For anyone gearing up for a cruise to Mexico, I’ve put together a list of things to cram onto your boat.
Special thanks to Milt and Eva on S/V Bellavia for giving us their list of must-have items. It was extremely helpful to us, and is the basis of the list I’ve posted here.
Despite posting one of our slowest moving averages yet (only 2.9 kts!), we sailed most of the way to lovely San Juanico. The bay is mostly unpopulated, except for a few luxury homes. San Juanico is a favorite among cruisers, and even has a “Cruiser’s Shrine”, which is a fancy name for a tree that you can hang things on/leave things under. Sequoia decorated a shell for us.
Another attraction on shore are cliffs featuring quartz crystals and fossilized shells.
Of course. the highlight for us was getting to spend more time with the crew of Theophilus. Captain Ron set up a swing on board for the kids, which kept them happy for hours. Plus, he brought along his Hawaiian sling on our daily snorkeling excursions, supplying us with some yummy meals! (more…)
It was hard leaving Sassona and Agua Verde, but we were running out of food. More importantly, we were also dangerously low on beer. Not one to shy away from tough problems, Capn Cerveza instituted strict rationing. He sat the crew down and declared, “I’m only going to drink two beers a day. Given that we have 6 beers, we can last 3 days.”
Well, I wondered why I didn’t fit into the equation, so I asked him about his reasoning- did he have a ration rationale? “It’s simple,” he said. “Every day, each crew member gets two beers for every Y chromosome he or she has.” I pointed out that women don’t have Y chromosomes, but apparently he had already considered that. “That will make the math easy for you,” he explained. (more…)
When we think back on our first season in Mexico, Bahia Agua Verde stands out as one of our favorite places. Peaceful anchorages, clear water, good snorkeling… and time with our friends on Sassona and Theophilus!
We were lucky to get great south winds for the sail up. Always concerned with protection, Toro wanted to drop the hook in the more sheltered north anchorage. Unfortunately, it was a bit crowded there, so we motored around awhile before we gave up and went to the south anchorage. Theophilus arrived shortly thereafter and joined us there.
The next morning, a number of boats left the north anchorage, so we radioed Theophilus and told them we were planning on moving there. They agreed that, given the forecasted north winds, it would be wise to move. No sooner had we got off the radio, than we heard the unmistakable clanking of an anchor chain. There was Captain Ron on his foredeck, cranking in his anchor. “Oh no you didn’t!” yelled Toro, flying forward and yanking up our own anchor. I’ve never seen him move so fast! In less than a minute he yelled “Anchor’s up!”
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The islands on the outside of the Bay of La Paz are, in a word, stunning. The volcanic rocks display subtle pinks, rich reds, and deep browns; throughout the day, the play of sunlight and shadow over the hillsides dramatizes the desert landscape. Add to that the emerald green waters of the sandy bays, and the result is a haunting, magical beauty.
Of course, as I always tell Todd, beauty like this comes at a price. At Isla Partida, the cost is freak, unpredictable winds that tend to blow just when you’re ready to go to bed. Windy nights are the bane of Capn Insomnia, who frets about our anchor holding and our proximity to other boats. (The fact that he got to monitor our GPS position from the comfort of our berth, because of new hardware he picked up in La Paz, was little consolation.)
So, while Koiya enjoyed playing with Josh from Theophilus, and I had fun snorkeling in the clear waters, the under-slept Toro spent our first day at the islands alternately moping and napping. (more…)
Help! I’m being held in La Paz against my will! I’ve pleaded with my captors (Capn Marina and his sidekick, Playdate Girl) but they just don’t want to cast off the lines and head out to the islands! I’m hoping to make them leave today by telling them that, as it is International Workers’ Day, all of the taco stands will be closed. I figure by lunch time, they’ll be so hungry that they’ll do anything to get me to cook!
The sail over from Mazatlan was one of the tougher passages we’ve had. Our plan was to sail northwest until we reached the latitude of La Paz, then turn due west to cross the Sea of Cortez. The forecast called for 20 knot winds from the north on the day we’d be crossing, so we hoped for a good sail.
