MAZATLAN

There is no shortage of things to do in this beautiful port city known as “The Pearl of the Pacific.” The city itself is a lot smaller in size then Puerto Vallarta but is cherished by all cruisers that find their way to the pearl of the pacific. Cruisers stay here for years without venturing back out to sea. Mazatlan is the transitional area between the desert and the moister tropical forest area of the southern part of Mexico. The desert is only a short distance north to the Sea of Cortez.

We met up with Shadow at Marina Mazatlan. It sure was good to see Bill and Martha again. Martha found about twenty plus ferial cats on the docks. Of course she fed them every night and started a collection to have them spayed and neutered. Some cruisers thought it was a good idea and others were opposed. She had a hard time understanding why some people didn’t support her efforts. “I feel sorry for the babies” was her replay. She has a large heart and I think she should become a veterinarian.

Carl and Royce did some trouble shooting with our auto pilot while we were at the marina. It appeared that we might have problems with the prop. This really scared us. We checked out the emergency tiller and it wouldn’t turn, it was frozen! The emergency tiller is what you use if your steering would happen to fail. We decided to have the boat pulled out of the water and have a mechanic check things out, things that we couldn’t reach while Mystique remained in the water. We were so lucky a boat just left the hard and was put into the water that day. There was space for us right away. Carl had the boat hauled out while the girls went to old town shopping. Good news, the prop is fine. Bad news, Mystiques steering cables need to be totally taken out and replaced with new cable. The cables need to be ordered from Hunter in the US. This could take weeks, so we decided to sail the rest of the way home without them. Of course, the mechanic said that we will be able to make it just fine. The cables will be tight but will remain strong. If the steering would happen to go out the emergency tiller would become easy to steer. I guess our whole problem is rusty steering cables that are too tight for auto to move the wheel back and forth. We wish we found that out before we bought the boat!
We enjoyed Mazatlan a lot. We only stayed for a week, because we are getting very excited to reach the Sea of Cortez. It will take us two days and one night to reach Baja California heading toward La Paz. It’s a dream come true for us! It’s been a two year voyage and it’s so hard to believe we are so close. Again, mixed emotions good and bad about reaching our destination.

ISLA ISABELA
Jacques Cousteau came to this island about 30 years to film the rare Frigate birds nesting and some pristine underwater habitat. The whole island is made up from volcanic material and now is a National wildlife Preserve for all the Frigate and Booby birds that nest all over the island. See the picture of the Las Monas a strange looking volcanic figure. Volunteers come to this isolated island to study the birds during nesting season. They stay in the small cabins on the beach.

CHACALA BAY
Chacala Bay is 21 miles S of San Blas, MX. This was our 1st stop as we left Puerto Vallarta. After meeting up with R Dreams again in Puerto Vallarta we agreed to buddy boat all the way home to San Carlos together. Royce and Pam are really nice people, we really enjoy being with them and are looking forward to the trip.

Chacala Bay is about a half mile long, lined with mature coco palms and about a dozen palapa cantinas. The lower hills are topped with green trees. This area was a former plantation. Now upper class Mexicans live and play in this area. Our stay was so rolly that we were happy to get underway in the morning.

PUERTO VALLARTA

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta on our anniversary. We had a good dinner Peter joined us from Waltzing Metillda. The restaurant had parrots that you could pick up and hold they were so friendly. We stayed in La Cruz anchored in the bay for a few days. Carl was referred to a guy to fix the auto pilot that had an office in Nuevo Vallarta. So we rented a slip at Marina Nuevo Vallarta.

The marina was nothing great and wasn’t really pretty, but the people that lived on the docks were totally special! The price was cheap so we stayed there while they looked at our auto pilot. Like we said before it’s not the place but the people that make the place, a place that you will never forget. This was that kind of a place. Most of the boats on the docks were there for years, and had no intention of leaving soon. These were real cruisers that arrived here decided that this was a real paradise and just stayed here for years. Bob and Tikka took us in under their wings right off. They introduced us to their friends, took us to Taco Saturday, to a BBQ on Sunday and took us to the local hang-out for live music and pool, they were great people and they had a car!

