ADVENTURES OF SEA WHISPER 6
Manzanillo to La Paz


MANZANILLO, ZIPLINES, COLIMA AND THE RUSSIAN BALLET
It took a lot of guts for me to sign up for the X-treme adventure of a Zip Wire ride in the jungle near Manzanillo. Being married to a keen guy who is up for almost anything, I agreed to participate not wanting to miss the action and disappoint him. With some other diehards we set out in a van for Natura Camp Park to test our nerves in this jungle adventure. We geared up with harnesses, head gear and gloves and hiked through the jungle up to head of the wire line. “I want to be first,” I demanded the guide so I didn’t have wait too long and suffer in silence. Into the rigging I was strapped and hoisted to the ZipLine. Off I flew through the air. What a rush….goodbye to boredom!! And then Lionel was next. He loved the ride and the extraordinary and spectacular views. At the end of the day everyone relived the wild moments and crossed this ‘must do’ off their bucket list. And now I get to choose a night of culture …. The Russian Ballet. That was the deal that we two made!

The Russian Ballet:
Lionel and I dressed in our ‘Ballet Best’ and took a taxi to the very special performance of Romeo y Julieta performed by the Russian State Ballet ‘Mari El’ which is currently celebrating 46 years of producing ballet masterpieces. Forty dancers, spectacular choreography, sets and costumes made for a most enjoyable and memorable evening.

CULTURAL TOUR TO COLIMA
We took a tour to Colima the capitol of the state with the same name, located in the centre west of Mexico. In the historic centre is the Liberty Garden square. We saw the Neoclassical designed Colima cathedral and spent several hours at the Museo Regional de Historia. The archeological pieces were very interesting especially the shaft tomb. The shaft tomb recreated the burial of people and their belongings. In the valley of Colima we enjoyed the rugged mountainous terrain and the dramatic views of the Colima Volcano. The volcano has been active for 5 million years and has erupted more than 40 times since the 16th century. An interesting day visiting local historic landmarks.



SILVERY SEAS, VISAS AND THE GREEN FLASH
On February 26th the Captain and First Mate of Sea Whisper said goodbye to Las Hadas, Manzanillo, Ziplines, Mexican markets, the Russian Ballet and Colima. It was time for Sea Whisper to point north and head back to The Sea of Cortez as the wintertime ‘Northers’ begin to diminish. Sea whisper made a straight run from Bahia de Manzanillo to Chacala about 200 nm. Watching the sunset is always a high point on any ocean passage. I had a hard time believing there was such a thing as ’the green flash’ even though Lionel assured me that this does occur and he had seen it a few times. But after viewing this phenomenon…I’m a believer. Gluing our eyes to the setting sun on the wide horizon of the Pacific it began to change from the normal yellow to a bright orange. As I watched the last glimpse before it sank out of sight…there it was…the ‘green flash’, a strong green ray shooting out above the sun. The sun had set for another day.

In Chacala, a picturesque anchorage boasting a kilometer of sandy white beach, palm thatched roofs and sunsets in paradise, we enjoyed the easy pace and friendly locals.

Our Immigration papers dictated that we extend our Mexican Visas . So off we went on a 120 km. Mexican bus journey. We ran, walked and hitchhiked as we chased the right bus to take us to the Airport Immigration at Puerto Vallarta. From the window of our bus we scan the landscape: rolling hills, mountains, jungle and fertile farms as Mexicans embark and disembark all along the way. Different scenery from the sea and the waves on Sea Whisper. We try to discern which farm crop is which. The guy behind us tells us they are peppers. Can’t grow enough chili peppers in Mexico!

At the Aeropuerto, a friendly Immigration officer stamps our documents and passports and sends us on our way. We jump off a bus at Bucerias to transfer. Charging along the street we hope we have time for a refreshment; but where to find the Panaderia or café. “Senorita, Senorita, dande es bueno café?” A lovely Mexican lady points down the road ahead “Chaney, Chaney, bueno espresso”. We found the famous ‘Chaney’ bakery and indulged ourselves in mocha frappes and almond biscotti just in time to catch the bus to Sea Whisper in Chacala. Mission accomplished. New visas.

