After such a slow race to Cabo it was almost time to start thinking about turning around as soon as we got there. In fact as we finished the race a couple of boats were already heading back to beat the weather they knew was coming in.
Fortunately for me Dorade is far to slow to try and beat any weather systems and my delivery crew were not due in for 36 hrs. Almost no damage was sustained on the race so once she was cleaned up it was time to hit the beach for the afternoon. I did want to change the propeller from the two bladed race prop to the 3 blade cruising prop. I spent several hours on Friday and Saturday working with a diver to remove the old one and put on the cruising prop. For some reason he could not get it off even with all the correct tools. The cruising prop is much more fuel efficient at the same speeds as the smaller racing prop so on a delivery which may involve a lot of motoring and fuel it is very worth having on.
Eventually all the delivery crew arrived and we started the process of provisioning, fueling, stowing and safety briefing. I decided we should lift the boat out in the travel lift for a few hours and see if we could change the prop. At least this way you can get more leverage than in the water and also use some heat if necessary. The yard was very helpful in Cabo and before long we had the old prop removed, the new one on and the boat was back in the water.
A few last errands on Tuesday morning and we were heading on our way. The forecast does not look great for the entire trip with mostly northerly winds potentially building to gale force later in the week. At the moment we are heading for a place called Turtle bay with all the other race boats that are trying to escape the weather coming in on the weekend. I think we will get a bit of a kicking again before we get there as it is 225 miles away dead upwind. My current eta shows us getting in on Saturday morning and I would not attempt going in at night anyway.
We had some charging issues yesterday and have now changed the alternator for the spare on board and everything is working well again. Fishing has been put on hold again as nobody wants to be preparing food down bellow, especially fish. Looking forward to some freeze dry chilly Mac tonight, anyway I am on watch at the moment so I better get on deck and relieve the other Ben on board who is on the helm.
Ben