The Travels of Aztec

Vessel Name: Aztec
Vessel Make/Model: Cape North Cutter (by Brewer)
Hailing Port: San Francisco, CA
Crew: David & Carolyn Cammack
Extra: Aztec departed Stockton Sailing Club in the fall of '06 and sailed with the Baja-Ha-Ha to Mexico
30 March 2011 | El Cid Marina
28 March 2011 | Pacific Ocean
25 March 2011 | La Cruz de Huanacaxtle
24 March 2011 | La Cruz anchorage
01 March 2007 | The Mexican Riviera
10 November 2006 | Cabo to La Paz & Mazatlan
31 October 2006 | San Diego on South
01 October 2006 | San Francisco Bay
01 September 2006 | Stockton Sailing Club
Recent Blog Posts
30 March 2011 | El Cid Marina

Arrive Mazatlan

Arrive El Cid Marina 1:00 pm March 30, 2011. Tied up in slip B21B behind another sailboat. This huge slip is normally used by some monster power yacht, but here we are.

28 March 2011 | Pacific Ocean

La Cruz to Mazatlan

I'm not really a "blogger". So far, I wait until I'm in the mood and then write a story about what I remember. It has been over a month since we left La Cruz, and what follows is from my notes, the log and feeble memories.

25 March 2011 | La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

Puerto Vallarta

March 2011: La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

24 March 2011 | La Cruz anchorage

La Paz to Puerto Vallarta

La Paz to Puerto Vallarta March 19-23, 2011

01 March 2007 | The Mexican Riviera

Mazatlan to Mazatlan

This segment will cover most of our first season as "Real Cruisers" , as we moved from Mazatlan down the Mexican Riviera" as far south as Manzanillo, with stops coming and going in Puerto Vallarta, Camela, Barra de Navidad, and Tenacatita Bay. Check out the photos - a lot of the detail will be there. Leaving [...]

10 November 2006 | Cabo to La Paz & Mazatlan

After the Ha-Ha

Cabo San Lucas to La Paz Mid November, 2006

After the Ha-Ha

10 November 2006 | Cabo to La Paz & Mazatlan
Cabo San Lucas to La Paz Mid November, 2006

With the auto-pilot (Hector) still in the emergency room, Carolyn and I hand-steered to La Paz. With hurricane Sergio threatening down South and the marina fees threatening the budget, something had to give.

We weren't even sure where we were going to go, but after a few phone calls from Cabo San Lucas, we couldn't affirm that sailmakers were available in Mazatlan (they aren't, really. That's about the only repair thing missing in Maz). But The logical destination from here was Los Freiles because it's on the way to La Paz and / or it's the shortest departure point for Mazatlan.

We wanted to see La Paz after all we'd heard about it, the former owners of our boat now live there, and it seemed a good idea to repair the ripped main before heading off on a 200-mile crossing, so the decision was made to head for La Paz.

We picked a day. The right day! Yohela had started off the day before, but returned because they were making 2 knots headway per gallon of diesel (and these guys sailed from Seattle to Alaska before joining the Ha-Ha). But today was flat, and we motored (there's that engine thing again) East and North to the little bay called Los Frailes.

Some fellow Ha-Ha-ers were anchored at Los Frailes - right on the Tropic on Capricorn just north of Cabo San Lucas - and as we were passing, called us in. For us, this was the very first of real cruising - not moving with the herd. We could take at least a few minutes to think - with no schedule - mostly about what to do next or where to get the next beer, but pause at least. Hot sun, warm breeze, and the water's 84 degrees (isn't this early November?)! This is still the only stop where we've enjoyed a big beach bonfire dinner with other cruisers.

We did the typical hops from Cabo to Las Frailes to Ensenda de Los Muertos to La Paz. The swell from dying storm Sergio did not reach that far north in the 2 nights we stayed at Frailes, nor did it get to Los Muertos the next night. Los Muertos was a truly beautiful stop, with water clear enough to see the anchor 35 feet down, and even a restaurant (a branch of the Giggling Marlin in Cabo) on the beach. Unfortunately, the prices were big-city as well, because this little bay is redefiing itself as the "Bay of Dreams", with very large homes covering the surrounding hills, and it's just an hour's drive over the hills from La Paz. For Baja dwellers, that's a "destination"!

Our navigation through the Canal de San Lorenzo left a little to be desired, as we saw only 14 feet of water under the boat at one point. The mentality of a delta sailor helps in such situations, but we were glad there were no significant waves with troughs to lower that to 4 or 5 feet!! Arriving in La Paz, we found the marinas full, and so ended up on the hook in the "Virtual Marina" for a couple nights. Yes, I could see the Applebees and Burger King signs from the water. The combination of wind and tides makes the boats swing in strange directions, and not all at the same time, giving anchored boats the "La Paz Waltz". We were asked to move by one of the long-term liveaboards after the first night.

Then Marina de La Paz decided to open up some space for several of the Ha-Ha-ers, and we spent several days in that relaxed place. La Paz has a very slow small-town feel, as well as an active cruiser group. Just about anything boaters need is available in town, and can usually be found with the assistance of the morning VHF net among the 3 marinas.

