Ah, life in the marina. I mentioned in my previous blog that we were anchored in the old harbor here in Mazatlan. I should say that we were anchored…after spending a week on the hook we decided to go into Marina Mazatlan located about 6 miles north of the old harbor. There was really nothing wrong with where we were…the location was good, bus service was often, and after all it was free! But we decided that the boat needed a good wash and we were looking for a change of scenery anyway so hence the move. The marina, here, is fairly new and modern...there is actually hot water in the showers, something we have not seen very much of, and we have an internet connection, again something that we haven’t had for a while. We’ll most likely be here for about a week before looking for a weather window to make the crossing of the Sea of Cortez back to the La Paz area. Oh by the way, I had also mentioned several blogs ago that we had made a change of plans. We have decided not to make the crossing to the South Pacific and that is why we are making our way back north to the Sea of Cortez. The boats that are making the crossing to the South Pacific, the “puddle jumpers” have been leaving a few each week since the middle of March and our original plan would have been to have left on that voyage by now as well. Our plans are now set…we will be shipping the boat back to the northwest via a shipping company. Yep, we are putting the boat on a ship in La Paz and it will make its way all the way to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island where it will arrive some time at the end of May. We will fly there to meet the ship and offload the boat at Nanaimo. Then our plan is to sail the coast of British Columbia for the summer. This puts us right in our own backyard for the summer and we will be home at the end of the summer. Some may be asking why not just sail the boat home. Sailing the boat north up the coast is very difficult since we would be going against the prevailing winds and swell. We calculated that the cost of shipping more than made up for the cost of fuel, the wear and tear on the boat and on the crew, and the time factor involved. We would rather be cruising in British Columbia this summer than taking the entire summer to bash our way back up the coast. So there it is…a new chapter will begin next month.