Author: katie

Day by Day

I’ve been asked by several of you land lubbers what the heck we do out here each day.  If you’ve read the blog and saw some of the videos, you probably have a good idea what we do when we are sailing or are at anchor in a new bay.  But, what have we been doing in the marina here in La Cruz for the past two weeks???

So, I thought I would give you the run down of what we have been doing for the past few days.  There really isn’t any typical day here since there isn’t much routine. But, this will give you some idea…

On Saturday, we were lucky to be invited to crew aboard Kenta Anae, our friends we met earlier this summer in the Sea, as they were about to race the final race in the Vallarta Cup Series put on by the Vallarta Yacht Club.  Now, Mike & I may have done our share of sailing, but we have no race experience whatsoever!  It’s a whole different ballgame!  I mostly tried to stay out of the way and grind on the winch to sheet in the spinnaker whenever Merle gave the order.  That, I could handle.

I was also the race photographer…

We were one of the only cruising/liveaboard boats in the race, so it we weren’t exactly pulling away from most of the raceboats. But, we did beat some boats and overall had a great time.  It was so nice to be out on the water again!  We even saw a whale pretty close to the boat.  One crazy thing did happen though.  Another boat had to pull out of the race in the middle because they discovered a dead body floating in the bay.  Eek!  Apparently a tourist at a nearby resort had gone missing and was presumed drowned.  I’m glad his family got some closure, but I’m also glad we did not make the gruesome discovery!

After a celebratory tequila on Kenta Anae after the race, Mike & I had to get back to Adagio to do some studying.  While we were in the States, we studied for and took the first Ham license exam (Technician level).  But, to really do anything on the radio, you need the second level – General license.  They were offering the exam at the Vallarta Yacht Club on Sunday morning, so we decided to go for it.  Unfortunately, we had procrastinated a bit on the studying, and had to stay up late Saturday night trying to memorize everything.  Unless you know a lot about circuits, oscillators, transceivers, how to solve for power when you have resistance and energy, etc…you have to study for this exam.

Sunday morning came early, and we took a van with a bunch of other folks from the marina over to the yacht club for our test.  Thankfully, we both passed and now have our upgrade Ham license!  After resting up (we stayed up way too late!), we met up with a group of about 15 people to head into Puerto Vallarta for dinner.  Our friends on Kenta Anae wanted to introduce everyone to a great Cuban restaurant that they found in Puerto Vallarta Centro.  We had to take two different buses to get there, and somehow we managed to all pile onto the same buses despite the large size of our group.  The restaurant was great with live music and a dance floor.  Unfortunately, Mike was starting not to feel so well, so we cut the evening short.  But, we heard the band played until 3 am!

On Monday, Mike was down with a bug, so I took the opportunity to do some computer work and video editing.  I promise there will be a new video up soon!

Tuesday was “I hate birds!” day.  We realized that for the last couple of nights, one of the large frigate birds had decided that the top of the mast was an excellent place to hang out for the night.  Our boat was literally covered in bird shit.  The decks, the canvas, the dinghy, the lines on the mast pulpit, the scuba tanks…everything.  And, on top of that, the bird broke off the wind indicator on the mast.  Ugh!  So, I got to work on my hands and knees scrubbing bird shit for hours in the sun.  Mike was finally feeling himself by the afternoon and decided to climb to the top of the mast to replace the broken piece of the wind indicator (thank goodness we had a spare) and to put up some bird deterrent.  He put up a bunch of bright colored zip ties sticking straight up that we hoped would keep the birds off.

Unfortunately, about 4 am that night, Mike & I both woke up to a noise. We both looked at each other and said “bird!”  Sure enough, that damn bird was back and didn’t care about the zip ties.  And what a mess he had made.  Lucky for me, Mike was willing to get the hose and scrub brush out and let me stay in bed.

By Wednesday we were really getting serious about narrowing our to-do list so that we could finally depart the marina. Mike took off to run a bunch of errands and get some last minute parts as well as make a couple of returns to the marine shop in Puerto Vallarta.  I stayed behind to work on polishing the stainless steel.  I didn’t get the whole boat done, but there are only so many hours I can stand working in the sun and heat before I call it quits for the day.

