At 7:15 a.m. January 10, 2009, Yours Truly (YT), Marcy, Fran and Russell Thorncraft and Ray (Marine the Autopilot) motored out of the channel in Mazatlan to get Charm underway for the first time in a long while. We were heading for San Blas, a stopping point on the way to Banderas Bay. San Blas is about 125 nautical miles from Mazatlan so is about a 24 hour trip for us.
Following along in our wake is the good ship Andanzas with Linda, Wally and Angel aboard. Andanzas is a 42 foot Catalina out of Ventura. Linda and Wally have become friends and we all agreed to buddy boat till Puerto Vallarta and that area. Angel is a cute, active 3 year old border collie.
This is our third trip south between these points and it is Andanzas' first. It is also a first for Russell and Fran�"first time on a sailboat in the ocean. And it is the first workout for Ray, our new autopilot.
Thanks to Julio and Rick Cummings of Cape Starr in Mazatlan, the install of Ray was flawless. However, Ray was doing a bit of wandering off the course and, of course, Marcy began rolling her eyes. YT began reading the manual. And after several experiments with changing commissioning settings to the Response and Rudder Gain, Ray got very smart indeed. So smart that he now follows course right on without deviation and without a timeout for meals or trips to the head. He is now the perfect crew member.
We have mainsail up, but the motor is on because we are getting only 5-6 knots of wind�"not nearly enough for Charm to sail along at any speed. But the Yanmar engine purrs along and everyone settles in with books while keeping watch out ahead. All of a sudden Fran yelps and we all look off to port where a very large Humpback whale (ballena in Spanish) comes completely out of the water and splashes back dramatically. That would be the first of many whale sightings along this route. Another that was pretty exciting was another Humpback that surfaced about 20 feet off our stern, blew and dived. Marcy got a bit excited about that one.

We also see a few dolphins along the way.
The moon rises at about 5:30 p.m. and the sun sets a few minutes later. We would have moonlight most of the night, though it finally hid behind some clouds in the wee hours.
We found a few fish nets along the way and Charm just rolls right over the top of the lines supported by soda bottles and anything else the fishermen have that will float. The bottom of the boat is perfect for this although we do not try to cross the lines. Often though, you just don't see floats until right on top of them. Our full keel leading to the rudder is a smooth surface and the propeller is protected from gathering line.
Andanzas has a run in with the fish nets and Wally was able to use his boat hook, knife and knotting skills to untangle and still leave the nets intact.
We arrived in Mantenchen Bay at 7:50 a.m. and anchored in 16 feet. Time for a rest as sleep was brief while under way.