More from Santa Rosalia...

We have been at the marina for almost a month now, and are ready to head out. We had not planned to stay this long but plans change. We now have a new set of batteries (Thanks to V’Ger) and are ready for the summer. We have finished quite a few jobs, more sewing and other installs (shower connection in the cockpit and more fans).

Santa Rosalia was built as a company town for a mining operation run by the French. The building materials for the town were all shipped in, so many of the buildings are wood rather than concrete like the rest of the Baja. The town definitely has a different feel than other places. The town is proud of the past and there is a museum and there are trains and other mining equipment around town as displays. The church in town has an interesting history. It was designed by Gustav Eiffel for a worlds fair in Belgium, the building is a pre-fab design made from metal. It was bought by the mining company dismantled, shipped to Mexico (on a sailing ship), and reassembled. There are photos around town of the harbor filled with schooners and square riggers. These brought coal from England and returned to Europe with copper. The old smelter is in ruins but still stands neat the harbor. There has been an effort to fix up the area, but as seems typical with Mexico, it is only half done. There is a nice malecon area, with a tiled walk way and lights, but the old buildings are run down and falling to ruin (some would be quite nice if restored). Near the smelter they installed tile walks, lights, landscaping, but the smelter buildings are full of trash and broken windows.

In my last update I mentioned the Palapa of Knowledge, and as appropriate I gained some knowledge there. The original palapa was removed when they built the nice malecon. The current palapa is not actually a palapa at all, it is one of the old wood buildings that is in a state of disrepair. One end of the building is usable and serves as the marina office/hangout.

From here we will make a short trip out to Isla San Marcos, there are supposed to be some interesting caves to explore by dinghy and by snorkel. Should be fun. It will also be nice to get out where there should be a nice breeze. The last few days the humidity has been up over 75% so we have been hot and sticky.

The Palapa of Knowledge

We are in Santa Rosalia at the Marina for a while. We are having some issues with the batteries and are getting replacements from the states. We are enjoying the town and the company of the other cruisers. The marina is very informal and is pretty much run by the cruisers, the beer, ice, laundry etc.. is all done on the honor system. Each boat has a sheet on which to mark down the services you use, and then you settle up before you leave. The building tends to be the afternoon hangout, where everyone sits around and drinks a beer. The opinions and advice apparently prompted someone to christen it “The Palapa of Knowledge”.

I will add more details about Santa Rosalia later. As it is a interesting town.

The La Paz waltz

We are in the anchorage in La Paz now. There is a strong current in here and often strong winds as well. The two work off of each other and so the anchored boats move around a lot in a strange motion known as the "La Paz Waltz". We will be here for a few days for provisioning but need to be out of here by Tuesday. Cindy has volunteered to be a Net Controller for the Southbound net. This is a radio net on the SSB (Single Side Band) radio. There are a few nets, the two biggest being the Amigo in the morning and the Southbound in the evening. These are a way for the boats in Mexico and central america to communicate, this is a known time and frequency to meet. The net controller keeps everything organized as boats check in and give their boat name, crew names, and position, facilitate messages between boats, and listen for weather information (Don Anderson on Summer Passage in Oxnard, does great weather). Cindy is now the controller on Tuesday evening, She has done this twice and is doing great! Unfortunately La Paz in not a good place for HAM radio reception, so we need to be elsewhere by tuesday evening.

We finally caught up to Yohelah, the boat we went with to Canada and Alaska. The boat is here in La Paz, Rob is still here getting the boat ready for summer storage, but Teresa is already back in Seattle looking for work. We miss Teresa, but did get to do dinner with Rob. The will be back in the Fall for more Mexico adventures.

Back To The Baja

Masquerade is now anchored at Isla San Francisco, a small island about 45 miles north of La Paz.

We enjoyed our visit in Altata and met some nice people there. We met a family that owns one of the beach restaurants. Only the daughter, a young woman named Wendy spoke English, and my Spanish is really bad. She said that she would like to see the boat, and we told her we would happy to show it to her. The next afternoon I was swimming of the boat, cleaning some growth of the bottom, when Cindy told me we had company. I climbed back aboard to find 3 pretty young ladies in the cockpit. Wendy came out with two friends (Diana and Dulce), ferried out in a cousin's panga. We had a nice visit, with Wendy acting as interpreter. She invited us to join her and her family for dinner that evening. We accepted and met them that evening at the restaurant. They insisted that we pull the dinghy across the road and into the open-air restaurant (it has wheels) so that it would be safe. We then walked over to a brother's house where they had a BBQ going to make Carne Asada. We had dinner with around 17 extended family and friends. Wendy again had to act as interpreter as only one other person spoke a little English. We had a pleasant evening and the Spanish/English dictionary got a lot of use. We hope to get back this way soon.