So, that brings us to today. Mike needed to do some maintenance on the outboards, so I got tasked with finding the AutoZone to get us more refrigerant.  I found the AutoZone, which was right next to the WalMart.  I took the opportunity to pick up some last minute things at WalMart and was surprised to find lemons!  Limes are easily available in Mexico, but this is the first time I’ve seen lemons since leaving California.  This was also my first time negotiating the Puerto Vallarta bus system by myself, so I’m pretty proud of myself.

After my shopping excursion, I walked over to the fish market to pick up some shrimp for dinner.  And, I decided to do a little work in the galley.  My cilantro looked like it was on its last day, so I made it into some great cilantro pesto with some almonds, garlic, olive oil and salt.  It should keep that way for some time.  I also started a new batch of sprouts.  I’m trying some different seeds this time, so I hope they turn out pretty yummy.

We made a plan to leave here on Saturday, weather permitting.  We’re still debating whether to head to Punta de Mita or to Yelapa.  I know Mike wants to try his hand at surfing, so I think we may end up at Punta de Mita for a couple of days.

We’ll keep you all posted of our whereabouts!

~katie

Holy Fireworks!

One of the great things about being in another country is getting to experience local culture, festivals and celebrations.  While we are still in La Cruz getting the boat ready to head south, we  happened to be here at the right time to experience the Bucerias Patron Saint Festival celebrating Our Lady of Peace (La Virgen de la Paz) who is the patron saint of the church in Bucerias and the protector of fishermen.

Bucerias is the next town over from La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, and lucky for us only a short bus ride away.  The festival lasts for nine days and culminates with all of the fishermen decorating their pangas here in La Cruz and sailing over to Bucerias to make an offering at the church.

The fishermen’s pangas in La Cruz are reasonably right by the fish market.  The fish market is seriously awesome.  You can walk up to stalls each day and see the fresh fish being brought in right off the boats.  The fish are sold whole or can be filleted for you.  It is always fresh, delicious and cheap!

We walked down to the market to check out the pangas being decorated and all the fishermen and their friends and family getting ready to depart for Bucerias.

Most celebrations in Mexico, as well as about every part of life here, involve music.  And, this was no different, as a band was set up between the stalls in the market to add to the joy and celebration as the fishermen set sail.

The celebration is not just a religious one as the entire town is set up with stalls with food, drinks, goods and fair games.  It is a makeshift fair with tacos, hamburgers, beers and all kinds of games for kids and adults.  We headed into Bucerias for the last night of the festivals to check out the parade, have some great street food, check out the games and most of all the fireworks. Everyone in town was out, young and old, to celebrate.

The parade…

The games were pretty hilarious.  Think homemade carnival games or something you would have seen in a small town maybe fifty years ago.  Mike decided to get into the action with a game to try and win a beer.  The game was set up with old beer bottles sitting on various shelves.  You got three rocks for 30 pesos and three throws to try and break the beer bottles.  If you broke a bottle, you got a Corona.  If you broke three bottles, you got a six-pack of Corona!  Mike won us a beer (but not a six-pack). It was all in good fun.

Its often difficult to put in words the sights, sounds and smells of Mexico.  Some good, and some a bit overwhelming.  This was definitely one of those times.  Bucerias is not a big town, and there are small cobblestone streets surrounding the church and main square in town.  On these streets popped up tent after tent of makeshift food stalls and stores, leaving narrow paths for crowds of people to squeeze through. Lights were strung over stalls connected with long extension cords to who knows where.

The food stalls were mom and pop operations each fighting for business.  Our friend Dale on Adios was very excited to find three hotdogs for 30 pesos (about $1.50)!

And, if you wanted music, it was everywhere.  Bands playing less than 50 feet from each other fought to play louder than the next band to get your attention.  The cacophony of sounds was unbelievable.

But, the highlight of the night was the fireworks.  This was no ordinary fireworks display.  A three story high structure was erected and placed right in the middle of the street in front of the church.  The structure was loaded with fireworks with long fuses hanging from it.  As we waited for the show to start, I chuckled at Dale affectionately calling it Mexico’s “burning man.”  It certainly looked like it!

We found a spot to watch the show across the street up on the grass as the crowds began to swell and get closer to the burning man.  We couldn’t help but notice that there was no barrier around the structure, there were power lines hanging nearby as well as a few pretty tall trees.  There is no way this would be permitted in the States.  It would be considered a serious safety hazard.