The city is huge and really spread out. We loved Old Town the best. Tons of shopping, sand figures on the beach and a bar on every corner. I got to shop and Carl got his beer, can’t ask for much more than that.

It was really nice to be at a marina for awhile so we could clean the boat with fresh water, do laundry and just chill. Carl had two different guys look at auto. Neither one fixed it! So we head out steering again, a little up-set but we will get over it. Once we set the sails and the wind blew through our hair, we surly couldn’t complain. Life is good. (It’s good to be us!) Now we are heading to Mazatlan to meet up with Bill and Martha (Shadow.) Royce and Pam (R-Dreams) are going to buddy boat with us all the way to San Carlos. They don’t mind letting us stop at night to rest. They understand what it’s like not to have auto pilot, they also had to sail 600 miles without one. Bill just keeps on truckin saying we will see you there. Not half as much fun for us without auto! Maybe someone in the USA can make him work again like the guy that finally fixed our generator.

Mexico

THE GOLDEN COAST OF MEXICO

The golden coast is from Cabo Corrientes to Manzanillo. In this area you can sail day trips and anchor by night. This makes it really nice for us while our auto pilot is still on vacation. There are pleasant bays and some really rolling and rough bays to sleep in. We have to take what we can get.

We went ashore in Tenacatita, for the jungle river tour. You can take your own dinghy down the river. It takes about 3 hours round trip. Lots of different birds live in the mangroves. Small crocodiles climb out of the water to sun on the branches. Strange red crabs are everywhere. At the end of the river you reach a beach called Playa Escolleras. All the locales hang out there on the weekends. Carl’s kind of place, lots of palapas, cantinas and cold cerveza.

The anchorages are starting to have other boats in them now, we don’t feel so alone. It’s just nice to be able to talk to other cruisers every now and then. We are planning on stopping in Puerto Vallarta to have the auto pilot worked on. Wish us luck!

ZIHUATANEJO
MEXICO

Zihuatanejo is about 184 miles SE of Manzanillo, 110 miles NW of Acapulco. Well known to cruisers as Z-what or Z-town. This area is a turnaround point for most cruisers that cruise the Mexican coastline. The ones that want to avoid the Gulf of Tehuantepec and the Papagayo winds do not go any further then Z-town.

We arrived late into the season, not many cruisers were around. The surf on the beaches was high at the time. The locals would sit on the beach laughing at the cruisers trying to get to shore in their dinghies. It was like riding a surf board. If you got hit by a wave before you landed on the beach you were doomed. Cruisers were thrown out and dinghies turned over in the water. It was an awful sight some got hurt pretty badly. I’m lucky; Carl can control our dinghy pretty well, when he’s not drunk!

On shore Z-town is a tourists dream, tons of shops and cantinas. In the bay there is a great anchorage. Good snorkeling and scuba diving off Sacramento Reef. It’s a great place to visit, I would return if I get the chance.

I’m not going to write much about Acapulco because we just spent the night there and didn’t go ashore. The fog was real thick and there was a strange smell in the air. So even my pictures didn’t turn out good. It’s real expensive to stay at a marina in Acapulco, so we were going to take a bus back to Acapulco from Z-town to see the divers and see some sights, but it never happened. Maybe next time.

HUATULCO MEXICO
CHAHUE
Huatulco means: Place where the wood is adored. Legends says 2,000 years ago, the apostle St. Thomas floated ashore atop a gnarled tree shaped like a cross, set it into the main beach sand and taught the locals to worship it, and they did for 15 centuries.

We stayed here for a week at Chahue Marina. Bill and Martha from Shadow are here also. Carl worked on the auto pilot day and night, until he hated the sight of the thing. In these small towns in Mexico you can’t just go to a boat store and buy boat parts or even order those in on hopes that they would arrive.

