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

La Paz to Puerto Vallarta

24 March 2011 | La Cruz anchorage
David - Banderas Bay spring wether
La Paz to Puerto Vallarta March 19-23, 2011

Sunday, March 19, 2011

We left the dock at Marina del Palmar (de Aberoa) in La Paz, BCS, Mexico at about 12:30 yesterday with the intention of just having a nice evening away from the dock as the startup for this year's cruising, and to save a couple hours on the next day's trip. Steve and Lulu of the Westsail 28 Siempre Sabado decided to come along to the first anchorage just to get away from the dock themselves, and we eventually decided on Caleta Lobos for the overnighter.

We stopped first at the Costa Baja Pemex fueling station to get our new jerry cans filled. For 5 cans full (4 diesel and 1 gasoline, it was $1150 pesos (about $100 USD) - that's $4.00 per gallon! Wow! Prices are up from when we were here before!. Then we were off for Lobos.

Step One: check out some new equipment:
• New autopilot (wheelpilot by Raymarine). I just finished the installation yesterday when I got the modified steering wheel - machined hub - and manual wheel lock nut back from the machinist. Pushed the button.... IT WORKS!!! It hasn't been "calibrated" yet, meaning that the compass reading it totally out of whack from where we're actually pointed, but who cares. That's not how we use it. It's "point and shoot" for us (We'll swing the compass one of these days and it'll have the right reading, but right now we just point the boat and tell it "go there" and it does!!!
• Depth sounder: We got this back from Raymarine (bought a new one, actually) when we were home for 2 years, but have never had a chance to check it out. Even the trips up and down the La Paz channel were no help, because it is only maybe 30 feet deep at best. The old depth sounder went stupid at 80 ft. As we progressed out of the Channel toward Lobos, it showed 40, then 50, then 60, etc., finally reaching over 114 ft! Success!! It's better than the old one!.

Step Two: get to Coleta Lobos: Lobos is only about 2 hours motor (because the breeze is definitely on the nose) to the North of town. Glassy flat water... 6.5 knots easy. So how long have we been away from cruising? Can't find the place? Ever heard of cruising guides? We have three on boar that would describe the place. Do you think I even though of them?? Hmmmm.... Finally arrived Lobos about 2:30. Siempre Sabado is already quietly anchored along with one other boat. Whatever is on the bottom, our anchor did not want to stick in it! But on the 5th try, it seemed to stick well enough to call OK, and we dumped out some more chain and called ourselves anchored. A little bit of bad news here.. I had the chain marked with colored zip ties, and over 2 years of sitting in the heat, the plastic went hard and they broke off! Well at least there's a white paint mark at 25 ft. That's a start. And a couple of the markers weren't entirely gone. I'm just not sure which they were. Is that orange or yellow?? Well, that'll give me something to do in the next few weeks!
Step 4: Dinner. Steve & Lulu paddled over in their 2-man toy kayak (we need one of those for such occasions.), bringing beer, garlic bread and salad. Carolyn got the spaghetti water going, as well as the meat sauce and abondigas, and it was smellin' good just before the sun went down. Somewhat overcast and a very slight breeze. Just enough to be very comfortable!. Then dinner at sunset. The sky lit up orange with all those clouds, and the evening was one of the best. We are finally at anchor again! And then the moonrise! The full moon climbed up not ½ hour after the sun was gone. What a great end to a day and to months of being dockside just working on the boat! Not enough superlatives to go around!
Step 5: More equipment to test:
• Once the sun went down I turned on the new red LED compass light. It's hard to see just what you've got in a well lit marina. It's also is great. A nice not-too bright red light.
• Wind vane: Steve helped me put the paddle in the water. I had forgotten to do it before leaving the dock. It's easiest to do from a dock or dinghy, and our dinghy is upside down on the deck. That in itself was a test of a change. I've taken off the staysail boom that has always been a pain up there. The staysail should still work just fine using the track, and it's loose-footed anyway! Now there's more room for the dink, and we should be able to use the staysail even with the dink up there inflated.

