Moving Northward

We are now located in Banderas Bay, at Punta de Mita. Puerto Vallarta is on the far side from us, and we should get over there in a few days.

We have begun the move back north towards Mazatlan. We made short stops in Barra de Navidad, Tenacatita, Chamela, and Ipala. Most of the other boats are ahead of us and we are also at the end of the tourist season (winter) so there are a lot fewer boats and people ashore as well. This is fine with us as we don’t really like the crowds, but it also means that some restaurants are closed or don’t have all their items available. We can tell that the weather is starting to change. We are heading from the dry season (no rain in 4 months) to the wet (hurricane) season, the winds are changing and the humidity is going up. We will soon need to have the boat somewhere safe from Hurricanes.

 

We have been a little disappointed in the water down here this season. When we first arrived the water was warm and clear. Within a week or so the temperature dropped over 10 degrees and made swimming uncomfortable. After a few weeks the temp started to go up and we had a chance to snorkel on the wreck in Santiago. However in a few days we had a huge algae bloom and the water turned murky green or an even worse red/brown with no visibility at all! Heading up the coast it has improved a bit and the algae is in patches, so it all depends on where you are and what the wind/waves are doing. We had hoped to be in the water pretty much everyday during the season, but have gone swimming rarely and only snorkeling a few times.  Our friends tell us that last year was much better for water quality. Oh well, I guess we can’t have everything perfect.

 

I finally added some new photos to the mainland Mexico page, Guadalajara and other pics. I also fixed the guestbook, so that should be working again (thanks to Fran for letting me know!).

Back in Mazatlan

We are back in Mazatlan for the summer, currently anchored in the Old harbor, but will be moving to the marina around the first of June.

It is nice to be back here as this is our favorite Mexican City. The old historic area is very interesting, lots of older buildings, some restored and some not. The plaza is always a good place to visit, during the day it is quiet and comfortable, you can find a nice shady table and enjoy a cold cervesa and relax after walking around all day. In the evening the plaza becomes more active. The one street that runs one side of the plaza is closed to car traffic and the restaurants there claim the space for their tables. The families, friends and couples come out to walk the plaza, there is usually live music playing at two of the corners, as well as wandering mariachi’s. The Angela Peralta theatre art school is at one end the the plaza so you can often here the bands inside practicing (classical, jazz, etc..).

The last time we were there some type of show was going on at the school. There were dozens of kids about high school age, all wearing what looked like dance/band outfits, what looked like several of the carnival princesses, and lots of families. It was interesting to sit and people watch while we ate our dinner.

Another thing that we like about Mazatlan is the public transportation, the buses here work very well. The buses are 5 pesos (about .50 cents US), with the air conditioned buses costing 6 of 8 pesos. The buses run very often and each has the major areas/stores that it goes to written on the windows of the bus. It is quite easy to hop on a bus that is going to the correct area even if you are not familiar with the route that that particular bus is going to take. We use the busses a lot! The only problem is that the busses stop running around 9pm, which is just about when the plaza and the nightlife is just getting started! Besides the buses there are taxi’s, pulmonarias (sort of a overgrown vw powered golfcart, unique to Mazatlan), and pickup trucks with 2 bench seats in back. These are plentiful and reasonably priced, more so if you can bargain well!

Happy Holidays!!

Feliz Navidad y un prospero Ano Nuevo or Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

We finally made it out of La Paz and are now in Mazatlan. We made the crossing a few days after New Years and after an overnight sail arrived at Mazatlan.  We had good winds for the first 20 hours, then it died, and we had to motor the rest of the way across. We were going to anchor but our friends on Hooligan let us use their slip while there boat was on the hard. So now we are at Marina Mazatlan for a few days. Once again it is a reunion of a sort as we met up with boats and friends we have not seen in months.

We spent the holidays in La Paz, as issues getting our batteries and bad weather kept us there longer than we intended. We had hoped to be in Mazatlan for Christmas but plans are made to be changed when cruising. It was nice to be in La Paz as there were several friends of ours there and the provisioning is very good. We were stocking up and spending far too much money. We made a total newbie cruiser mistake the other day. Cindy wanted to stock up on some Jimmy Dean sausage, as this is the only place we have seen it in Mexico. We saw some at the grocery store, but thought that we would get it later after we reorganized the fridge/freezer. Big mistake! Rule number 1 of provisioning is “if you see what you want, buy it now and as much as possible, it may not be there later”. Sure enough when we returned a few days later it was gone. We checked several times over a few days and tried to ask when it would be stocked, but had a hard time getting a good answer (I really need to work on my Spanish). Eventually after a few visits and talking to several people someone searched in back and found a box in storage. Cindy bought the entire box! 

