Back In Mazatlan

We are now back in Mazatlan, same slip we had before which is nice, and the same neighbours. We made a rather quick trip from La Cruz due to the rather unsettled weather. We did get picked on by one squall just off Chacala. We were about a mile or so out of the anchorage and got hit with 35-40 knots in 80 ft of water on a lee shore. We did manage to make some progress off the shore and ride it out for a  couple of hours until we got into the anchorage and set a stern anchor (but that is a whole other story). we had  really wanted to get close to this area.  

Our next stop was in San Blas at the marina downtown, new marina and we paid about $15 a night. 

Then a 25 hour motor sail / motorboat ride to Mazatlan with winds and waves on the nose.  We met the

 skipper of a power boat called Patty M they also berth at El Cid right behind us. They left San Blas the same time we did only to arrive 12 hours earlier then us.

And yes Debbie is working on pictures.

UPDATE TO FEB 11 2010

UPDATE TO FEB 11 2010

We have been a little slow with the blog lately, but we are all fine and in the La Cruz Marina (Puerto Vallarta) waiting out another tropical trough after beating our way back from Manzanillo. The trip was mostly uneventful saw another whale, with the exception of a surface trough that smacked us in the Bahia de Navidad lagoon with winds of 60 knots and heavy rain. At one point the dingy was half full of rain water with the night's rain. We were ok on our anchor but a few boats dragged however nobody got hit by dragging boats. However a boat in Tenacatia and another in Chamela did get hit by lightning. The lighting storm was spectacular and went on for 3 or 4 hours before the wind and rain hit.

After leaving Bahia de Navidad we did one night stops at Tenacatia, Chamela and Punta Ipala before getting to the La Cruz marina to wait out the second of those tropical troughs that are very unusual at this time of the year.   We also got to see rays jumping in Punta Impala

Debbie will post more about our land trip etc,

LAS HADAS AND MANZANILLO

LAS HADAS AND MANZANILLO

Amber the cat has been a very good guest. But we feel we should get her to owners.
We pulled up anchor from Carrizal around 8:30 it looked a little gray but nothing to concern us. Even listening to the weather there was nothing out there. Wrong !!!!!!

We have now experienced our first Mexican squall. I always thought a squall was over in 10 minutes we had about 1 ½ hours of dark skies, building seas and winds. In fact we even took a greene right through the cockpit with Lynn taking a great amount of it all over him at the wheel. Winds of 32 knots and at on point we thought the dingy was going to be airborne.

We managed to get in to Las Hadas right behind the breakwater and very close to the swimming floats meaning we are protected from the swells no matter which way the wind blows. All around the bay are hotels, condos and timeshares, but no hawkers. Most of the Hotels will let you use their pools and internet (if it is working) as long as you are purchasing food or alcohol. It's like staying at a full service hotel with out the cost of the room.

We attended a circus in Manzanillo with Bill and Janet from Optical Illusion This circus was more of a Las Vegas dinner show, lots of show girls, sexual dances and men in loin clothes. We saw more male butt then we needed to and some of the ladies must have been thinking this is the worst wedgies I have had in a long time. We both agreed that the circus in Mazatlan was aimed more at families this one just kept us laughing.

We also attended a Botanas Bar. This is a bar that is only opened from 3:00pm to 8:00pm you purchase your drinks and they supply you with all the appies you can eat. Soup, tacos, tostadas, totopos, and fresh veggies, way to much food. , There was an 11 piece band plus 2 singers and was very loud , but this is Mexico. To pay the band they sold numbers for $1.00 with the prize being $100 (Mexican money), to pick a winner they throw a dart at moving wheel with 20 numbers on it. Janet from Optical Illusion won three in a row and donated the winnings to an animal spay clinic

TO PUNTA CARRIZO

TO PUNTA CARRIZO

We headed over to Melaque by bus for all of 50 cents to catch a taxi ($5.00) to the secret beach, just outside of Melaque here we spent the day with Annie and Glen. The secret beach and anchorage is really Playa Custecomate it is just about enclosed by the craggy mountains and rock formations at the entrance. There were 8 boats tucked in there and all said the snorkelling was wonderful and the bay was not to rolly but you have to be very careful coming in as there is a big reef that you skirt coming in. We think we may try this place on our way back north.

