Open the below photos in a full-screen slideshow in Flickr
May 1, 2010 – At Sea, 26º 51’N, 113º 56’W
By Herb McCormick
Whether you’re a sailor or not, most everyone knows the meaning of “mayday,” the internationally recognized distress call for mariners in grave and imminent danger at sea. A mayday call should never be transmitted unless lives are in the balance and as a matter of last recourse; you only play that card when you require swift, immediate assistance. The origin of the word is not as well known, but in fact is derived from a short, French saying, “m’aidez,” the translation of which is crystal clear: Help me.
It wasn’t at all a mayday situation for the crew of Ocean Watch yesterday – far, far from it – but the predicament we found ourselves in was nettlesome and frustrating. Stuck in the lee of the small village of San Juanico about a third of the way up the coast of Baja California, we were harbor-bound due to 20-30 knot northerly winds pummeling the anchorage. Among the visual relief was an astounding series of identical waves right off the town front that ran perpendicular not only to the beach but to the breeze, one after another of long, perfect curls capped by blown-back spindrift that seemed immune from the laws of nature. In any case, as much as we wanted to weigh anchor and resume our voyage to San Diego, doing so in such conditions would’ve been unsafe and unsatisfactory. Simply put, we would’ve been going nowhere fast, and at great risk to our boat and gear, as well.
May Day, of course, is also a mark on the calendar, and one fraught with significance. The first day of May – today! – is also widely considered, at least where I grew up, as the real beginning of spring, and as such is a symbol of hope and renewal. Aboard Ocean Watch, May 1st has been all that and more, as our journey toward Southern California has been resumed and renewed.
We actually got underway just before midnight on Friday, and by 0600 the wind had fallen to almost nothing. Dave Logan and I went so far as to shake out two of the three reefs that had been tied a couple of days before. As the day progressed, so did we, despite the filling northerly, which unfortunately again rose above 20-knots. Even so, by early afternoon we’d put Punta Abreojos well behind us and were abeam of Bahia San Hipolito, with the significant landmark of Turtle Bay less than a hundred miles away.
As it turned out, May Day was a personal milestone for me as well; I’m now typing the 200th story I’ve cobbled together since leaving Seattle last May 31st. If you’ll bear my indulgence, here’s a quick recount of the stories and images David Thoreson and I have filed at other key points of the voyage, namely the 50th, 100th and 150th crew logs on this expedition Around the Americas. [Note from the webmaster: There are a handful of crew logs included in the blog not included in Herb's count, therefore the numbering does not match. To help reduce confusion, links are provided to the referenced logs.]
Crew Log 50/61: On August 12th, at a latitude of 69ºN, Ocean Watch was again underway after a layover in a stunning anchorage called Pearce Point Harbor, high above the Arctic Circle. That morning, after an unplanned layover in Pearce Point to wait for ice to clear to the east, we were bound for Cambridge Bay via Dolphin and Union Strait, a leg that turned out to be high in anxiety and drama as we once again sailed into the pack ice.
The story that day, however, was a look back at “A Hike in the Arctic” that we had enjoyed the previous afternoon with our newfound friends aboard the French-flagged centerboard yacht, Baloum Gwen. Not only was the scenery, landscape and company fantastic, so too was the wildlife, including the pair of musk oxen we encountered along the way. Once our saunter was over, we retired to the abandoned hunter’s cabin on the edge of the water and started a roaring bonfire, over which the Baloum Gwen crew roasted a fresh Arctic Char. Oddly enough, as we dropped the anchor in Bahia San Juanico off the coast of Mexico the other night, we almost all agreed the barren hills and lunar-like atmosphere reminded us of a place in the Arctic…called Pearce Point.
Crew Log 100/120: On November 12th, we made another unscheduled stop on our travels, but the harsh, beautiful Arctic was a long way behind. At 13ºN, we’d pulled into the lush, green, mountainous island of St. Lucia in the Southern Caribbean for “A Pit Stop in Paradise” to take on fuel before pushing on for Rio de Janeiro. Again, we had no idea what lay ahead, but this time it was a grueling passage around the far eastern bulge of Brazil via Cayenne, French Guiana and a series of sometimes exotic, sometimes imposing coastal Brazilian ports.
That was still in the future when we relaxed for one of the most pleasurable days of our journey, taking the dinghy around the bend to a gorgeous beach fronting Rodney Bay. The locals were friendly, the beers icy cold, and the blue water inviting and refreshing. If we’d known what was in store for us – if we’d had any inkling at all – we’d probably be there still.
Crew Log 150/175: January 24th proved to be one of, if not the most, exciting and momentous days of our journey. At 56ºS, the southernmost point of the voyage, we pointed Ocean Watch first east, and then north, and rounded “Cabo de Hornos”: Cape Horn.
“The numbers were all in synch,” I typed that day. “It was precisely 0800 local time, right at 56º S, marking the 18,300th mile sailed since leaving Seattle last May. Just for good measure, today’s crew log is the 150th I’ve written in that eventful span. This might be the happiest one of them all.”
Each in their own way, the fifty logs since have been just as interesting and intriguing. If you’ve read a few of them – or if this is your first – a thousand thanks from all of us. Now enough of the May Day stroll down Memory Lane. It’s time to get this bus north.
-Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson
*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos
*To add a comment to this story click on the comment link below the post title. Please direct your messages for the crew to crew@aroundtheamericas.org instead of submitting them here. Thanks for following the Around the Americas Expedition.
