sailing casita

Wow, where to start! So much has happened since our last update. Too much for one post really so I may follow up with another post with some of the missing details…

Mazatlán

When we last posted we had just arrived in Mazatlán where we anchored in the old harbor. We only spent about a week in Mazatlán but we really enjoyed our time there, mostly just wandering around old town, browsing the historic market, and enjoying the balmy weather. Whereas the Baja Peninsula is desert, the Mazatlán area of the mainland is tropical with a higher level of humidity. I’m sure in the summer it gets uncomfortable, but when we were there in January the temperatures were perfect and the humidity level was very comfortable.

One morning we hiked up to El Faro, a historic lighthouse built at the top of a steep hill with great panoramic views of the area. The lighthouse has been in operation since 1879. This is also the site of a new zipline for the more adventurous minded!

The following day we took a pulmonia tour of the city. The pulmonia are unique to Mazatlán, they are open air taxis that look like souped up golf carts, though they are gas, not electric. The tour was okay, but probably would have been more fun had we not already walked around and seen most of the sites on our own.

The only real bummer of our time in Mazatlán was that I got a little too adventurous with sampling local food and spent a couple days paying the price. Devon was spared so I think the culprit was a crab tostada I got from a street vendor.

Mazatlán to La Cruz

After a week in Mazatlán it was time to head further south, I had a flight booked from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco to visit family and to bring some supplies down to Casita. There is no anchorage at Puerto Vallarta so we would be going to a little town called La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (aka La Cruz) a couple miles away. We departed Mazatlán at 8:30am on Saturday, January 25th and arrived at the La Cruz anchorage shortly before 1:30pm the following day. The trip was a mixture of motoring, sailing with regular sails, and sailing under spinnaker. We motored more that we would have liked, I was mostly recovered but still not 100% so bobbing around with little wind was even less appealing than usual. Devon caught a tuna (yellowfin I think) Saturday afternoon while we were sailing under spinnaker.

Other notable events of the passage are Devon spotting the Southern Cross for the first time (awesome!) and our autopilot starting to fail (really really not awesome). We also had lots of bioluminescence and a frigate bird that seemed determined to land on the top of our mast (not great, there is stuff up there he could break). As we were setting our anchor we realized there was a humpback whale in the anchorage swimming among the anchored boats, very very awesome!

La Cruz

La Cruz is a nice small town with a big cruiser and ex-pat community. There are a lot of restaurants, many of which cater to foreigners/tourists, but also many small family operated taquerias and such. Some of the roads in town are paved but many are cobblestone (actual stones, not pavers) or dirt and there are lots of chickens and roosters roaming about and scratching in the dirt. There are several “mini super” grocery stores, these are small shops with a limited selection of grocery items, produce, dairy, etc. We don’t always find what we are looking for but we can usually find what we need. In addition to the mini supers there is a carniceria (butcher), several tortillerias, a large fish/seafood market, a tiny produce market, a few chain convenience stores, and a small chandlery (marine hardware store). There are several supermarkets in Bucerias, the next town over, so for things we can’t find locally we take a bus to the supermarket and then usually a taxi back (depending on how much we bought). There is also a weekly craft/artisan market in La Cruz with a couple of produce vendors where we have bought hard to find things like kale, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and basil.

The La Cruz anchorage has its pros and cons. On the pro side: there are lots of whales in the area with frequent sightings from on board and at night we can even hear whalesong! The anchorage is close to town and free, and it is much quieter than the anchorage at Cabo San Lucas!

On the con side: it is an open roadstead anchorage, which means it is pretty exposed to the winds and the seas. At times it is quite rolly, which makes it hard to get things done or even just to sleep. Our rocker stoppers help immensely and we are very glad to have them. It often gets quite windy here in the afternoons with the wind coming from the west, the anchorage is open to the west so this means the wind brings with it decent size waves. Again, this can be uncomfortable but also tense, as these are the conditions that can cause boats to drag their anchors. We are probably overly cautious, but on windy days we don’t usually go ashore, which means a lot of sitting around the boat getting a bit stir crazy.

Flying “Home”

A few days after our arrival in La Cruz I flew up to San Francisco to visit family. It was so wonderful to see my sisters and my niece and brother-in-law. The weather was chilly and rainy for my visit, which I rather enjoyed, so we stayed inside where it was cozy and warm. Both of my sisters spent a lot of time listening to me and offering feedback as I agonized over possibly changing our cruising plans (more on that to come).

One of the reasons for my visit to the US was to bring down supplies to Casita, the biggest of which were dinghy davits (big stainless steel brackets for holding our dinghy out of the water) and a Tides Marine Strong Track (to help the mainsail go up and down easier). These are big, expensive, items we should have installed before leaving the US but we hadn’t thought at the time that we really needed them. Importing them into Mexico is complicated, expensive, and potentially a very slow process so after lots of calculations of size and weight I decided it was worth it to try to bring them back down as luggage. It was a bit of a gamble but it paid off and I had no trouble with either the airlines or customs.

While I was in California Devon was able to identify the cause of our autopilot problems as the very very old drive motor. It took quite a bit of research but he was able to find a replacement motor with similar specs and we worked with a freight forwarder/importer to have it delivered to La Cruz. It is installed and seems to be working great, though it has only had limited testing here in the bay.

Changing Plans

After I returned to La Cruz, Devon and I spent a lot of time discussing and re-evaluating our cruising plans. Ultimately we decided our next stop after Mexico will be Hawaii instead of French Polynesia. We’ve been here in La Cruz for 2 months now and we are ready to move on. It is a little early in the season for departing for Hawaii, the weather conditions favoring the crossing usually develop a bit later in the spring, so we have decided to head back north to Mazatlán and then probably cross the Sea and spend some more time gunkholing around the lovely Islas Espiritu Santo and Partida while we wait for a weather window. We will likely make our final passage preparations and check out of the country from La Paz. It will be good to see our friends there again!

So tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to La Cruz. The cruising community and support here are really amazing and part of me is sad to be leaving. Tonight is a “Last Chance to Dance” bonfire party on the beach to say goodbye to all the departing cruisers so our timing is perfect!