Bob & Ginne Towle, the former owners of Aztec, have built a very beautiful desert home (Casa Azteca) and now reside permanently at the southern end of the La Paz Bay. I also got a little instruction on a few boat items when he visited his old home - like the care & feeding of the Aries wind vane.

La Paz to Mazatlan November 25-27, 2006

The sail outbound was similar to the trip up, except that we found the right path through the Canal de San Lorenzo. This time it we saw no less than 40 feet. It helps to follow the freighters, and a few tips on how to operate your own chartplotter don't hurt. So far, the GPS has been dead on. Wind on the nose again, this time going south. Just like SF Bay, when the tides going out and the wind' coming in, the chop gets really annoying. We totaly salted the boat on this full day trip down to Los Muertos. The little bay wasn't so nice this time because the wind stayed in the 14 knot range
from the Southeast; and the bay is open to the South.

The wind dropped way down after dark when Greg and Carol from Detante dinghied over for dinner, but at about 2:00 a.m it piped up into the low 20's from the East. At least an East wind lined the fleet up along the beach rather then creating a lee shore situation. We had decided to buddy boat across with Detante, and as soon as we got weather news that the wind was just a local "Corumel" rather than a rising Norther, the 2 of us rode that breeze west toward the big city. An hour later it had dropped to around 10 knots, and an hour after that we raised the iron mizzen. Two additional boats saw us run out of the Ensenada and followed. Southwind 3 and the catamaran Java joined our flotilla. This all made good company for 2-our radio checks all night long. The night was a bit long, but lucky for David, Carolyn was somewhat wired and did more than her share of the night driving.
Now picture this, all you delta sailors: A 193 nautical mile run on a single tack (sure, we changed sail trim a few times, and the engine went on and off). The ¼ moon helped provide light and a long reflecting pool on the starboard side for dinner, and the stars lit the port side. At 73 degrees or so, with the engine ticking over slowly and quietly to maintain a nice 6-plus knots, we ate fresh fish, potatoes & green beans while it snowed in Kansas. The bad news is that a crew of 2 who are hand-steering because the auto pilot is dead has to eat in shifts. Oh, well. We all have our troubles. The moon set and the millions of stars dripped in showers down to the horizon in all directions. A hundred miles from land, with no cloud cover, there is no light pollution from a nearby city. There are so many stars it is difficult to pick out even the brightest of constellations like Orion; the water became so flat that they even reflected back up from below! Shipping traffic was minimal. Although Mazatlan is supposed to be the busiest port between Panama and San Diego, there's not much reason for ships to go North into the Sea of Cortez. The morning's rising light revealed a huge cloud bank over Mazatlan, and we worried that the Norther had reached there before we did. The sun rose. The clouds slowly dissipated. A very slight breeze aroze that was only good for keeping us a little cooler. We slowed to hang with Détente, who sprung a leak in her engine exhaust riser just after dawn. They made a repair with electrical tape and a hose clamp that held almost the rest of the way, although they did have to "refresh" it once. The main stayed up, but not for any good reason. We had maybe ½ hour when the breeze added to the speed before arriving at the Mazatlan marina entrance just before dark on the second day. Again, the GPS points were right on!

We are now in Marina Mazatlan, enjoying the cruiser scene here and starting to explore one of Mexico's bigger cities. This place has everything from the tourist traps at the beach to Sam's club, Home Depot, and Office Max (not to mention Burger King and the taco stands). To make it all sound even more decadent, we had set up a timeshare for expected visitors, but never had any takers - so we have had a week's vacation from vacation. It turns out that the place is just a short bus ride down the street. We have so far spent about every other night there, enjoying the pool & showers, but we had to turn the air conditioning off! We can't really even complain about the heat here, anyway. Mornings have been cool, if not actually chilly - probably high 60's. That will be good for the big Mazatlan Marathon which is to run tomorrow morning (December 3) - right past the door of the marina.

For $20 US, a very good English-speaking doctor is working with Carolyn to determine which of her medi-cations are available here. Several will probably not require prescriptions and cost much less than "back home". The telephone works fine, but cost us 59 cents per minute. I need to get set up on "Skype" to talk through our computer for 2 cent a minute from the boat!!!

The electronics reps came yesterday and took away both the autopilot and the SSB for repairs. It was comforting to see them arrive wearing the standard ICOM polo shirts to check my ICOM radio. This company, Electro-Mar is run by an older gent from Norway who wandered here years ago and operated in the marine controls business. Although he still does marine repairs, his bigger business is in radios for police & fire & other fleet vehicles.
The big deal is that he also repaired the autopilot.

We also met a few other boats, like TICA and MARADON. And we came to learn of the Mazatlan rather cruiser-based music scene that sort of revolves around Kanuck's restaurant downtown. We shared dinner aboard Maradon, a 60-year old wood ketch built by the owner's uncle (Owner Phil Middleton, owner also of Little Darcy Island on the US-Canada border).



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