Cuervo captain and first mate split up....

Jan and Dave separated at the end of June, 2011. All is well with the both of us. Cuervo remains in Mexico under Dave's ownership. It was an amazing year sailing throughout Mexico. It's a new adventure living in the states again.

Back in San Carlos

We got back on June 2nd. I'll update the blog very soon. Hope all is well with everyone!

Hanging out in El Cid, Mazatlan

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.... What can I say? Dave and I are quite relaxed. The marina/resort pool is awesome. And the iguana is our neighbor at the marina, life couldn't be better. :)

El Cid Mazatlan

Mazatlan from the water

Marina El Cid, Mazatlan

After a bit of a rough 35 hour passage we made it from La Cruz to Mazatlan, whew! We're staying in El Cid Marina and Resort. This is a great place to hang out, and there's so much to do. We'll be in the Mazatlan area until the end of April, as Justin's coming down from Chicago to hang out with us and surf a few days, yeah!! We'll get to know the city before he gets here, so we can play tour guide. Dave taught Lucy to play catch, she's so smart and loves to play, it's entertainment for all of us. After here, we'll be off to La Paz and back up the Baja.

La Cruz-last couple of nights

Dave, Dan and Kate/Akupara

Teagan and Mick /Albatross, selling their lanyards

Kevin and Lisa/Albatross

Dan and Kate/Akupara

John and Gail/Music

Jan and Dave Cuervo

Little Cuervo in Marina de La Cruz

We've really enjoyed La Cruz. It's a great place with great food and lots of good people. We went out to dinner with Music and Akupara on the hill in La Cruz at Xocolatl, and it was awesome, and the view wasn't bad either. We've just had too much fun!!

Our last night in La Cruz, 3/26, we spent having cocktails on Cuervo with Albatross/Lisa and Kevin, and Akupara/Dan and Kate. We'll be cruising with Akupara on our 36 hour passage up to Mazatlan. The plan is to leave La Cruz by 6:30 a.m. on 3/27, and arrive Mazatlan by sunset on 3/28.

Chamela and La Cruz

Cuervo motoring at sunet

Super moon over La Cruz

Dinner with Mystic and Akupara

Music and Akupara

Dave and Lucy hanging out

We motored up the coast with Akupara and Music to Chamela. Got together on Music for drinks with Music and Akupara/Kate and Dan. The weather window for our 19 hour passage around Cabo Corrientes was still a couple of days out due to the wind and current around the point. We all left Chamela at 4:00 p.m. We motored all night. The seas got a bit rough when we got into Banderas Bay around 7:30 a.m. on 3/16/11, but around the point we did very well, and that's always a good thing! We arrived at Marina Riviera Nayarit at about 11 a.m. and pulled right into slip 3A-6. That same day we found out our friends Randy and Jenny on Mystic were leaving the next morning for the South Pacific, so we took them out for their farewell dinner, and Kate and Dan out for their marriage dinner. After dinner, we all went to a Bon Voyage bonfire party on the beach for the Puddle Jumpers, and a good time was had by all! That night we really slept and caught up on what we had missed over the last week. We'll be in La Cruz for about a week. We've enjoyed hanging out with our Colorado friends Dan and Kate on Akupara.

Oops.... on 3/18, I slipped down the companionway steps and broke a toe. Hope it gets better real soon because we have some crusin' to do.

Day of tsunami in Japan 3/11/11

Music/John and Gail

Akupara/Dan and Kate

We were anchored in Las Hadas. My sister Leslie called and told me of the tsunami, and we turned on our radio for more information. Within 15 minutes we pulled up the hook and left the anchorage for deeper water. We just hung out in about 350 feet of water so we didn't feel the effects like we would have if we were close to land. Music met up with us, and we decided to head up the coast to Tenacatita anchorage, which was about 6 hours away. We met up with Akupara along the way, and we all got into Tenacatita about the same time. As we were getting into the anchorage, we were informed that we'd better anchor off in deep water because of the surges in water depth, so we dropped in 32 feet. There were 6 foot rises that lasted about a minute or so, and continued like that for hours, it was a weird day. We feel so sad about all the deaths in Japan from this.

Isla Grande to Maruata-3/1/11

Caleta de Campos anchorage

Pemex Prince II passing us by

Sunset under sail

Jan tugboating Cuervo into Las Hadas

We've started back north. We anchored at Isla Grande for one night, and on 3/2, it was off to Caleta de Campos.

We made it up the coast to Caleta de Campos just before sunset, and at dark two fishermen came and said we needed to move our boat so our chain didn't wrap around a rock or their fishing nets, and lead us into the darkness, but we managed.

