2006-07-12 14:30:29
Boy, talk about lazy……..It’s hard to believe the last time I posted an update on this site we were in Santiago Bay down in Manzanillo area. Here were are, in Mazatlan for the summer. Our plans changed from spending the summer in the Sea of Cortez again as I will explain. Our trip north, from Santiago Bay, was as expected. The weather held with the only problem being that the wind always came from the direction we were headed. (North) So, as is so common here on the Mexican Riviera, we motored most of our way up to Mazatlan. We first went back to Barra de Navidad and did some reprovisoning before making our stops in Tenecatita, Chemela, Punta Mita/Banderas Bay, San Blas and then Mazatlan. Tenecatia was the normal wonderful, peaceful anchorage were we spent time relaxing with books, a good place to clean the bottom of the boat and just prepare for the longer days while underway. While in Chemela we met a Polish guy who is running a beachside palapa restaurant. What a character he is. Well, after a while chatting with him we convinced him into making the Slavik dish of progies for 8 of us the next day. We felt as if we were really blessed. Here we are in the middle of nowhere, in a Mexican community void of American tourists and this guy is going to spend the next day preparing the dish for our dinner tomorrow night. What a treat!!! They were wonderful! Stuffed with potato and cheese and service with sour cream. Most of our friends had never had them before and they we delighted with the meal. We thanked him over and over again before leaving at dusk to return to our boats anchored off the beach. We stopped again in San Blas on the way up the coast. Friends of our had never been on the tour of the estuary, which is really quite remarkable. Bird watchers come from all over the world to visit this area as there are hundreds of different kinds of birds making this their winter home. In addition to that, the crocodile population is high with big boys over 15 feet long. There is also a crocodile farm at the head of the estuary where there are hundreds of baby crocs just waiting to grow big enough to be released. Very fun. The town was fun to visit once again. Our trip from San Blas was a pretty expensive overnighter. While underway, I shut down the engine to check the oil level. Upon restarting, the current draw on the failing starter motor did some mysterious voltage thing to the system and immediately took out the auto pilot. So, now we were faced with hand steering the entire passage to Mazatlan as it was now dark and repair of the electronic unit would be very difficult. So that is what we did. Lois and I changed over watches and steered the boat, following the navigation lights of our “buddy boater” Traveler. I also realized the voltage drop had also taken out the electronic control box for the rear/freezer. Oh boy……great! No spares on board (or in Mexico) for that. About 3:00 AM, I (Gary) was asleep in the cockpit and a jump up in a start when I hear Lois yelling into the darkness. I said, “What”? She pointed to the top of the mast and I saw a HUGE frigate bird perched on the wind direction indicator. This critter had a wing span of at least 6 feet and was certainly going to ruin our indicator. Well, as it happened……we finally were able to get him off by shaking the shrouds holding up the mast and blowing horns and yelling. Must to our dismay, upon inspection of the top of the mast the wind indicator was completely gone…..bummer. So, all in all, that leg of the trip cost us about $800 in repairs and replacement. We arrived the next morning in Mazatlan with unusual foggy conditions where we had to navigate by radar alone to an anchorage and await the fog to lift before shooting the entrance into the marina. In four days after arriving in Mazatlan we buttoned up the boat and hopped on a bus to San Diego where our son Ryan met us at the border and drove us up to my Mom’s house in Southern California where we would be visiting with her while she was going through cataract surgery…..which ended up fine. While there, we bought a car as we had many people and places we wanted to visit during our time in the states. We ended up visiting with friends and family in Long Beach, San Diego, Prescott AZ and then to Mena, Arkansas. While there we met some new friends Cheryl and Bart, originally from So California too. As we were leaving town we ironically ended up bringing with us a 12 week old Shih Tzu puppy. We had been at the vet with our old dog Sebastian, now living with our friends there and happened to run into a lady with this pup for sale. Boy, talk about a weak moment. He is wonderful though. We were then on a pretty fast track back to Mazatlan (after 6 weeks) as we had a dear friend (Bill Maslink) arriving for 10 days of visiting aboard Texan. So we scooted around Dallas (stopping to meet with friend Mark Fortney) (thanks again for the BBQ lunch) and on to Austin where our daughter Rene” lives. We spent my birthday with her and then drove over the Sierra Madre Mountains back to Mazatlan. What a great experience that was. We actually were driving through snow at the top of the pass. An interesting note: we entered Mexico at the tip of Texas at Mc Allen. From there to Mazatlan we took the Mexican toll roads where possible because they are so good. Costs for the tolls was $90.00 U.S. We’re sure sorry we didn’t get to see everyone we wanted to on our trip back to the states but there just wasn’t enough time for it all. Hopefully, we’ll see all of you on our next visit…..or better yet, come visit with us along this beautiful coast of Mexico. Right now, we’re in the process of working on the boat and getting it back into shape for our next winter sailing season. So far we have the starter repaired and replaced. The auto pilot is back in business. The refer/freezer is freezing. So those repairs are finished and now it’s all the other things on our list. Everyone have a great summer…..enjoy your warm sailing season in the states and please stay in touch. We love to hear how you are all doing.
Adios for now,
Gary, Lois and Shanghai the Shih Tzu
S/V TEXAN Lying: Marina Mazatlan, Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico