Sailing on Starshine

Today is Wednesday April 1, 2015. We are back at El Cid Marina in Mazatlan.

Today I am catching the 1:30 pm Tufesa bus to Phoenix. I’ll arrive there tomorrow and catch the airport shuttle to Prescott AZ where my parents live. Why the bus? Now that I’m retired I have more time than money. The money I save on airfare pays for the slip fees at El Cid. Plus I’m picking up a bunch of supplies from my parent’s house (shipped in during the last two weeks). You get more baggage weight on a bus than an airline. Anyway, it should be an adventure. The main purpose of the trip is to extend my Mexican Visa papers. You can only stay in Mexico for six months unless you get a longer term residency status. Melodie will stay in Mazatlan and watch over the boat.

We really enjoyed our trip up from La Cruz. We stopped in Chacala again for two nights. We did much better using the stern anchor this time. We rowed the dingy ashore rather than hoist the outboard engine for one trip.
I finally caught a fish that wasn’t a Skipjack. The photo is me holding a Crevalle Jack. It was much bigger than the Skipjacks and fought more too. We landed the fish just as we entered Matanchen Bay.

Matanchen Bay is just a few miles north of Chacala and is next to San Blas. San Blas is an estuary and a bar crossing, making entry more challenging. We were the only boat in the large anchorage for most of our four night stay. There was lots of wildlife to see in Matanchen. Small sting rays, needle fish, pelicans, and frigate birds. Many people complain of the “No See Um”s, small biting bugs. We anchored far away from shore and did not have any problems with them. We did get eaten by mosquitos when we went ashore.

We took a taxi into San Blas and check in with the Port Captain. The same taxi took us to the historic fort, now a city park. The fort is up on a hill and overlooks the town. We walked around some and took in a few of the historic sites. San Blas has history dating back hundreds of years. The Spanish used it as a port and Father Junipero Serra left from there to start the California Missions.

The following day we went to the local park to catch a boat ride to see the crocodiles. They have a four person minimum or the price for two people doubles. We arrived at 9:00 when they opened and waited for an hour for more people to show up. We were just about to give up when a car with four people arrived. They said we could join them and we were off. They were very nice and spoke English. Because we were the first boat of the day we got to see many crocodiles and turtles, along with lots of birds. The turtles were pretty skittish and would jump in the water when we passed by. At the end of the trip is a crocodile sanctuary. They had several other types of animals, including a pair of jaguars. The sanctuary has a breeding program too. After the sanctuary we stopped at a fresh water spring for a snack and a drink. You can swim in the spring, but no one did while we were there. The trip was almost three hours long. We really enjoyed it. We found out why our boat partners spoke such good English….they live in Modesto CA!

We left Matanchen Bay for Mazatlan at 5:00 pm, estimating a 16-18 hour passage. We thought we saw a dolphin pass by the boat as we left the bay. It turned out to be a whale and her baby 50 feet from the boat. There wasn’t much wind, so we motored through the night. There was moon during most of the night to light our way. When we arrived at Mazatlan we found the harbor entrance to El Cid was closed due to breaking waves. We anchored in the municipal harbor on the south side of town. The harbor is safe and secure, but VERY industrial. There is a shipyard there sand blasting fishing boats and a sewage treatment plant nearby (pew!).

We’ll be here in El Cid for two weeks before we cross over to La Paz and begin our trip up into the Sea of Cortez.