OK, that's the end of the "steps". Now we're cruising again! We passed a very calm night. No winds came up to test the anchor. No swells from who-knows where! I got up about 2:30 just to exchange water and take a pain pill for the shoulder that's still bothering me, and there was the setting moon shimmering cross the water. The only problem was the wind vane. We have never had it in condition to try it out, so the paddle has never been in the water with us aboard. It's about 3 ft from our heads, and is bolted to the rear bulkhead of our berth. So therefore, as it wiggles back and forth with the water wiggles (couldn't say waves), we get the clunk-clunk. I guess we'll just have to get used to it. It' ready to try, but as we putter south down Cerravlo Channel, there is NO wind. Two sailboats just passed us going north, one with nothing up and one with the main up, hoping that something will happen.
As to the new depth sounder, where the old one went off soundings at 80 ft., this one went to 600 ft before it went blank. What a nice change that is! And the wheel pilot is still working diligently as I type this blog. Jerk, jerk, jiggle, jiggle. I don't know how long all this stuff will work, but I'm happy it's working now!

March 20: Cerralvo Channel (near La Paz, Mexico) Southbound for Bahia de Los Muertos...

Since it is glassy smooth and we are motoring under the new wheel pilot and mostly overcast, I am working on my laptop in the cockpit. Carolyn is reading below.
Along the way we pulled the RPM's back to a point where we could make some water (about 14-14 gal, I guess), and tossed two fishing lines in the sea. Can't say I like the noises it made, and there seemed to be more air in the line than I thought there should be. I may need to add a pre-filter pump after all.
No fish. Also, just before arriving in Muertos we did the two sow circles required to "calibrate" the new autopilot, and it now indicates headings related to the compass.
Got about ½ hour sailing slowly, and then even that died.
Anchor down Muertos at 3:30. No wind, light overcast. There were about 7 boats in the harbor, and rather a fuss on the beach. Campers and bonfires and halooing and music. On a Sunday? Oh, yeah, it's some 3-day weekend. It all quieted down early, and we just stayed aboard for dinner and a ret-up before the big 3-say jump. Sunset was truly beautiful; We'll see how the photos turn out. Flat calm, quiet nite.

