04/26/2012, La Paz
I waited a little longer to depart Mazatlan to make sure the weather would be nice. The wait was worth it and the motor boat ride was uneventful until the tip of the La Paz peninsula. A Corumel was blowing at about 25 knots out of the direction we were heading, so I ducked into a safe anchorage that blocked the wind and waves from me and anchored. I've been awake for 50 hours and thought I would get a couple hours sleep and give the wind a chance to die down. I awoke about an hour later with the wind coming lightly from the opposite direction....so I started the engine and started to pull the anchor and it came to an abrupt halt. I went to the bow and looked down in 25 feet of water(real clear in Baja) that the anchor was wrapped around a rock. So, off to put on my shorty and fins and mask and get the hookah out and put together so I can go that deep and try to unwrap the anchor chain. I got down there by pulling myself down by the anchor chain because of the buoyancy of the shorty and I had no weights on. After a little struggle and almost losing the mouth piece of the hookah, I got it free. I had to hold on to the anchor chain to prevent me from rising to the surface too fast....even though I wasn't that deep, I didn't want to take a chance with my health. After that it was a 2 hour ride into the beautiful city of La Paz.
Now the Banda Ancha story. I want to preface this rant with the fact that I absolutely love the Mexican people and their great hospitality they've shown me in Mexico. With that said...some people in Mexico have no idea how to run a business! As you can see, I have quite a collection of banda ancha modems. I'm trying to get information on the best cell company to go with for my internet needs. I started out the biggest company, Telcel, then on to Iusacell. While in Manzanillo I picked up a promotional Movistar modem along with their crazy megabyte/gigabyte configuration. These are all prepaid programs and they vary in monthly fees and gigabytes and how to pay for your monthly renewal. With Telcel, I had to be in a port where I could recharge(pay money) within a 24 hour period of end of my monthly service or I would have hell to pay and tons of confusion. This cruising season I went with Iusacell because I could buy 6 months of service(10 gigabytes a month) and would not have any hoops to jump through. The modem stick never did give me 3G service and I had to struggle through with slow internet connection. Then the modem stich gave up pn me completely in Zihuatanejo and the Iusacell office in Zihuat said they didn't know how to give me the 2 months of service I had left on my contract if I bought another modem. I finally got the tech there to play with my modem and he got it to work with 3G ONLY. Now in Barra de Navidad I couldn't use my Iusacell because they don't have 3G, they only have the slower speed hardware on their cell towers. So I bought a Movistar modem in Manzanillo so I could get service in those small towns that don't have 3G. When I was renewing my monthly fees forthe 1 gigabyte I would get with Movistar it wouldn't work. So off to the Movistar office and they told me that the guy in Manzanillo who signed me up put me in as a cell phone only...not data for wifi. So in La Paz I had the same problem and I had to visit their office here to remedy it for the month. Telcel had a promotion for 5 gigabytes that I could not pass up, so know I have another modem as you can see from the blog cover pic. Actually this story is the G-rated version and I will not go into all the multiple bus trips to the office of the different phone companies to try and get the problems sorted out.
Saturday morning will see me weighing anchor for points north along the Baja coast. I will be hauling out at Marina Seca Guaymas...a dirt yard on the other side of the bay from Singlar.
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Comments [2]
Can you use any of those modems next year?
04/11/2012, Old Town harbor Mazatlan
Hangin out in Mazatlan waiting for a weather window to cross over to La Paz is a little different than hangin out in places like Barra/Colimilla. First, I got to tow a heavy 45 foot monohull sailboat from old town harbor to the Singlar marina on the other side of town. The last time I towed a sailboat was from the San Blas area to La Cruz and we did about 5+ knots with my old Westerbeke engine. This time I averaged 3+ knots and when the sea swells passed by the line would go slack then bang as it tightened up. I thought it would be a real stress on my Yanmar engine and transmission, but it worked out just fine and the few pesos I earned helped the cruising kitty.
Semana Santa is celebrated with real gusto at every beach in Mexico. I think the complete interior of Mexico goes to the coasts to celebrate. I absolutely love to walk the beaches among the people of my host country. If I see a cute little baby wearing something spiffy like a dew(doo?) rag and I want to take his picture, I ask the parent and the look of....wow, he thinks my kid is cute and says go ahead. Almost all the parents love it when I interact with the kids. I took the bus daily to the beach and hotel row area to just watch the party atmosphere erupt. I went to Stone Island area by water taxi 2 days in a row just to see the difference in the crowds and of course the foods. Yesterday I climbed the 500+ ft. Creston light house and didn't come close to a heart attack. It is supposed to be the second highest lighthouse in the world. Got some nice pictures of my boat in proximity to the lovely sewage treatment plant. And of course, I got to visit with my girls at Singlar Mazatlan. I think I will depart for La Paz on Saturday morning for a 2(TWO) night passage. This time next month should see me driving out of Mexico and into the sweet arms of Gabriella.....
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04/02/2012, Old Town harbor Mazatlan
Pulled out of Chacala and motored for about 5 hours to Matenchen Bay which sits next door to San Blas. Anchored for the night with huge rollers(large waves with crests far apart) coming in the entire time there. Pulled out of there the next morning at about 6:30 and tried to get some westing so when the predicted wind fills in we could sail for awhile toward our destination of Mazatlan. I was in company of another trimaran named Hotspot. It is a Brown Searunner that I reported on last year when it broke its mast. We had a good run for about 5 hours of sail a little forward of the beam and I was surprised to find out that the Brown was only a half knot faster than my boat in the same conditions. (this info has to be put in or Susan will drill me for details). We past about 4 miles off of Isla Isabella(home of the blue-footed boobys) and went all night and made Mazatlan right at sunrise. On the trip down when I went to start the engine after the wind died, I noticed no cooling water coming out. This is right before dark and if there was a problem I had to fix it fast or try to fumble around with a flashlight. I found that the belt to the pump was lose. so I tightened it and it worked.....for about 10 minutes, then I heard that throaty sound that means only exhaust and no water getting through. So I opened the hatch again and found the belt had completely broken. This is where good preplanning with purchasing the right spares comes in. I dug out my spare and installed it in about 10 minutes. Then I go to start the engine and the batteries are not strong enough to turn it over. So I go to start the generator and the charger that is a part of my inverter doesn't work properly. I fool around with wires and bingo it works. No more them two minutes of charging and I have enough juice to start the engine. Now..everything is runnning properly and hunkered down for the overnighter of motoring. My wonderful golf cart batteries(8 of them) have finally given up after 6 glorious years of service....can't complain. I just need my generator to work the rest of the season so I can get through this and get new batteries for next season. So I'm sitting on the boat listening to 'Sixties' music and thinking that today is April 1st. Then I thought my boat was working hard to pull Aprils fools pranks on me.....These are some of the stupid things that go through my head as I'm on the boat by myself doing these passages and I also needed material to write another post right away to give grandma Pat a thrill.......
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