Ship’s Log
Friday, June 06, 2008
2008 May 10 - June 4
Los Frailes to LA PAZ
We enjoyed 4 scuba dives over 2 days at Los Frailes marine park. We wanted to stay longer but a local man in a panga told us where we were anchored was not allowed. According to our cruising guide books, both Rains & Cunningham, we were in an allowed anchorage & clearly our anchor was in sand & nowhere near the reef. But having no defense in foreign waters, we left under threat of being reported to the park authorities. It was very sad for us to leave this beautiful dive area sooner than intended.
Jim & Linda of m/v “Outward Bound” a 47 foot Nordhaven consoled us with happy hour aboard their lovely yacht.
May 11 - Los Muertos
“Outward Bound” was on the same path as we were so we buddy-boated for the next 2 days. It was a beautiful sunrise as we motored away from Los Frailes and we were entertained for an hour by the jumping rays. ***See photo gallery*** The reason for their behavior is a mystery. This article offers some interesting information on mobulas, which are small rays. We believe the species we were watching were “Golden Cow Nose Rays”.
http://www.malbertphoto.com/mobulas1.html
Seven hours later we were anchored in Los Muertos. The word muertos here refers “to the dead-man mooring system” used in the early 1900s for barges that loaded ore from nearby silver mines. Early guidebooks told of giant buried anchors called “dead men” or muertos.” We read of this tale in The Rains Guide to Mexican Boating. We picked up Jim & Linda in our dinghy for an easy “wet landing” on the beach. There were many cars parked right on the beach with families enjoying the calm cove. We enjoyed
dinner at “The Giggling Marlin” palapa restaurant. The chile rellenos were delicious.
May 12 - La Paz
We had a sunrise start again for another 7+ hour day motoring to La Paz. The closer we got to La Paz, the hotter it got. It was 100 degrees when we tied up to the fuel dock to take on diesel & check in with the harbor master. Marina Costa Baja is quite new and beautiful. They were very full. They found our reservation, but put us on a dock built for mega-yachts. The power outlet needed to be rewired to fit our power cord. The very friendly dock worker promised to be back in 1 hour. Two hours later
I am literally having a meltdown. I am curled up, in the coolest part of the boat I can find, barely breathing, completely depressed & upset that we had to leave the wonderful idyllic anchorage of 2 nights ago and come to this godforsaken inferno. Scott, initially frustrated by my despair, soon came up with a brilliant solution: start the generator so we could turn on the air conditioner! At least I didn’t feel like I was going to die of heat stroke. We also put up the “circus tent”, our additional
awning that helps shade the saloon & galley. Abelardo (the primary dock supervisor), did return eventually and we were able to use shore power instead of the generator. It was the first place we ran the air conditioning all night to sleep. Although the temperature did drop about 25 degrees overnight.
This marina has a couple of features we have not seen elsewhere. 1) They have hard-wired internet connections. They give each boat a cable and modem. Our main laptop would not connect. This is the computer that is the primary for our onboard network. So we had only 1 computer connected to the internet. Sharing a computer is one of the compromises of boating I don’t like, but Scott & I manage to take turns. (Two and a half weeks later we made a Skype call to our network guru Craig Johnson and he
had all 3 laptops on the internet in about 10 minutes!)
2) Holding tank pump out stations on all docks. This is very convenient so it encourages all boats to use their holding tanks instead of flushing directly overboard. Sounds gross, but it is common all over the world. Consequently this marina has fish swimming in crystal clear water all along the docks. Fabulous.
May 13 - Downtown La Paz
We listened to the La Paz radio net in the morning and heard that yesterday was the first 100 degree day they’d had. Lucky us. Fortunately since then it has mostly been in the high 80s to low 90s.
There are 2 other marinas closer to town. Costa Baja is the furthest away and the nicest. Scott knows I love to swim every day I can & they have a great pool, so here we stay. Every 2 hours there is a free shuttle for the 20 min ride to town. We were happy to see Marv & Ardy of s/v Odyssey, our prior buddy-boat as well as John & Sharon of s/v Sunbow that we met in Ensenada (fellow catamaran owners). We all went to a fun lunch spot called Mr. Azucar (Mister Sugar) and enjoyed their great food. While
in town we visited the very well stocked English language bookstore and picked up the newest Sea of Cortez guide by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer. We highly recommend it. We also bought “Diving and Snorkeling the Sea of Cortez” by Susan Speck and Bruce Williams which we hope to put to good use all summer.
