SmoCo Sailingvideo
[Ep 69] 26 Miles, Crazy Weather & Our Biggest Catch Yet | Canal de Ballenas & Isla Mejia
2 July 2026 · 21 min · 595 views · Canal de Ballenas
What this video covers
Armand and Liya depart Alcatraz Cove at 6:30 a.m. aboard their sailboat Cosmo, bound 26 miles south through Canal de Ballenas to meet friends at Refugio anchorage on Isla Angel de la Guarda.0:31 Forecast called for gusts to 15 knots; sustained winds hit 19–24 knots in the channel's venturi effect between the Baja Peninsula and the island, forcing a reef in both main and jib.2:39 Speed held at 6.3 knots reefed.3:40 Wind then dropped to near-calm within minutes, allowing cooking underway before building again to push Cosmo at 8 knots.4:35 They divert to Isla Mejia, a small rocky island off Refugio, anchoring in 30 feet of exceptionally clear water.7:39 Spearfishing produces a 13-pound mutton snapper — their largest catch — retrieved after a difficult extraction from a rock crevice.9:21 On a rest day, Liya patches a wind-torn dodger using saved Sunbrella scraps.13:10 Armand troubleshoots a Starlink 12-volt DC-to-DC power failure, wiring two 288-watt step-up converters in parallel to double available wattage, but the system still fails until a visiting friend spots a corroded, loose ring terminal on a breaker — cleaning it restores Starlink connectivity.15:05 A separate nav-station low-battery alarm caused by high amperage draw from the windlass during anchor raising is also flagged for repair.1:07 Corrosion on a single terminal, not wiring architecture, was the root cause of the Starlink failure.19:03
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