JUMBLE Specifications

“JUMBLE” was built 1971 in Yokosuka, Japan

After 2016-17 Refit

Construction: GRP Hull, Plywood Deck, Spruce Spars
Ketch Rigged, Long Keel, Cutaway Forefoot

LOA: 30' 8”

LWL: 25' 5”

Beam: 9' 9”

Draft: 3' 8”

Displacement: 6 Tons

Ballast : 2 Tons

Engine: Beta 25 HP (Kubota D902) Diesel

Diesel Tank: 30 Gallons

Water Tank(s): 60 Gallons

Steering

Autopilot: Raymarine SPX5

Self-Steering: Sailomat 601

Electronics

Lenovo ThinkCentre Mini Computer Running OpenCPN
Digital Yacht AIT3000 Class B AIS Transponder

Raymarine i50 In-Hull Depth Sounder

Icom M402 VHF

Garmin GPS76CX

Furuno Fax-30 Weatherfax Receiver

4 Solar Panels for a total of 280 W
4 Trojan T-105s House Bank

Anchoring

35 lb CQR

20 lb Collapsible Danforth

15 lb Bruce

10 lb Danforth (Dinghy Anchor)

275' of 5/16" G40 Galvanized Chain

250' of 5/8" Nylon Triple Braid

Bottom View

Manufacturer's Sketch

San Jose del Cabo to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

12/4/14 to 12/7/14

280 Nm; 72 hours; 20 hours on motor

We left San Jose around 1100 after getting 12 liters of diesel, which isn't much. There was a tiny misunderstanding about the price, liters, gallons and all that. Two conversion factors are key in Mexico:

1 US Gallon = 3.8 Liters

1 US Dollar = 14.75 Pesos (at least today)

For the liters and gallons, the mental math is simple enough with a 4:1 ratio. This didn't quite work out for us when we bought fresh water for JUMBLE. In San Jose, we wound up with an extra jug (20 liters) by this mismeasure. We reconfigured the whole fresh water system* this week, so now JUMBLE has a simple 200 liter capacity. Done.

The story on pesos is different. The key is to use them. When we left San Diego it was 13.90 pesos per dollar. Now it's 14.75. If you pay US dollars you get a lousy 12-14 peso exchange rate depending on the store or person you're paying, always rounding in their favor. With the exchange rate creeping towards 15:1, the math is easier.

Back to sailing. We had a good 12-15 knots the first afternoon, which quickly died after sunset. We ran the motor for 7-8 hours and started sailing again the next morning. Light winds prevailed on this passage and we were happy when we had 6–8 knots, allowing JUMBLE to do 4-5 knots on a beam to broach reach. Prevailing winds were from the usual NW, shifting to N on the second day and becoming NE as we approached Bahia de Banderas. The first night out, we decided to skip San Benedicto. The permits would have taken around two weeks to get and we weren't going to wait that long. We were planning to go incognito and hope for the best, but we turned east to the Mexican mainland instead. This was lucky, our freshwater was bad by the second day.*

Another Sunset

Sometimes all we could do was 1.5 to 2 knots, with enough steerage to be +/- 20° off course. We used our electronic pilot in these conditions and played with the spinnaker sheet. Once the wind filled into a whopping 5 knots, we'd switch to the windvane. Thankfully, the seas were also very small, otherwise we'd have been unable to keep the sails filled.

Still unsuccessful on the trolling line

Upwind Sailing!?!

Marietas on the bow

Our morning approach to Punta Mita brought our first upwind leg since Ensenada. Once inside Banderas Bay, the wind went flat and we got to watch a whale and calf cavorting with a dolphin. It was the first time either of us has actually heard a whale vocalizing in person. Very cool. We really need a better camera. We weren't able to get any decent pictures of these whales or the ones we saw outside of Magdalena Bay.

Marietas

Best whale shot we got

We arrived in La Cruz around 1100 and inflated the dinghy for the first time on this trip.

Anna and a Huanacaxtle tree

The Dink

More details about Bahia de Banderas to come. We promise the next post will be more interesting.

*Expect a big whiny post about that one soon

Marina at San Jose del Cabo

11/30/14 – 12/4/14 

We both hate San Lucas with such a passion that we figured it best to try something else. San Jose is much less obnoxious, very quiet at night and a little cheaper. That said, the Marina is on the opposite side of the estuary from the town and it's a 2-3 mile walk. There are, of course, the ubiquitous school buses and overpriced taxis. Costco is much closer to San Lucas, so we didn't bother taking the long taxi ride, but there's a Walmart in San Jose, so re-supply was no problem. WiFi at the marina is excellent, but no self-service laundry, so that was a major trip to town with the hiking backpacks to get all the bedding and clothing washed at a reasonable price.

Old Town in San Jose

First day of hiking around, I was half-paying attention and stepped onto a flimsy plywood board covering one of the many exposed utility service boxes in the sidewalks around town. There's a lot of work, including night work, going on around town to repair the hurricane damage and, hey, it's Mexico, so don't expect the kid gloves of safety. My right leg fell about 3 feet into the service box, which was full of trash. Thankfully, no cuts, so no worry about infection. We spent the rest of the day hiking and then hauling 80 + lbs of goods back from Walmart in my backpack. By the time I put my feet up after dinner I had a nice big baker's cyst on the back of my injured leg and my knee was pretty seized up. Thankfully, we packed the old knee brace.

