Crossing the Sea from San Carlos to San Juanico

On Sunday morning, October 21, we said goodbye to Marina San Carlos. We headed out past the docks destroyed by Sergio, wow…different take from the water. We motored in the smooth morning waters past Tetakawi, the mountain guarding the Bahia. The winds were 12 knots. The seas were a bit steep at 3+ feet, but manageable. We sailed all day and into the night. The sunset was beautiful and the breeze was a welcome cool. We took shifts on watch while the other slept. At around 10 p.m., the breeze had slowed to around 5 k. This caused our speed to slow to around 2 k and our sails to hang limply. Being on watch, Dale decided to pull in the sails and start the engine. Ken woke to help her pull in the sails and then she started the engine. Something was wrong! The tachometer did not move even though the engine was racing. There was very little water exhausting. Shut it down quickly! Oh no…..here we were in the middle of the Sea of Cortez with very little wind and something wrong with the engine. Again we pulled the sails to stabilize ourselves and Ken proceeded to look at every system within the engine to determine the cause of our distress. As we were sailing along at 1 1/2 knots, Dale noticed a large black bird with an approximate 4 ft. wingspan. Here we were at least 40 miles from any shore and here is this bird. It circled around our mast. What was this a vulture? Suddenly it made a beeline to the top of our mast where all of our instrument antennas are. With a bird this large, this would certainly cause some damage. Dale began yelling and banging on the boom, which caused Ken to come rushing up the companionway…..what’s wrong? A bird?? OK, back to it. Sailing slowly and checking out systems. Being the smart man that he is, Ken determined that the problem was a serpentine belt. He had spares and replaced it. Yaay…onward. We had not gone far when Ken noticed a hot smell. Not again! Out came the sails, and again he proceeded to check. The wind picked up to 6 knots and we sailed along throughout the night at about 3 knots. It was determined that the cause of the heat and smell was a failed exhaust fan. This had to be replaced, but for this we had no spare. Day break was beautiful, the seas became flat and the wind calm. Ken propped the engine compartment open (which creates quite an issue getting down the companionway) and put a 12 v fan blowing into it. We were in business! AND we could see the shore. We motored toward San Juanico. As we were watching and admiring a school of at least 20 dolphins, we approached what we thought must be a lobster pot. There were two floats. As we were passing the floats to Starboard, we suddenly saw a net in front of us! No way to avoid it….over it we went, praying that it didn’t get hung up on our keel, rudder or prop. Whew! Escaped this one! It was a long net line that we had heard about. These can stretch out as much as a mile! In looking on the horizon, we saw the other end. Not sure how this can happen at the entrance to a bay, hopefully no other cruisers will snag this thing. Into the bay we went and dropped anchor. Our 100 mile crossing was over for today!