Catching Up - Mexican Riviera

I know, I know. We are way past due for an update. We've had a busy few months on the Mexican Riviera and are now on the way to the Marquises Islands. For those tracking our progress, we are no longer in the coverage area for SPOT, but you can track us on YOTREPS at the following link:

www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=Jarana

He's my stream of consciousness summary of the last few months. In theory, I'll go back and add some pictures to this post when we get to civilization. This is the first of two installments.

Jan 9, 2010
From Mazatlan, we headed South for Isla Isabella. Because of the bad swell in the anchorage, we never got off the boat, but promptly headed south for Chacala the next morning. We spent two nights in Chacala, enjoying the white sand beaches and sea side restaurants before heading south again. We never could find the port captain's office open so we can and went without checking in or out. Other cruisers reported the same experience.

 Jan 15th, we arrive in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle on Banderas Bay. Because it's late we decide to spend the night in the anchorage before heading into the marina in the morning. When we tune into the VHF net in the morning, one of the other cruisers reports a water spout out in the bay. We decide to expedite our arrival into the marina. As we're doing this, I take bearings on the water spout and find that they are not changing. Fortunately, it doesn't move either, but more than half the boats in the anchorage end up in the marina.

We spend about two weeks in La Cruz, catching up with friends on Pikia Mist, Done Dealing and Merry J and doing the inevitable boat projects.

Jan 28
After two weeks, its time to continue south, so we leave in the afternoon on a nice NW wind and make a fast overnight passage to Chamela. We are joined by Pete, who was skippering the boat next to us in the La Cruz marina.

As we are tired from the passage we spend the day aboard in the anchorage and head south to Tenacatita where we spend a few days. Pete goes ashore here and catches a ride back to La Cruz. Dolphins are swimming among the boats in the anchorage most of the time we are there.

On our second night the weather started turning sour with lots of rain. By the next afternoon, we had 25 knots of wind blowing into the anchorage, so we decide to move over to the La Manzanilla anchorage on the south side of the bay. At about sunset, the thunderstorms start and the lightning is nearly continuous for six hours. I've never seen anything like it. The anchorage is fine until about midnight, when the wind again changes directions and we roll rail to rail all night, so the next morning, we move back to the north side again. It rains for another day. There is no reports of damage in our area, though some boats drug anchor. Up in La Cruz, there we reports of winds up to 88 knots, with lots of damage to boats, with one boat going aground after dragging their anchor. And several boats drug anchor in the Barra Navidad anchorage to the south of us.

Feb 4
The weather's finally cleared up, so we take a dinghy trip up through the mangrove swamp to the back side of the beach just inside the bay.

We again head south for the Marina at Barra de Navidad. While we are here, we rent a car and drive back to Puerto Vallarta for the Pacific Puddle Jump kick-off party. A good time was had by all.

Feb 8
Luiz and Anna join us for a week to make the passage south to Ixtapa. For a few pesos, we take the water taxi into Barra de Navidad and enjoy the many restaurant they have to offer.

Feb 10
We depart the Barra Marina. We are shocked by the moorage cost ($2.60/ft/day!). Next time, we'll use the anchorage.

It's a day trip to the anchorage off of Las Hadas on the north side of Manzanillo. This once famous resort now seems tired and run down. Next morning, we take a long bus ride into down town Manzanillo, where I get a Mexican style haircut, complete with straight razor with half a dozen men just hanging out.

Feb 12
We depart early for the overnight passage down to Ixtapa.

Feb 13
Early afternoon, we arrive at Isla Ixtapa just north of the marina and drop the hook for a swim. This will be our last swim for a while. This is a really nice anchorage, but completely overrun with beach palapas, pangas, jet skis, etc.

After the swim, we head into the marina. After checking in, I return to the boat to find a cocodrilo hanging out next to the boat. We ask the dock attendant if they ever get on the docks, and he says "at times, but they shy away from people".