Idiot Gringo

Just the kind of thing that will heal up on passage! It's time to head out to San Benedicto, right in the middle of nowhere.

Bahia Santa Maria to San Jose del Cabo

11/28/14 – 11/30/14

200 Nm; 48 hours; 22 hours on motor

Much lighter wind on this leg. Heavy fog on departure, clearing after a few hours. Spent first afternoon motoring on autopilot and tuning the new rig. There was a little stretching on the first leg and overall things were a little too loose and the mainmast had some scoliosis. In retrospect, this is exactly what was needed, it's now much quieter inside and fore-stay sag back to normal. A few small tweaks like lashings on the jib blocks instead of metal-on-metal connections, which are very annoying down below when they load and unload. The sound is amplified below decks.

Very light winds ranging from calm to 15 knots for a few hours around sunset. Motored 7 hours first night and played the light air game with the spinnaker both days and into the evening. With careful trimming, the Sailomat was able to keep us at a reliable 2.5 to 3 knots in 5 knots of breeze on a reach. The key is to increase the apparent wind when it lightens and turn down towards the mark when it freshens. Simple stuff and a single adjustment of the vane.

Spin Time

Rounded Cabo Falso around first light and it was blowing decently there as it always does. Probably 12 knots, despite prevailing conditions being closer to 5 knots. Definitely could have sailed, but felt lazy and found an excuse in the swarm of sportfishers emerging from Cabo San Lucas. I figured trying to sail for a few hours through all the traffic just wasn't worth it. Spent the time fishing and reading instead. No luck yet on the trolling line. Bummer.

Required Land's End Picture

Had some nighttime encounters with small cruise ships on this leg. They're sort of hard to figure out as the bright hotel-style lighting drowns out the running lights and makes them look (to me at least) like a much smaller boat that's close until you can bring them into focus with the binoculars.

We arrived at San Jose del Cabo at 1030 and the hurricane damage was immediately obvious.  

Hotel El Ganzo, post Odile

Puerto Los Cabos

Anchored in Bahia Santa Maria

11/24/14 – 11/28/14

Dropped the hook in BSM at 0800 and passed out. Spend most of the first day loafing about. Dove on anchor and took a salt water bath.

On 11/25/14 we experienced our first gale on JUMBLE. Luckily, it was in a secure anchorage Neither our 6 day old forecast from PassageWeather or our up-to-date WxFx called for anything more than 25-30 knots and that was supposed to be a hundred miles or more to the north of us.

We woke around 0700 to 20 knots or so, which rapidly increased to 25-30 before we could finish breakfast. It was time to set our anchor bridle to absorb the shock loads and keep our chain off the bobstay. It's much harder to get your shit together when it's blowing 30 knots. Getting the exhaust hose set to protect the nylon snubbers from chafe was by far the most difficult part. JUMBLE does not appreciate have an extra 230 lbs on the bowspirt when he's trying to rise to 3' wind chop. Every time I went out on the 'sprit, I got soaked.

The Final Arrangement

After an hour or two, we got things settled. The wheel was lashed, jibs were bagged, the foredeck was cleared, bridles were adjusted and JUMBLE was pointed rock solid into the wind and riding smoothly. We sat back and listened to fishermen, cruisers and the San Carlos port captain on VHF. About a dozen commercial fishing boats came into the bay for shelter. One sailboat started to drag, but was able to reset his anchor. Wind peaked around the high 30s with a few gusts over 40. One of the shrimpers reported an average of 58 km/hr.

By sundown, the wind had settled down to less than 15 knots and JUMBLE was covered in dust from the sand dunes ashore. Our anchor didn't drag an inch, but our brand new anchor bridle bent a little more than I'd like. If it bends in a short-lived gale, what will it do in a real storm?

We'd planned on doing some practice dives at BSM while finishing up some projects, but the visibility was crap after the gale. 15' the first day after and maybe 20' the second. All we were doing was hitting the 30' bottom and kicking around.

Naturally, as we weighed anchor, we could see the bottom 30' down from deck. Oh well.

Ensenada to Bahia Santa Maria

11/19/14 – 11/24/14

530 Nm; 115 hours; 2 hours on motor

Departed Ensenada at 1300 and had our only upwind leg, beating out of Todos Santos in San Diego-like conditions. By sundown, we'd cleared Punta Baja and started to settle into the long downwind run.

Punta Baja

I made a classic series of mistakes the first night out.

Step 1: Misjudge wind strength while running downwind

Step 2: Carry Spinnaker at night

Step 3: Carry Asymmetrical Spinnaker too deep

Step 4: Carry Spinnaker under self-steering vane

Thankfully, the spinnaker survived with no obvious damage, although I felt something stretch or tear in the battle to get it down off the spreaders.

