Ask For A Test Demo - Navigator Publishing

CORRESPONDENCEshould have told me where I was,but I didn’t listen.Second: The lights that Ithought to be on Islas San Benitowere in fact a new encampment onIsla de Cedros itself. I should havenoticed when the lights were noteclipsed by the end of the island.Third: When the boat quit rollingit was because Cedros, outside,blocked the westerly component ofthe swell.Fourth: When the wind wentcompletely calm it was because thehigh island was sheltering us. I paidno attention.Fifth: The sudden blasts of windwere the well-known katabatic windsoff the high plateau on the island.Sixth: The memory of sharpeningpencils was triggered by the fragranceof cedar trees. Cedros is theSpanish word for cedars, whichabound on the island.We had been too far off to hearthe barking of the sea lion colonies orsee the off-lying kelp beds. I was sofatigued that I probably would havemissed those signs, too. I failed totake into account the possibility thatthe lighthouse was extinguished, acommon occurrence on that coast. Ahand-held GPS (had they existed atthe time) would have been a help,but limited, as charts of the Baja Californiacoast and the Sea of Cortezare one and a half to nine miles off inlongitude in some areas. It couldhave ended in disaster because Iallowed myself to become toofatigued to notice obvious indicatorsof our position. Fatigue, like alcohol,is an insidious killer.The electrical fault eventuallyrevealed itself to be a faulty splittingdiode, installed backward by the factory,damaging the alternator.On arrival we presented the happynew owner with the logbooks and alist of 44 structural and mechanicalanomalies, which we had beenunable to correct underway. We wereall happy to return to our ownbunks, in our own good old boats.—Sigmund Baardsen has captained many yachtdeliveries and lives in Vallejo, Calif.22 OCEAN NAVIGATOR SEPTEMBER 2010 www.oceannavigator.com