Right near Marina La Paz where our friends were docked, was the Carey Dive Shop. We decided to gain some local knowledge by diving with them & signed up for 3 tanks on May 15.
May 14 - Clean Boat & m/v “Speedbird” Party
Whenever we can hire someone to wash the boat we do. She is a big girl and after being “at sea” a few days she gets really crusted with salt. We greatly appreciate boat washers everywhere.
We met Mary Rose and Peter of m/v “Speedbird”, another big & beautiful Nordhaven (57 ft) on the shuttle ride to town yesterday. They invited Jim, Linda, Scott & me for happy hour. There were actually several hours of happiness as we swapped stories and enjoyed the abundance of yummy food and beverages. We have a fondness for Nordhavens. Mary Rose and Peter are upsizing to a 64 footer, so Speedbird is for sale. Peter & Scott both looked a bit stunned when I suggested a direct swap of our boat for
theirs, but no deal. That’s ok. We love our “slow bird” and with diesel prices going up and up, we hope she will use her own wings instead of just her engines.
May 15 - Carey Divers
There were 2 other divers, 2 snorkelers, the Captain, naturalist and dive instructor in the Carey panga. The intention was to motor 2 hrs to Isla Islotes to dive with the sea lions. One hour into the trip the panga engine quit. The radio didn’t reach the dive shop on shore, but they got through on a cell phone. While waiting for their 2nd panga to come fetch us, we got a tow into Isla Ballena & did a dive. It was great to visit all our fish friends again. Scott took his underwater camera on her maiden
dive. He had the wide angle lens expecting sea lions, so it was frustrating to shoot small fish. But he learned a few things about his digital rig and is determined to learn more & get better results.
All people & dive/snorkel gear & lunch transferred to the working panga, but we had to tow the broken one around. Consequently we didn’t get to the sea lion colony. The next 2 dives were on wreck. First m/v ("motor vessel") Fang Ming. It was a 250 ft fishing vessel that was used to smuggle people from China to the U.S. Mexican officials intercepted it, impounded the boat & returned the people to China. After languishing for 10 yrs, they decided to sink it to create Mexicos’ first artificial reef.
Many fish call Fang Ming home so it came to good use.
The 2nd wreck was the Canonero 59. It was a retired Mexican naval vessel, 150 ft. Also a lovely artificial reef. Despite the air temperature in the high 80s, I was pretty cold going into the 3rd dive with water temps only 75. Scott & I joke about “therapeutic hypothermia”. It is wishful thinking that getting cold by being in the water will help you feel cooler for the rest of the day. This day it worked because we had the wind chill factor of the 25 mph, 2 hour panga ride back to our boat. We got
great information about many sites from Matias and Mauro. Mauro is a passionate naturalist who shares our love of marine life. We look forward to diving with Carey Divers again later in the summer.
May 16 - Our 15 Year Wedding Anniversary
Scott asked me what I wanted to do on our special day. One of my favorite activities abroad is going grocery shopping. So we took the free shuttle from marina Costa Baja to Soriana which has just about everything. I stocked up and it took me 5 hrs to “process” & stow everything once we were back to the boat with the food. Processing involves things like: removing all cardboard packaging (can harbor cockroach eggs). Putting food into vacuum bags to stay dry & fresh (nuts, grains, tortillas). Taking
the skin & bones off cooked chicken to fit more compact in the fridge & freezer. The highlight find of this shopping trip was Swiss chard. I ate all of it, not sharing one bite with Scott (whose favorite vegetables are peas & corn).
May 18 to 25 - Carmina’s Visit
Thelma Carmina Thompson Robles lived with Scott’s parents for 10 yrs when he went to college. She returned from Guatemala to care for Suzanne when she was ill at the end of her life. We had originally planned to be in Guatemala this year. When we decided to slow down & spend more time in Mexico, Carmina was sad not to see us for so long. So we flew her in to join us for a week in La Paz.
