Mazatlan
07 April 2006
Kary
We headed north from San Blas with a rather if-y weather forecast. We were ultimately thinking of how and when and where we were going to cross the Sea of Cortez to get to the Baja side to meet our friends the Parkers and Venezias in Los Barriles. Our goal was to head north no matter what so that we could get a better angle on the wind for the 180 mile crossing. The winds are typically from the north and are howling, so the more north we could get before crossing, the more we could utilize the wind as opposed to our engines for power. The ultimate goal in sailing! So we headed north from San Blas.
We listened to the weather reports and downloaded all that we could about the weather the next morning as we continued heading north. We were now about 30 miles from Mazatlan and our decision was to either go left to Baja, or go right into Mazatlan. The weather was predicted to be 20 ish knots from the north, which would have given us a great point of sail, we would have had the wind directly on our beam, so we could potentially reach all the way over to Baja. But instead, at the urging of other boaters around us on the radio, we decided not to go. There were other cruisers in the Mazatlan marinas who had been waiting for a week for a break in the weather, and upon hearing that no one was leaving, we decided to tuck into the marina. We had also gotten a call on the radio from another boat that we had befriended, Ohana, and the girls were begging to go into the marina.
So we secured a slip in Marina El Cid, inched our way into the 13 foot entrance, squeezing through a tiny opening between the dregging barge and the rock jetty. To say the least, Carl and I stopped breathing for at least 4 or 5 minutes. Although we have liked staying away from the big cities, we had a great time with the family on Ohana on an outing into the town and dinner out in the old historical section of Mazatlan. We saw the incredible cathedral as well as the central mercado that I dragged our friends and our kids through, against their protests and gags! (by the way, this mercado had refridgeration for ALL of the meats, goat, dog and all of the other mystery meats!) Riding in the pulmonias was probably the highlight for the girls. Pulmonia means pneumonia in Spanish, and it is an open air truck fitted with seats in the back and is used for the city's cabs. It was a blast.