Off to Behia de Maruata. A beach with heavy surf. We arrived and dropped the hook just before about 4:00 p.m. and rocked and rolled so bad that a couple of hours after we anchored we decided to pull up the hook and head out, but less than an hour later our diesel quit, so it was back to the crappy anchorage. Dave worked on the motor the next day so we could get the heck out of there. We ended up leaving at 7:00 a.m. and about an hour later the diesel quit again, but instead of going back to Maruata, we sailed day and night until we made it to Manzanillo Bay commercial shipping lanes, and then the wind just stopped. Dave and I dropped the sails and threw the Porta-bote together, put on the outboard motor, and within 15 minutes Jan was tugboating Cuervo into our next anchorage about 7 miles away. Ahhhh, we made it and Dave got everything fixed so we were ready to leave the following week from Las Hadas.

Marina Ixtapa

Playa Escolleras sunset outside of Marina Ixtapa-Favorite beach

Iguana on rocks in estuary

Jan on bicycle trail in Ixtapa

Channel entrance to Marina Ixtapa

Cuervo docked at Marina Ixtapa

Dave on bicycle trail in Ixtapa

Playa Escolleras-Favorite Beach in Mexico

We pulled into Marina Ixtapa for a few days to change Cuervo's oil, give her a bath, and just have fun.

We celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary by riding bikes on a great bike path to Playa Linda, had a nice lunch of Laura (parrot) fish, then back to the marina for a siesta, then a dinghy ride through the estuary, and then a walk on Playa Escolleras (our favorite beach in Mexico), an all around great day!

Playa Escolleras is the coolest beach ever, with surf from every direction, and great sunsets.

We'll be leaving Ixtapa soon and heading north. Wow, what an awesome first year we've had!

Zihuatanejo-our final destination south

Mexican Dancers in Zihuatanejo Square

Mexican Dancer in Zihuatanejo Square

Jan and the bronze statue guy

Bronze statue guy

Zihuatanejo streets

Coastline to Zihuatanejo

After a great couple of days at Isla Grande, we made it to Zihuatanejo.

Zihuatanejo is a nice clean town, but gets a bit stinky at night. Had some nice walks around town, and good food on the beach. We hung out with Jerry and Loren/SOMF for a few days, and then we split up, with them heading down to El Salvador and us heading back north.

Isla Grande

Jerry and Loren/SOMF looking nome-like at Lili Cipriani

SOMF setting their hook at Isla Grande

Dinner after closing at Lili Cipriani

Our meal at Lili Cipriani

Well, 35 hours later, here we are.

After about 24 hours of constant motoring, we hit heavy commercial shipping, they seemed to be everywhere, but we managed to get around everything just fine. Cuervo was leading the way, and Dave did an awesome job communicating with SOMF as to what was ahead of them.

On my watch, during a full moon on my brother Gerry's birthday on 2/17, I scattered some of his ashes in the ocean. It was pretty emotional, as it always is.

Dave and I had a couple of mishaps during our passage. The first one was that we needed to add deisel while underway at 2:00 a.m. and we spilled about a litre or so on deck and in the cockpit, but we got it all cleaned up. And, about 8 hours after that, we had our engine overheat from the raw water strainer clogging with jellyfish, which messed up the raw water pump. So we told SOMF that we needed a half hour to change things out. We raised our sails, let the auto pilot go and we went to work. Within a half hour we were up and running again.

Lots of humpback whales along the way, and they stayed clear of us and we stayed clear of them. We also came across a long-line, and went about a half mile out of our way, until we saw the pange fisherman and they waved us over the line, and all was well again.

Both of us sleep deprived, we made it to our anchorage after only 35 hours.

Las Hadas and Manzanillo

Dave at cento Manzanillo Market

Manzanillo Centro Market

Manzanillo City Hall

Sailfish sculpture in Manzanillo Square

Walkway to Paradise Restaurant in Las Hadas

Las Hadas Resort from Dolphin Cove Inn

Heading down the coast to Las Hadas

Las Hadas anchorage from resort pool


We arrived on 2/8.

Along the way, we had a problem with the engine and needed to tugboat with the dinghy, but made our anchorage safe and sound.

We're anchored at Las Hadas Resort, and it's so picturesque. The hillside is a morish design, and looked great from a distance, but close-up it needed work.

Dave and I went sightseeing in Manzanillo on Sunday. We had a good time just walking around cento. The market was amazing, and the port was ok.

Loren and Jerry/SOMF anchored in the same area and came and found us. We had found a good pizza restaurant. For Valentine's Day the four of us went out for pizza and beer. On Monday, Jerry, Loren and I went and reprovisioned at Walmart in Manzanillo, while Dave stayed aboard while Hugo cleaned our bottoms. After fueling and doing laundry on Tuesday, Loren and I had a couple of hours at the pool, and if I might say, it was well deserved!

We decided to do the 36 hour passage to Isla Grande with SOMF, so we pulled up the hooks, and headed out for our first buddy-boat experience.

Barra de Navidad

Cuervo at anchor in Barra Lagoon

Dave in the Grand Bay's jungle garden

Sailing out of Tenacatita

We've been in Barra for about two weeks and are getting ready to leave for Manzanillo around 2/10 or so. We've been having a great time, but there's more to see down the road before heading back north by the end of March.