We had 2 glorious days off the dock at Isla Partida. She is not a swimmer, but with a floatation belt, quick lesson on wearing a mask & breathing through a snorkel she was mesmerized by the sea life and we snorkeled together a long time. She did great. Scott went under the boat on scuba & replaced our zincs that protect our propellers, sail drives & fridge/freezer keel coolers. We had a lot of bees seeking fresh water after we rinsed off in the cockpit. They were only thirsty & did not sting us
at all. A panga of fishermen came by also seeking fresh water & we filled their 6 gallon jug.
There was a strong “Corumel” (sort of a Santa Ana type wind) that night & the anchorage was very rolly. We decided it was best to return to our marina in La Paz because the prediction was for 3 more days of very strong winds. We went with the wind to visit Isla Islotes, the sea lion rookery we missed with Carey Divers. Then motored down the east side of the island which provided some protection from the wind. When we entered the San Lorenzo Channel the wind was in our face at 25-30 knots. Carmina
earned her sea legs by chopping vegetables in the galley while the boat pounded into 2-3 foot wind chop. I kept checking that she did not cut off a finger, but she was a real trooper. (See our photo gallery for pictures of Camrinas’ stay with us).
Docking the boat was a challenge as the wind was blowing us off the dock hard. Scott, the master docker, took the helm & 2 Costa Baja dock hands helped to finally tie us up safe. We enjoyed Carmina’s special dinner of Guatemalan enchiladas. They were a tasty & colorful combination of beets, peas, carrots, chicken and tomato sauce spiced with bay leaf & thyme.
Carmina & I took the free shuttle to town one day. We swam & snorkeled in the beautiful pool another day. A good time was had by all. She couldn’t stop thanking us for her “millionary weekend”. We are looking forward to visiting her in Guatemala early next year.
May 26 to June 4 - Adventures in Escrow
We were looking forward to getting off the dock & heading north up the Sea of Cortez for more diving. We got a call from the real estate agent that we had another very low offer on Scott’s parents Palm Desert home. We had fallen out of escrow once and had super low offers twice, so were pretty much expecting to hold it for the summer season & re-list in the winter.
It took 5 days, but buyer & seller managed to bridge the wide gap with a generous concession by our agent. Since we had already been through a “dry run” of escrow abroad, the stack of documents we had to print, sign, scan & email back as PDF attachments were familiar to us. We couldn’t have been in a better place to do all this since marina Costa Baja is the only marina we have seen with hard-wired internet modem & cable. When we tried to do this from the Grand Bay marina in Barra de Navidad it was
excruciatingly slow and tedious. Now we just zipped right along. Our only snag was getting an “Apostille” from a Mexican notary for the grant deed.
After 2 trips and $400 to a very nice Mexican notary we received an official translation & “Apostille” of our Grant Deed in Spanish. Our escrow agent said Riverside County would not be amused.
So after some research & phone calls we rented a car on June 4 & drove 3 hrs each way to Cabo San Lucas where Mike Houston saved us. He is the American Consular Agent and for $30 provided a federal notary to our document. . Another “thank goodness” that we were here, where we could do this sort of business & not in the back of beyond where a flight back to LA would have been required.
The only bummer besides the long drive, was getting pulled over by the police on a bogus charge. We were accused of driving TOO SLOW & spending too much time in the passing lane. There were 3 cops in the police car and our rental car marked “Dollar” evidently broadcast “get your mordida dollars here”. Mordida literally means “the little death” which is the Mexican form of bribery. We did not have time to follow them back to the station to get an official ticket. We did not have adequate Spanish fluency
to argue our way out of it. So for $80.00 US the cop let us go. And we made it to Cabo 1 hour before the consul office closed. Adventures in paradise. We are happy to report that this is only the 2nd incidence of this kind we have experienced in Mexico in 6 months. We understand that it is standard operating procedure in many 3rd world countries.
Stand by for more updates. We are currently in Agua Verde, 25 miles south of Puerto Escondido where we get our next internet opportunity.