March 21, 2011. Up anchor 9:00 a.m. No need to rush.
Change clocks today. This is going to get confusing, because we're about to change to mainland time as well.
The SSB works!!! We had begun to wonder, because we couldn't get much of anything in the "black hole of La Paz". We checked in on the Southbound net and could hear Don's weather. Same old Don. "You're going to get pasted if you go out today! It's going to blow 25-30 aaaallllllllllll the way down the middle. 30 in the north - down to 15 at the Southern Crossing. But on the mainland - nothing". Sometimes I think he thinks there's a line where the wind stops. So anyway, it sounded like today was the day to go, and not wait for another day for the wind to get us. A north wind - even a fairly strong one, isn't a big problem as you sail south -- it's the confused, rolly, uncomfortable seas that go with them, particularly as you sail south out of the Sea of Cortez's northern chop and join the Pacific swell from the west, which was where we were going.
Tried to get the wind vane to work - no luck at 7 knots wind. I've been told you have to do quite a bit of fiddling before you understand them. And maybe they're not as happy about following winds and rolling at the same time.
On continued light breeze, we motorsailed 5.8 to 6.1 knots. Around 3:30 there was about 7 knots wind again and now the wind vane steering is sort of working. Not sure exactly what I changed. Then the wind died again.
It took forever to "sink the land" but by evening we were out in the middle of the pond. A couple whales breached 3 or more miles away, and some huge fish (pointy-nosed - maybe Marlin?) did some jumping in the distance.
Sunset was quit pretty, but quick. Seas still quiet, but more than "flat". At 10:00 the huge orange ball of a moon climbed out of the water dead ahead. It was very pretty and allowed the horizon to be visible, even though it was about 75% overcast, but it does obscure most of the stars. Not very cold though - David stayed barefoot and in a t-shirt & jeans. David did a watch until 1:30. Carolyn did 1:0 to 5:30. Long watches, but as long as our eyes stay open and we've only got a couple nites to stay out, it worked. Just before dawn some critter leaped beside the boat and came down with a huge SLAP. Startled the &&&&& out of David!!! Another big marlin?? And then two more, a little smaller. And then quiet again.. First hint of dawn wasn't until 6:30. That seemed to take forever!
Sunrise about 7:05 - finally. Engine off at 7:15. 7:15 to 8:00 struggle with that wind vane again. Oh! The red rope goes on top. No chance it'll work with the blue rope on top! And look at the pulley here. It moves instead of transferring the steering rope movement to the wheel. But it's not enough. Still can't get better than 30 degrees accuracy. Must be something more.
Wind up to 20, but it's behind us, so feels like only 14 when going 6. Sailed all day. Wind vane sometimes seems to go brain dead??? It starts going off in one direction and then just keeps going. Disconnect it. Reconnect it. Maybe something to do with sail balance???
At 4:15, we're still going 4.5 knots, but we don't want to go so slow that we add a third nite - and maybe it would be smoother if we motor a little faster...?? Engine on.
At sunset, we got a sea life show. First the flying fish! Not huge numbers, but amusing. They dart out of the water and skim the waves for 50 yards to skip again and then splash, they're gone. Then another - two more - one more. And then the dolphins! Large brown ones playing by the boat. Flips! Jumps with tail smacks! Hundreds of them. Straight leaps! We're too boring for them after about ½ hour, and they went wherever dolphins go. And then it was dark again.
There's no cloud cover today, so we should have a million stars - at least until the moon comes up. So Carolyn cooked a gourmet meal of Dinty Moore stew. We've been having trouble with queasiness. Not truly seasick, just queasy. But the stew, together with the leftover garlic bread from dinner two nights ago, really hit the spot. And the million stars came out as advertised! It is so hard to describe, if you don't live in the countryside, what this is like. It's almost hard to pick out the major constellations because there are so many other stars in there! And the Milky Way isn't just "sort of visible". It's like a giant light stick! And the rest is so BLACK.! And it all goes from horizon to horizon! And then the moon came up big an orange again, and half the stars melted away.
David took the first watch. Carolyn said she was really tired, so he decided to do a semi-alert watch. Between nodding off (because some mechanical guy or other is steering), one looks around, not expecting to see anything really, as this is not a busy traffic lane. We are in the vicinity of possible Mazatlan traffic, but we're south of the Baja Ferry line. And we're south of sport fishermen going to or from Cabo - Mazatlan. Unless there re some fishing boats out, we're probably clear. Somewhere around 1:00 a.m. two lights appeared. One very bright one to the West and a rather dim thing to the North. Now the trick is to figure out which way they are going. One could cheat and use the radar, but sometimes they're so far away that they don't show up, leaving you wondering if they are any kind of threat at all if they're that far away. After a while, the thing to the north seemed to be moving (behind us) to the West. But with the moonlight, checking it out with the binoculars proved it to be some kind of freighter that was indeed going westabout behind us. And slowly it disappeared to the Southwest. And the other very bright blob that looked like it was coming at us just sort of hung out there with no red or green visible. What is a big white blob that doesn't move much and has no red or green?? Shortly after the freighter was definitely passing clear of us, the white blob also went much dimmer. The decision? The white blob was an evening cruise boat out of Cabo, probably 30 miles away. At that distance, the only thing we'd be able to see was the top few decks (hence no reds or greens), and LOTS of light. So it went south or southwest a while, and when it turned west to pass Cabo Falso, we could then just see the stern, and it went dim. That's our theory. Either that, or it was a hoodoo.
Carolyn took the 2:00 - 6:30 shift. Read her book with a little clip-on light.
David came on just before sunup (7:05). While Carolyn slept, David got another dolphin show. By this time we were almost past the Tres Marias islands and maybe 40 miles North of Banderas Bay. So these dolphins were the Banderas Bay little-brown-dolphin types. Again, 100's of them. No flips or jumps, just swishing by.
As the morning wore on (rock, roll, rock, roll) we were treated to a few more not-o-spectacular sea life vistas. A few jumping black and white rays. A few floating brown rays. The birds are now boobies instead of gulls.. And then the big what breaching show jus north of Banderas Bay. They were probably 5 miles off, but we could very clearly see them breaching and throwing huge splashes. We watched 30 or 40 jumps, some of them almost clearing the water.
And then for the finale, the breeze came up behind us ½ hour before we reached the bay, and we rolled out the jib and dowsed the iron genoa. We were early enough that we decided not to stop in Punta de Mita but continue to La Cruz, which was our final destination for this trip. And we turned enough that the wind was on the port quarter, just perfect for the jib. We walked right past the island packet under full sail that had entered the bay before us. Although they obviously decided that although "we weren't racing", they couldn't be shown up that badly and did some tweaking so as to almost keep up. But a sleek sloop (maybe a 46 to 50 ft Beneteau?) came out of Punta de Mita as we sailed by, and just left us in the dust as it headed to Puerto Vallarta with a very large genoa up. It's ok. We weren't racing.
Anchor down La Cruz 4:45. 3 days, 8 hours from the Ensenada de Los Muertos. Not a bad run. We're tired, but made a great dinner of steak with red wine, baked potato and fresh Swiss chard. I told you we don't eat badly.
We watched a couple episodes of "Lost", thus ending the story of our first voyage of 2011.
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