 

We are at the start of a new year and that always seems like a good time to reflect on the past year and think about what we expect of the coming year. We realize that we have now been in Mexico for a full year, arriving just before Christmas in 2006. Looking back it seems like a long time ago, but the time has flown by so fast! A friend of ours says that time living on a boat with your spouse should be measured like dog years. We are living in small quarters, and we do most everything together with very little time spent separated. It is quite a bit different than back in our old world; it seemed we only really spent time together evenings and weekends. We have had quite a few adventures, seen interesting places, learned new skills, and met some wonderful people. We have also had bad weather, gear failures, bug infestations and our (self imposed) separation from family. Overall we think the pluses far outweigh the minuses, and plan to continue cruising in our boat.

For the upcoming year our plans are still pretty vague. We know that we will spend the winter on the mainland coast of Mexico mostly between Puerto Vallarta and Ixtapa. After that we are not sure, we will most likely spend another year in Mexico before heading further south or west. Now that we have a better feel for Mexico and getting around we hope to have more opportunities to have family and friends come down and visit us.

 

Pulling the anchor under duress!

The weather continues to be capricious. On the way to La Paz we get blown out of two anchorages. We stopped at Amortajada at the south end of Isla San Jose, this anchorage is well protected from the south and east. The first night was very quiet and calm and we had a nice day exploring the estuary, so we decided to spend another night. At 1 AM the wind started to blow from the west and by 3 AM, we decided that the anchorage was untenable and that we needed to leave. We pulled the anchor as the swells built, then threaded our way between islands, rocks and reefs in a very dark night. We had plotted a course ahead of time and used the radar to check our position. After a few a watchful moments, we were out in the open channel and heading south. We decided that rather than move around the point and re-anchor in a protected spot, it would be better to stay underway, make some distance and anchor in daylight. Watching a sunrise while under sail is always enjoyable, when you are the crew on watch you have the time to enjoy the changing colors and shifting clouds. There are few other times when a person will sit and watch a sunrise from beginning to end.

We stopped short of La Paz in a small bay called Caleta Lobos. We started getting grey skies and more rain, so after another quiet night with the anchorage to ourselves we decided another night would be good. This time the wind started at 1 PM, and by 3 PM good sense indicated that we had overstayed our welcome. This anchorage was protected from all but the west, which was where the wind was now coming from. We figured if we could make good time we could get the La Paz anchorage just before sunset. We started out very slowly, clawing our way out of the narrow bay into head winds and large swell, but once we turned south we could make much better time. Once into the large bay of La Paz the wind and waves were much reduced and we relaxed considerably.

It was fun to come in and talk to several friends from boats that we had met over the last several months. We wanted to get in and out quickly, and head across to Mazatalan for Christmas, but we also wanted to meet up with friends we have not seen for a while. We also wanted to get out before we spent too much money! Everytime we get into a bigger town we end up spending much more time and money than we intended. Other cruisers refer to this as being unable to get their anchors free.

For a more fun anecdote, we also had a whale shark sighting. We arrived in Agua Verde after leaving Escondido, and as we were moving around deciding where to anchor we saw a disturbance in the water ahead of us. At first we thought it might be a dolphin or a sea lion, but then I recognized the unique motion of a shark swimming. The whale shark is (one of?) the largest in the shark family and can grow to 40 feet! However it is a filter feeder and has no teeth, people sometimes even swim with them. There were two here in the anchorage swimming together both were over 20ft with one a bit larger than the other. They like to swim right on the surface so the tip of the fin and tip of the tail are usually above the surface of the water, giving the opportunity to see their large head and wide mouth. We stopped the boat to watch these amazing animals and try to get some photos. They were not concerned about the boat at all, and continued to make their winding paths around us. We watched for a while then headed closer to shore to drop our anchor.