Scott & Cindy s/v Beach House
Friday, May 09, 2008
Dear F&F;,
2008 May 9
Los Frailes, Cabo Pulmo Marine Park
Today was the day. We are so excited to report that we are “living our dream”. Many of you have written us: “Congratulations on living your dream.” To me, before today it felt more that I was in pursuit of, en route to but had not quite yet found my dream. Today the dream came to life. WE WENT SCUBA DIVING & SAW LOTS OF WONDERFUL THINGS!!!
Yes I like sailing. Yes we have a very nice Beach House. Yes it is fun to take your whole house with you to another country. Be able to explore all day and come back to sleep in your own bed. The jungle cruises have been exciting. Hiking with nesting birds very special. Learning about the local culture & history fascinating. Participating in a dinghy raft-up potluck memorable.
But 99% of my motivation to pursue this water-based lifestyle is that I love scuba diving. It is my passion. Every time I swim in a pool, I imagine myself surrounded by tropical fish. Every time I practice ujiyi breathing (one type of yoga breathing) I hear the same sound as when I breathe through my regulator underwater. Every time I see a bird soaring I know that sensation: weightless in water, free to move in all directions.
Scott & I used to take these amazing live-aboard dive trips to exotic diving locations. We have been to Cozumel, British Virgin Islands, Solomon Islands, Palau, Yap and the Red Sea. We maximized each 10 day trip by diving 4-5 times a day. It was thriling, yet exhausting. For those of you who have seen Scott’s pre-digital underwater slides, you know what an artist he is. We have a “point & shoot” team approach. I point & he shoots. Works great. He might sit in one spot focused on one creature for
an hour & I swim circles around him. I do not have the patience or multi-tasking skills to be an underwater photographer myself, but I love to let him “do his art”.
Each of these trips cost thousands of dollars. We always left wishing we could stay longer. How great would it be to be able to sit for a month in one spot & just dive 2 or 3 times a day & feel relaxed & have the benefit of time? So we did the only sensible thing: bought this boat in order to travel to the world’s best diving.
Every time we snorkeled previously in Mexico we could barely see our fins. This has been the main factor that has kept us from pulling out the dive gear before now. In the worst places, only inches of visibility. Awful, green or brown murky pea soup. Only at Isla Isabella could we begin to see that there were indeed tropical fish in Mexican waters. This gave us hope. We were thrilled that today we could see through the water about 20-40 feet. Divers call this visibility.
The temperature was 75 degrees on the first very shallow dive (8-10 feet). 73 degrees for the second dive, down to 40 feet. On the first dive I was completely comfortable for 45 mins in my 5 mm thick neoprene wetsuit. On the second dive I started to feel cool at 20 mins, but was fine to continue another 15 mins. The air temperature is 89 degrees, so I got warm really quickly once out of the water. Spending time in water below body temperature is a great way to keep cool. Nothing like a little therapeutic
hypothermia. We look forward to spending several hours a day in the water all summer here in the Sea of Cortez to help us manage the heat.
We always wear our shark shields when we get in the water. For detailed info on this gizmo see the really neat video at http://www.sharkshield.com In brief, it is an antenna that we strap around our ankle that repels sharks. You can rest assured that we have no intention of being part of the food chain. In return, we do not each much fish. Scott does not care for it, so except for the occasional camarones (shrimp) we are nearly anti-fishetarians.
We dove at Catalina & the other Channel Islands in the past several years, but we had not been warm water diving since January 2000. I remember this specifically because we went to Maui for my 40th birthday. The diving here reminded us quite a bit of diving in Hawaii. Hard coral on top of rocks form the reef, which is 4 miles long by a quarter of a mile wide.
For the second dive we tied our line to a friendly local dive charter boat & got some good information about this area. Diego brought 2 divers from San Diego on the 1 hour panga ride from the beach town Buena Vista, north of here. Simon from England, works as divemaster, although Diego is also a divemaster, as well as an avid fisherman. This reef is a protected marine park, so no fishing or anchoring on the reef. But there is plenty of sport fishing (especially marlin) just outside the protected
area. There were about 6 other panga dive boats out today over a large area. Our catamaran is anchored well away from the reef. We dove from our dinghy closer to the reef, careful to set our anchor where we could clearly see sand on the bottom and not harm any coral.
