FINALLY OFF THE DOCK/ LEAVING MAZATLAN

Left Mazatlan on January 26th, 2020

Arrival to Chacala on January 27th and Left for La Cruz February 1, 2020

“ I am a citizen of the most beautiful nation on earth. A nation whose laws are harsh yet simple, a nation that never cheats, which is immense and without borders. where life is lived in the present. In this limitless nation, this nation of wind, light, and peace, there is no other ruler besides the sea.”   Bernard Moistessier

What a great quote! It is always exciting to get off the dock and start a sailing adventure! 
We had a hiccup getting off the dock in Mazatlan. Stephen and I stayed in Mazatlan an extra week due to Stephen acquiring a mosquito-borne illness. He started to complain of malaise the day before we intended to leave. He also pointed out to me a swollen knee that appeared to be pre-patellar bursitis. He had been doing lots of boat projects but swore it occurred after a mosquito bite to his knee. I was unfamiliar with bursitis occurring from mosquito bites but did read it can occur; in my medical practice, it was more due to occupational hazard/sequela, gout, arthritis, and infection. That is the key as it is usually inflammatory or infectious. Only an aspiration of the pocket of fluid is most precise to determine those things. 

That night before we were supposed to leave, he developed fever, chills, and rigors. I heard his teeth chattering and him shaking in bed.  We ended up staying another 5 days to make sure he continued to improve and not decline. There are dengue, zika, and chikungunya viruses to be exposed to in Mexico. We got labs without a provider visit because in Mexico it is easy that way. You can walk into a lab and order what you want and pay for it out of the pocket. Interestingly, a CBC and CRP are pretty cheap but a CMP or complete metabolic panel cost about $50.00. You can also order a blood culture. They email you with your results the same day. Of course, blood cultures need time to grow. We decided we would wait at least 48 hours initially to see how this course would go. I did start him on Keflex prophylactically which a good antibiotic for basic skin infections. If he got worse over the next 48 hours at least we were in an area that provided medical care and per other cruiser’s reports with hospital experience, it was good care. 

In the next 48 hours, he continued to have night sweats and chills but seemed to improve during the day. He continued to have bursitis to his knee (pocket of fluid just below his knee cap) but it was not getting bigger or worse. We did repeat labs in 48 hours as well. His inflammatory test, the CRP, remained extremely high but his CBC now pointed more to a viral cause. We continued antibiotics to be on the safe side. Every day he seemed to improve, the night sweats/chills seemed to abate and no day daytime fevers. Unfortunately, his leg did seem to swell slightly more and we were concerned that more redness was noted despite having a viral picture on labs. We changed him to a different antibiotic with slightly enhanced microbial coverage due to this change. He was eating and drinking well and able to walk and had good mobility. He had no fever/chills/night sweats the night before we left and so on January 26th, after 3 weeks in Mazatlan, we left the dock!! 

It was exciting to get out of the slip. It is funny because you have many conveniences being in a slip to include showers and just being able to get off your boat easily to accomplish tasks such as grocery shopping, laundry and going for a run. It eliminated the dinghy ride or paddleboard in to do errands and then, of course, take several bags of groceries or laundry back into a potentially wet area and return them to the boat attempting to keep everything dry. We do have dry bags of course. 
But despite the conveniences of being in a slip, we do prefer being at anchorage. You may have neighbors but they are a few boat lengths away. We do like fishing off the boat, going for a swim in the anchorage, and just paddleboarding around checking out the scenery. You seem to enjoy hanging out in the cockpit more for breakfast coffee, dinner, and evening star gazing. We love just to be able to jump in the water to cool off and then get a freshwater swim step rinse right before bed. 

On the Sunday morning of January 26th at high tide, we finally pulled off dock lines and slipped out of the marina to get through the harbor channel safely. It is very shallow with lots of shoaling and a continuous dredge schedule twice a day. It was pretty placid going through the breakers which is not how it was when we arrived there at the end of May 2019.  After passing the breakers, we did a short motor to the closest island. We checked out our anchoring gear/routine and put ourselves on the hook for a few hours. We were trying to time our arrival to an island called Isa Isabella. It was 95 nm away or about 20 hours giving ourselves an average of 5 knots per hour, so leaving later in the afternoon would put us with a sunrise arrival. We left Isla Parajos (an island just off harbor entrance) around noon and started our journey south. It would be a long time and who knows if ever, we would be returning to Mazatlan. Our last night, we did enjoy dinner with Paul and Debbie from SV Three Quartertime. They are truly delightful, kind and generous folks and we were grateful to get them to know them better during our Mazatlan stay. We wish them well on their return back to Alaska for work in April. 

