Mazatlan & More...

 Wizard in Marina El Cid, Mazatlan

Marina views

 Views from El Cid Moro, Mazatlan

Beaching it with friends Dot & Larry at El Cid Moro

Margaritas for lunch...jewelry shopping later!

Camarones con ajo

11/2/12     Stone Island

 Motored down the coast to a quiet, calm anchorage called Stone Island, just past the huge port of Mazatlan, the largest commercial port on this coast, put anchor down on sand bottom in a picturesque bay lined with palm trees, a long beach with many palyapa restaurants. We decompress here from several days of the busy marina life and just hang out for two days.

Stone Island 

Amazing sunsets!

Kayaking at Stone Island

s/v Silk

Walked the streets with of this little town of Stone Island carved out of the side of a rocky hill, streets are unpaved and lumpy,  a bustling town of 3,000 people complete with plaza, schools and many tiendas...bought produce  for our Thanksgiving dinner at a small tienda, this one room store where I bought tomatoes, bananas, 1/2 papaya, rice, onions and tortillas...still craving fruit, bought a pineapple at a street vendor..lugged this all back to the beach where we collapsed in the shade of a restaurant palapa and had a beer! The heat is exhausting...we even sweat in the shade! Only  a cold beer quenches our thirst! We sit down in a sand floor, open air restaurant, with thatched roof, they cook to order...we notice no other "gringos" and the waiter tells us this is the slow season. December is when more tourists come. Though there is grumbling among the cruisers that this anchorage is unsafe as there have been 5 dingy thefts in last few weeks! This makes it uncomfortable to leave your boat or dingy unattended. So, many "yachties" have by passed this stop due to recent crimes. We did notice police on four quads patrolling the beach at sunset....

Amazing to sit and look at our sailboat in the bay and realize we SAILED here!

Fruits gathered in Stone Island

Thanksgiving is spent with friends on Silk and Autumn Wind for a shrimp dinner and pumpkin pie! Lots of fun and cheers and beers!

Mazatlan

 Mazatlan Waterfront

Arrived in early morning as dawn broke, we could see land but were still six miles out...we watched as the shoreline took shape. Our destination waypoints were marked in latitude and longitude on the chart plotter, so we knew our heading, but it was hard to make out the harbor entrance...not until we got really close to land did we finally see the markers to note the channel entrance! Definitely, you don't want to make a night land fall in Mexico!

Entrance markers to the El Cid Marina

 Along the waterfront of Mazatlan

Once we saw the breakwater for the El Cid Marina, the landing became easy. The marina is small surrounded by the Hotel El Cid with time share condos and pools. Many Baha Ha Ha cruisers have made this their first mainland destination so we are reconnecting with several friends:

Dot & Larry on s/v Silk

Elizabeth & Brian on s/v Autumn Wind

Nancy & Ken on s/v Gitane

Ken & Patty on m/v Oogachaka

 We have arrived in Mazatlan!  It's a beautiful beach town/city with multiple beach front hotels, restaurants and resorts steaming with tourists and locals...we enjoyed visiting the Mercado, where locals shop and the historic downtown plaza for dinner and music....

With friends at the Mercado...

A flurry of activity the first few days:

-first check in boat paperwork- we are not even in the marina 10 minutes, still "glassy-eyed" from the all night passage and I catch a walk into town  with friends to finalize our TIP( temporary import permit) the necessary permit for transient boats in Mexico

Fresh meats at the Mercado

Pig's head, anyone?

...Next day a taxi ride to the Old Town and Mercado to see the sights. The Mercado has mass quantities of hard goods, fruits, vegetables, meats and "taquerias...we peruse the wares and the vendors watch closely...if you touch something or focus on an item, they immediately "pounce"..."for you, only 10 pesos!" they say... or "try it, you'll like it!"...all spoken in broken English as we answer back in broken Spanish!

 An abundance of fruits and vegetables

Many variations of meat products...

We had fish tacos at this very popular "taqueria"

we are enveloped in a mass of people eating and shopping- the atmosphere is thick!

 Gothic designs

Old town cathedral was impressive...