SOGGY ROOTS AND WILD CROCODILES
Imagine a jungle tour where you can discover hundreds of species of birds, tiger herons, turtles, iguanas and crocodiles in a lush unique paradise. Rio Tovara near San Blas is a narrow river with lush mangroves and soggy roots that are teeming with wildlife. We meet our guide Alphonso and at 0800 we head out in his panga for the 2 ½ hour ride moving slowly not to disturb the creatures in the murky waters and thick branches and dense roots of the mangroves. Our heads are turning in circles to capture every living creature. Alphonso enlightens us, in Spanish and English, about the wildlife and each time I raise my camera he obliges by stealthily gliding the panga through the river. We enjoy the stillness, the absence of sound as we sit and crouch on the bow of the panga to duck from the overhead branches. Alphonso knows where the crocs hang out. We round a corner creeping along and gawking at every tangled root and branch. Before our eyes, only 10 feet in front of us, a huge croc lies motionless with his slithery powerful body sunning himself in the mushy muddy river. My heart begins to thump. He is close. His eyes watchfully blinking. After admiring this wild creature and capturing one or more shots with the telephoto lens the panga slowly recedes. Soon we arrive at a fresh water spring. In the crystal clear protected waters we dive and cool down. A refreshing finale to our wildlife jungle adventure.

A few kilometers away by foot we explore the town of San Blas which was the Spanish Naval capital on the West Coast in 1768. From here ships departed and returned with explorations.all the way to Alaska. Many of the original buildings including the Church still remain. The garrison on the hill overlooks the town and surrounding country side.

BOOBIES, FRIGATES AND HAMMERHEAD SHARKS
Log Entry March 3, 2012 Enroute Isla Isabel
0610: Depart Ensenada Matanchen, San Blas 21.31.01N, 105.19.13W, S.O.G. 6.0, C.O.G. 293
Wind North 3-5 Knts. Low swell, Fog – ½ mile visibility. Motorsailing with main. Many shrimp boats.

At 1410 hrs. Sea whisper arrives at Isla Isabel, an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean 93nm southwest of Mazatlan. In 2003, after National Park status in 1981, this volcanic island became
a World Heritage Site. Sea Whisper crept slowly into the mid channel of the anchorage between the rocky reefs and detached rocky islands. Our guide book tells us the rocky sea bottom has swallowed many anchors. Yikes! We carefully set Sea Whisper’s anchor using a trip line and a bright yellow float should we need to go searching for it. Now we were free to enjoy the epitome of nature, The Galapagos of Mexico: thousands of seabirds hovering above the rocky cliffs, sea waves crashing and rolling rhythmically along the craggy reefs and sightings of humpback whales migrating to warm tropical waters to breed and calf. To say the least: A feast for the senses! We can’t wait until morning for our ‘National Geographic’ expedition!

Early the next day we launch our little dinghy and head for shore. We soon see the frigate birds, the red, brown and most famous blue-footed booby birds, terns, pelicans and gulls.
As we approach, the birds seem to be unafraid. We discover the frigate birds nesting in the lime and guava trees. The fuzzy baby frigate birds are precious looking, as they hover in the nest close to their parents. The mother and father birds share in looking after the baby birds. We walk slowly and enjoy the sights and sounds of the frigates. In the distance we spot a proud male frigate sporting a scarlet gullet seemingly as if he swallowed a giant red balloon. Further up the hill we discover the booby birds; hundreds of male, female and baby boobies. There are blue-footed, red-footed and brown boobies perched in and watching over their nests that are sprawled over the bare rock outcroppings and tufted grass. An interesting study. A gaggle of boobies….I’m not sure.

With the Pacific ocean pounding upon the reefs and rocky shoreline, and the sight of magnificent birds building and protecting their nests that spill all over the rugged rocky landscape of Isla Isabel; along with the gulls, terns and iguanas it is no small wonder that Isla Isabel is a World Heritage site. We are transcended into the world of National Geographic. Another unique Sea of Cortez adventure.

The Fishing Camp. “O this is the place where the fishermen gather.” Everywhere there are pangas with fishermen coming and going to and from the active fish camp setting their nets and going about their business of fishing night and day. The camp is a string of beach shacks in an array of bright colours. It’s a beehive of sturdy young Mexican men mending nets, cleaning fish, eating finger food on the run, drinking coke, airing out bedding, and standing in packs to share their fishing yarns. With razor sharp fish knives they slice open the huge red snappers and the hammer head sharks. Hoards of pelicans rant over the fish guts. We photograph the catch of the day and speak a few words marveling at their rough and tough existence. This is the fishing camp at Isla Isabel.

MAZATLAN: HISTORY, ARCHITECTURE AND THE MERCADO
Sea Whisper anchored in the old harbor where there are freighters, cruise ships, ferries and commercial traffic coming and going below Cerro Creston where, at the top of the 515 ft. hill, there is one of the highest lighthouses in the world – El Faro. The city of Mazatlan with 500,000 inhabitants lived up to its reputation of interesting history, old world charm and beauty especially in old Mazatlan. This fine city with a history of Spanish explorers, discovery of gold and silver, wars, and the Great depression, is booming. There is lots to see and lots to do. Soon we were walking and riding the public buses to the tree-lined plaza Machado, the Moorish designed basilica with its twin bright yellow spires, the huge Mercado in old town, cafes, restaurants and the theatre. Another highlight was hiking the big hill to the lighthouse and being rewarded with the grand views of the city and the wide open Pacific.

