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!