Sailing Catamaran

Heading out on a day sail with “Feet” a big catamaran that Bill built himself. He has invited a group of us here in Old Harbor, it should be a lot of fun. Think I’ll make some kettle corn to share.
I made Foccacia bread yesterday, it was so good.

Sad news, a couple of days ago, the owner of a boat in the harbor had a heart attack. He was traveling with his older uncle, who is managing, but is not a sailor. Our little community has, no surprise, volunteered to help him in any way we can. We may help him move the boat to a marina until the family decides what to do.
We didn’t know him, but whenever I saw him, he seemed to be in great spirits and having a good time. I hope that brings some comfort to his family.

Chance Encounters

Rooftop Living

(below) Visiting a church on Sunday. The Priest told us this is the largest Christ on the Cross (or on wood) in the Americas. Well we think that is what he said.








Heading to town on the bus, 57 pesos or about 40cents

(below)Amazing 19th century cathedral in Old Mazatlan, 19th century, a moving experience.
On a recent trip to the big Mercado downtown we were having a marlin taco at a vendor near the cathedral. There were two couples nearby looking at a map trying to figure out which way to go. We helped them out with directions and went on our way. That afternoon I saw the cruise ship leaving the harbor and I felt sad that they only had a few hours to explore this great city.

On Sunday we headed out to the Gold Zone to find some American football. We ended up at Yoopers, a sports bar, with a mass of other football fans. We shared a table with Claire and Tamara, retired cheese factory owners from Utah that have wintered here for 4 years. Talked more than we watched the game, had a great time. You might think cheese factory owners may be uninteresting, but you would be wrong. A kick in the pants, hahah. They had spent winters all over to find just the right place to buy a winter home, Mazatlan fit the bill for them. I sure understand why, really like this city’s blend of working man/tourism/natural beauty.

Marina Life

We needed to have a technician check our transmission, so we motored 2 hours up to the El Cid/Mazatlan marina area so he could take a quick look. Possible good news, may just be an adjustment. Praying for good news.

He said he could adjust the transmission tomorrow, so rather than head back to the south harbor, we elected to spring for a slip. More good news, most slips here are pretty spendy, but we happened upon a small, very reasonable, marina. With showers . . . and internet . . . and laundry. AHH it is a good life, maybe I'll talk Marcus into staying a little longer.

Dinghy Woes

Old Mazatlan Marina
Woke up this morning to a missing dinghy. Very foggy last night and the line to the dinghy was cut. Off to report it as stolen, just going through the motions as we know it is gone now.
So we are without our "car" but looking for the silver lining, God must have something good in store for us.

Cruisers are great, everyone is volunteering to give us rides, and may have a canoe we can borrow till we get a replacement.

SAD FACE

AHHH Mazatlan

1/18/2011
Mazatlan The carrot that has dangled in front of me for weeks. Tropical, exotic, fanciful and fun. Since we left San Diego, we have been saying; once we get to Ensenada Turtle Bay Bahia de Magdelena Cabo San Lucas Las Frailes Mazatlan things will calm down, it will be better. I am usually the first in line to “enjoy the journey!” but I must admit this has been a more difficult trip than I ever imagined. But here in magical Mazatlan, we are relaxing. The anchorage here is calm and free. There is a $5 dinghy dock charge, but it includes amenities like wifi, free showers (oh so luxurious, not, but free), and is right on the bus line, only .60 US)
We had a really nice passage, left San Jose del Cabo around 4:30pm on Sat, chasing Wendelin, who was 2-3 hours ahead of us. We headed straight across the Sea of Cortez hoping to avoid the cape effect we had run into on our last attempt to go up the coast to Los Frailes. It was much better this time, and we sailed probably 26 hours out of the 43 hour passage. Works for me!

Arrived Mazatlan Harbor around 11:30am on Monday and dropped the anchor. Wendelin had arrived shortly before us, and were a welcome sight, as we were unable to reach them on the radio the entire trip across the sea. I can never understand how 2 boats can leave close to the same time, be heading the same direction, about the same speed, and never see or hear from each other. I suspect the radio antenna may have a bit of a problem.

While getting our bearings, I saw Sweet Destiny anchored right next to us. I have been following their blog since before we left San Diego! We rowed the dinghy over and introduced ourselves. Since we were “followers” they had read our blog as well, and it was great fun for both of us to meet face to face. Scott and Kim are leaving today, but I am sure we will see them again down the coast.

This morning, happy surprise, Picara was anchored nearby, so the Ensenada gang is starting to get together again! Part of cruising is the meeting, parting, and meeting again of cruisers. It is really nice.

So, our current plans are to sight see, possibly get our transmission rebuilt (one of the stressors of the last passage) and just plan relax. AHHHHHHHHH Mazatlan

The One That Got Away

We are waiting for a weather window at Puerto los Cabos in San Jose del Cabo. It is expensive, but we are kind of stuck for now. Tried to make a run for Los Frailes, but waves were steep and close together close to shore; tried to go offshore a couple of miles, and the winds were screaming. Fought the good fight for half a day, then decided it was not the day to face the East Cape. Headed back to San Jose del Cabo.

It was a scary trip, but once we headed back to San Jose del Cabo, things quieted down a lot. We started seeing whales. We saw a small whale very close by, and SURPRISE, he made a U turn to follow us!! I realized that he was going after a fish we had on the line off the stern. Didn't even know we had caught it! So I pulled in the line, and as it got closer, I realized it was a Dorado!! Supposed to be good eating, and I thought it would help ease the pain of a rough trip and having to turn back.