Huatulco has about 15 miles of bays with tiny coves to explore. Cruise ships dock in the middle of Huatulco bay. Anchoring of any other vessels is prohibited. Town is clean and very touristy. Martha and I did a lot of shopping while the men drank Corona at the bar. NO Minimo, minimo here!

Being in Mexico all the stores, banks and Pemex gas station names are very familiar we get the feeling that we are getting closer to home. We feel a since of accomplishment arriving in Mexico, but they are mixed feelings. Do we hurry to get home or do we still stop and smell the roses? We are still filled with a sense of adventure, wanting the moment to go on forever; the sound of the sea rushing under the boat; the feel of the wind on our backs and the spray of the water all around us. We say let’s find some rosés.

GOLFO DE TEHUANTEPEC
PUERTO MADERO MEXICO

We finally got a good enough weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Our plans were to buddy boat with a couple that we met in Panama, Bill and Martha sailing on the Shadow Cat. Heading from Barillas, El Salvador to Huatulco, Mexico. It should take five days to cross the Tehuantepec. We sailed close to each other and talked back and forth on the VHF quite often; we had a great time. Carl and Bill caught lots of fish, Martha caught a few too.

Carl had a feeling that the weather was changing. The Tehuantepec winds are so strong that they can blow a sailboat off course a 100 miles in a blink of an eye. Sailors call the winds the “Tehuana Peckers.” A Mega Yacht approached and passed us by; Carl hailed them on the VHF radio. He asked them for an up-date on the weather. The yacht was very happy to help him out they were also on their way to Huatulco. They told Carl that the weather was changing and we wouldn’t make the crossing going the speed that a sailboat goes. Mega Yachts can go so much faster than us, this was a 150 foot Mega Yacht and they were in a hurry to beat the winds.
This left us no other choice then to stop in Puerto Madero, Mexico to wait for another weather window. Puerto Madero is not a place that cruisers normally stop, because it’s been said that the Port Captain is not friendly to cruisers. He goes out of his way to make things hard for you to check into the country. Martha speaks Spanish; she helped us out a lot. The Mexican Navy was waiting when we anchored our boats. They boarded each sailboat, we were second. The Navy boat was about 20 foot long with six men and a dog aboard. Only two men and the dog came aboard our boat. The men only spoke Spanish. I showed them our boat paperwork and answered his questions with my poor Spanish and hand signals. The men were very friendly. Carl showed the guy and the dog around with no problems. When they were done they left and waved good bye. Next we had to go to the Port Captains office, we found that they had a new Port Captain and he was really nice even spoke a little English. I guess that we lucked out the only problem we had was that we had to get a taxi to take us to the airport to go to immigration, then take a bus to a bank to pay their fees then back to the Port Captain to show him our receipts. Other ports make it a lot easier for cruisers to check into the Countries and don’t have dogs and the Navy board your boats.

It was really nice being with Bill and Martha; she spoke her Spanish and I spoke my English helping each other say things right in the opposite language. Martha is from Columbia she tried so hard to get us the best deals on everything by saying “minimo,minimo, quanto”. She always gets it “cheaper” she would say. We got to be really close friends. She loves animals, when she saw a stray she had to stop and help out everyone that she saw. Buying food giving them water even meds if they were hurt or had ticks. She would always say “I feel sorry for the babies.” Bill was a good friend to Carl teaching him how to fish, helping him make hand lines to fish with. Bill always offered advice about fishing and boating. People are what cruising is all about. The various types and characters make up just how much a particular place is either enjoyed, or not. Cruisers are an odd lot. We travel for the sake of travel itself. We wander the face of the earth in search, not for a better place, but for a new adventure, a look at something we haven’t seen before.

