and show authority without being bossy. Especially this moment coming into the bay and where to anchor. We had a tiny bit of tension between Max and I and I just keep saying follow your gut Bryce. You’ve done this many times and in this moment you are the captain. I let the crew know what we are going to do and when to do it and that’s what we do. It’s something to get better at and learn.
We spend the entire day on boat jobs preparing to haul out. We strip off the safety netting on the lifelines, take off the dodger for repairs back home, stow away almost everything we won’t need including both dingies on board, bbq, propane tanks, tools, supplies, and anything we won’t need for the next 6 months while on the hard. The remainder of the jobs will need to be done on the way to hauling out in the am or actually when we are up on the ground. Since we are hauling out tomorrow at 3pm and our flights are the next day at 7pm, we want to make sure our ducks are lined up and we get this project completed correctly and as stress free as possible.
We have an early dinner and stop the work. Cervesas up on deck into the perfectly clear star filled night. We smoke a cigar and chat about how the boat performed and what we can change. I spend the last few hours catching up on journaling and decompressing. This passage has been more than I expected and this baby girl of a boat is ready to spread the sails and go to some new places. She’s got good bones and only needs a bit of surface work.
In bed by 9pm.
April 26
5:30
Up on deck for sunrise. 1 other boat in the anchorage. We slept very well like attop a giant waterbed. Coffee, photography, stretching, and journaling take up the next bit of time. I become most calm and peaceful 4 or 5 days into the journeys. It’s then that I often feel I can keep going for days. The first few can be difficult to find a rythmn but once you find it it’s 👌🏼
A few more boat projects and the anchor is up again at 1010 making it 4 days since we first hoisted up Strugglers hook. Max takes the helm and starts navigating through the maze of channels getting around Guaymas harbour and into the south section of the bay for haulout. Bill and I start tackling the next stinky project which is not going to be much fun at all. Yesterday we noticed a brown liquid squirting out of the waste water holding tank vent at the top of the hull near the deck.. we come to the conclusion the macerator grinder pump might be not working. It makes a noise like it’s grinding waste but it’s not discharging out the side of the boat. It appears the tank is completely full and pouring out the vent hole up top! We spend an hour on it but run out of time as we arrive at the staging area for boats hauling out. We drop the hook one last time and start tearing everything off the upper deck. We even remove all the sails and rigging (halyards, sheets, lines, and anything by we don’t want to sit outside in the +45 degree dessert sun……
Our .. haul out appointment arrives and we slide into the dock. This is the first time OIve ever hauled out a sailbpat so Im left looking like an idiot whe the shore crew ask us where we want the straps below the bpat and hpw we prefer to be lofted out! This is great expereince and will help the next time..
The spanish speaking crew lift out Struggler perfect and we are slowly crawled to the boatyard for sdtorage. One crew pressure washes the bottopm while I gop to the poffice to meat with the sweetest office worker. With hewlp fro Max and my prerpafed papeerrwork, she checks us in and offers is a cold beer frp, the fridhge. 1 hour and …$ latewr, we are checked in and up on hard! We grab a taxi to a hotel.