As I started to pull him up from the water, he got really excited and started fighting. We have found that a little tequilla will calm down fish right away, and we have a small bottle in the cockpit just for that occasion. I grab the bottle, and start attempting to pour some down it's throat so it will not thrash around in the boat. After 1/2 bottle of tequillia, he still is not calm, and thrashes right off the hook. RATS!!!

We are either
A-trolling for whales
B-on the catch and release program
C-get um drunk, and turn um loose

So, storebought fish for tonight, and try for Mazatlan later.

SPOT checkin

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0erIBM0uMFTif0sWNvrfZqN90UrvqWyxF

I think this is the link to our SPOT

You can follow our trips this way. When we start a passage, I will push the OK button, then every few hours I push it again. It is really a great tool for keeping family and friends informed. We can also push the "need help" button the the 911 button that will notify emergency personell of our position. Hope to NEVER need those buttons!

Return to the Posh Marina

Rough seas, high winds, turn around and come back to quiet harbor.


Excitement at the marina when the megayacht out of the UK "excercised" their helicopter!

Posh Marina

TOP: Laundry day on Gypsy Moon
BOTTOM: Randall, Joanna, and Cyndi Joanna brought us our newest crew member, the autopilot!
Here we are in San Jose del Cabo in a fine marina. Don’t think I have ever been in one this nice, still it is Mexico, and there are shortcomings. $50 per day is one of them, yikes!! No laundry and the showers are waaaaayyyy on the other side of the marina. We are in the “cheap seats, you want electricity, and bathrooms/showers close, it will cost you $90 per night. YIKES!!!

Oh well, it is what we have for now. Did laundry today, a lot of work to clean clothes in a bucket and ring them out. Also ate GREAT fish tacos, yum. A friend gave us a ride to town and we bought more verduras (veggies). It was a huge store where you could buy food, televisions, radios, cameras, clothes, you name it.

They have the best chicken here. I marinade the chicken in Italian salad dressing, and cook it on the BBQ. Recipe courtesy of Nils, my son in law. YUM seriously, the chicken here is so tender and flavorful anyway you prepare it is fabulous.

Filled the water tank, installed the new autopilot will shower one more time in the morning, and then we are off.

Cabo San Lucas

01/09/2011 Hard to believe it has been 10 days since I really wrote. It has been a busy time. Hand steering since we lost our autopilot 2 weeks ago, it can be pretty challenging mentally and physically. There have been quiet a few hoops to jump through by several people, but we are meeting Randall and his wife Joanna to pick up our replacement autopilot today. We are fortunate to have friends like Randall, Joanna, and Jeff from CPT Autopilot that volunteer to help. I’m sure we will have a greater appreciation for our autopilot now. Sometimes you have to do without something to fully appreciate it. We have had 2 passages that were 3 nights at sea, and I can tell you even with one night at sea, it is really difficult to stay awake in the wee hours of the morning. Last 4am watch I was on, I kept falling asleep and waking up with a start when a wave caused the boat to lurch. I don’t like to wake Marcus up because he does most of the watches and steering so I power through the best I can. I sleep a lot on long passages, but still am tired and sleepy at the helm. We traveled from Turtle Bay and Bahia de Magdelena with Seamentress. It is nice to know another ship is close by and we keep an eye on each other. We spent 2 relaxing days at Bahia de Magdelena. Weather was nice, and enjoyed a quiet anchorage. This is where whales come to calve, starting in February. This is a huge quiet bay, and would love to spend more time here, but unfortunately, we need to get to Cabo for parts. Gonna slow down after that! We had an impromptu party on the boat in Man-O-War Cove in Magdelena Bay. Henrik and Nina from Bika, Paul and Darla from Seamentress, came by and we all had a great time chatting and sharing experiences. So far we have met quite a few cruisers, trying to remember all, and in rough order of acquaintance.
Lodi and Steve on Wendolyn ~27ft sloop out of Canada
Paul and Darla, and Ben the dog on Seamentress ~ 45 foot Ferro Cement ketch Paul from England and Darla from the bay area
James and crew on Black Wind ~47 ft ketch I believe from the bay area originally England Marni and Mike on Picara ~ 37 ft custom steel sloop from Canada
Randall on Murre, ~ 31 ft Mariner ketch out of San Francisco
JJ on Ocean Echo 1 ~ 36 ft Beneteau not sure where from
Ivan on Vento ~ 38 (?) Beneteau
Paul on Dos Gatos ~ 25 ft O’Day
Nina and Henrik on Bika ~ 26 ft Contessa out of Norway

We will enjoy the variety Cabo San Lucas offers and head to Los Frailes tomorrow, then on to more tropical Mazatlan after that.

Cabo San Lucas at last-anchored at 2am

It has been an interesting journey. I am working on putting a few thoughts in words. We are starting to have more confidence in overnight passages, but they are still difficult.

Our autopilot is not working, and we are hand steering, sometimes very stressfull.

We sailed all day, and all night and finally motorsailed the last few hours to arrive in Cabo at 2am. We were buddy boating with a boat called Seamentress with Paul and Darla. He has kept us supplied with fish, and we followed him into the harbor. He has radar, and that helps when arriving at a port in the dark.

We have met so many nice people in our travels, I am making a list of the boats and friends we have met. Always so many different people and circumstances.