I attempted to travel from La Paz to Mazatlán by way of Ensenada del Los Muertos and Bahia Frailes today. I was joined by two young French women who are spending two years travelling the world. I was introduced to the French women by my neighbors Ron and Joan Marie on the Island Packet sailboat “Mystic Island” here at Marina Palmira. The women had some sailing experience having sailed from Morocco to the Canary island but had experienced some sea sickness during that trip. I decided to stop at both Los Muertos and Bahia Frailes on the way to Mazatlan. That would allow the women to get off the boat at either location, if they had a problem with sea sickness.
The conditions were calm when we departed at 7:30 AM and both women were doing well. All went well until about 12:30 PM when the chart plotter Multifunction Display (MFD) alarm sounded and the MFD displayed the error message “autopilot drive stopped”. I reset the autopilot but the same error occurred twice more about 45 minutes later and then again 30 minute after that. I rely on the autopilot to steer the boat when under power. It would be very tiring to hand steer the boat for the two or three days required to make the crossing to Mazatlán. Consequently, we abandoned the trip and returned to Marina Palmira in La Paz to repair the autopilot.
We arrived back in the marina at about 4:30 in the afternoon and I returned to same slip I had departed from that morning.
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