La Paz to Mazatlan, Nov. 2013

We left La Paz in the morning (Sun.) headed for Muertos which is about 60 miles down the coast. We had 20 knot head winds until we turned the corner and headed down the San Lorenzo channel, where the winds were behind us and we were on a broad reach. There were a lot of clouds and it sprinkled on us leaving La Paz harbor. We had clouds all day and as we got near Muertos in the Cerralvo Channel we got rained on again. I don’t know where these clouds and rain came from as they were not predicted. We’re used to warm, sunny weather here in Mexico and we’ve had lots of cooler and cloudy days here this fall. The wind and waves were confused and we constantly had to change the sails. First the wind was from behind us, then from the right, then behind, then from the left. Finally, we gave up trying to sail, rolled up the genny and turned on the engine and motored the last few miles into the anchorage. It was nice getting into the calm anchorage after rolling around on the confused waves all afternoon. Muertos is a great anchorage when a north wind is blowing. The wind blows over a low saddle of land into the anchorage, but the point protects the anchorage from waves and it stays flat calm. We had planned to stay in Muertos for a day before leaving for Mazatlan, because we had heard about some great snorkeling on a reef there. However, the weather didn’t cooperate. It was too windy, cloudy, and cool for snorkeling with the wind blowing at 20+ all day. While we relaxed onboard we were visited by a pelican who perched on our boat for a while. Fortunately I took a picture of him before Ed scared him away. It looked like he wanted to hunker down out of the wind for a while or maybe he wanted companionship because after he was scared off he remained close to our boat in the water for quite a while. We decided to leave for Mazatlan on Tues. because the forecast was for 13-17 knots and calming down Tues. afternoon into evening and calm wind on Wed. But no one told the wind that it was supposed to calm down, so it blew around 20 the whole way across until the last 30 miles before Mazatlan, when it calmed down. What was worse than the wind were the waves, which had built up pretty big after 2 days of wind blowing. They were 5-8+ feet at about 5-6 second intervals. It was like being on a wet roller coaster ride. Connie got seasick (the first time in 3 yrs. of cruising Mexico) and couldn’t help Ed much, so he had to do most of the night watch by himself and neither of us ate anything on the crossing. So when we got to Mazatlan we were pretty wiped out. The only good thing was that it was a fast trip. We buddy boated with friends, Gene and Barb, on s/v Chalet Mer. There’s a picture of their boat anchored in Muertos and another picture of their boat sailing into the sunrise early Tues. morning.