Ahh..end of the day...enjoying a cool "happy hour" beverage pool side, Marina El Cid 

Leaving Cabo San Lucas

View of anchorage in Cabo San Lucas

Skipper John at helm leaving Cabo San Lucas

Nov 14...
...left early evening 9:30pm for 2 night and 1 day passage from Puerto San Jose del Cabo to Mazatlan, Mx... was an interesting departure, I'll get to in a minute, but first...

Sailed from Cabo San Lucas south on our way to Los Frailles...but stopped in Puerto San Cabo to meet up with our friends on s/v Silk, Dot and Larry. This new marina is under construction with cool art along the promenade by 1940's surreal artist Leonara Carrington (paying homage to the indigent Indians, the Heioles, who practice peyote induced enlightenment) weirdly, wonderful artwork...

...anyway, tied up to an unfinished dock with no facilities, no water or power and planned on spending the short time and leaving early off to Mazatlan at 3:00am morning...

...went to town San Jose del Cabo, walked the plaza, shops( original art and jewelry) with friends and had a fabulous Argentinian dinner of grilled flank steak on wooden platter with salad and wine, "al fresco" with the grill sparking in the background...so good!

...arrive back at the boat, flop into bed at 9:30pm and then...knock, knock, knock..the dock guards come by and want us to pay for the time spent on this unfinished dock..$65...same at in the marina..but, this dock had no power, no water...really??...and they wanted our passports for overnight...really?? 

John gets up (butt naked) and says  NO way... "we are leaving in a few short  hours...they say,"NO,  give us your passports until tomorrow"( we've been advised never to give your passports to anyone)... sooo, John says ..." NO, we are leaving...NOW!"

He puts on some pants (they are closing their eyes, not wanting to look at the naked American!)  and starts the engine...and off we go into the night! This was so unexpected and unplanned that I was a little shocked!  I would've negotiated a price for several hours stay at this dock.  But, John felt they were being too aggressive and didn't like their attitude.  He IS the skipper and makes the final decisions... so off we sailed into the darkness for Mazatlan...

 MAZATLAN

2 nights and 1 day, 180 nautical miles...
we had the best sailing of the whole Baha trip with 15-22 knot NW winds making 5.5knots over course.
from my log...
"deep blue choppy seas, nothing but birds to look at out here in the open ocean between Baha Sur and mainland Mexico...except the one freighter in the distance"...  we see on our AIS ship locator that s/v Silk is in front of us, they too, decided to leave Puerto San Jose del Cabo early at 3:00am in the morning..but, they are now in front of us...they have a FAST  boat and have to slow down in order to  make a morning land fall!  Other friends, Elizabeth and Brian on s/v Autumn Wind are also bound for Mazatlan...we see them on the AIS, too.

John and I read ALL day, listen to music, eat beans for dinner and simply way the time away...it is 36 hours to Mazatlan...time to slow the brain down and enjoy the passage...we sailed with speed with  huge northerly rolling waves that rolled under the boat and caused an uncomfortable ride, but we were sailing! No motoring! Awesome! It's what we have been waiting for! Reefed sails and speed!

Then the "boobies" arrived! Several blue-footed boobies (type of sea bird) wanted to land on our boat to rest...they would swoop down and land on the radar deck... they pooped and squawked, invited their friends and made a mess! John wanted no part of these free loaders!

Blue-footed boobies catch a ride!

He swooshed them away as fast as they landed! They have no fear of humans... and just looked at him! Huge birds just squawking even tried to bite him when he used the boat pole to swish them off the top of the dodger!  Our only excitement on this passage...

Bahia Santa Maria

Nov 7...

 4:45am Leaving Bahia Santa Maria in the dark morning for final stop Cabo San Lucas carefully passing through the sleeping anchored boats.

11:30am... gliding through smooth silky blue-black waters with not a hint of wind...

We havent seen any dolphins today, but saw a huge sea turtle swimming by and a bill fish that jumped completely out of the water, a couple of seals and lots of frigate birds or tiretas as they are call because their wings are split and sizzor-like.

It's been so hot today with no wind, we sit on the shade side of the boat under the sail...whew...we coofloff with a shower hoes on deck.

4:30pm...we get a little breeze, enough to turn down the motor, but still maintain a cruising speed of 5.5 knots.  We need to keep this speed to arrive in Cabo before tomorrow night.  The noise from motoring 24 hrs a day wears me out and I can hardly have any conversations, let alone sleep...but somehow it becomes background .