We saw the brave (or crazy) guy in charge of lighting the fuses light the first fuse that ran up the burning man and the sparks began to fly.  Then, wheels on the structure starting turning, flying more sparks around in various colors.  After one set of fireworks burned out, another fuse was lit.  This went on about 6 times setting off more and more fireworks.  At one point a stray went flying into the crowd sending people scrambling.  It didn’t look like anyone got burned, but I’m not sure how.

Seriously?  How is this safe?

Then, it was time for the finale as the final fuse was lit to blow the top of the burning man.  The sparks went flying again, and then, unexpectedly, a ring of fireworks was blown off the top high into the air.  It was amazing.  Seriously, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.  Maybe the sacrifice of a little safety was worth it for such an incredible show.

The top of the tower flying off into the sky…

We felt very fortunate to be able to experience this amazing event in Bucerias.  As we’ve said many times on this blog, we have great love for Mexico and the Mexican people who have welcomed us with open arms to their country.  There is a large community of boaters and sailors in Mexico who are primarily American and Canadian with the occasional Frenchman or Aussie thrown in.  All of the foreign cruisers support the local communities, who in turn are incredibly friendly and generous to us.  We have been very disappointed to see that actions taken by our government in the last week are working to erode this wonderful relationship between the US and Mexico.  We urge everyone to contact their elected officials to let them know that you disagree with the proposed actions of a border wall and potential tariffs on imports, and that you support a positive relationship with our wonderful neighbor to the south.

Leaving our mark on Bucerias…

~katie

Back in Mexico!

After a month visiting with friends and family in the States, we finally headed back to Adagio in Mexico.  While we were stateside, we had to pick up supplies for the boat that aren’t easy to acquire in Mexico.  We left Mexico with just a couple of backpacks and a duffel bag.  We were returning with nine bags, including some large suitcases!  Among the items we picked up were a rebuild kit for our wind generator, a new SSB radio (ours was broken) and a speargun for Mike!

Our first challenge was getting all of this gear to the airport and on the plane.  We packed and repacked trying to make sure each bag was under the 50 lbs limit, but with so many bags we still ended up paying a price to get them all on the plane.  Next, we had to make it through customs in Puerto Vallarta.

Mexico lets you bring personal items and other equipment into the country with some limitation, but if you are over a certain dollar figure, you have to pay a duty of 16%.  While everything we brought back was for our personal use, and we have a temporary import permit for our boat and equipment, there was always a chance that some over-zealous customs official might decide that our items required the payment of duty.

So, we got in the line with all of the tourists coming to PV on holiday with our giant cart of bags.  When you go through the line, you get questioned by an official.  If they don’t find anything suspicious and you say you have nothing to declare, you push a button.  A green light means go on through, a red light means your bags get x-rayed and scrutinized.

Most of our bags looked like ordinary suitcases and luggage.  But, the speargun was in a long, odd-shaped box.  The customs official started questioning us about what was in the box.  She knew some English, but she didn’t understand “speargun.”  We know some Spanish, but didn’t know how to say speargun in Spanish.  So, in my horrible Spanish, I tried to explain it was for fishing, but not a fishing rod.  It was for fishing while swimming under water.  Finally, she said, “buceo?”, which means diving.  Yes! we both exclaimed.  That satisfied her and she told us to push the button.  We got green!  So, off we went through the airport to find a taxi big enough to haul all our gear to the marina.

We’re in Mexico!

Back at the marina, we have started a long list of boat maintenance projects before heading south:

(1) installing the new SSB radio

(2) rebuilding the wind generator that was off balance and creating too much vibration

(3) service the outboard engines for the dinghy

(4) change the fuel filters on the diesel engine

(5) tune the rigging

(6) seal the deck hatches (a couple were leaking)

(7) wash and wax the boat and polish the stainless steel

(8) remark our anchor chain

The great thing about Banderas Bay is that there are so many cruisers here and great resources to help you with boat projects.  And, we were so excited to run into our friends on Kenta Anae that we left back at the end of the summer in the Sea of Cortez.  Mike is really hoping to go surfing with Merle and the boys soon!

