Kievit Update
Kievit has decided to stay in Mazatlan for the summer. Yep, we are hanging it up for the season. We ended up with the motor fixed on Wednesday and moved for Marina Mazatlan to the Isla Mazatlan Marina. Then, we waffled about what to do next. We only have about five weeks max left as our 180 day visas run out on June 8. The original plan was to sail north into the Sea of Cortez, enjoy our last weeks there, and leave the boat in Guaymas for the summer. Guaymas is about 300 mi north on the mainland Mexico coast and it’s all upwind. Besides, though inexpensive and convenient for travel to the U.S., it is very hot, dry and dirty. Not the best conditions for storage of a boat. It would take at least a week to get the boat ready to leave it in Guaymas and a couple of weeks sailing to get there. It wouldn’t leave much time for fun. Cruisers like to have fun and not to be on tight schedules.
With Guaymas out of consideration, we debated leaving the boat here in Mazatlan or going back south to Puerto Vallarta. Either place is okay to leave the boat for the summer hurricane season. After much consideration and changing our minds several times, we have decided that Kievit will do best here in Mazatlan for the summer. To make sure we didn’t change our minds again, we booked tickets to fly to California on May 20th. That gives us three weeks to get the boat ready and to enjoy Mazatlan.
Friday, we took the bus to Oldtown Mazatlan and enjoyed the market and walking around the streets were hadn’t seen for three months. We had drinks and snacks at a nice café on the beach, bought tickets to a dance performance on Monday evening, and stocked up on fresh fish and shrimp for the next couple of days. Yesterday, we took a hike into an estuary reserve near here. We found some nice birds including at least two life birds for us; the Least Bittern and the Citreoline Trogon. Other nice birds included Least Terns, Least Grebes, and two Rufus-bellied Chachalacas.