We had a whirlwind turn in Mazatlán. We had made our way steadily up the
coast from La Cruz (near Puerto Vallarta) with stops in Chacala, Isla Isabel
and Mantenchen (outside San Blas).
Chacala was as charming as I remembered from my visit in
January and we enjoyed a couple of good meals at a restaurant on the beach that
had wifi and a fabulous book exchange.
As an avid reader, I can’t keep enough books on the boat, and I count on
the book exchanges in marinas and other cruiser haunts to replenish my reading
material. If I were an aficionado of Danielle Steele, Dean Koontz or John
Grisham, I would have no lack of options, since the offerings in the usual book
exchange consist of 75% romance novels, 24% mystery/thriller/legal fiction, and
.5% cruising and travel guides.
This book exchange offered an amazing selection of good fiction and non-fiction
and we traded gladly.
From Chacala, we did a day sail to Mantenchen, where we
anchored long enough to get a good night’s sleep before our overnight sail to
Isla Isabel. We managed to barely
arrive at the island anchorage before darkness fell, after an exhilarating sail
that found us reefing for the first time in our 4 weeks of sailing
together. Kim’s system is a bit
different than mine, but the procedure went well and we could check off one
more system we had successfully checked out on this shakedown cruise.
This was Kim’s first time to visit the rookery and we both
enjoyed the boobies and the frigate birds. When I had visited with Mark and Frank on Dec 31, the
boobies were still sitting on eggs or fluffy white chicks. Now 4 months later, the eggs were all
hatched and the downy chicks had grown into ungainly adolescent boobies, as
large as their parents but lacking their sleek coats and brilliant
coloring. We both took scores of
photos and this time I had the presence of mind to shoot some video as well.
From Isabel we headed to Mazatlán. We needed a marina stop
in order to take on fuel and water, replenish our groceries, do laundry and -
most importantly – celebrate my birthday. It was another overnight sail, this time requiring a
number of sail changes as the wind was up and down, requiring me to shake out a
reef, take down the staysail and pull out the genoa at midnight and then roll
the genoa back in and put the staysail back up by 1 am. The video I posted gives you some sense
of what the foredeck crew (me) looks like on such a day! The stabilizing muscles get a good
workout – no need for Pilates here!
It says something about this lifestyle that we somehow lost
track of the dates and were both under the impression that it was my birthday
when it was really only the 16th. (No, we were not smoking anything, either!) I had managed to score a birthday
breakfast and a birthday lunch before we clued to the reality, at which time I
decided that big birthdays (like my turning 30 at last) warrant a celebration
on the Birthday Eve as well as the actual Birthday.
We arrived in Mazatlán on the evening of the 16th
and anchored outside the city, planning to go into the marina the next
day. However, because they were
dredging the channel that led to all marinas, we had to wait for the dredge to
take siesta at 2pm to enter. So we
moved the boat to a closer anchorage at 1 and called into the marina to learn
that because we drew 5.5 feet and the tides would be quite low at 2 pm, we
would have to wait until 5 to enter.
So instead of getting our errands done over the course of two days, we
would only have the 18th to take care of them all.
Arriving in the marina at 5:30, we fueled up and pulled into
our assigned slip. And, first
things first - we celebrated the real birthday with coconut shrimp and a bottle
of red wine at a restaurant in town.
The next day found us doing the marina hustle – bringing two
weeks worth of laundry to the lavanderia,
washing down the boat, cleaning out the frig, taking the bus into town, filling
up our cell phones and air card with more minutes and grocery shopping. We had just enough time to unload the
provisions into the frig and top up the water tanks before the marina staff
came down to help us out of our slip…a tricky maneuver since we were at the
very end of the fairway with little space to turn and a rock breakwater hard on
one side. It was nice to
anchor up and enjoy the city lights from the water and get one last good
night’s sleep before the crossing.
It’s been six months since I ‘retired’ and came down to
Mexico, so it seems appropriate at this birthday juncture to take stock of what
I’ve learned in the experience. My
goals when I came down were basically to learn Spanish and to experience
cruising in a foreign country (although I have cruised a lot in BC, I don’t
consider Canada ‘foreign’ even if they spell color, honor and license
incorrectly – sorry, Heather and Gavin!)
I also wanted to learn more about new (to me) aspects of cruising - such
as single sideband radios, water makers and dealing with port captains and
other authorities.
I’m very pleased with my progress in Spanish, and although I
want to continue my studies, I’m no longer apprehensive about interacting en
español. Sorting out the single
sideband was frustrating for a few weeks, but I am finally able to get weather
faxes with some reliability. Only two of the 4 boats I have been on had water
makers, but after seeing the space and work involved to install and maintain
one, I think I’d focus on getting more tankage before I’d go with a water
maker. I’m a firm believer in the
KISS principle and I’d rather spend my time sailing than troubleshooting one
more piece of equipment.
So my original goals have been more than met in this
adventure. Even better have been
all of the serendipitous discoveries that came along with the sailing and the
Spanish studies – I’ve learned so much about Mexican history and culture, which
has been sometimes endearing and sometimes frustrating. I’ve met many interesting people, with
a variety of stories and motives for being in Mexico…. retirees seeking to
stretch their buying power…refugees from the hectic pace of life in the big
city…young families sailing with children…and many people like me, taking
advantage of the window of opportunity to sail in new places.
I’m especially pleased about the improvements in my
understanding of sail trim. Unlike
Puget Sound and the Inside Passage, the Sea of Cortez offers long hours of
winds that are constant in direction and strength, so there is plenty of time
to experiment with a little less halyard here, a little more outhaul there,
moving the cars a bit more forward or a bit farther back, sheeting the sail in
a bit more and letting it out, as I watch the knot meter to see what effect
that has on our speed and course.
And, finally, the many amazing and magical moments that I
could never have predicted: dinghying up against a mother humpback and her
calf, watching the moon rise blood red over the Mexican Riviera, sailing down
the moon river under spinnaker, picking my way through booby nests and swimming
with the sea lions. I can’t
imagine a better way to close another decade.