We retuned the rig to get ready for the next year of sailing, but there is always so much more to learn.  So, Mike & I headed over to Nuevo Vallarta for a seminar on sails and rigging.  We met our buddy Dale from Adios for the seminar and then went to dinner with him, Lana and Richard.  After dinner we headed down to the beach for a walk and were lucky enough to get to experience the release of some baby sea turtles!

There is a local volunteer conservation organization that is trying to help the sea turtle population.  All of the sea turtles are endangered, the result of various problems including illegal fishing practices and pollution.  (If you didn’t know, the turtles mainly eat jellyfish.  And, plastic bags floating in the ocean look like jellyfish.  So think about that the next time you use a plastic bag or see litter that might make its way down to the ocean!)

These baby olive ridley turtles hatched less than 24 hours ago.  The baby turtles face huge hurtles as they are a prime meal for sea birds and fish.  So, the volunteers take them down to the water after dusk when there are less birds and it is harder for fish to see them.  They want to give these little guys a chance!

Baby olive ridley sea turtles…

Waiting for the turtles to be released…

Go turtles go…

We’re hoping we only have about another week here in the marina in La Cruz, so we can finally head out and begin exploring again!

~Katie

Coming to America

I’m not sure if the title of this post is more Eddie Murphy or Neil Diamond, but we are headed back to the States!  We’ll be there a month to visit with friends and family over the holidays while Adagio sits safely tucked into the marina here in La Cruz.  So, don’t expect any adventure posts from us for a while.  But, I am going to try and work on editing all of our video we shot over the summer, so maybe I’ll finally get some of that posted.

In the meantime, I want to catch you all up on what we have been doing!  We left San Blas on our way south toward Banderas Bay.  But, we stopped at two really neat anchorages on our way down – Chacala and Jaltemba.

Chacala is a beautiful bay with white sand beaches.  There are a few beachside restaurants and hotels, but the city itself is pretty sleepy.  We wandered through the cobblestone roads and hung out on the beach.

Our first night anchored at Chacala, a huge lightening storm came through.  We were the only boat in the anchorage, and so we crossed our fingers that the lightening would not find us.  When you are the only mast sticking up out of the water, you are just asking for it.  But, the storm finally passed and we got a decent night sleep.

The next day our friends on Kya arrived.  We had them over for cocktails (or as cruisers call them, sundowners) as well as a single guy on another power boat that showed up in the anchorage about the same time.  You can never have too many cockpit cocktail parties while cruising!

The anchorage got a bit rolly that night and we decided to follow Kya down the coast the next day to Jaltemba.  Jaltemba is the opposite of Chacala.  While Chacalca is calm and pleasant, Jaltemba is a cacophony of sights and sounds.

Jaltemba is a tourist destination for a lot of the Mexican cities nearby.  We were there on the weekend and got to see how the Mexicans party on the beach!  Families came early to the beach and set up for the day, and I don’t just mean beach chairs and picnic baskets.  There were huge tents, BBQ grills, giant stereos and speakers…you name it.  People literally moved to the beach for the day.

There were vendors everywhere, selling T-shirts, tourist items and lots and lots of food!  There were carts with skewers of fish and shrimp. Ice cream vendors.  Vendors with whole coconuts and pineapples.  If you were hungry, there was someone there to sell you something.

The most fun we had was watching all of the bands play up and down the beach. These weren’t rock bands.  Some were mariachi bands.  But, others were simply a group of different instruments (who walks around the beach with a tuba!) that walked up and down the beach offering to play for a tip.  You didn’t have to walk 100 ft before there was another band playing. So, you can imagine what that many different bands playing all at once sounded like.  It was crazy.

After a couple of days at Jaltemba, we finally made it to Banderas Bay.  Banderas Bay is a large bay that includes Punta Mita, La Cruz, Bucerias, Puerto Vallarta, and a few other cities and towns.  It is also home to a huge cruising community, most of which show up sometime in November or December and sail around the area until about May.

We were here for a few reasons, but one of those was that Mike’s family was coming to Puerto Vallarta to visit us for Thanksgiving.  We had a fabulous time with the family, and I know the kids loved the resort pools and jet skis.  Mike’s mom and nephew even went parasailing!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at the Vallarta Yacht Club, where they made all us wayward Americans roast turkey, dressing, cranberry, mashed potato and pumpkin pie.  It was almost like home.