 After two nights in Ixtapa, Luiz and Anna head back to the states. I accompany them to the airport to retrieve my new solar panels.

Feb 16
There is a nice park with a bike trail that extends from the marina up to Playa Linda opposite Isla Ixtapa, so we saddle up the bikes and ride out to the end with friends Dick and Cindy on Mentor. We see a few more cocodrilos along the way.

Feb 17
We leave the marina and do the short day trip south to the anchorage in Zihuatenejo where we spend about a week on the hook. Zihua is a nice little town and well worth the time spent. We managed to do a little snorkeling off the reef at Playa Las Gatas, and joined fellow cruisers in various social activities. We also discovered how hard it can be to transfer diesel from a 10 gallon fuel jug to the fuel tanks when the boat is rolling all over the place.

Feb 25
We begin the trek north with a very early departure from Zihuatenejo. Just before sunset, we arrive in Caleta de Campos, where a significant swell is coming in to the anchorage. The are big waves breaking on the beach only a hundred yards or so behind us. We decide not to stay and press on in the morning. It's on this leg of the trip that we first noticed Manta Rays jumping several feet out of the water and landing with a big belly flop. And they seemed to do it in groups.

 Feb 27
After an overnight passage, we are approaching Manzanillo. On the morning net, there are reports of the big earthquake in Chile and there is a tsunami warning for the Mexican coast. In many anchorages, boats pull up the hook and head for open water. We are still offshore when it passes and reports were of only minor problems. Mostly, there we just strong currents in and out of channels and marinas in the area.

We arrive in Manzanillo bay and decide to anchor off the beach just to the west of Santiago.
The next day on the beach, I spotted a gentleman carrying a harp. Knowing that both the harp and jarana are common to veracruzan music, I decided to follow him. Soon we were introduced to the two man band of Jose y Jose, with the father playing melody on the harp and the son playing rhythm on the jarana. They played a few songs for us and the next day I bought a CD from the son under a bridge.

Mar 2
After three nights in Santiago, we again head north. On the way out of the bay, we stop at Ensenada Carrizal for some snorkeling in the clearest water we've seen so far. When we arrived the was one other boat anchored and absolutely nothing on shore. While we were there, a few other boats arrived.
After lunch aboard, we continue our trek north and soon find ourselves sailing up the cost. As evening approaches, we pull into the anchorage at Melaque. There is some rather unusual music for Mexico coming from a restaurant on the beach. They are featuring artists like Barbara Streisand, Cher and Donna Summers. When we get ashore, we discover a drag show in progress. We hang around until the novelty wore off and headed into town for dinner.

Mar 5
We continue our trek north to Bandaras Bay, but first we have to resolve an issue with the holding tank not draining. It had to be fixed from under the boat. Enough said.
Later that afternoon, we arrive in Tenacatita. We have drinks with a Melanie on Journey, then head over for the famous Friday night dinghy raft up.

Mar 6
We depart Tenacatita with a planned overnight passage to Bandaras Bay. About two hours after dark, we find ourselves faced with ugly seas and a strong wind on the nose. We finally decide to turn around and sail back to Chemala. We are able to follow our GPS track in the dark back to the same spot we had anchored before.

Mar 8
After two night, we make another attempt for Bandaras Bay. We depart at 3 am and power into the wind and chop and are not able to sail until 4 in the afternoon, with La Cruz in sight. We continue on to the La Cruz marina for a few days before we move on to Paradise Village marina in Nuevo Vallarta.

Isla Isabella and Chacala

We left Mazatlan late January 10th for an overnight sail 86 miles to arrive at Isla Isabella.  We sailed until 0400 then motored until we arrived at 9am January 11th.  We started sighting whales frolicking along the way.  We kept our distance.

Isla Isabella
Isla Isabella is a national park and bird sanctuary.  There's not much vegetation, and the anchorage is a  collapsed caldera.  The bay is small and the swells seem to roll in gently until they hit the rocks and explode in spray and foam.  Too bad we didn't take any photos.

