As we departed La Cruz for the second time in a little over 24 hours, we watched our engine temperature carefully and eventually relaxed realizing that our overheating problems was fixed. (Don’t jinx me for saying that Neptune!) The wind picked up and we were able to sail. During the two night passage we enjoyed dolphins, gorgeous sunsets and beautiful sunrises.
Friday morning we arrived at Mazatlan harbor. The entrance to the harbor is extremely narrow (see photo above) with a constant stream of boat traffic consisting of large cargo ships, ferries, and cruise ships. Mariners must call Maritime Traffic prior to entering. Kevin radioed a couple of times requesting permission to enter in both English and Spanish with no response so we just went for it. We waited for a shrimp boat to exit the channel around the blind corner and then proceeded quickly. Success!
It’s always a relief to drop anchor after a tiring passage and this was no exception. There was a sailboat (s/v Asume) already anchored and another arrived within minutes of us (s/v Okisollo). Apparently we’re the first few cruisers to arrive in Mazatlan harbor for this season. We also met Jennifer on the dock from Canada. She is a solo cruiser who has been living on her boat here in the anchorage for the past year doing odd jobs helping the locals.
After taking a short rest, we got to work cleaning up stowing gear and getting ready to wait for our next weather window. The La Cruz to Mazatlan trip was 177NM and our next hop will be just over 200NM to the Baja peninsula. It will be a relief to get across the Sea of Cortez. It’s both a long non-stop trip and will take us offshore more than we usually go thus far in our travels. We’ll be about 100NM from any land in the middle. I know 100NM is small-potatoes for true offshore work but we’re heading upwind and the mouth of the Sea of Cortez can be a fierce place in the wrong wind conditions.
In the meantime, we’ve been enjoying Mazatlan. We rode a Pulmonia (uniquie Mazatlan taxis) to the central market and walked to old-town and the town square. The town square was still decorated with Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) sculptures and on the way back we walked the Malecon and enjoyed the public art of Mazatlan and stopped along the beach for a margarita and cervezas.
The weather is perfect! It’s 85 degrees (10 degrees cooler than Puerta Vallarta and La Cruz). The temperature makes a big difference when you are essentially living outside like we are. There is no a/c running when anchored in the harbor. When the boat is anchored the bow will swing into the wind and funnel air through our hatches which keeps the boat cool.
Yesterday we went to the Gran Acuario (Mazatlan Aquarium). This is a brand new aquarium that recently opened and it’s the largest in Latin America. We watched a Sea Lion show where the sea lions clapped for themselves after their performance. It was very entertaining! Later we watched divers feed the fish in the giant reef tank. We couldn’t understand what was being said at the shows because the Mexicans speak Spanish so fast but it was still a good time.
We finished cleaning our boat and had the other cruisers in the harbor over for sundowners in the evening. This is fun for two reasons, the first is that it’s always fun to get to know the cruisers around us and before we have them over we feel compelled to finish boat tasks- putting away unstowed gear and cleaning some of the messiest places on the boat (Kevin’s desk).
Tomorrow is a beach day on Stone Island, a short water taxi ride from the Mazatlan pier.
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