Ahoy, Making landfall is an exciting moment. From the time you spot a gray shade of land far on the horizon the excitement grows. You knew it. It must be there soon. Preferably right in front of the now, but even with challenging winds or currents you know the bearing. When it finally shows up, you feel a variety of emotions. Relieved (didn’t mess up) Proud ( piece of cake) Curious ( how does it look like) Scared (Hopefully no unchartered rock, reefs or bars) Unsure ( where is the best spot to anchor) And so on and on..
Especially in placed where there are no reliable charts, far off the beaten tracks. So seeing Isla Clarion coming over the horizon on a wonderful sunny morning was all that but also pure awe. ZERO was doing 6-7 in under spinacker and main. You could feel the force of the gusts rolling in, heeling her over. We didn’t know if we get permission to stop there, maybe even go ashore but we were determined to sail by as close as we date and try. Knock in their doors and say hello. Before we even could do it we received a radio call from the officer of the watch with questions about our boatname and intensions.. Thanks to Juan we could talk to them in best Mexican Spanish and we were allowed to anchor in the eastern part of the bay but weren’t allowed to come ashore. Yeah. Strike. Lucky again. We anchored in 40 feet, which was more than half of the depth we dropped the hook on Socorro, and started to clean up and finish a few minor projects. We all got our hands dirty and man we got so much done in just a few hours it’s amazing. Juan and Marco did the final cleanining of the hull, Fay and Taiichi focused in the bilges and food storage and I myself found me hanging in a harness from the tip of the radar Arch drilling holes to mount the panels down better.
Meanwhile a massive swell rolled in with sets of huge walls breaking on the beach just a few hundred meters away. That’s what the forecast says. The sea goes up. Every day a little more.
We also filled up the watertanks, which makes us ready to leave before sunset. But why hurry. Let’s a nice night at anchor and leave in the morning.
But then, there will be no land for weeks.. Aloha Christian
Sent from the Ocean.