It is a very small anchorage with known rocks, so with great care we dropped the hook over a patch of sand in 20 ft and spent the night.  Far from any town, the stars were brilliant, with the crashing surf invisible in the darkness.  A panga fished around us late into the evening, sometimes with a light, sometimes not.  It was eerry.

It was a rolly night, so we decided to press on to Chacala, where surely there was more protection from the swells.  (Ha!  fat chance)


Chacala
The next day, we sailed a few hours to Chacala, "the postcard".  A beautiful, palm fringed bay, a small quiet village, with a few hotels and beach bars...   Aaahhhh.  BUT, with bigger swells and crashing surf.  Since we didn't bother with a stern anchor, the wind often put us sideways to the swells, so we rolled even more than Isla Isabella.  But it was so beautiful, we stayed a second night.

By now, the water is very warm, so swimming off the boat is nice,.  However, swimming next to the boat the swells start looking a lot bigger.

This is it!  At last!

 

      Jarana in the background

Well, as it turned out, Chacala rolled even more that Isla Isabella and we were always cross ways to the swell.

More from Matazlan\

We spent 12 days in Mazatlan. There's a lot to see.  Here are some photos:

colorful buildings

 pangas

 men with hats

 culture and history

nightlife

 friendly people

Onward to our next adventure....

Happy New Year from Mazatlan

We had one of our best sails ever across the Sea of Cortez, a 32 hour, broad reach in 12-20kts under a full moon!  It was awesome.   In our enthusiasm, we arrived in Mazatlan late December 30th!  It was breezy and there was a goodly swell running.  Fortunately, the approach is wide open.  So with great care, we found the tiny entrance to El Cid and Marina Mazatlan.

We got a warm reception from Gilberto, the night security manager at Marina Mazatlan.  He liked our boat's name Jarana, which is a guitar from Veracruz, his home town.

There was a great New Years Eve potluck on the dock and we met a lot of folks.  It was a lot of fun.

Kathi: El Cid is the hero in the Spanish classic novel, El Cid.  I remember it as an incredibly boring book I had to read in college Spanish class.  I wonder why they named a hotel after him.   It's right up there with Candide, by Andre Gide, that we had to read in high school French class.  Did anybody else have to suffer through that stuff?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Posted by Bill


Thursday December 10th

As we sailed up to the anchorage at Isla San Francisco, the wind backed and we had to tack.  A short while later we tacked again and rolled up the jib.  Soon we found a nice spot in the anchorage and shot up head to wind. As the boat coasted to a stop, I dropped the main and Kathy started paying out the anchor.  For the first time on the trip, we had successfully sailed into an anchorage.  It wouldn't be the last time.  Once the boat was cleaned up and seemed to be secure, I jumped in the water, pulled on my swim mask and ducked my head under the water.  My worst fears were confirmed; the Max-prop was completely gone: blades, hub, nut, keeper, everything - completely gone.

Rewind a few days sooner.  While we waited for the dinghy and the canvas work, we kept busy around town.  On Sunday, they held a paella fest where about 14 teams competed for best tasting paella and best presentation.  We felt compelled to help with the taste testing.

Finally, we received our new hard bottomed dinghy and had mounted the wheels and got it ready for action.  The canvas work finished the next day, so it was time to get out of town for a while.  Our plans were to head north and work our way up to Puerto Escondito then return to La Paz for Christmas.  We got a late start but managed to get into our anchorage on Isla Espiritu Santo before dark.  The next morning we headed North for Isla San Francisco and had a nice sail in about 15 knots of wind.  As we approached the anchorage the wind started going light, so we rolled up the jib and put the engine in gear.  After a few seconds, the engine stopped pushing, surged ahead momentarily, then stopped altogether. I stuck my head down in the bilge and determined that the shaft was still attached and turning (and there were no leaks!), so it had to be a prop problem.  Thus we found ourselves sailing into an anchorage for the first time.

