It was time to head north back to La Paz, we had a weather window. The winds were predicted to 7 to 10 knots blowing WNW with the seas calming down. This was a great weather window. We were 1 of 4 boats heading north. I started the engine while Lew and Rosie started pulling the anchor. Right away they informed me that the anchor chain had a ton of growth on it. They laid the anchor chain on the deck instead of putting it in the locker. Rosie started chipping the growth off the anchor as it came up. The mess on the deck was horrible. Rosie had to start the wash down hose to help with the mess. While Rose and Lew were taking care of the anchor I put Puddle Pirate in gear and prepared to leave the anchorage, so I thought.

The boat had no momentum! What was wrong, why are we not moving? I called for Lew to check the engine room for any problems. We were now drifting and getting closer to other anchored boats. Rosie quickly dropped the anchor and stopped the unwanted drifting. Lew came back from the engine room and reported no visible problems. This means it must be the prop. Lew got into his dive gear and quickly jumped in the water. A red tide had drifted into the bay and this made the water very cloudy with poor visibility, not to mention just over all yucky.

After a quick inspection of the prop, Lew said the prop was covered with growth. There was so much growth the prop was not visible. It was if someone had replaced our prop with a big basketball. It was hard to believe we had that much growth after only one month at anchor. This being our first time south of Mazatlan, we were not prepared for the fast growing barnacles. Lew then had to spend 30 minutes cleaning the growth off the prop before we could get underway.

After the exciting new lesson we learned about fast growing barnacles we were on our way to our next stop. Punta Mita was just 6 miles up the bay. Stopping here would give us time to wash down the anchor and clean up the very messy deck covered in barnacles courtesy of the anchor chain. We cleaned up the mess and then headed to shore. Some friends from Seattle were visiting S/V Emerald Lady, and they pulled in to the anchorage for some good pizza. Lew is always game for pizza so off we went to find this little local pizza resteraunte. After a great pizza dinner we all headed back to our boats. Emerald Lady was heading south down the gold coast and we were heading north to Mazatlan.

In the morning we pulled anchor, we were on our way. The winds were steady at 10 knots WNW. We set our course for a nice beam reach and sailed into the night until the winds died. It was time to turn on the motor. The next morning the winds were calm so we had to motor the rest of the day. We were enjoying the dolphins when all of a sudden our engine made this awful noise. We quickly took off the rpms and took her out of gear. What was wrong now, after a quick inspection we noticed a long trail of line following our boat. Great we ran over a long line adrift off shore. It had fouled our prop and now needed to be cut off. Lew got out his hookah and jumped in with a long line tied to the boat. I didn't want him drifting away in the 3 mile hour current. The good news was Lew said the visibility was excellent. Lew took about 30 minutes cutting away the line. From my vantage point it looked like he was cutting away a tree. That long line must have been drifting for some time. It had gathered lots of seaweed and kelp.
After Lew's swim we were ready to go again, next stop Mazatlan.

We arrived at the harbor 0800 and secured a slip at El Cid marina. Rosie was in heaven, she loved the pools and her friends from S/V Lilo were staying also at the El Cid marina. After 3 days of resting up and restocking our supplies we headed north for La Paz.

The trip to La Paz was calm with light winds. This allowed us to sail half the time. We pulled into Marina Palmira with no problems. Now it was time to tear apart our boat and install a new water maker and VHF radio. What was I thinking, tiring to live and work on the boat at the same time. Everything was thrown everywhere. All the cabinets were torn into and wires were every ware. After a week of this we finally finished. Boy was I glad it was done. I couldn't take much more of the mess.

Today we plan on leaving and heading to Cabo. We have to check out of Mexico and of course stock up with supplies before heading to Hawaii. I will post again when we get to Cabo after that I will try to remote post off our sat phone. Enjoy!