This week is going to be about getting ready for the impending trip, whatever and whenever it will be. Doing some cleaning, reorganizing and provisioning.
12-06 Tues – 12-12 Monday
- Went to our favorite restaurants, did laundry, cleaned, provisioned, varnished and prepared to leave for Mazatlan
- On Thursday we got together with Bob & Sherry of “Nirvana” and Terry & Patricia of “Sunnyside” for sundowners. (Bob and Terry ganged up on me to take the ham exam that was to be given that Saturday morning – 36 hour later. So I spent all day Friday studying from 7 AM to 9 PM. Took the test at 9 AM the next day and passed. Now I have aTechnician’s class license but need to study for the General class exam befor I can consider myself a “ham”. – D)
- We have been continually unhappy with the way our 65 lb. CQR anchor has been performing. We have had to try 2 or more times to get the anchor to set, it wouldn’t feel like a secure set and have had the anchor drag more than once. We have been unable to sleep well at anchor because of this. We went and looked at Lopez Marine in La Paz at some of the anchors there and took measurements back to the boat. Dick thinks the 110 lb. claw-type anchor will work well on our bow sprit. So, after the exam on Saturday Dick went and bought it. He had to make a few adjustments to the size of the hole (minor wood surgery – D) that the anchor comes up through the bow sprit, but it worked and we are anxious to try it. We are excited about this new addition to our ground tackle tools.
- Bob & Sherry decided to stay until their FM3 visas are completed (3-4 more weeks), so we decided to leave for Mazatlan (based upon weather conditions) on Tues 12-13. The weather has been very windy, the seas choppy and forecasted to stay that way until Monday. The seas should be calmed down by Tues.
- On Monday the weather had calmed and we went to pay our electric bill that night at the Marina office ($35 for the month) and inform them we were leaving early in the morning. They told us that the port was closed!! We couldn’t figure out why since the weather was just fine, and they said we’d have to wait until the morning till after they opened to see if the port would be opened. This will only delay us an hour or so from our desired 6:00 am departure.
12-13, Tues. – We checked with the office at 7:00 am and were told the port is open. We think maybe it was due to a holiday on Monday that it was closed. Anyway…….
Bye bye La Paz ………. Hello Mexican Navy? Yep! We got boarded just as we left the LaPaz Harbor channel. A boat full of young, handsome and very nice Mexican Navy boys flagged us down and boarded us. Yes, they had machine guns (M-16’s - D). They were very friendly, let me take pictures and took a picture of me with one of them . They seemed to be mostly interested in making sure we didn’t have any stow-aways and had our proper papers.
After that we were on our way again and headed to Los Muertos. We really enjoyed that anchorage last time (except for when we dragged anchor) and are looking forward to visiting there again with our new anchor.
We arrived there just before dark and were not disappointed! It only took one try and we were “stuck” with the new anchor, able to rev the engine up to 1200 RPMs in reverse without moving an inch! Excellent!! We are VERY happy and relieved. It was just as beautiful as remembered. There were only four other boats there and we knew one of them, “Deep Playa”. A nice young couple we met on the “Ha-Ha”, Patrick & Dawn. We slept VERY good, for at-anchor sleeping.
12-14, Wed. – We are now back on the long range Amigo Net in the mornings. This is a channel on the Single Side Band radio that cruisers use to check-in when they are under way, get in contact with each other and get weather reports. We checked back in with this group to report we were under way again and what our plans are. We found out that the “Northers” (those nasty winds) will be “blowing like snot” through Thursday night. We were planning on leaving on Thursday afternoon. So, once again, weather has postponed our travels, but only by a day.
Not such a bad deal. It is really very lovely here. We were unable to leave the boat though as it was too windy to launch the dingy. We read, played cards and had good meals.
12-15, Thurs – We were hoping we could launch the dingy and go ashore, but it was still too windy to launch the dingy. So, we read some more, watched a movie and had some more good meals .
12-16, Friday – The weather “laid down” as forecasted, so we readied ourselves for the trip. We will leave this afternoon at 4:00, sail all night, all day Saturday, all night and arrive Sunday morning in Mazatlan.