Kathy had an electronic copy of 48 North and found an email address for PYI.  We sent a Sailmail off to PYI and to an importer in San Diego.  Miraculously, everyone answered promptly and by the next morning a new prop was on the way to La Paz.

As the prop would take a week to arrive, we decided to press on, so Friday morning we pulled up the hook and made the short trip up to San Evaristo.  This wasn't a very comfortable anchorage and destinations further North seemed a little out of range without the security of engine propulsion, so after lunch we headed back to Isla San Francisco.  In retrospect this turned out to be a good decision because the wind came up quite a bit over the next two days, and Isla San Francisco was well protected.  We spent the next couple days exploring the Island, cooking up a fish one of the other cruising boats gave us, and having drinks with Dick, Sue and their guests on Mentor one evening.  Below, you can see the new dinghy with the wheels already installed and put to use.

After a total of four nights there, we headed south back to Partida Cove, which lies between Isla Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida.  The wind was light when we sailed off our anchor, but we pressed on anyway, and soon we were on a broad reach in 12 knots of perfect sailing breeze.

The next three nights were spent at Partida Cove, where the wind howled for three days.  Our dinghy, which was hanging from the spinnaker halyard, kept trying to go airborne in the middle of the night.  It took several rounds of adjustments to get it to set still.

Finally, on Thursday the 17th, we sailed back down to the Magote anchorage off of Marina de la Paz.  This was by far the most challenging anchorage as there was 2 knots of current against 10 knots of breeze and there were lots of other boats crowded into the anchorage.  Add to the mix, a big sandbar right down the middle of the anchorage.  In any case, we got the hook set with just enough room to clear the other boats in the anchorage.

The next morning we took the dinghy ashore for coffee at Club Cruceros, and as we were hanging out, I got a call that the prop would be there in 30 minutes. Yahoo!

Shortly thereafter, we had the prop in hand and had made arrangements for a haulout that same day.  We lashed the dinghy to the side of the boat and used it as a tug to get the boat to the yard.

Unfortunately, the tide was going out and there was not a lot of water at the travel lift and we got stuck.  After much pushing and pulling, we got the boat unstuck, but not without a new dent in the side.  We pulled the boat across the way and tied up for the night.  Saturday morning we got an earlier start and the haulout went without a hitch.

The boatyard took care of the damage and installed the prop.  They observed that the original key that held the prop on the shaft was bronze and probably wasn't strong enough.  They made a new key from stainless and got the new prop installed.  I watched every step of the process, as I was nervous about losing another prop, and everything was done to my satisfaction.

Since the tide had dropped quite a bit by the time the work was done, we had to spend the night on the boat in the yard.

Sunday morning, the yard owner and a couple of their workers came down and launched the boat for us on the next high tide.  Try to get a yard to do that for you in the states!

They let us raft up to a boat in their marina for the night, then Monday morning we moved back to Marina Palmira, where we remained through Christmas.

On Christmas eve, we had a nice dinner out with our friends from Done Dealing and Merry J.  On Christmas day, some cruisers in Marina Palmira had arranged for a tent in front of the marina office, where we and about 40 other cruisers had a nice traditional Christmas dinner with Turkey, Ham and all the trimmings.  We were stuffed, but still had room for dessert.  Yum, Yum.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a sandbar in the middle of the Magote anchorage in La Paz.  To get to the anchorage, you have to follow a long narrow channel from two miles or so to the north.  This poor fellow decided to take a shortcut.  Notice how high the waterline is?  He sat there all of boxing day until the next high tide at four in the morning.

It's now December 28th and it's time to move on. For the first time since leaving Seattle, we are getting rained on, so we're dragging our feet on our departure, but we want to be in Mazatlan for New Years. We'll leave as soon as the rain stops. . .

Round Round, Git Around, I Git Around ....

