After a few days in Mazatlan Marina, I already miss the water! The boat is cleaned up and I’m starting to explore the city. Spent yesterday walking around and scoping out my new home. There’s a free anchorage just below where the cruise ships come in. For $3/day, you get access to a dinghy dock, showers and bathrooms. After looking at the showers/restrooms, I think I’ll be showering on board. If not, jumping in the water will most likely do a better job than those showers. The anchorage also boasts a sewage treatment plant across the street. With the right winds, it truly smells like shit. But hey, the price is right. I’ll be there through Carnival, then heading South.
I posted some pics of the day’s walk, including views from the lighthouse. It’s said to be the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and second to only Gibraltar in the world. After hiking it, I’d tend to agree. The fog reminded me of SF but the smell of sewage quickly brought me back to Mexico. With the aroma in the air, perhaps I won't even need to shower.....?
My walk ended with a stop at Sr. Frog’s Bar and Grill. I’ve seen signs and stores all over Mazatlan and had to check it out. What started out as a quick beer, turned into a 5hr ordeal. I had a good time watching Gringo’s get hammered at 4 in the afternoon. I figured everyone in the joint had 1 week of vacation and they planned to take advantage of every hour. I watched and laughed at them for a few hours, then quickly found myself meshing pretty easily with the crowd. We all had a great time but I was home in bed before 10. Bars don't get going until 11 so in the future, I may need to re-evaluate the 4pm start time....
Friday, January 11, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
La Paz to Mazatlan
After 3 months in La Paz, I was ready to make my first true passage over to Mazatlan. Total distance is about 220 miles, thus doing 5-7kts leads to a 40-50hr trip. I planned on 48hrs at 5-6kts and found out I was way off! We left La Paz around 8:30am on the 3rd and sailed into Mazatlan around 12am on the 5th. The winds were good the first 20hrs and we were able to cut the engine and enjoy a nice sail. Leaving La Paz, we had some porpoises (not sure what the plural is nor do I care) and a whale join us. I tried to get some pics but the water was rough and it happened way too fast. After my shift on the first night (3am), Rick came up and the winds died. We rolled in the jib and motored the rest of the way.
Coming into a new harbor at night is difficult and a bit scary; attempting to go into Marina Mazatlan for the first time at night is just stupid. With that said we anchored off of Deer Island just off the beach, had a celebratory beer and crashed hard. We woke up the next morning and decided that after 48hrs on the water, we didn’t have enough! We set the sails and headed south along the city front. We had an amazing sail with perfect winds. We headed out around Deer Island and motored into the Marina. Just to the south of Deer Island we noticed some rocks. We checked our GPS and paper charts and didn’t see them marked anywhere. There was a shoal but no rocks. We gave it a wide berth the night before (due to the shoal) but after looking at our course on GPS, we were a bit too close for comfort. Eyeballing it, we missed them by 20-30 yards! Lesson learned I guess or rather hope.
Rick and Fran had to leave the next day so we took advantage of the night. We grabbed some much needed showers, had a few cocktails on the boat, and then took the bus into town. We had dinner and enjoyed some margs. After losing the ability to speak, it took some time to learn the buses stop running at 10pm. We found a cab (more like one of those VW “things” in the 70’s) and made it back to the Marina before midnight.
Rick and Fran caught their flight and I cleaned up the boat. They were great crew and I already miss Fran’s cleaning. Hopefully, they’ll join me on another passage in the future.
I’m getting all my paperwork done including a visa that will allow me to work down here if I wanted to. I’m also getting my import permit on my boat, thus I’ll finally be “legal” in Mexico. Tomorrow, I start exploring Mazatlan. It’s a lot different from La Paz, with more English speaking natives and more nightlife! It's how I pictured (and wanted) Mexico to be!
More later, Dan
Coming into a new harbor at night is difficult and a bit scary; attempting to go into Marina Mazatlan for the first time at night is just stupid. With that said we anchored off of Deer Island just off the beach, had a celebratory beer and crashed hard. We woke up the next morning and decided that after 48hrs on the water, we didn’t have enough! We set the sails and headed south along the city front. We had an amazing sail with perfect winds. We headed out around Deer Island and motored into the Marina. Just to the south of Deer Island we noticed some rocks. We checked our GPS and paper charts and didn’t see them marked anywhere. There was a shoal but no rocks. We gave it a wide berth the night before (due to the shoal) but after looking at our course on GPS, we were a bit too close for comfort. Eyeballing it, we missed them by 20-30 yards! Lesson learned I guess or rather hope.
Rick and Fran had to leave the next day so we took advantage of the night. We grabbed some much needed showers, had a few cocktails on the boat, and then took the bus into town. We had dinner and enjoyed some margs. After losing the ability to speak, it took some time to learn the buses stop running at 10pm. We found a cab (more like one of those VW “things” in the 70’s) and made it back to the Marina before midnight.
Rick and Fran caught their flight and I cleaned up the boat. They were great crew and I already miss Fran’s cleaning. Hopefully, they’ll join me on another passage in the future.
I’m getting all my paperwork done including a visa that will allow me to work down here if I wanted to. I’m also getting my import permit on my boat, thus I’ll finally be “legal” in Mexico. Tomorrow, I start exploring Mazatlan. It’s a lot different from La Paz, with more English speaking natives and more nightlife! It's how I pictured (and wanted) Mexico to be!
More later, Dan
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Mazatlan, here I come!
Sorry, I've been pretty bad about keeping this thing up to date. My parents came in for 10 days in December and we had a blast. Spent about 50% of the time in port, 50% out on the water. Pics are posted in the upper left of this blog.
Since their departure, I've been getting the boat ready to get out of here. On 1/3, I make my first true "passage" over to Mazatlan. The length is about 210 miles and will require us to be at sea for 2 nights or appx. 50 hours. We'll be departing around 8am on 1/3, thus arriving (hopefully) in Mazatlan around 8am on 1/5. My friends from OCSC sailing, Rick and Fran, will be flying down for the trip. I'm not only excited to sail with them again, but also very thankful to have some other competent crew/sailors on board for the voyage.
I'll be sure to add more about the trip over once we arrive, more later!
Dan
Since their departure, I've been getting the boat ready to get out of here. On 1/3, I make my first true "passage" over to Mazatlan. The length is about 210 miles and will require us to be at sea for 2 nights or appx. 50 hours. We'll be departing around 8am on 1/3, thus arriving (hopefully) in Mazatlan around 8am on 1/5. My friends from OCSC sailing, Rick and Fran, will be flying down for the trip. I'm not only excited to sail with them again, but also very thankful to have some other competent crew/sailors on board for the voyage.
I'll be sure to add more about the trip over once we arrive, more later!
Dan
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