seashells on the sea shore

Dolphins greeted us in sight of Mazatlan, playing in our bow wake! But we tried to shoo them away since there were a gantlet of fishing boats up ahead! Once safely though the gantlet, we zeroed in on the entrance for the marina and readied ourselves for the hairy narrow rocky entrance with a 6to8 foot swell running. Another boat, SV Tarun, hailed us who were going in before us and hailed us after to let us know it wasn't too bad. Think they were trying to bolster our confidence. We weren't able to raise either Marina Mazatlan for a slip or the port captain for channel conditions so it was nice to hear from them! Our entrance was 'exciting' because there was a lot of traffic: a panga & small boat sailing out of the entrance just as we were about to 'punch it' in -so we got in on our 3rd attempt only to find a seemingly impossible dock set up (so we called for an easier one), big power boats on our butt, small power boats in the middle of the channel and a water taxi meandering around while we tried to maneuver this big heavy tub around with a 2 knot current to deal with! But we made it in on our 1st official Raven docking without hitting anyone/thing and got to start peeling off layers of clothing since it was warmer! Brian of SV Tarun came over to introduce himself - they were docked across from us and of course people show up to grab dock lines to get you in. We were amongst a bunch of expensive, fancy power boats and we made sure to tidy up the deck at least before leaving the boat for much needed showers and food, we were delirious. We wound up in a 70 foot slip but the office only charged us for our 32 feet ($28.30)! And we are next to a multi-million dollar yacht! After cleaning up and getting food we checked out the resort marina we will call home for the next 2 weeks - this must be the 'fun' part of sailing! We met a neat family from Utah in the hot tub and one of the younger ones showed us the cooler pools complete with a neat grotto with water falls and slides - very fun! We had dinner at the marina restaurant, which was good and not too expensive. Everyone here is friendly and helpful and the rates are affordable. Scott is wining and dinning me and keeping a close watch to make sure I stay away from the boat broker!

sunrise on the sea

1/18-19/2008
After getting the weather report we decided to cross back to the mainland and head for Mazatlan. The wind and seas would be good and we were finished with the Baja for now. Our only regret would be not meeting up with Robert & Michele in Los Frailes but we hadn't heard from them and the anchorage there isn't that great and there are lots of islands and contrary currents down that way so decided on a straight shot. We prepared for 50+ hours of sailing- food, windvane, re-stowing things, warm clothes out, etc. Sans Cles dinghied over for a quick visit to say good-bye for now (they are heading for La Paz before crossing over to the mainland) and info on Mazatlan. We weigh anchor at 1245 hours and put the sails up right away since we could see the large seas from our anchorage it was blowing 15 to 20 out of the NNW and 6to 8 seas hitting 10 in the night.. Once out there we set the sails, the windvane & auto pilot and settled in for the haul. We had a great sail: we saw the knot meter hit as much as 10 knots, briefly while surfing down waves and actually had to drop the jib to slow us up so we wouldn't get there to soon! We had to time the tides right for the tricky entrance into Mazatlan so we had made 248 miles in 45 hours. Scott thinks he spotted part of the Southern Cross low on the horizon after a spectacular full moonset and I encountered 2 ferries passing us by in the night on one of my watches. We remembered the iPod to keep us awake and we blew out the mainsail on our last 24 hours-had to motor. I wasn't excited about this consistent sailing but everyone says it takes 3 or 4 days to get used to it - still, that coupled with all my fears I was seriously considering a life style change. Scott finally got to visit 'my world' briefly to understand: mostly I am sprawled out in the cockpit trying to keep leverage on the tiller to keep us on course while I switch between watching Scott work up on the foredeck hoping he won't fall in and seeing the depth sounder go from 150 ft to 7.9 feet in the middle of the sea! Even with the self-steering there are the other 2 to see and having to take 4 layers of clothing off and on every 3 hours, only getting 2 &1/2 hours of sleep at a time - I am failing to see the 'fun' in this let alone the 'relaxing' part.

Punta Colorado on Isla San Jose


Weigh anchor as soon as the wind clocked around and planned on a short motor to Los Gatos but once we got there we decided to keep going and commit to a longer sail around the East side of Isla Jose and anchor at La Amortajada. Los Gatos looked great with deep reddish colored terrain/rocks, as was the coast here. We had a great sail 6 hour sail: good wind, seas built to 4-6ft, making as much as 7.6knots! Isla Jose was beautiful! It had it all- beaches, coves, colorful rocky points and a lush green valley with a sandy dry riverbed that ran from the top most mountain to the sea. There were dark gray clouds hanging over the isla to the north but we saw no rain and they made the cresting wave foam a neat bluish color. We anchored in sight of Sans Cles off the very long sand spit and gave a hail.

the coast

Early that morning we had to weigh anchor suddenly when the wind clocked around SE. It went from dead calm to blowing 15k and a 4 ft swell in 15 min right into the anchorage. To avoid being blown onto the beach it was interesting (freaky) weighing the anchor in these conditions so no more hikes in the Canyon,. Motor sailed for 3 hours to the north anchorage of Punta San Telmo. A big beach here but not much to see or do and we were ready to leave again as soon as the winds clocked around to the N - the usual direction. Shortly after anchoring we heard Sans Cles on the VHF in the next anchorage over in Los Gatos-hailed & chatted with them. Miguel the local Mexican fisherman pangaed over and sold us a fish and told us this wasn't a great anchorage and that the wind would start out of the North in the evening. Scott had that fish to slaughter and I got to cook it up- it was pretty good and very fresh. We slept-ready to go at any minute-with the hand compass but the wind didn't switch until the next morning.

another beach!

Weigh anchor 1100hours and headed a couple miles down to the next anchorage to check out the sea cave. Since we got there early enough the kayak went right in and we got over to the sea cave which was very cool - even saw a bunch of crabs scurrying along the rock wall. A young man in a panga appeared and was asking us something about if it was OK to be motoring around in his panga with the winds and seas - he spoke no English but we knew enough Spanish now to help him out. We kayaked to the BEAUTIFUL beach and Scott headed for the hills while I walked the length of the beach! It was warm enough for bathing suits and shorts! The rocks along the beach had colorful & active tide pools, Dr. Suess-like rocks to climb around and a BEAUTIFUL slot canyon that's not mentioned in the cruising guide. Once Scott caught up with me we hiked up the canyon a bit - the rocks were colorful and the vegetation green in the sandy wash we walked. We got back to the boat around 1600 hours for dinner and planned on another hike tomorrow.

the beach in San Marte

1/12-15/08
Weigh anchor ASAP 0800 hours and set out for a more protected anchorage. Mostly motored to San Marte to avoid the reefs and rocks and dropped anchor in a much nicer anchorage at 1100 hours. San Marte has a nice beach and is the better protected anchorage in the area. SV Sans Cles we met in Escondido anchored next to us in the evening and hailed us on the VHF for a quick chat. They have SSB and we were able to get the weather from them as well as catch up. Sounds like we will be going to the same anchorages so we hope to see or talk to them again.