Winter summary
29 April 2020 | mazatlan
Scott and Donna Hansen | beautiful
We have sailed 2,200 Nmi in Mexico this winter. We left Ensenada in Dec. and sailed 700 Nmi down the Pacific side of Baja and and anchored at 5 or 6 places along the way. After a quick 2 nights at anchor in rolly, loud Cabo, we set sail for Puerto Vallarta and it was a stormy, wet, unusual 300 Nmi passage, that should have been a fast sunny skies reach. One boat was lost during the storm although the crew were saved in the nick of time. We spent 2 months in PV both at anchor an in the Marina. Friends came to visit and we took them out for a sail on Banderas bay for the whale watching trip of a lifetime. We were ready to leave the big city and sail south to our favorite deserted tropical bay in Mexico. We snorkel with all the beautiful tropical fish on the coral reef, we saw lots of wild animals, Coatimundis,Crocodiles,Iguanas, Sea turtles, Pelicans, Boobies, terns, frigate birds,and so many others. Look up the ocean sun fish, now that is a huge and crazy fish to see in the open ocean. The bay is called Tenacatita and while we were anchored there is when Mexico started to take the Wuhan virus seriously so then we stayed out of marinas and topped up all our supplies before most business shut down. We said goodbye to our sailing friends in the bay and changed plans and sailed north up into the Sea of Cortez and anchored in several bays on the way to La Paz. By now all beaches were closed and many good anchorages. We were low on food,water,fuel,and booze, so we decided to take a chance and sneak into La Paz to get what we needed and sneak back out again because Mexico was restricting most travel. Well, off we sailed to cross the Sea of Cortez for the third time this winter and sailed straight to Mazatlan and are in a nice little marina in order to leave the boat for the summer. Mazatlan is even more closed down than La Paz was, so when we rode our bikes to the Walmart all the products in store were forbidden to sell except for food. You couldn't be over 45 yrs old to go into Home Depot! We can't buy any alcohol of any kind and not even mixers. Alaska airlines stopped all flights outta here and did no tell us, so Donna spent days on the phone trying to find a way home that did not involve riding a burro or beating to weather for 3,000 Nmi. She finally got tickets for a Mex airline to Tijuana, walk over the border,take a shuttle,stay overnight,fly SD to Paine field and our daughter, Celeste will drive us home pant pant! Photo to follow!