We can see why some cruisers get “stuck” here, because there are so many things to see and do.  But, when we get back to La Cruz from visiting the States, we have big plans!

We’ve had to figure out where we are going to be next summer during the Pacific hurricane season.  Basically, we either have to go back north and spend another summer in the Sea of Cortez, or we have to head south.  So, we chose south!  We are headed to Central America.  We signed up for the Cruisers Rally to El Salvador which will take us to El Salvador by the end of March.  From there, we can spend the summer in Costa Rica and Panama safely out of the zone of the hurricanes.  We are really excited for this next step in our adventure!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and gets to spend the time with friends and family.  Look for more adventures from us when we return in January!

~katie

Welcome to the Jungle

The Tropic of Cancer runs just north of Mazatlan, so we are officially in the tropics! This was definitely evident when we headed to our next destination – San Blas.  San Blas is a small village about 45 miles from Isla Isabel, so it was an all day sailing trip for us to get there.

We had a nice (and interesting sail) to our destination.  As we were leaving Isla Isabel, we hooked up on a really nice Sierra (my favorite fish, as you might remember).  We were super excited as we got him close to the boat when he suddenly spit the hook. Mike was a bit aggravated, as he really doesn’t like the fish to beat him.  I was just sad that I wasn’t going to get my yummy Sierra for dinner.

As we got closer to San Blas, the shallow shoal areas extended miles offshore, meaning that in places we were in only about 30 feet of water where we would normally expect it to be hundreds of feet deep so far offshore.  We were hoping to catch something good in the shallow water, but we kept hooking up on these really big Jack Crevalles.  They are beautiful fish and put up a fight but no good to eat.  Finally, the line zinged and we were pretty sure it was something other than a Jack Crevalle.  Jackpot – we pulled in another Sierra!  So, we redeemed ourselves with the fishing. After hooking a few more Jack Crevalles, which took some time and substantial effort from Mike to reel in, we pulled the lines in before we reached the harbor entrance.

We had read that there was a bar that crossed the entrance to the San Blas harbor, but with the swell and position of the sun, it wasn’t something we were able to see as we approached the entrance.  The sand bars shift and change the depth frequently.  We also didn’t know if it was high or low tide, so we were crossing our fingers that we wouldn’t have a problem with the entrance.

As we approached, Adios was just ahead of us.  Dale radioed us to let us know that it was quite shallow ahead and to approach cautiously.  Mike was on deck putting the sail cover on, and I was at the helm. I slowed the boat down as much as I could while maintaining some steerage.  I slowly watched the depth sounder drop and held my breath as I saw it dip below one foot under the keel.  Then it quickly shot back up to three feet and then six.  Whew.  We were over the bar and headed to the marina.

San Blas has a pretty small marina (maybe only 10 or so boats at the docks), but there was a lively bunch of people that all greeted us when we arrived. After putting the boat away, a group was headed into town for some dinner, so we joined in.  There are really only a few restaurants around the town square, but lots of food carts with tacos, hamburgers and hot dogs.  (Yes, hot dogs are big in every Mexican town we’ve been to, usually wrapped in bacon!) So, we had hamburgers and hot dogs and let the other boaters give us a quick tour of the San Blas square.

The church in the San Blas square…

The next day several boats wanted to go on the Jungle Tour!  There is an estuary that runs through the San Blas area, and you can rent panga boats to take you on a tour to see the crocodiles, iguanas and birds.  We rented a couple of boats and were on our way through the jungle.

 

A green iguana in the tree..

Resident crocodile!

There is also an animal sanctuary on the tour that we stopped at.  I’m usually not a fan of animals in cages, but they had done a nice job and explained that they were trying to do conservation of animals that were endangered.  There were crocodiles, parrots, jaguars and some other various animals.

That night was the night of the US presidential election, which of course we were interested in watching.  San Blas isn’t a big town, so in the afternoon we started scoping out where we could actually watch the TV coverage.  We found a small bar called the San Blas Social Club which had satellite TV service and could get the US news stations.  So, we made a plan to come back into town that night to watch the election results.