We had a long passage across the Sea of Cortez. We wanted to sail and not motor so the crossing took at least an extra 24 hours. We had light winds and winds from the wrong direction most of the time. We went from drifting with the spinnaker in 4kn of wind to reefed sails and 25kn in about 2 hours. We did end up motoring some as it was taking a long time. From here we will probably visit La Paz then head to the northern part of the Gulf of California.

Off the Beaten Path

We finally left Mazatlan! After leaving the marina we spent 2 weeks in the Old Harbor. The anchorage there is close to the historical district of Mazatlan, and is walking distance to the plazas and Mercado. We met up with some friends the Northwest (V'Ger) that we had not seen in 2 years, and another boat we met in Ensenada (Momo). We hiked up the lighthouse, which is the highest lighthouse in the americas. Great view of the harbor and Mazatlan. We had a brief stop at Venados (Deer) Island, then headed north to Altata. Altata is a small town about 120 miles from Mazatlan. The town was first visited by cruisers in 2001, and is not listed in most cruising guides. Information has started to be passed around so now perhaps a dozen boats a year come in, compared to hundreds that go through Mazatlan. There are no good charts to the bay and it is very shallow with an entrance that can be scary, so having information from previous boats was very helpful. We were welcomed in by a pod of dolphins. We are the only cruising boat here and probably the only gringos as well. Everyone seems friendly, and I think we are a bit if a novelty. The Port Captain spoke english and was very friendly, he told me that Altata was a busy commercial port back in the 1800's but a hurricane hit in 1911 and altered the harbor, closing the old entrance and creating a new one 10 miles south of town. The new shallower entrance caused the commercial traffic to stop. We are anxious to get out and do a little exploring, also the water here in the estuary is around 76 degrees so we can do some swimming without being too cold.

One year cruising!

April 1^st was the one year anniversary of the day that we cut our dock lines, left Seattle, and started cruising.

It is amazing to us that a year has passed so quickly, but it also seems like a lifetime ago that we were doing the work/commute routine.

So looking back at some figures

Miles: 4900 (nautical miles)

Border crossings: 5 (Canada, USA-Alaska, Canada, USA-Oregon, Mexico)

Boat searches by Customs officials: 1

Furthest North: 59.0N degrees, Glacier Bay Alaska (The Arctic circle is 66.33N)

Furthest South: 22.5 N, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (just into the Tropic of Cancer)

Furthest East: 106.27W Mazatlan, Mexico (about even with Albuquerque NM)

Furthest West: 137.0W Glacier bay Alaska

Highest winds: 45kn (Alaska)

We miss our friends that we left behind, and family that we have not seen enough of. On the other hand we have made lots of new friends and become part of a community of cruisers here in Mexico. We are looking forward to spending the summer up in the Sea of Cortez, where it is going to be HOT!

Snow! and old friends

Ok, that might need some further clarification. We are still in Mazatlan, moored at the Marina.

We decided to head back to California for a short visit. We thought we could do our taxes and do some work on the rental property and also extend our Visas another 180 days. We figured a week would be enough time. We ended up staying almost 3 weeks. Our mail service screwed up sending our mail and therefore getting our taxes done. The property took up much time catching up on years worth of yard work, hauling, burning and tree trimming. We got a huge amount of work done, but there is more waiting for us the next time we return. While working in the yard it began to snow one afternoon. There was not any real accumulation and it melted by the next day, but it was quite a change for us. Our property is in Georgetown (Population 962), which is between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, about 10 miles from Sutter’s Mill (for those who know CA history).

Back in Mazatlan things are busy. We have met up with several boats that we know and haven’t seen in a while. Some we haven’t seen for months some not for 2 years! It has been fun catching up with everyone. It is also Semana Santa (Holy Week) which is a big Mexican holiday when everyone comes to the beach. On top of that we are getting a bunch of spring break visitors as well. It is really crowded downtown and along the beaches. It is more crowded now than it was at carnival.

We plan on leaving Mazatlan soon, we are not decided if we want to head north or south. I would like to see Isla Isabella (south) and Cindy wants to head north into the Sea of Cortez. I guess we will see which way the wind is blowing when the time comes and that is the direction we will go…