Diving is such an experiential activity that trying to describe what we see feels terribly inadequate. But since many of you will never blow bubbles beneath the surface of the ocean and want to know why we love it so much, I will do my best to share the magic with you & pique your imagination. All are familiar friends. Here is a list of the various sizes, shapes & colors of marine life we saw today:
Parrot fish: 2 feet long, bird-like beak, various shades of green & aqua (largest we have ever seen).
Wrasse: face green & pink stripes, body blue & green striped (swims like its trying to constantly stay afloat).
Tangs: yellow, blue
Butterfly fish: silver, white, black stripes
Trigger fish: dusky blue
Damsel fish: dark blue
Banded (or arc-eye) Hawk fish: 2-3 inches long, red & white plaid body
Cow fish: 1-2 inches long, rectangular body, brown with white spots
Barred spiny puffer fish: brown & yellow
Nudibranchs: 1 inch, black with orange fringe
Green moray eels: 5-6 feet long, 6 inches in diameter (saw 8 of them).
Fiddler ray: buries in the sand, body 15 inches round with 1 ft tail. Light & dark patchy pattern
Banded guitar fish: 4 ft long, brown, green & beige
*You’ve got to love the scientific name of this guitar fish - Zapteryx exasperata*
And many, many more that we have not identified yet.
Scott’s underwater photos will do more justice to these beautiful creatures. Since we are just getting our onboard protocols going, today he did not take the camera. We are hoping this is just the kick off to a whole summer of fabulous diving & amazing photos in the Sea of Cortez.
We will stay here at least one more day in this incredibly calm and beautiful place. Soon we head for La Paz.
Scott and Cindy
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
MAZATLAN
2008 April 29 to May 7
April 29 Tuesday
We arrived tired but happy with the way the passage from Isla Isabella went. I already mentioned this elsewhere, but we were amazed & thrilled that we were able to hire a boat washer right after we docked at El Cid Marina. The 2 man team did a great job of removing the unwanted reminders of Isla Isabella’s bird population.
We had been warned that El Cid was the most surgy of the docks, but also the only one with a hotel (and swimming pool) affiliated. Since I love to swim so much we always favor the marinas where I have pool access. At least until we get somewhere that has nice beaches. I would be happy to swim in the ocean. But so far all the beaches of Mexico that we’ve been too have pounding surf, strong currents & undertows. Pretty to look at, and ok for boogie boarding, but not really for comfortable swimming.
April 30 Wednesday
One of the main attractions for Scott in Mazatlan was having a consultation with Bob of Total Yachts to discuss our transmission oil (leaking in salt water) problem and potential solutions. Via email, a Yanmar mechanic in New Zealand had proposed a header tank be installed. This would keep positive pressure on the drive seals and prevent water from leaking in. Bob agreed this was a good idea, but has never installed one. He suggested Scott try to get more detailed info from the chap in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Bob inspected our transmission oil & said Scott has done a good job of staving off a serious problem by his frequent changing of the oil. He said we can wait and schedule the job in October when we return, no panic to do it now. That was a relief to hear.
Scott’s former patients, Bev & Don Anderson, take their annual vacation at a time share in Mazatlan. They have been following us on our website & were eager to see us & the boat. We enjoyed having them & their friends, Diana and Leon Easley from Milwaulki, Oregon onboard.
The pool is filled with guests enjoying the water until after 8 pm. No way to do laps or exercise. By the evening, the water is pretty murky from the days sunscreen & trash from the pool bar. I do swim but am not thrilled with the experience.
May 1 Thursday - Labor Day Holiday in Mexico
Norma that works at the laundry in the marina does side jobs of boat cleaning. She & I worked together for 4 hrs. Not quite Eva & Eloisa, but we did our best. It always feels so much better when the boat is clean inside & out.
