We eased out of the harbor in La Paz for a planned uneventful crossing of the Sea of Cortez. At this part of the Sea we have to head roughly SE toward Mazatlan from La Paz. Our trip suddenly became a trip of almost 250 NM…nonstop. Here we have to stop to sing the praises of our diesel engine. We fired it up and proceeded to run it for just about 2 days.
In the distance we did see occasional whales and dolphins coming up for air and breaching, jumping devil rays, sleeping sea lions and sea birds hitching a ride on the rigging. During night watches we see the Baja Ferry go by. Two ferries, the “San Jorge” and the “Mexico Star” make daily overnight trips between Mazatlan and La Paz. Since we’re making a track almost exactly on their route they see us and we see them. They keep about a nautical mile of separation which is good since they’re going 3-times as fast as we are and outweigh us by 100’s of tons.
As we neared Mazatlan early in the morning sting rays were jumping and a momma whale and calf slowly swam by. At one point we went by a sleeping sea lion who was no more than about 20 feet from the side of Island Summers. I don’t think he ever woke up as we went by.
Mazatlan is a busy port and marine traffic is required to call port control to request entry. Kevin, using his best Spanish asked permission to enter the harbor in ‘cinquenta minutos’ (50 minutes!) OOPS he meant 15 minutes (quince minutos). The port control operator graciously replied in English and gave us permission to enter. Ten minutes later though when we were just off the breakwater he hailed us on the radio and asked us to hold our current position for vessel traffic. We immediately stopped and waited as a huge roll-on-roll-off auto carrier left the port 150 yards from us (glad we didn’t meet him head-on in the narrow channel).
We anchored in the only tourist anchorage in the main harbor. We don’t really know how to describe it. Everyone is very nice here and it seems safe but it’s a different vibe. There’s a dilapidated dinghy dock at Club Nautico, a ruin that seems like it’s been taken over by the Mazatlan Policia Turistica, and Mazatlan Life-Guards. Club Nautico itself is a ruin. There’s a security guard and locked gate and old broken fixtures and a boat ramp (used by the police). There are old boats and the tourist catamarans that constantly go in and out with music blaring are anchored here. Club Nautico was once a decent marina but over the years its been neglected and destroyed by strong winds and high seas.
We always tip Marteen, the security gatekeeper who we’re told uses the tips to take care of the stray dogs and cats that get dropped off in this part of town. We are very near a lighthouse set on a 500 ft hill at the entrance to the harbor. Apparently there is a problem with stray unwanted cats being dropped off here. We can certainly confirm that there are a lot of kitties running around. There’s a nice hike up to the lighthouse and a newly installed (since the last time we were here) zipline from the top of the hill across the bay to El Obeservatario (a park and zoological garden). The zipline is at least 1.2 km and 500 ft in the air and crosses the bay! The zipline has orange balls above it to make sure low flying planes and helicopters see it!
We’ve been to Mazatlan a few times so we’ve seen a lot of the touristy things here but we’ll see if some of them deserve a second look! Stone Island (a fun touristy beach across the bay from main town) is one of our favorite places to spend a day.
We’re currently waiting for our son, Mark, who is planning to make a last minute trip here to sail from Mazatlan to Puerto Vallarta with us. It’s always fun to have friends and family join us.
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