When we left to go back to Barra Annie's friend offered us a ride. Little did we know we would be traveling Mexican style, yes, we had 4 people in the box of the truck and 6 in the cab. Good thing there were no police, cause we are sure that being white we might have got a ticket.

Murray Grey decided that they wanted to leave a day before us so they pulled out only to have engine trouble before they even reach the mouth of the lagoon. It was a Chinese fire drill as only 2 or 3 boats had there dinghy's and motors in the water. In all 7 dinghies brought the Murray Grey back in to anchor. See what happens when they try to leave with out that 36ft Dolphin Tales trailing behind them.

We just about had the anchor up when we got a call from another boat asking us to make a deliver to Optical Illusion. It seems they were in Manzanillo and would like their Kitten Amber back. We went in circles till they packed her up and we loaded her on board

Well time to get the boat ready to leave and to head for our last southern stop before we head back north to Mazatlan. We had a nice sail from Bara all the way down to Punta Carrizo where we stern anchored for the night. Bonnie on Murray Grey had been fishing all day I think it was 4 caught and only one saved. So we had our first meal of Dorado, it was very good.    We spotted this rare bird we will have to ask Bonnie what it is 

TO JAN 1 2010

Well Christmas day has come and gone. We awoke to find Santa had left both of us necklaces, and some bakery goods. We went over to a motor boat called Sirens Call from Alaska with Gail and John on it. John is the king of latté coffees while Gail had baked up a numerous bakery items. We then all headed to the beach for Shrimp and Blacken fish with each boat bringing in a potluck item. We had so much food that we really had no room to go back to Sirens Call for smoked turkey and all the fixings but we managed.

We headed back to Barra De Navidad to see if we could find some land based friends that were here for a few days. Now the Lagoon at Barra is very large but has numerous shallows and mud flats so if you want to go to town at night you must hire a panaga, for 2.50 (pasos) round trip. Boy do they travel. We finally made a connection with Anne and Glen on Dec 31st; we made plans to meet up again in 2 days.

New Years Eve was spent at two different locations: the first was supper over at the Grand Bay Golf course with 12 other couples; we were the token Canadians for the evening. One of the other boats brought hats and noise makers so at the Cruisers Midnight 9:00pm some of us put on hats and blew the noise makers. Then it was back to the boats where some went straight to bed others to other boats to party. We went to town and enjoyed the people festivities and the fireworks. The fireworks were about 15 minutes long and were great.

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hope you are all fine and ready for the Christmas season. We have put up our small tree and numerous Christmas lights. There are 4 other boats with lights but, I think we have the most. The area we our in is about 40 miles north of Manzanillo. We had headed into Barra De Navidad on Dec 17th only to find that the lagoon area was filled with no see-um-mums and mosquitoes once the sun went down. Plus there were no other boats there and nothing was going on for Christmas at this time. So instead of staying there till after Christmas we headed back to Tenacatita on the 20th after doing laundry and re-stocking. If we want to see Barra at night we will need to make arrangements to have a water taxi take us in as the lagoon is very hard to navigate in the dark as there are numerous shallows.

We are now sitting at Tenacatita Bay where the water temp is about 85 and the sun seems to shine every day. We have been swimming, had 2 humpback whales put on a wonderful show in the bay and watched numerous fish jumping out of the water along with stingrays. We have also seen two turtles in the bay. So life has been good.