My favorite grocery store chain (so far) in Mexico is “Mega”. It is large & has just about everything you could want. Ok, no pine nuts, rice wine vinegar or fig newtons, but plenty of interesting food & nice produce to make me happy. Pineapple, papaya, mango, plums, tangerines, bananas. Broccoli, red & yellow peppers, jicama, carrots, onions. Yogurt, milk, cottage cheese, sour cream, eggs, and a couple types of queso (cheese).
We didn’t really grasp that May 1 was a holiday where a lot of businesses are closed. It is “Mexican Labor Day”. Before grocery shopping we stopped at DHL to ship our non-transmitting SSB/Ham radio in for repair. We had to return the next day as they were closed.
The surgiest marina in Mazatlan lived up to her reputation. We did the slam dance for 2 days. It was uncomfortable onboard, tricky getting on & off having to time your step from the ladder on or off till the gap was minimized. What was really unnerving was walking towards our dock with groceries in tow and seeing Beach House literally “dancing” in the slip. We had entirely enough of that. Scott pulled out our extra heavy long spare anchor lines & tied her up every which way. That stopped 90% of the
motion. What a relief! Note to selves: tie the heck out of the boat when at a dock.
May 2 Friday
First order of business was going to DHL. Since we will likely be having our radio shipped back to us in Mexico, it was important to have all the proper documents showing that we were sending it for repair. We do not want to pay import duty when it is returned to us. Paperwork included copies of our passports, FM-3 visas (temporary resident status), boat importation document and a letter in Spanish from the El Cid Marina Dockmaster verifying that we are in their marina with our boat and that we were
sending our radio in for repair. Everyone in the marina office & DHL were very thorough & helpful, because they are familiar with this situation.
*Note: the day we departed the package was still sitting in Guadalajara. Sending & receiving things from the US is a lengthy & expensive process. One-way shipping of our 20 lb box to Washington State cost $145.00, $20.00 of which was insurance.
After DHL we took a taxi into “Old Town”. We enjoyed a nice lunch on the plaza, visited the Catholic Cathedral (wedding party exiting) and most interesting was the Angela Peralta Opera House that was recently restored to its former glory. SEE PHOTO GALLERY (will post from La Paz).
May 3 Saturday
We walked 20 minutes to check out the other marinas. Elvira, Dockmaster at Marina Mazatlan was very friendly & showed us what slip our boat would be assigned when we return in September. It was good to see Carol & Dick from sailboat Tanoshii. They had been in the Grand Bay Hotel marina at the same time as us. Bob of Total Yachts was assessing their propeller problem, so we didn’t stay long. We met another cruising couple from sailing vessel Prism using their laptop at the upstairs cruisers lounge
(to get internet access). Otherwise it was pretty quiet over there. Supposedly Mazatlan has not had a direct hit from a hurricane in 37 years, so quite a few boats stay year round. You could take the view that “they are due” for one. Or concur that it is a safe bet as a rarely struck area.
After visiting Marina Mazatlan, we decided to have lunch at what everyone had told us was the nicest hotel in town. We had looked on the website for Pueblo Bonita at Emerald Bay and it indeed looked very lovely and luxurious. I enjoy being out at sea, in nature, and am not a big shopper. But I have a fondness for fancy hotels. And I like to stay at the nicest one I can find.
The taxi pulled up to a big gated entry. The guard asked if we were guests of the hotel. We said no, we wanted to have lunch, see the hotel & make a reservation for October (when we haul out). “Do you have a reservation? You must have made a reservation 24 hrs in advance.” For lunch? “Yes, for lunch. We are a timeshare, it is private.” We would like to make a reservation. “But you don’t have a reservation, so no, you cannot have lunch.” After having our taxi move out of the driveway to allow other
traffic in, many calls to his front desk & exasperation that we didn’t just go away, the guard reluctantly let us in & told us to go directly to reception.
The grounds are as lovely as they looked on the website. The place was busy with a wedding party having their photo shoot, and a deep line at the front desk. A bouncer-looking guy met us and was quite distraught that we had been let in. No you cannot eat lunch, absolutely not. Since he could see we were not going to be that easily shooed away, he just waved us off to go look around on our own & then instructed us leave. “No you cannot make a reservation. They left at 1 pm”. It was about 3 pm.