La Paz, BCS  Mexico  7 Deciembre

In San Diego we purchased a couple folding bikes from a guy we on the local VHF net.  They're small and red and look like clown bikes.  After cramming them on the boat for more than a month, we're finally getting our money's worth:  we ride them everywhere.  Kathi got a couple colorful plastic baskets for groceries.  A couple days ago she got two flat tires while on the way home from the grocery store.  Fortunately, Marina Palmira has a shuttle that was on its way back to the marina about that time.  It was her first ride in a car since October 25th in San Diego!

Bill's gotten frisky and has been trying to do wheelies!

Isla Espiritu Santo , 2 Deciembre            

We finally busted out of La Paz for a few days, and a had a very quiet and peaceful visit in Bahia San Gabriel at the south end of the island.  Moreover, we even had breeze to sail up and back.  We used the opportunity to test Bill's modifications to the Sailomat windvane.   (Mods were successful.)  Anyway, without a good dinghy, we didn't even try to go ashore, so the visit was peaceful to the point of being dull.  I guess we missed the "big city" of La Paz.

Ham License, La Paz, BCS Mexico

Some things just take a while.

Mexico is one of the few countries that does not automatically grant reciprocal privileges for Radio Amateurs. So, I do some research on line and download a license application.  I print two copies and collect the other relevant documents that are needed.

I discover that the address I have does not show up on the tourist map that I have, so the next day, I ask around and I'm assured that the SCT office is just off the map to the North.

The following day, I get a late start and head to the SCT office on the North end of La Paz.  As in the US, government offices are located in the low rent (i.e. not next to the marina) part of town.  It's about a 25 minute bike ride to get there.  This is complicated by the fact that only about every fifth street is marked with a street name and by the fact that the address I have is actually incorrect.

Eventually, I zero in on a building with lots of antennas.  This is the place, but it's 4:30 in the afternoon.  The guard doesn't speak English, but he finds someone who does, and I'm left to believe that the office that I'm looking for will re-open at 5:00.  This doesn't seem too strange, since many places around town close for siesta and stay open late.  The English speaker gets in a car and drives off.  I wait until a few minutes after 5:00 and walk in.  I learn that no, the radio license office is actually closed for the day and that they are open from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

The next morning seems to get consumed with tasks around the boat, but I ride back up to the SCT office about noon.  I show the application that I had downloaded from the internet to the nice woman in the office, and she begs for a copy.  It turns out that my copy is much better than her forms which have been copied over and over.  I gladly give her my spare copy.  I learn that it will take 3 weeks for the license request to be processed because it has to go to Mexico city and back.  As I don't plan on being in La Paz for that long and don't yet have an address that I can use in three weeks, I decide to postpone my application.  At this point, I actually consider not bothering with the license (or using the radio on the Ham bands for that matter)

Several days later, we have made a reservation at the marina in La Cruz (near Puerto Vallarta) and they have agreed that I can receive mail there.  Once again, I gather up all my documents, hop on the bike and pedal up to the SCT office.  The same nice woman helps me with my application, then hands be another form.

In Mexico, it seems that most government office do not accept payment.  You must go to the bank and make a deposit directly to the government account.  This is also true for immigration and customs, but we've used an agent for that up until now.  I pedal my bike to the heart of downtown (high rent) where all the banks are concentrated and find the Banamex office.  Inside, I take a number and take a seat in the lobby.  This seems much more civilized than standing in a long line, but I can't help but think of the long waits at the driver's license agency in Seattle.  My number comes up quickly, and I am efficiently processed, my form is stamped, and I'm given a receipt for my generous donation to the Mexican government.

I pedal back to the SCT office one last time.  The nice woman gives me a receipt which shows that I have paid for a Ham License and informs me that, with this in hand, I can start using my radio now; I don't have to wait for the actual license to arrive in the mail.  My call sign will be XF1-KF7EJD.

Two days later, I actually go to make a call on the radio and discover that the antenna tuner isn't tuning.  I guess tomorrow's boat project will be fixing the tuner . . . .

Bill