Our Spanish is improving and on our daily rounds to the Mercado Municipal we find it easy- going to buy onions, potatoes, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, bananas, apples, papaya, etc. Not so easy to find good bread and I haven’t mastered the names of all the cheeses. When the vendors see us coming, they recognize us and smile in a helpful way. “ El queso por quesadillas?” I ask the senor. With his sharp knife he politely reaches out with samples of queso from big blocks for me to try. “Si, si.” Off I go with small blocks of queso in my shopping bag. Lionel and I love shopping at the market however some of the scenery is unexplainable: pigs’ heads and feet and cows’ heads and brains. We walk by these animal parts quickly and head for the bus with our bags full to Sea Whisper.

In Mazatlan it is International Guitar festival week and we are fortunate to take in two wonderful guitar concerts back to back. One of the concerts de Guitarra was a solo performance by Ioana Gandrabur, a Rumanian Canadian. Blind since birth, she put on a stunning performance at the Teatre Angela Peralta including J.S. Bach and Joaquin Rodeigo. www.ioana bandrabur.com. We chatted with her back stage and invited her to come to Victoria. Our concert week was topped off with a lively dance, song and live music performance by the Expresion Flamenca dance troupe. This outstanding dance troupe is from Sinaloa, the state of Mazatlan.

RESCUE ON THE WATER
One sunny afternoon in the ‘Old Harbour’ anchorage we were planning a dinghy ride to Stone Beach, the top rated beach in Mazatlan. Suddenly a NW wind came up with gusts to 25 – 30 knots in the anchorage. Sea Whisper was riding comfortably with a small riding sail. Our cruising guide reported that there is a poor holding ground and to take extra care in anchoring. Lionel, checking the boats in the anchorage, shouts out “Northern Sky is dragging and heading for the rocks with no one aboard, we gotta go!” With extreme haste we launched our inflatable, grabbed extra lines and charged through the steep waves toward the Canadian sailing vessel Northern Sky, a 39 ft. Beneteau. Every second counted as she narrowly missed smashing into the red channel marker. We tied our dinghy along the port side and, with great difficulty, we tried to get control of Northern Sky to divert/steer her from the rocks. Lionel jumped onboard and turned the wheel hard over to starboard while I controlled the dinghy. Northern Sky was still in danger. In the 30 knot squalls it was almost impossible to control the drift of the 39 ft. boat with our 10 ft. dinghy. The boat was locked but in a quick search he found the engine key and succeeded in starting the engine. Lionel shouted directions to me to give more power to the inflatable to control Northern Sky. Nervously, I persevered in battling the gusts as the back end of the dinghy was now becoming submerged. Lionel is now on the foredeck pulling up the anchor with the anchor winch. We are slowly motoring back to the anchorage under Northern Sky’s own power and I have cut our dinghy loose. We safely re-anchor Northern Sky.

Quick thinking, skill and experience saved the boat. We were praised by the owner and treated to a delicious curry dinner with the Skipper and his wife onboard Northern Sky, with them saying “This is just a fraction of what we owe you!” I am now learning that this is yet another aspect of cruising; keeping watchful eyes at all times in the anchorages.

THIEVES IN THE NIGHT
We are reluctant to tell this news but it’s all part of cruising. When we were warned, at our arrival in the old harbor of Mazatlan, that there had been recent boat thefts (in particular outboard motors) we somewhat disregarded the comments and carried on with our day to day cruising life. And then it happened after we arrived back at Sea Whisper after a pleasant Sunday evening in the old town listening to music.

On Sea Whisper we take special care to lift and store our dinghies on deck at night. The large inflatable dinghy with a 25 hp motor was secure in its cradle. After lifting the small dinghy onboard with the 2 hp motor we went to bed. A north west wind was blowing about 10 knots so our aft cabin hatch where we sleep was almost closed. In the morning as Lionel was mopping the dew off the decks he was shocked to find both dinghy motors missing from the dinghies! Both motors had been securely padlocked with heavy duty locks to the dinghies. We imagine that 3 people boarded Sea Whisper in the night and, using bolt cutters, cut the locks. Silent thieves….we heard nothing.