Thanks to our cruising friends, Dot and Larry who caught and shared some yellowfin tunas, I made fish tacos with rice drizzled in soy/ginger dressing for dinner. Yumm! a welcome break from beans and rice! Dot is over the top...she got two yellowfins while flying a spinnaker, cleaned and filleted them then made dinner all while sailing 8 knots! 

We listen to the Baha fleet all day chattering back and forth on the VHF radio. I can see at least 15 boasts all around us across the horizon marching to the finish line!  Most boats are motoring with a small sail up , just in case the wind picks up.  This year  the sail is definitely a motor sail.  Some other years the rally has sailed most of the 700 miles to Cabo.

As night falls, i can only see the red (port) or green(starboard) running lights of the boats  and a white light atop the mast if under power, called the steaming light which notifies that a vessel is under power. Thank goodness for the radar screen which shows distances of each boat away from our boat...sometimes another boat won't have transmitting equipment for sending this information so the running lights are a boat's only means of communication direction at night.

Anchored in Bahia Santa Maria

 Hot... finding shade on the boat

 The cockpit while sailing is messy...

John and Dr. Electron discussing the chart plotter 

Cabo San Lucas

 Pt. Cabo San Lucas

Anchored in Bahia Cabo San Lucas

Nov 8...
We have arrived! Anchor down in the bay of Cabo San Lucas on Nov.8.  It's been awhile since my last post due to no internet service, so I will attempt to re cap the passage....

 Skipper and Crew

A beer-drinking mermaid!

Finish line Beer  allowed in Cabo San Lucas!  Just for the record, there was no drinking allowed on our passages. Only at "anchor down" when we were safely at anchor, did we allow ourselves the pleasure!

Going backwards...
Oct 29...
We left Ensenada in the afternoon for a two day passage bound for Turtle Bay. This is the first stop planned for the Baha Ha Ha cruisers.

Sunset sailing

Oct. 29...from my log

"...there was minimal visibility as we steamed along in the fog layered night with a brillant full moon shining above.." 

Oct 30...from my log

"...beautifully clear full moon night with rolling seas. Sailing under genoa alone at 6 knots, the boat catches a swell and slides down.. the motion is similar to a roller-coaster ride!"

.

John hanging with the dolphins...

John makes new friends as the dolphins play in the bow water. 

The dolphins welcomed us to Turtle Bay 

Nov 1...

Arrived in Turtle Bay after two day overnight passage. Some boats sailed the whole way, others , like us motor-sailed to keep a 5.5knot speed.

Turtle Bay

This is a quiet fishing village with great anchorage big enough for the 114 boats (400 people) traveling in this floatilla.  The sleepy village wakes up for the yearly pilgrimage of cruisers and is happy to sell us fuel, food and lots of beer!  The Baha rally organizer, Richard Spindler and editor of the sailing magazine Latitude 38, has put together events and stops along the 700 nautical mile passage. There is the baseball game with local little league players...

Turtle Bay Baseball

 The opposing team

The Baha Ha Ha rally is a good experience for the first-time-cruiser to learn the "ropes" of overnight sailing, anchoring, using the radio and so many other learning lessons, each cruiser learns something new from the group. There is a morning "roll call" on the radio.  Every boat on the rally checks in. If someone needs help, there is someone to offer a fix. Our crew was Dr. Electron, a.k.a. Alan Katz, an electrician from San Diego, and experienced cruiser has been valuable in sharing his knowledge. He is offering his diagnostic services at no charge to all the boaters who may have technical problems along the way. He got so many calls from folks to help him fix their electrical problems.

Dr. Electron

Hikers on the bluff at Beach Party

 Frank of s/v Fluenta and special friend

There was a potluck beach party complete with music and entertainment...

Beach Party Potluck

Baha Ha Ha 'ers 

 Fresh grilled fish & meats

Turtle Bay kids

Ponga rides to our boats

As soon as we arrive in Turtle Bay, the pongas come offering  services...fuel, garbage pick up laundry and ice? This once a year onslaught of "yatistas" helps keep this town alive.

Party animals from s/v Cygnus Montanus

 Elizabeth & Laura

 Ken of s/v Oogachaka (and John)

John with Pluto, the cruising great dane

Kayak John at Cabo