December 12

Amazingly, this morning I devised an emergency fan belt for the fresh water pump. As of this writing it has held for almost 2 hours! We are motoring slowly to avoid stressing the jury rigged belt, but our spirits are high as the sun is shining and the air is warm! We are watching the water temperature very carefully and stopping the engine every hour to check for belt wear or damage. So far so good. We have about 32 hours to go to get to Cabo San Lucas.

At 12:45pm we are now only 152nm from Cabo (actually to Cabo Falso about 10 miles before the harbor) and the crew is relaxing in the baking sunshine. The seas are calm, but there is a 8-10k breeze blowing from our stern which is holding out our genoa giving us an extra push. Running the engine at 1500rpm we manage 6.5k over ground (as measured by the gps). If the wind builds we may be able to hit 7 or better. Without the engine we would never make this course as it is to far downwind.

By 2pm the wind has filled in to 15-20k and we have shut down the engine and are sailing downwind with genoa alone making 6.5k over ground on a heading of 67m.

At 5pm with the wind diminished we are again motoring at 5.5k on a heading of 105m running at 1500rpm. So far our fan belt is holding fine!