The following hours and days were spent preparing documents and statements and dealing with this whole ordeal with the Office of the Port Captain, the Police and Insurance companies. The Port Captain took it in hand and sent the report throughout the boating community. We spread the news through the cruising community over the cruising nets and word of mouth. Everyone was so concerned and helped spread the word to assist in putting an end to this crime. In hearing the bad news one of our fellow cruisers rigged up his creative alarm system the very next night: a long fishing line, with a bell attachment, leading from the dinghy motor to his cabin where he was sleeping. The theory being that the bell would ring when the thief stumbled on the fishing line. If the bell rang Bert would turn on all the outside lights and start blowing an air horn??!! Answer or anguish! At the end of the day we are happy we slept through the ordeal and we now have 2 new motors for the dinghies. We are especially grateful to the Mazatlan Port Captain, our Insurance Company and the Yamaha dealership for everything they did to help us. Despite the bad luck Mazatlan was a great highlight of our Mexican cruising journey.

BACK IN BAJA
On March 17th Sea Whisper left Mazatlan to sail 200 miles to La Paz. There was very little wind at first and we settled in nicely to our ‘watch routine’. I usually do the 2100- 2400 and 0300-0600. The radar and AIS is activated and there is little traffic other than the odd freighter and a few fishing boats. After 28 hours the weather turns ugly….much worse than our forecasts and Grib Files indicated. We now are bashing into 30 knot NW winds and short steep seas. After several more hours of burying Sea Whisper’s bow into the heavy seas we made a decision to alter course to de los Muertos, 58 nm south of La Paz. Lionel was on watch for 1800 – 2100. Coming up on deck for my watch at 2100 hrs. I find Lionel sitting in the cockpit, strapped into his life-harness soaking wet from salt spray having just come off the foredeck putting the number one reef in the main, rolling in the furling jib and setting the staysail in a strong offshore wind about 50 miles from our anchorage. Looking like an exhausted puppy, I chastised him for not waking me up to assist on deck. “You need your sleep for your watch,” he quipped. Before long we could see the dark outline of land on the Baja peninsula. At 0200, after dropping the sails in the black starry night we entered Bahia de los Muertos. We picked our way carefully to the waypoint amongst several other mast lights, other sailboats and power boats sheltered from the weather. We set the anchor, wrote the log entry and crashed to sleep.



SNORKELING WITH THE SEA LIONS
Never did I think I would be swimming and cavorting with a pack of California Sea Lions. Now that we are back in the Sea of Cortez we took advantage of jumping into the briny deep to play with the sea lions and their pups. We anchored Sea Whisper near Los Islotes between two rocky islets and a reef. The rookery was alive with the sea lions barking, charging, playing and sunning themselves. We were captivated with a mother stretched out in the sun on a slippery rocky edge with her pup suckling on her. With other snorkelers and divers, we jumped in the water with our friends, Kathy and Caroline from Shannon and played with these curious wild animals. It was a little unnerving when an 800 pound bull male swam gracefully right between Lionel and me about one foot from each of us arching his back, and turning right over on his belly upside down underneath us. What a show off!! We say thank you to these graceful creatures for an amazing wildlife experience in the Sea of Cortez.

We’ve come to the end of our Mexican journey. We’ve indulged ourselves in this amazing culture; we’ve sailed Sea Whisper up and down the Sea of Cortez in ‘Northers’ and flat seas; and the Pacific Mexico coastline. Sea Whisper has been our home since September, 2011. She has given us an opportunity to experience and relish the beauty and rich life here in Mexico while we have worked hard to take good care of her all along the way. Thank you to everyone who helped make this dream come true.

We are now back in La Paz and readying Sea Whisper for drydock and a journey in the future. We hope you will enjoy our last Adventure story. And to sum up Sea Whisper’s Mexican voyage:

OUR TOP 20
Swimming and snorkeling in warm water
Hiking volcanic mountains and ridges
Shopping at the Mexican Mercado
Family visits from home
Summer every day
Fish Tacos and Street food
Pacific Ocean passages in the moonlight
Meeting and having fun with other Cruisers
World Heritage Sites, Estuaries and Jungles tours
Music…from the beach… to the street…to the Theatre
Serene and tranquil anchorages
Churches and Basilicas
Quaint fishing Villages
Sunrises, Sunsets and the Green Flash
Espresso Cafes and Mexican torte
Mexican families and their smiling faces
Extraordinary landscapes and Seascapes
Wild life, whales, dolphins, rays, fish, iguanas, and birds
Feeling Relaxed and Happy
MANANA IS THE BUSIEST DAY OF THE WEEK

We’re looking forward to seeing you soon.
All the Best and a very Happy Easter from

Barbara and Lionel – Sea Whisper
cwhisper@hotmail.com

We fly home on April 16, 2012 to visit family, friends and try and restock the cruising kitty. Most important of all is for Barbara to cure the case all mother's suffer when away from family "Grandchild Withdrawal"

The Adventures will continue starting mid October. Hope everyone has a great summer, stay safe and always put out a little extra anchor chain