Daysail out to a seamount off the coast of Vallarta

I went out for a sail yesterday, just because I wanted to test myself out on the boat for a longer trip, and because I haven't sailed out of the bay for a while.  So I took off and sailed up to a seamount called "el Banco."  Its about 35 miles away from Punta Mita, and the wind was really light in the morning, so I got moving around 10 am.

The wind slowly picked up and got to about 10 kts at 10 am, but varied a bit, from 7 to 11, and I was able to make 7 kts in 9-10 kts of wind, which is pretty respectable.

Slowly the wind came up more to about 14 kts, and that is just at the range where I might need to start reefing, and I was hitting 8 kts now upwind.  The boat is pretty heavy with full ballast tanks, but its all fresh water and so I don't want to dump it.  Also I had my dinghy and anchor and all that.  But still quicker than I've been going before, now that the bottom is clean and painted.  

I caught a dorado when I got to the seamount, and then turned around, and it was around 3:30 pm now.  Then I put up the spinnaker and started back.  It was hard to keep speed and point at Punta Mita, but I turned upwind a little and got some nice speed, hitting 9.7 kts at one point.  

In the light wind, the sea state was really nice and flat, and the boat was gliding along really nicely.  I was really happy with it.  

The Mainsail was working great, and the day passed slowly into evening.  I was a bit offshore as the sun began to set, but the wind started shifting and I could point more at Punta Mita and keep speed.  

As it began to get dark I got ready for a bit of night sailing, and there are some rocks to watch out for on the entrance to Punta mita, so I had everything set up.

It was fun trying to take a few more pictures in the dark, the crescent moon lit up the waters and the sails.

Once it got really dark I looked up and was surprised again by the mainsail.  It has glow in the dark draft lines, and they stayed glowing for 2 hours after dark!

So I got back at about 8 pm, and anchored again.  I never turned on the motor the whole day.  It was about 70 miles of sailing in 10 hours.  

I made a little video about it too.