Since we had the entire day before leaving, we wanted to go to the restaurant ashore, so we launched the dingy and went for a super hamburger for lunch. We chatted with two men from one of the boats at anchor, “Music”, who had stopped by our boat on their dingy to say hi to us earlier that day. They had sailed down from Canada and were on their way back to Cabo San Lucas from La Paz. The owner’s wife was coming to meet him and his buddy (who helped him crew down from Canada) was going to fly home.
We stopped by “Deep Playa” on the way back to our boat from lunch to see what their plans were. We found out they were looking to go to Mazatlan too, so we decided to “buddy boat” with them for the trip across. It’s always nice to have another boat around to keep an eye on each other under way on a long passage. So we agreed on the 4:00 departure time and both left the anchorage then. (They ended up turning back for a brief repair so were a half hour behind us for the first day – D)
The weather was beautiful, sunset was beautiful and the overnight passage was really nice and comfortable.
12-17, Saturday – A beautiful sunrise, more flying fish and more dolphins! A really lovely morning. We had only been able to motor sail to this point due to lack of wind, but the winds started picking up at noon and we were able to turn off the motor, pull out the Genoa head sail and move right along at a nice pace. (5.5 to 6+ knots – D)
It was at about 4:00 though and the winds really started picking up and the seas got steep and short-period swells. We could see it was going to be a nasty night.
By the time it was dark, we were really rolling around out there. Still sailing though! The thing about the Sea of Cortez is the condition of the seas compared to the North Pacific, or the SF Bay. We didn’t mind winds up into the 30’s, no big deal, right? Well in the Sea of Cortez when the “Northers” are blowing, they have the entire Sea to blow down causing very steep waves with no break between them. (period of about 3 seconds – D) The longer the wind blows the taller the waves get. So, here we are in the dark, no moon (until midnight) and we could see and hear the white-capped waves coming at us from the side. Since we were traveling south-east, the waves and wind were coming at us on the beam (from the side). This is very uncomfortable! So, about the time we were considering turning up into the seas for a while, our traveling companions on “Deep Playa” radioed us with the same idea. So, at about 8:00, we turned north-east for some relief from the beating we were taking. We had plenty of time to spare as we had made good time so far and it was looking like we were going to get to Mazatlan too early and in the dark. We were only doing about 1.5 to 2.5 knots during this time, which was fine by us. (Got down to heaved-to on my watch – drifting at about 1 knot sideways with no headway which was nice as we were starting to close on the coast, turned out “Deep Playa” was doing the same – D)
12-18, Sunday – The winds were forecasted to lie down around midnight and just about that time they did, although it was still blowing 15-20 knots. Deep Playa radioed us at about midnight and said they were just crossing in front of us heading south-east again. We were just talking about turning ourselves, so we followed right behind them. Now we were on a down-wind run with the seas behind us at about 12:30. Very comfortable and a lovely sail down to Mazatlan. We ended up sailing all the way beginning Saturday at noon until the last two hours before we arrived in Mazatlan. Always a nice savings on diesel
Dawn broke as we were approaching Mazatlan and we were at anchored by 9:05 am alongside “Deep Playa”. Lovely!! Once again, it only took one attempt and we were “stuck” with our wonderful new anchor in a lovely anchorage called “Stone Island” (Isla Piedras). It is just outside the Mazatlan Harbor and old Mazatlan. We are the only two boats here, with white sandy beaches, palapas, restaurants and what appear to be local resorts (not the fancy ones like in new Mazatlan).
Time to rest up! We are looking forward to exploring Mazatlan and spending Christmas and New Year holidays here.
After napping, we had enough energy to go visit Benji’s Pizza! Yumm Yumm…. Garlic Shrimp & Ham pizza with a white sauce. We were the only patrons there and had a great time speaking Spanglish with the fellow, Nick, that was serving us. He really enjoys chatting. It is a very nice family that owns and operates this funky restaurant. We are looking forward to having a few more meals there.
Time for a good nights sleep!
Great 'Journey'....Can just picture you anchored off Stone Island. We took the water taxi there when we drove the MH down in 2010. Happy New Year!
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