SVSoulsticeAdventures: Mazatlan

Mazatlan

March 28 - April 2, 2019

Stephen and I left Chacala with a plan to head to straight to Mazatlan. We decided to bypass San Blas, Mantachen Bay ( popular for surfers) and Isla Isabella, which has a boobie and frigate research center/preserve. Our decision to cruise for a 2nd season in Mexico affords us the ability to take our time with our cruising, which is truly the essence of cruising. It also permits for checking out an area we missed next year if we so desire.

We do talk about cruising season 2.0 as we decided to name it and it involves some more inland travel, Spanish lessons and volunteering. I won’t get into that now but those are some things we would like to incorporate into next year’s Mexico cruising season. But lets get back to our Mazatlan visit which was short, sweet and productive.

Our sail to Chacala from La Cruz was so amazing but unfortunately in my last blog I mentioned we had a “motor fest” to Mazatlan. Boo hoo! It is not only the disappointment of not sailing and enjoying a more quite peaceful journey, it is the fuel used and a hit to the piggy bank to refill the tanks. Uggh! We actually burn about 3/4 gallon per hour and we are quite conservative and try not to get below 1/2 tank. The purpose of this is to avoid condensation, aka water getting in your tanks as well as slurping up the sediment in the bottom of our tanks to mix with our fuel and cause major problems as sometimes occurs with older tanks. Without having accessed the interior tanks for visual inspection, it remains only a guess as to what may lay within. We never had our fuel polished or tanks cleaned but certainly after coming down the Pacific coast from Seattle to Cabo, enough fuel sloshed around that if we had a problem, we would have known by now. Additional measures to monitor our fuel cleanliness is having 2 Raycor 10 micron fuel filters in addition to our secondary (second stage) 2 micron fuel filter on the engine and changing our fuel filters every 100 hours. We have chosen to change the 2 micron filter every 100 hours and the Raycor as necessary. We also have a vacuum gauge on the Raycor to indicate the need for changing based on its PSI reading.

We mentioned our Yanmar diesel engine now has greater than 5000 hours on her and we want to keep her happy. Considering Yanmar only recommends a change at 250 hours for the oil filter we are being prudent. Boats of course are money pits but certainly getting a new engine would be one of the MOST expensive upgrades to be done and we want to AVOID that as all the diesel mechanics tell you they will run forever if you take GOOD care of them. She is our little old lady but she runs smooth and strong. If she has any little thing to say we tend to her needs so to have her living well into her 90’s Yanmar equivalent. Some may say “But it’s a sailboat”. This much is true but the engine helps you to move when there is no wind and propels you in tight areas such as marinas or crowded anchorages. The irony lies in that diesels like to be run long and hard which remains contrary to what some believe or even some sailors who try never use theirs or run it lightly. This is where the diesel can get into trouble.

Somehow, I keep getting off the topic of our visit to Mazatlan. It seemed brief because we had one day of sightseeing really and other days of chores. We did tentatively decided to leave our boat here for the summer so we decided we would be back several times there and would have ample opportunity to see more. That factored into how we decided to spend our time which was me going up the rigging again to clean it. I went back up in the mast chair and I spent 6 hours cleaning and waxing our standing rigging stainless steel, making her look pretty and shiny. The real reason for this is to keep attention to any surface rust and minimize corrosion. Our rigging was replaced in 2012 and looks great! It was a full day of cleaning but no concerns were noted.

The only problem is I cannot reach the backstays and we have not decided on a safe system of how to have me clean them. I can do the top portion but swinging over from the mast is too far. We have discussed ideas with tag lines and so forth but still would like to discuss further with more experienced rig cleaners. Stephen spent his time on the deck cleaning our stainless. Yes, we did just have our stainless cleaned in Barra de Navidad but not the standing rigging. I will say Stephen’s interest in cleaning and maintenance of a home did not appear until we had a “boat” home meaning I did NOT see this behavior with our house- ha! Further more, Stephen rides a fine line between perfection and insanity with regards to maintenance and safety, but I am incredibly thankful for this behavior as Soulstice is clean, impeccable, and incredibly sound. * I think Stephen may have edited that last part*

For a day of fun, we did enjoy a great day of sightseeing starting off with an afternoon at the Tres Islas Brewery in downtown Mazatlan. Their beer is fantastic, I loved the double IPA. We spent 4 hours there talking to the locals and the funny thing was Stephen and I both were in bar stools next to each other but faced the opposite direction talking to other people. Hmmm..this was an unconscious break from each other’s company…or conscious…either way it was mutually enjoyed. I had a blast as I got to practice my Spanish. He was chatting with a local guy who spoke great English, so no Spanglish attempts for him. His new friend is a local tourist guy, named Jorge and he also has a big surfing history. I just finished the book Barbarian Days, a great surfer story by William Finnegan. I was telling Jorge he needed to read this book as they had surfed many of the same spots locally and internationally. Jorge shared some historical pictures he had on his phone of him surfing big waves and I must say these were impressive waves.

We finally made it our of the bar and strolled around Old Mazatlan, seeing the architecturally beautiful Basilica, which had a wedding in progress. We then walked the entire malecon and made our way back to the marina. The malecon was bustling with people and we walked by multiple high school bands. We asked someone if there was a special event but we were told, “ it’s Mazatlan!”, like every day is special. It was a great people watching scene for sure. It also included seeing teenagers doing a street dance performance whenever a red light appeared for the cars and they were great! It reminded me of being in middle school when the very first break dancing movie came out and we lined up at the theater to see it. Break…

Our little marina had a pool and 2 resident iguanas that liked to hang out too. We had a service button on the table next to our pool lounger chairs. Stephen pushed the button and said, “these things never work…,” but shortly there after a waiter appeared to take our order and he was surprised, stunned and giddy to order all at the same time. Their seafood is soo good! We enjoyed every bite of our afternoon snack.

Blue Heron appeared again, Melissa, Curtis and their 8 year old son Declan. They informed us the wave at Mantanchen by San Blas was friendly, a long ride and fun! Also apparently 2 dolphins like to hang out there and play with you. We definitely will have to check it out next time. One of the pics Jorge showed us on his phone was him catching a big wave at Mantachen.

We also met up again with Three Quarter time, Debbie and Paul, who were actually putting their boat away for the season as they scored jobs in Juneau, Alaska and needed to leave to start work. We had a nice goodbye evening with them and their friends. They kindly gave us eggs and bacon-yahoo! as they were cleaning out their boat. Other long time sailors were met who spent years in La Paz and now they moved over to Mazatlan for the better price. They are retired folks who sailed down here in the last 10 years and have made Mexico and their boat their permanent home. They filled us in on some good local area knowledge.

The weather in Mazatlan was perfect too- 78-80 and after “TooHottoonejo” aka Zihuatanejo we were rejoicing in the nice weather and cool nights to sleep. Even doing the rigging was pleasant as last time I was in La Cruz and I remember being so hot.

We are now off to the La Paz area and hope to see some islands before getting a slip so we can fly home to see my family in MD. Dave and Kelly on SV Arctos are over there now and we may be able to rendezvous with them. That would be great since we have not seen them since we left Barra for the first time to head south to Zihuatanejo.

Fuzzy pic but large spotted eagle ray just hanging out in empty dock slip next to us. This guy made several passes in the slip and at one time even stopped and turned his head over to make eye contact with me - ahh!!! Loved it!