We ended up waiting three days for another weather window, seeing other cruisers stop in the bay to get out of the winds just as we did.
After the check-in process was finished, Puerto Madero was a nice place to visit. The locals were really nice and the town was big enough to shop for food, fuel and get everything we needed.
When we got underway again the Gulf of Tehuantepec was very calm we made the rest of the way through without any weather problems. The last night of the crossing our auto pilot besides he wanted to take a permanent vacation and just quit steering for us. Any cruiser out there understands how much we need auto pilot! Auto is a much needed crew member. Now our watches went to two on two off all night long. With auto you can read go to the bathroom walk around without your stuck at the wheel your whole shift. What a drag.

GOLFO DE TEHUANTEPEC
PUERTO MADERO MEXICO

We finally got a good enough weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Our plans were to buddy boat with a couple that we met in Panama, Bill and Martha sailing on the Shadow Cat. Heading from Barillas, El Salvador to Huatulco, Mexico. It should take five days to cross the Tehuantepec. We sailed close to each other and talked back and forth on the VHF quite often; we had a great time. Carl and Bill caught lots of fish, Martha caught a few too.

Carl had a feeling that the weather was changing. The Tehuantepec winds are so strong that they can blow a sailboat off course a 100 miles in a blink of an eye. Sailors call the winds the “Tehuana Peckers.” A Mega Yacht approached and passed us by; Carl hailed them on the VHF radio. He asked them for an up-date on the weather. The yacht was very happy to help him out they were also on their way to Huatulco. They told Carl that the weather was changing and we wouldn’t make the crossing going the speed that a sailboat goes. Mega Yachts can go so much faster than us, this was a 150 foot Mega Yacht and they were in a hurry to beat the winds.
This left us no other choice then to stop in Puerto Madero, Mexico to wait for another weather window. Puerto Madero is not a place that cruisers normally stop, because it’s been said that the Port Captain is not friendly to cruisers. He goes out of his way to make things hard for you to check into the country. Martha speaks Spanish; she helped us out a lot. The Mexican Navy was waiting when we anchored our boats. They boarded each sailboat, we were second. The Navy boat was about 20 foot long with six men and a dog aboard. Only two men and the dog came aboard our boat. The men only spoke Spanish. I showed them our boat paperwork and answered his questions with my poor Spanish and hand signals. The men were very friendly. Carl showed the guy and the dog around with no problems. When they were done they left and waved good bye. Next we had to go to the Port Captains office, we found that they had a new Port Captain and he was really nice even spoke a little English. I guess that we lucked out the only problem we had was that we had to get a taxi to take us to the airport to go to immigration, then take a bus to a bank to pay their fees then back to the Port Captain to show him our receipts. Other ports make it a lot easier for cruisers to check into the Countries and don’t have dogs and the Navy board your boats.

It was really nice being with Bill and Martha; she spoke her Spanish and I spoke my English helping each other say things right in the opposite language. Martha is from Columbia she tried so hard to get us the best deals on everything by saying “minimo,minimo, quanto”. She always gets it “cheaper” she would say. We got to be really close friends. She loves animals, when she saw a stray she had to stop and help out everyone that she saw. Buying food giving them water even meds if they were hurt or had ticks. She would always say “I feel sorry for the babies.” Bill was a good friend to Carl teaching him how to fish, helping him make hand lines to fish with. Bill always offered advice about fishing and boating. People are what cruising is all about. The various types and characters make up just how much a particular place is either enjoyed, or not. Cruisers are an odd lot. We travel for the sake of travel itself. We wander the face of the earth in search, not for a better place, but for a new adventure, a look at something we haven’t seen before.

We ended up waiting three days for another weather window, seeing other cruisers stop in the bay to get out of the winds just as we did.
After the check-in process was finished, Puerto Madero was a nice place to visit. The locals were really nice and the town was big enough to shop for food, fuel and get everything we needed.
When we got underway again the Gulf of Tehuantepec was very calm we made the rest of the way through without any weather problems. The last night of the crossing our auto pilot besides he wanted to take a permanent vacation and just quit steering for us. Any cruiser out there understands how much we need auto pilot! Auto is a much needed crew member. Now our watches went to two on two off all night long. With auto you can read go to the bathroom walk around without your stuck at the wheel your whole shift. What a drag.