That night we camped out at the bar with some local Mexicans, Canadians, Australians, a Kiwi and one other American.  The bartenders said they hadn’t had that many people in the bar since the Super Bowl! Everyone was interested in what was happening in the US, regardless of what country they were from.  And, like at least half the Americans back home, the bar turned into a state of shock when the results started to come in.

Our Canadian friends starting buying us all tequila shots to get through the rest of the evening.  I can’t say it helped much.  We later mused that the election of Trump might be like one of those American tragedies in history where people later ask you, do you remember where you where when…? Well, when Trump got elected we were at a bar in San Blas with a very international crowd of shocked onlookers doing tequila shots to drown their sorrows.

We decided we couldn’t take the news the next morning and decided to depart San Blas and go back off the grid for a while.  So, we departed en route to Chacala!  But, more on that next time.

~katie

p.s. The election shock eventually did wear off, and we have hope for the future of our country.  Regardless of who is in the White House, we have the best system on earth that should continue to be a beacon of hope of the rest of the world.

Isla Isabel

After leaving Mazatlan, we had a nice overnight sail to Isla Isabel.  Isla Isabel is a small island off the Pacific coast of Mexico between Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.  It is also known as the “Galapagos of Mexico” because of the enormous number of birds that roost on the island and all of the iguanas.

We pulled into the anchorage on the south side of the island, which we read was known to swallow anchors because of its rocky bottom.  So, Mike & I got in the water and dove on the anchor to make sure we were dug in pretty well and our chain wasn’t snagged on any rocks.  The water was clear and blue and felt awesome after a long sail.

The anchorage isn’t very protected, so there was quite a bit of swell coming through and waves breaking on the rocks not far from the boat.  But, we were determined to see this amazing island!

Once our buddies on Kya and Adios arrived, we went to shore to do some hiking and check out all the birds!  If Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds creeped you out, you would not have liked Isla Isabel.  Seriously, I have never seen so many birds (large birds) in one place in my life.  But, they were amazing.

The male frigate birds have a red chest that they puff out and make a drumming type sound.  All of the sounds of the island were incredible.  I commented that I thought we were at Jurassic Park.  That is seriously what it felt like hiking around the island.  The tree cover was so thick that we got a bit lost at one point but eventually found our way back to the beach.

Dale (Adios), Katie (Kya) and Mike (Adagio)

Here are some photos of the frigates and boobies, including a fuzzy hatchling and one guarding an egg.  Pretty cool!

There were so many kinds of birds and they let you get so close to them.  This island must seriously be a bird lovers’ dream.  I was just happy to get a few cool photos!

We also did some snorkeling around the reefs and appreciated the warm, clear waters.  But, after a few days, we were off again to San Blas!

~katie

Double Trouble

When we pulled into the marina in Topolobampo, there was a beautiful 68 foot motor yacht in the slip adjacent to us named Kya.  We saw the owners of Kya with their adorable dog Penny on the dock and introduced ourselves.  We found out they were from Australia and their names were… Mike and Katie.  Really.

We only briefly got to meet Kya, so we were pleasantly surprised when we pulled into Mazatlan and Kya was tied up at the end of our dock!  Mike & Katie had rented a car in Mazatlan and invited us to head into town to explore with them.

Mazatlan has some absolutely beautiful beaches and incredible views.

Although there are the usual resorts and tourist traps in Mazatlan, the Old Town area of Mazatlan is really cool.  There is some really unique old architecture and the traditional square with a beautiful iglesia (church) that you find in every Mexican town.  We really enjoyed Old Town and had a fantastic meal in the square.

The two Katies…

After lunch we headed to an amazing indoor market.  There were stalls with everything you could imagine from produce, nuts, jams, to chicken, beef and fish. It was like a hundred mini grocery and butcher shops, each with their own specialties.  We came across the fish market stalls and found smoked marlin!  We had heard from several people over the summer how great smoked marlin was and now we finally found it.  We got a huge chunk to share, and it was delicious.

The awesome market in Mazatlan…

After our fun time in Mazatlan, we headed to Isla Isabel.  But, first we had to get out of Mazatlan harbor!

So, the entrance to Mazatlan harbor is incredibly narrow and takes a sharp turn right inside the entrance.  It is also really shallow, so there is a dredger which is constantly dredging the entrance so that boats can actually get out.

