Up at 0600 to visit the heads and then go on deck to see the last of the sunrise. Nature provided again with Pelicans making optimal use of ground effect and the daily whale show taking place.
Dewey and Elpie swam to the shore and I helped Brady clean the waterline. That’s quite a workout! Just as we finished Brady called me over to show me a turtle taking a swim by. Jim saw it come to the surface. Very cool. Jim, Brady and I stayed on the boat and watched the fisherman processing fish together across multiple boats, playing music and sounding like they were generally having a lot of fun.
Just before lunch we go and visit Sailing Catalpa on their new(ish) to them 53ft ketch. Super interesting family, and very gracious in showing us round their home,
1336 we leave anchor and head to Mazatlan, 85nm away. 5.7knots average and hitting low 7knots in the first hour. The wind is expected to shift to the north and drop later in the day so we are heading as far west as we can to give ourselves more time sailing. We take turns at helming for experience.
About 1530, off starboard, we started to see things jumping in the air, getting a second or two hang-time before splashing down. As they got closer we started to think they were big fish and eventually Elpie realised they were some kind of rays, jumping in the air. Brady says there are a couple of theories about why, trying to get barnacles off, or for mating. I think they are just doing it because they can!
A little further on we started to see turtles at the surface, occasionally popping their heads out and having a look around, but surprisingly not diving when they saw us. Jim was the ‘Turtle Whisperer ‘ spotting almost a dozen.
At 1800 we started the shift system with Elpie taking first watch again. I went to relax and slept through dinner, waking about 1915 to eat a slightly lukewarm but tasty meal of fish potatoes and salad.
Back to sleep a bit fitfully and sleeping through my alarm(!) and waking at 0011 for my shift.
End of day location; 22°39.532’N • 106°11.891’W