Our rhumb line was much deeper than we could accomplish with our asym or jib. Jibing downwind on JUMBLE is a painfully slow affair, so I spent the dogwatch putting the finishing touches on a super-heavy duty spinnaker pole I built a couple months ago, but never rigged. The spinnaker pole with jury-rigged braces turned out to be our ace in the hole on this leg.

Tradewinds Rig

Wind strength varied between 15-25 knots most of the way, with only a few lighter spots of 10-15 as our course took us near the coast and in the lee of capes (south of Punta Eugenia for instance). The dominant direction was NW. This allowed us to go DDW on our rhumb line and make a minimum of 4.5 knots, but usually around 6. We had to reef and shake out reefs pretty frequently, but the 105% jib stayed on most of the time. Our Sailomat self-steering was more than strong enough to handle an over-canvassed JUMBLE, but the blocks and lines connecting it to our wheel would get very noisy when sliding down a wave and were under a lot of strain. We found a happy speed to be about 6 knots average and keeping things in balance with the steering effort as light as possible. The mizzen was furled whenever DDW.

In the lighter wind areas, we found jibing downwind under 170% jib and full main and mizzen to be the ticket. The lighter conditions were always near land and usually at night (where we'd often get an east component to the wind), so the spinnaker just wasn't worth the effort with one person on deck and the other trying to get some sleep. However, in this configuration our distance made towards the mark was much worse, usually 3 knots or less.

Harmless Clouds

We had a little light rain and squally looking clouds around Cedros Island, but nothing stronger than the prevailing winds materialized. We encountered much less marine life than on our previous trips. Maybe it was the time of year or just the choppy conditions. This is the first 2+ day sail we've taken without seeing any dolphins.

San Diego to Ensenada

11/17/14 – 11/18/14

70 Nm; 19 hours; 4 hours on motor

We left Pearson's fuel dock on Shelter island around 1300. Sean and Steve, our friends on TABLETALK, a Hunter 27, followed us outside the channel for a few miles as a nice sendoff.

Last View of Point Loma

Wind was a good 10 – 12 knots and seas were pretty flat, we made much better time than expected and wound up within 20 Nm of Ensenada around 2100, at which time what was left of the wind gave out. We drifted around for several hours to kill time, then motored into Bahia Todos Santos. We were tied up at Baja Naval by 0800.

Ensenada Approach

We did the paperwork shuffle at the CIS and a few small projects on Jumble. Some hang-ups on our paperwork stretched it to a second day (to avoid double charge after 1430), but otherwise not too strenuous despite our awful Spanish.

First Post - The Plan

Welcome to Jumble Ventures, an attempt to chronicle our sailboat trip.

The Crew: Andrew and Anna, a couple in their late-20's

The Boat: "Jumble", a 31' Ketch in its mid-40's

The Plan: Sail from San Diego to New England

The route has gone through several revisions. It will likely change once we cast off:

• Leave San Diego in mid-November and sail to the Mexican mainland, Puerto Vallarta or Mazatlan. We took Jumble to Cabo San Lucas and back in 2012; we'll only stop in Baja California if we experience mechanical or weather issues.

• Cruise leisurely down the coast of Mexico through December and January, making our last stop for paperwork and provisioning at the Guatemalan border (Puerto Chiapas). Recreation is expected to be diving, fishing, reading and boozing.

• Sometime in February, head from Mexico, coast-wise, to Costa Rica. El Salvador is the bail-out stopover. Spend a couple of weeks in Costa Rica. Recreation might be hiking or some other form of eco-tourism. I wanted to use that phrase. These diversions might be too expensive.

• Hit the Pacific coast of Panama sometime in March and get on the list to go through the Ditch. The Ditch is cool nautical slang for the Panama Canal. We will party, if possible; however, the major push will be to get to the Atlantic side of the Canal. At least one of Jumble's crew will try to do a stint line-handling for another cruiser before we go through the Ditch ourselves. This is the biggest expense of the trip. We've heard as many numbers as sailors we've asked, but we expect those 40 miles to cost us $2-3K. That's still cheaper than rounding the Horn,

• Enjoy April and maybe even May in Atlantic Panama. Measures may have to be taken to avoid slipping into drunken frolics. The threat of Hurricane Season should be enough to maintain a measure of sobriety. We've heard lots of good things from sailors and tourists who've visited the San Blas Islands.

• Depart Panama in early May for Grand Cayman. This is a long and possibly upwind leg. We may spend a week or so recovering in Cayman. Diving in Cayman is renowned. 

• Leave Grand Cayman before the end of May and head through the Yucatan Channel to the Florida Keys and then the US mainland. We'll take the Inter-Coastal Waterway north and overwinter somewhere cold and miserable: Long Island Sound or Boston. 

*Bailout plan if we get behind schedule is to spend Hurricane Season in Panama. We'll then proceed north in the fall.

This is the cruising plan for a small sailboat with an amateur crew. We're not getting paid and we don't have a support crew. We'll likely get side-tracked or hung-up along the way and that's fine: it's kind of the point. 

This blog will have many updates in the next few weeks. After that, our internet access will be sporadic. Expect lots of sailing and diving photos.

Thank you for your interest.