When we exited our slip at the marina, the wind was blowing a good 15-20 knots, so our first challenge was getting out of the slip.  Adagio does not turn well in reverse.  So, in tight conditions with wind blowing, it sometimes is a 10 point turn to finally get the bow to come around as the wind is trying to blow it in the opposite direction. Thankfully, Mike is very competent and capable and always gets us out of those sticky situations, even if it does take a few tries and lots of stares from concerned boaters on the dock.

So, we made it out of the slip and headed for the harbor entrance.  We were told that the dredger stopped at 2pm and it was almost 4pm.  We saw a sailboat coming in right as we were about to get to the sharp turn and were barely able to get to the side to let it by.  Since they got through, we thought there would be no problems with the dredger.  Ugh.  We were wrong.

Right as we got to the sharp turn (where there was absolutely no turning around) we saw the dredger working RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CHANNEL.  I was signaling to the guy that we had no choice and had to go through.  He looked unconcerned, unlike me.

We somehow squeeze between the dredger and the rocks with about 1 foot on each side.  At the same time, we were watching the depth sounder drop to about 1.5 feet under the keel.  I think I finally stopped holding my breath when I saw it jump back up over 3 feet.  But, then we looked ahead to the breaking waves just outside the breakwater and had now had about 30 knots of wind on our nose.  Mike pushed the engine hard to get past the breaking waves into the open ocean.  At this point, I was shaking with too much adrenaline.  Somehow we didn’t hit the dredger, the rocks, go aground or get pushed back from the breaking waves.  Whew!  I never want to do that again.

So, we were finally on our way for an overnight sail to Isla Isabel where we were going to meet up with Adios and Kya to explore the island that is known as the “Galapagos of Mexico.”  But, more on that next time…

~katie

Dia de Muertos

After our great trip to Copper Canyon, we were off again to Mazatlan.  Mazatlan is about 220 miles south of Topolobampo, so the passage took us 2 days.  We had light winds, but enough to let us sail most of the way.  It was a relaxing sail and we did quite well getting enough rest when each of us was off watch.  I have to say that discovering new podcasts to listen to has made long 3-4 hour night watches go by a lot quicker!

We arrived in Mazatlan at first light and made our way through the narrow channel to  Marina Mazatlan.  We were most excited to be in Mazatlan to experience Dia de Muertos (the Day of the Dead).  This is actually a multi-day holiday celebrated throughout Mexico.  It originated with the indigenous people in Mexico to celebrate their deceased relatives.  When the Spanish “conquerers” took over Mexico and imposed Catholicism on the native people, the holiday remained and was moved to coincide with All Saints Day and All Souls Day on November 1st and 2nd.

Although Day of the Dead sounds morbid, it is actually a joyful holiday where families  celebrate friends and relatives who have passed on.  Many families gather at cemeteries and hold picnics.  In Mazatlan, on the night of November 1st, there is a parade and everyone gets in on the festivities.

So, we headed to Old Mazatlan to the central plaza where hundreds of people had gathered.  Some were in costume and many had their faces painted.  It was a mix of locals and tourists, but everyone seemed to have a good time.

With our friends on Adios…

The parade was not really what you think of as a parade in the States with lots of floats.  There were some people dressed in fantastic costumes, a few bands that marched through, people with fire hoola hoops, and the beer carts!  Everyone is encouraged to join the parade. So, as the parade moved on, more and more of the crowd just jumped in, everyone dancing and having a great time.  There were several beer carts where guys on the back of the trucks had kegs of beer and cups passing out free beer.  You can imagine the rush of people trying to get to the front of the trucks for the beer!

dia

After watching the parade for a few minutes, of course we decided to jump in!  We followed the parade for a while.  Mike and Richard (from Adios) decided they just had to make their way up to one of the beer trucks to get some beer, which was pretty hilarious to watch. Ultimately they got their free beer and felt pretty accomplished.  Ha!

As we were walking back to the plaza after our parade run, we stopped to take a picture.  On the wall was a plaque with a quote from Herman Melville while he was in Mazatlan…. “As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.”  Fitting.

We’ll be leaving Mazatlan soon and headed toward Banderas Bay!

