05/24/2012, Mazatlan to La Paz
I think we are ready, so once the washing machine finishes if final spin cycle we will pull anchor here in the Old Harbor in Mazatlan and start our 9th and final crossing of the Sea of Cortez before we head back to California this July. Our landing spot will be somewhere just north of La Paz so we can meet up with some long time friends for a final goodbye.
The first time we made this crossing I remember how nervous we were, but having made the crossing last year without an engine, we pretty much have figured out that there isn't a monster out there in the deep water. I for some reason there is and we have missed it, we can over come it. Barring the boat sinking or burning to the water line, which would send us into our $4000 life raft that so far (and thankfully) has been a waste of money since we have not needed it, there isn't much else that we couldn't figure out and work around. There may be monsters out there, but they are mostly in your head and once you kick them out, this cruising thing get a whole lot easier.
| 4th Yr. 2012 Cruising Season |
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Comments [3]
05/23/2012, To a Cruiser In Mexico
It happens to somewhere between 10 to 20 cruisers per season and last night we saw it happen again.
A Dingy and motor was stolen last night from a boat anchored in the Mazatlan Old Harbor. The dingy was on the davits, but only suspended about 1ft above the water. Two people in a panga simultaneously cut the 4 davit lines and the dingy splashed in the water waking up the sleeping crew who arrived on deck to watch their dingy/motor being slowly towed away around the ferry terminal break water and up into the harbor.
After a passing of about 5 minutes (for VHF radio calls and Alerting the Harbor Control) I picked up the poor dingyless cruiser and we set out up the harbor in search of the dingy, but as you might expect it disappeared into the darkness further up the Mazatlan Harbor estuary.
We were anchored 100ft away from the vessel and had chatted earlier in the day about the thefts here including locked motors being taken off stern pulpits at night. Unfortunately, the hassle of bringing up the dingy more securely appears to have presented an easy target for the thieves. They bypassed our dingy high on the davits with visible locking cables and went for the dingy with no locking cables suspended only a foot above the water off the stern, which was literally 3ft form the cruisers heads sleeping on their aft cabin pillows! The ability to hear someone in the act of stealing your dingy, isn't going to help you when they are already 5ft away and you are now dingyless to go after them!
Cruisers in planning read the US travel warnings for Mexico and ask if it is really safe, they worry about getting sick form bad food and water, and they worry about getting short changed in the dollar to Peso conversions. But after 4 seasons in Mexico hands down the No 1 threat to a Cruiser in Mexico isn't the drug gang wars or the risk of a bad case of Diarrhea. Besides a sunburn and hang-over, the No 1 risk is having their dingy or outboard motor stolen! The hassle and cost of replacement, even with insurance, if going to be a far bigger PITA than going overboard on dingy security. Buy the bigger lock. Buy the bigger cable and most of all, take the time to make your dingy or outboard look way too difficult to mess with trying to steal it!
Just a reminder and some advice from a cruising bozo. Treat your dingy and motor like every night someone will be floating through the anchorage looking for the easiest one to steal and plan accordingly...because on some nights, they are!
| 4th Yr. 2012 Cruising Season |
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05/21/2012, at Deer Island off of Mazatlan
Spending the weekend anchored out at Deer Island, rather than in the Mazatlan Old Harbor, let us have a more typical day at anchor of boat bottom cleaning and water sports. It also put us in the mood to make one of our favorite anchorage dinners...Pizza! There is just something about making pizza out in the cockpit on the magma BBQ while the sun sets over the ocean that is cool and makes the pizza just taste better.
It was relaxing and fun to pull the kids around the anchorage. And after Jason scraped all the barnacles off our dingy...it can actually pull a knee boarder again!
But Beware...danger (or at least pain) was spotted floating in the anchorage. This Pacific Manawar jelly fish may look small and almost like a bubble of air, but it's blue stinging tentacle feel like a branding iron!
Both kids had a fun day and even in our 4th year of dealing with the Mexican sun, managed to get sunburned, just like a tourist!
| 4th Yr. 2012 Cruising Season |
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