We will be thinking of each and everyone of you on Christmas Day especial at supper time, as we will not be having Turkey this Christmas. We could not find any turkey or even whole chickens. We are having B.B.Q. chicken breasts, dressing, cranberry jelly, mash potatoes and of course cream corn. Lynn is a little sad as we also could not find any turnips. We are sharing this big meal on Dec 24 with friends from the Murrey Grey and Optical Illusion.Then one of the boats is heading back to Barra De Navidad where they can get internet and phone service. We will likely head back there on 26th of Dec and stay till after the New Year. Then we will head a little farther south before starting to head back to Mazatland.

There are about 20 boats in the Bay and we are all going to get together on the Beach on Christmas Day in the afternoon and have a pot luck. Depending on the surf. We are really good surf-landers so far. But, leaving is another matter, so far the most water we have taken in the dingy was about 6 to 8 inches . Only once have we left the beach and only took one wave over us. Rule always wear clothing that is ok to get wet on the trip back from the beach.

Merry Christmas everyone and have a Happy New Year.

Nov 24 to Dec 7th 2009

Nov 24
We left the picturesque, rolly, anchorage of Chacala Bay, with our buddy boat Murray Gray who recommended that we spend the night at Punta Mita which is at the north end of Bandreas Bay. It was an another rolly night. Pulled anchor first thing in the morning and sailed over to the La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and anchored twice before we were happy. Upon listening to the net we found out that we could attend a BBQ that evening for only $65.00 peso = about $5.75 Canadian. This included a main course, salad veggies and 1 beverage. We were there. Plus we needed this break after hauling our laundry about 1 mile from the anchorage only to find out there was a one only about 3 blocks away. We also did American Thanksgiving at a gringo run shop called Filo's here we were entertained by all the expats that did not make it professionally up north but were pretty darn good down here.

Nov 28

We headed over to Puerto Vallarta and tied up in the Marina. Here we have restocked the boat, gave it a good wash and went and looked at the Crocodiles in the harbour. All the locals along the harbour kept telling us no the croc does not come out of the water. Well they were wrong out one popped right where we would have been walking. It caused quite a stir with the locals and all of us waiting out the rain storm. Of course none of us had a camera with us that night.

Dec 1

Up anchor at 6:00am and off to round Cabo Corrientes, the plan is to round it before mid day as the chop and wind can get a little rough. The highest winds we saw were about 20 knots and seas were around 4 to 6 feet nothing like what we did up north. We pulled into
Punta Ipala, around 2:00 pm. Note where the chart plotter says we anchored, good think we have radar and 2 sets of eyes to confirm our travels.

It appears to be a village of about 20 homes. The next morning we took the dinghies to shore and visited the school. We did not realize they had two schools for such a small area. We dropped off some crayons, chalk and a few hats to use as prizes. There had to have been 15 children in the older school and about 12 in the younger one.

Dec 3

This last leg was a 10hour run of motor sailing just enough wind to keep the sails full but not enough to turn off the motor. We arrived at Bahia Chamela around 4:00. In the entrance we were met by spotted dolphins and a whale's tale. Once inside and the anchor was set, we jumped into the water, well Lynn hung off the ladder and I swam close by the boat. To our pleasure we had dolphins swim close by also.

Unfortunately we never got to shore as strong South Westerly swells and winds were blowing into the bay. After three nights of no sleep even with a stern anchor out we headed south once again.

Dec 7
We are now about 2 weeks early heading down the coast then we planned. We are hopping that the next anchorage will be calm with very little swell. Even Lynn is complaining about the lack of sleep from the rocking, rolling and slamming of the boat.
Yes our prays have been answered. The anchorage at Bahia Tenacatita is almost calm. Both crew on Dolphin Tales have had a nice peaceful sleep for the 1st time in awhile.

Made a surf landing on the beach and managed to keep the dingy upright, however we need to make sure we have a bailer or pump next time to bail the dingy. We will be here for a few days and tour around.


We have been having some computer issues with our winlink so if you do not here from us do not panic. However we did manage to hear and get a message to John and Pam on the SV Passages in Equador this am on the SSB so the radio is working great



Once we have internet again we will fill in with some pictures.