Some family time in mexico

Long since due for an update!

After San Francisquito and the strong winds, we had light weather heading further south to Santa Rosalia. We spent a few days cleaning up the boat, including a trip up to the top of the mast with a water hose! The boat looked like we had taken it off-roading. The water running down the boat was the color of chocolate milk. We prepared the boat for a visit from my parents ( Jim and Sally), and found an RV park for their Scamp trailer. My parents were coming down for about a week to visit, they were also bringing us a bunch of goodies from the states (hard to find food items and boat parts).

We unloaded some of the goodies and did some sightseeing in town, then headed off to Isla San Marcos for a few days. We had a nice spinnaker run and even got Sally to steer the boat for a while. Jim reeled in a nice Mexican Bonito on the way, which made an excellent BBQ for the night’s dinner. We found a nice spot to drop the hook at Sweetpea cove. We had wonderful weather, with warm days and cool nights, plus we had an amazing dolphin show for two days. Hundreds of dolphins were swimming up and down the coast of the island, coming very close to the boat and often leaping completely clear of the water. We put on the snorkel gear one day and tried to swim with the dolphins. The dolphins would have none of this, and refused to come anywhere near us! Funny how they won’t come nearer than 20-30ft from an anchored boat, but will swim inches off the bow when underway. We did a day trip down to the village on San Marcos, this is a town for the gypsum mine on the island. The town was interesting and very neat and clean, the local church was built from blocks of gypsum so was quite unique. After a few days we headed back to Santa Rosalia. Since we had a vehicle we wanted to drive down to Mulege, a town that does not have a good anchorage so we did not stop there in the boat. It one of the oldest settlements in the Baja as it has the only fresh water river. The town was nice with some older building still existing, but the river west of town was spectacular. The river meandered up the valley and the valley floor was completely covered in palm trees. The most greenery than we have seen in Mexico so far. There was an old Mission (first in California), and the old prison (inmates were let lose to work during the day, but they had to come back in the evening to get locked up overnight), unfortunately both were closed so we could not go inside. After a bit more provisioning with the car for items like fuel and propane (which is located 5 miles from town!), we had to say goodbye. We had run out of time and my parents needed a few days travel time to get back to the states. We had a very nice visit and everyone enjoyed the time spent together.

We left Santa Rosalia a few days later and are now down at Punta Chivato. This is a point with a nice beach and has a beautiful resort that we cannot afford to visit. There are several other cruising boats here so we have done a bit of visiting around the anchorage.

Migrating south again...

We left Puerto Refugio a few days ago and sailed south, back to Bahia de Los Angeles. The weather has been changing, getting cooler and the prevailing southerly winds of summer have been replaced by the winter northerlies. This weather pattern makes it easy to sail up into the Sea of Cortez for the summer and then back down toward Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta in the winter. Quite convenient if you are patient and not in a hurry.

Puerto Refugio was nice though we ended up re-anchoring several times. The west bay was protected from the north and east, and the east bay is protected from the south and west. The wind would change every few days bring wind waves along, this would make the anchorage uncomfortable so we would up anchor and move to the other side. Normally this is no big deal, but one day it turned at four in the morning and we had to wait till dawn to safely move the boat.

I did some trolling in the dinghy after Michael from Cambria caught some Yellowtail. I tried the next day but had no luck till Michael showed me his spot. Then I caught a large Yellowtail (24”) and 2 more small ones as well. The large one made a nice dinner for both us and the crew of Momo. We had not had this type of fish before but it is now one of our favorites.

We have been playing with the underwater camera (Canon S60 with underwater housing). Getting pictures of non-moving creatures is fairly easy, moving (and shy) fish are tough. It is difficult to hold the camera still and you cannot use the view finder. We can also make short movies, which we have found takes practice. The first few tries made the “Blair Witch project” look like it was made with a steady-cam. Camera movement was way too quick and jerky, watching could induce motion sickness. We are getting better and may get a few movies posted soon.

We are back at the village of Bahia de Los Angeles, getting some provisions and placing some online orders on the internet. My parents are going to come and visit us at the end of the month so they get to courier down some supplies for us. So we get both a visit and goodies! The only downside is that we now have a schedule. However it should be no problem getting to Santa Rosalia in 2 weeks time.

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.