This is a very brief update just to let everyone know we successfully exited the Ixtapa marina this morning at 7am.
We were up early to look at the entrance, and convinced ourselves we could make it through the waves. One of our crew, Kirt , is a surfer, and believed he could count the waves and spot the pattern. We sent him through the entrance on the tender and used the vhf radio to communicate. After a bit of waiting Kirt said “go now!”. We put the pedal to the metal, and three minutes later we were in open water.
We are now sitting in the bay at Zihuantenejo where we are doing some last minute preparation for our voyage south. On our way here we passed a Nordhavn 43, Wayward Wind, that had been in the Ixtapa marina with us. I spoke by radio with Bill her captain/owner. I mentioned that I had noticed he had snuck out of the marina early yesterday morning, and he said that he had watched the waves growing and wanted out before he was shut in. Bill said that he had done the same as us, watching for a window, and then punching it. Unlike us, he didn’t get lucky. He said that as he was nearing the outer buoys of the entrance there was suddenly a eight foot cresting wave in front of him. He had no choice but to hit it head on, and says it was quite an impact. I asked him if anyone got pictures, and he responded: “I wish.”
It was a very tough decision to exit the marina. The marina was officially locked down, and we had been advised that it was unsafe to leave. It is not my style to ignore this kind of advice, and had we not been 100% certain that our departure was safe, we would not have exited. We studied the entrance including using the tender to measure depths, and had a very experienced crew, and an extremely seaworthy boat.
It’s time to pull anchor and start moving!
-Ken Williams Sans Souci,
Nordhavn68.com
PS A few people have written to say that they missed prior blog entries. You can always go to: http://www.kensblog.com and click on the word “BLOG” in the menu. You can also go to http://www.nordhavn.com (Nordhavn’s site). They’ve been reposting my blog.
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