Stephen and I did 2-hour watches on our first overnighter just to keep ourselves alert and not to push anyone too long for the first watch night. We knew it would only be one overnight so we felt ok keeping the watch time short. Initially, it is hard to stay up overnight especially after getting on a good sleep hygiene schedule without a work schedule. Moreover, to re-acquaint yourself with nighttime traffic on the radar, keeping an eye on our AIS and sail changes. We were able to get a fabulous downwind sail as soon as we weighed anchor off the island that continued until about 3am. We were doing well mostly at 6-7 knots. So well we did not want to arrive too early into Isla Isabella. It is an anchorage that required much attention and a trip line on your anchor as all the guide books say it has “swallowed up more anchors than anywhere else in Pacific Mexico.” We knew that and reread it again as we approached the anchorage around 8:30am. We made a unified decision that we could be fine but if we did have an issue, Stephen was not still 100% and we did not want to risk having a problem under those circumstances. We aborted the plan to anchor there and decided to continue onto Chacala. It was going to be another 8-9 hours but we could arrive before dark and the anchorage has a nice sandy bottom and lots of anchoring room. 

We arrived at Chacala before dark and set the anchor. It was so great to be on the hook. As a bonus, we scored a Bonita on a hand line right before got to the anchorage. There are no pics because I was surprised and was scurrying around the cockpit to move chairs and other items out of the way to prepare for the fish cleaning. It is a big mess in the cockpit but easily cleaned up as well. I am more trying to avoid all the blood getting on all of our stuff. The hassle of the clean up is well worth it when you are able to provide your own food and take the first bite of a delicious grilled fish taco. Thank you, Mr. Bonita, for your life. 

Chacala is a cute town with too many gringos - ha! Unfortunately, the mainland is overrun with tourism but that is how it goes. Good for the Mexican economy and bad for our cultural experience. Oh well, we are part of the problem too I guess. My favorite thing about returning to Mexico is the culture of people here. If you say hi to anyone they always say hi back, wave they wave back. They are always very kind and sweet-natured. It is so refreshing to be here. 

We did stay in Chacala for 5 days! We enjoyed getting back into some open water swimming and some small hikes with nice views. It was also told to us there was going to be music Friday night at Chac Mool, a local palapa/hostile/event center.  James Hill on ukulele and his wife Ann Janelle on cello from Canada would be playing on the top floor that overlooks the beach. Tickets were $300 pesos a person. That is around $15 dollars a person and may seem cheap to you but on a cruising budget, it takes some thought before laying out $600 pesos. I thought let's do it! It is always a treat to hear some good live music. Unfortunately, the local band that played daily and loudly was too enthusiastic with their tuba and drums. They had endless energy - uggh.  The other great idea about staying until Friday night was that ONDA, the local and only brewery there, that is only open from 5-10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, could be visited. Some higher octane beer was calling us/is always calling us - ha!  2 great events in 1 night - YES PLEASE! And…. the music was phenomenal and definitely worth more than $600 pesos. We heard limited seating so we brought our own seats, Heliox and Crazy creek chairs, and yahoo had front row seating. I would highly recommend You Tubing these guys and seeing them in person if you got the chance. I know you may think bluegrass only but that guy can rip with the best of guitarists and there was no genre of music they couldn’t do! Her voice is ethereal and genuine. 

After a fabulous night, we slid off our “going out” clothes and put on some “possibly get wet clothes” and hopped back on our paddleboard with headlamps on the red setting and had a nice paddleboard back to Soulstice in the still of the night. 

Sweet dreams in our cozy Pullman berth would tantalize us until the sunrise would awaken us for the sail to La Cruz in the morning. 

Coming up…. Karen and Carlos Florey from Montana heading our way February 3rd for a visit on Soulstice.  SO EXCITED!

Debbie and Paul from SV Three Quartertime - Our Mazatlan buddies!!!

Night time in Mazatlan

A visit from Debbie and Sydney in the Mazatlan Marina

Nice smile!! Stephen got some dental work in Mazatlan. It was cheap, time-efficient and excellent! 

On sunset watch, Stephen superimposing my phone constellation app on a picture. I love the app for identifying stars, satellites,  and the ISS. 

Admiring some tanbark sails on the sailboat leaving the Chacala anchorage

View from a hike in Chacala

We hiked up to this point last year- great view of the anchorage

Sunset from Chacala beach

Yummy Bonita tacos! with large dollops of Crema! 

Open water swimming! A good way to work off the Modelos

Fun with changing colors on pics

View from music venue - the top floor of Choc Mools

This place was full of seats, food and drink the night of the concert

The second bump is called pre-patellar bursitis. He is doing well but this does make kneeling for boat projects and on paddleboards no fun. 

James Hill and Ann Janelle- absolutely superb performance!! 

Heading to La Cruz Huanacaxtle

This is where a better camera and zoom would help for sure. We saw SOOOO many humpbacks ever since we left Mazatlan. Breaches, pectoral fins slaps, fluke slaps.... AND even whale sounds/song underneath when we sailed by. We even had one breach so close to the boat the barnacles on his flukes seemed only a few arm lengths away. 

Some inside Soulstice pics

Our tiny home on the inside. 

See ya next time!