~katie

Copper Canyon

We left La Paz after a week of provisioning and catching up with friends and headed off to Topolobampo across the Sea of Cortez.  Unfortunately, the winds were not with us on our crossing, as we had 20 knots of wind right on the nose with 6-8 foot swells.  The boat handled it just fine, but the bashing into the swell made for a bumpy and uncomfortable ride.

We arrived in Topolobampo the next morning after a mostly sleepless night and pulled into the small marina.  Topolobampo doesn’t have much tourist traffic, as it is mostly a commercial port on the mainland but it did have some charm. After resting up a bit, we headed into town to check out the town and grab a bite to eat.

Our friends on Adios made the trip over as well, so we met them in marina and worked out our plan for the next day.  We arranged to have a taxi pick us up the next morning at 5:00 am to take us into Los Mochis where we boarded the El Chepe train to take us into the mountains to see the famous Barrancas del Cobre (Copper Canyon)!

The train ride took us 8 hours, but the views along the way were spectacular.  The train passes over 37 bridges and through 86 tunnels rising 7,900 feet above sea level. 

When we arrived at the train station in Los Mochis, we didn’t realize that the only train running that day was the first class train so we got the nicer train.  It wasn’t too crowded and we were able to hang out in the dining car and have a great breakfast.

The train stopped in Divisadero where there is an awesome overlook to get some great photos of the canyon.  Copper Canyon is actually a group of six canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental in the State of Chihuahua.  The canyon system is larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon, but looks nothing like the Grand Canyon.  The top of the canyon system is a pine forest, and the greenery really changes the visual effect.

After Divisadero, we boarded the train again for Creel, which was our final stop.  Creel is a small mountain town that really has the feel of a small ski resort town.  To go from hot, humid Topolobampo on the coast to cool Creel surrounded by pine trees was almost a shock to the system.  The next morning we woke up to frost on the roofs!

We met our guide Jesus at the train station who took us on the first part of our tour that afternoon.  The area around Creel is home to the Tarahumara people, who are the indigenous people of the area.  The have park land equivalent to the Indian reservations in the US and live simple lives farming and selling artisansal crafts to the tourists.

We entered one of the Tarahumara parks and were able to tour the Valley of the Monks, which had completely unique and fascinating rock formations.  We got to see some other parts of the Tarahumara way of life including a church that was an early mission in the area.  Unfortunately, we got a flat tire in the park, but the guys helped Jesus get it changed before it got too dark.

We stayed in a small but nice hotel in Creel (seriously only cost us $30) and got up the next morning to see more of the sights.  We got to see some more beautiful canyon views and meet Catalina, a local Tarahumara woman who lives in a small home built into the side of a cave.  She was very welcoming and proud of her home.  She made sure we each got a picture with her!

We drove back to Divisadero and got to spend more time at the rim of the canyon walking along some impressive walkways and bridges.  There is a zip line and cable car at the top, but unfortunately they were not working when we were there.

Mike & Jesus goofing around on the rim of the canyon…

We planned to catch the train that afternoon from Divisadero back to Los Mochis, but we hit a bit of a snag.  There was no place to buy tickets at the train station!  Weird.  So, we assumed that we must just buy the tickets from the conductor.  When the train arrived and let everyone out to check out the views, we asked the conductor where we buy tickets.  That’s when he told us we couldn’t buy them here and had to buy them online.  What?  We thought for sure we were going to be stuck in Divisadero.

Several of us started to look around for other options, hoping to find a bus or some other service.  Thank god Mike is persistent.  He hopped on the train and hunted down the head conductor to beg him to let us buy tickets on the train.  Before we knew it, Mike was hollering at the rest of us to jump on the train, so away we went!  It all worked out in the end, but we had a few stressful moments!

We got back to Topolobampo about 9:00 pm and crashed.  Our plans were to depart Topolobampo the next morning for the two day passage to Mazatlan.

Overall, it was a great trip but way too short.  There were other excursions and sights we could have seen in the canyon if we’d had more time. So, I’d definitely recommend it, but spend a few more days than we did.

If you want to see more pictures of our trip to Copper Canyon, please check out our Facebook page and the album titled “Copper Canyon.” I took over 200 photos, not including all the video.  Someday I’ll finally get more video up, I promise.

We’re in Mazatlan now, and had a great time last night at the Dia de los Muertos festivities last night, but I’ll post about that next time.

~katie