What made this ridiculous policy unbelievable to us, was that several people had told us that they will pay you cash (up to $200) to listen to their timeshare marketing schpiel! Oh well. We were just as happy not to have endured the marketing campaign and were really put off by their behavior. But the fact remains that it is THE NICEST hotel in Mazatlan and amazingly costs only $125/ night (plus taxes, plus fees) in October. After spending hot & sweaty days at the shipyard supervising the work that
will be done, it will be a relief to return to the beautiful hotel.
May 4 Sunday
Mostly on email & Skype doing business. We ordered things we need to have shipped for me to pick up when in LA. We bemoaned the state of the real estate market with our agent, Greg Manns of Coldwell Banker. We reviewed common area bills due with beach neighbor Celeste. The property suffered quite a bit of storm damage in February. Friends Linda & Martin are handling things there for us, for which we are incredibly grateful.
May 5 Monday
Cinco de Mayo is not a big holiday in Mexico. We asked the gals at the hotel front desk what was going on in town, or at the hotel. They shrugged & said “nada”. Banks were open & it appeared to be business as usual all over town. May 1-4 had been a long weekend for many. Our hotel had 2 weddings on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. The weather is ideal.
We took a taxi to the lighthouse. The sign claims it is the highest manned lighthouse in the world. We aren’t so sure about that statistic, but we enjoyed the hike to the top. The view was great & we happened to meet 3 US Navy men up there. Bart, Allen & Rob came down on USS Antietum from the base in San Diego. (photos to be posted in La Paz).
Mazatlan’s main harbor anchorage is free & well protected, but unfortunately down-wind of a super stinky sewage treatment plant; very unfortunate. Past the anchorage is the commercial & industrial dock where the boat will be hauled out on October. With our view from the light house we got a good idea of its location. About 30-40 min drive from the fancy hotel, but we will rent a car, so no problem. Mazatlan is a big city with a very long coastline.
We looked in town at a couple of not-Cindy-preferred hotels, had lunch & took a walk along “the worlds longest malecon” (which is very likely true). Malecon would translate to boardwalk. Except think cement sidewalk up above the beach, not boards down on water level. The “Malecon” in Mazatlan appeared to be about 5 miles long.
May 6 Tuesday
Another business day for us. I figured out in the past couple of days that I could swim in the morning without too many people yet in the pool. If I can get in the water, it doesn’t matter what happens the rest of the day - I am so happy in the water. We are kind of done here and antsy to get off the dock. We will leave tomorrow if the weather looks good for crossing the bottom of the Sea of Cortez.
May 7 Wednesday
Scott hired a diver to clean the bottom of the boat. He arrived promptly at 7 am. Since we anticipate motoring a lot, if not the entire 165 miles, we wanted clean propellers to start out with. The prevailing wind is predicted to be in our face 10-15 knots, hopefully less at night.
We wanted to hose off the evidence of the birds of Mazatlan, but the water was off at our dock.
We tanked up on diesel at the fuel dock, hooked our hose up there and took the opportunity to hose off the dirty girl. It was hectic at the Harbormasters office who handles day charter tourist bookings. There was a long line of people needing to pay her. Knowing the boat taking the tourists needed to fuel up too, I went to the front of the line & told her we were stuck at the fuel dock until she took my money. Suddenly I got to be next! Eight nights at the dock with electricity = $440. Plus 285 liters
of fuel $190. Not too bad.
And so we are off on our next adventure. We are hoping Los Frailes will not disappoint us. It could be our first Mexico diving site. That is why we are going there. It would be a shorter & potentially less rough trip, or at least a shorter rough trip, if we skipped it & headed straight for La Paz. But we can’t stand to think of what we might miss. So off we go. Auto pilot is steering 279 degrees and we are slogging into short period swell of 5-8 ft. This is our modified version of the “Baja Bash”.
When boats leave to go back to the US at the end of the Mexican cruising season, they often have to motor straight upwind and against the swell too. This is the most uncomfortable direction for us to travel. We should be at Los Frailes anchorage just after sunrise tomorrow. Ah the life of a sailor!
Scott & Cindy (23d-19min N x 107d-09min W)
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