We have returned to Stockton for the hurricane season (hopefully there will not be one passing through Mazatlan).
ADIOS Mexico! Just finished our second season sailing & exploring the Pacific slope coastline between Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. Specifics of most of our adventures have been featured in this blog over the past five months. A different kind of experience from last year's grand sail from the San Joaquin Delta to the Gulf of California, when everything about cruising Mexico was unknown. This year has generally been less spectacular, every day. Yet, it has been satisfying to explore Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, discovering their cultural treasures and exploring several wildlife preserves. Visiting the little towns in between required taking the dinghy into shore, and hopefully, successfully beaching it - that is always exciting! Sailing in Banderas Bay (that's where PV is) is lovely - the wind always comes up in the afternoon, so you can scoot across the bay.
Our lingering pace allowed us to have communications with Mexicans whose livelihoods depend on the tourist trade and all the marina and boat workers who were so glad for our business. It felt like a good deed to be there spending a few pesos. In our experience, Mexicans are friendly, sincere, grounded, clever, and proud - it has been such a pleasure to meet lots of nice folks, a few artists, and competent business owners. It's comfortable to leave the boat in Mazatlan and look forward to returning to this friendly city, when we do. Next season, sometime between Oct and Jan, we look forward to sailing the southern coast of Mexico and on to Central America.
Read on if interested in engine updates and last months' weather...
Kievit has spent the last month getting herself worked on and polished and never left port. We captains, decided to not encounter any more unexpected sailing/travel obstacles and, in an uncharacteristic fashion, just hang out. The early decision was based on there being a week of very high swells and breaking waves at the channel entrance. Every day there was also the chance that the port would be closed do to fog or the high waves, so once out... we might not be able to get back. After the past month of unexpected malfunctions, it seemed a good idea to park the boat for the hurricane season in Mazatlan, and return to California and the next four months of high life we have planned.
A week ago, Dave started up the engine in order to heat it up to change the oil - a typical chore before leaving the boat. We had run the engine for over an hour before that, to make sure the repairs to correct the engine overheating problem worked. It ran great, that time, temp stayed right where it should. However, this time the needle flew up past the safety mark in less than 20 minutes. So, while we thought the engine was fixed, and also knew why it happened... We will have to figure it out and straighten it out when we return. Que pasa....