Well, to make a long, bumpy, sea-sick story short, our plan didn’t quite pan out! The wind was more northwesterly, and with the rough seas, we got pushed quite a bit to the south. About 55 hours after we’d left Mazatlan, we ended up anchoring at Muertos (about 50 miles south of La Paz) to get a day of rest, then came up to La Paz the following night. (more…)
Around here, the prevailing winds are from the northwest, which makes sailing to the northwest challenging. All in all we had a great passage from San Blas to Mazatlan. It took us 33 hours, but we put only 14 hours on the motor, so we were quite pleased.
We anchored in the Old Harbor, which is very conveniently located near Mazatlan’s lovely historic district. What’s not so lovely about the Old Harbor is that it is also the home to the city’s sewage treatment plant. Depending on the wind angle, this can make for some odoriferous evenings! But even this stinky cloud has a silver lining: whenever we take one of the little red taxi trucks back here, we don’t even have to watch for our stop. We can just take a quick sniff and know when we’re back!
Mazatlan is a big city (500K people), and at first we were a bit overwhelmed by all the hustle and bustle. We didn’t realize that we’d become country bumpkins! On our first trip into town, we took a pulmonia (a sort of golf-cart taxi) to the central market, where we were besieged by vendors. It was a Tuesday, and there were no cruise ships in town, so they were working hard to make some sales. We made a beeline for the exit and found a quiet cafe instead. (more…)
The passage north from Chamela took us about 30 hours. Because we arrived in the middle of the night, we decided to anchor in nearby Mantenchen Bay and make the short trip into the San Blas estuary the next afternoon, on the rising tide. On our previous visit to San Blas we’d seen 8 ft depths outside of the San Blas channel, so we wanted to make sure we’d have enough water under our keel.
Our friends on Passat II also told us some scary stories from when they’d entered the estuary. They were knocked down (a wave pushed them all the way over so that their mast was parallel to the water); the boat that came in behind them lost their rudder; and a power boat towing their fancy $20K dinghy had their dinghy flip, damaging the outboard engine. With all of this in mind, Capn FretALot was a bit on edge.
“It’s ok,” I reassured him. “This is a perfect opportunity to break out your new Big Girl Panties!” You see, my family loves Toro, and when they read that his old pair had gone AWOL, my mom and brother Bob teamed up to find a replacement pair. My brother delivered them when he visited us back in February. (more…)
After Barra, the “Kid Posse” (Sugata, Sassona and Theophilus) returned to Tenacatita for about 5 days. Now that the sun is even higher in the sky, the solar cooking conditions are fantastic. One day we made “deckadillas”, which are quesadillas cooked on deck.
The water had warmed up just a degree or two, but that was enough to make swimming more enjoyable. Everyone has said that this year is much colder than last year, and indeed, we have spent much less time in the water than we expected. After being a bit uneasy swimming off the boat, Koiya’s fear kicked into high gear after another cruiser told us about some nasty jellyfish. She wouldn’t go in without another person already in the water, and she’d only jump in next to the swim ladder, to be back on the boat within seconds. Well, somehow in Tenacatita she got over her fear, just like that, even swimming from boat to boat all by herself! She seems to be in one of those blossoming phases that kids go through, when they lose teeth, grow taller, and outwit Todd at games requiring mental agility. (more…)
We anchored in the Barra de Navidad lagoon for a little over a week. We had a great time hanging out at the cruiser-friendly Sands Hotel, walking on the beach, and visiting the nearby town of Melaque, all in the company of other “kid boats”. It’s great when Koiya has other kids to play with, and fun for us all to have excursion buddies.
One quaint aspect of Barra is the French Baker, who tours the marina and lagoon in a panga (small boat) every morning, delivering freshly-made croissants, pies and baguettes. He gets on the radio and announces, his location in his fabulous French accent, “‘Ello, dis is your Frrench Bake-ah, entering de lah-goon”. Though spendy, we couldn’t resist treating ourselves once!
Almost every afternoon, we ended up at the Sands Hotel. The kids loved it for the pool, playing Marco Polo and just messing around. The adults loved the cheap wireless internet ($2/day) and the bar (2-for-1 drinks). The 2-for-1 drinks encouraged socializing, as we always wanted to find someone to split with… that is, until Capn Coupon’s Spanish miraculously improved, and he convinced the bartender to let him pay for two Pacificos, take one cold, and get a slip of paper to redeem for the second (so it wouldn’t get warm while he drank the first one). (more…)