Adios Paradise! Let's go somewhere.
04/09/2003 - 04/20/2003
With all the chores completed and the provisions stowed, we motored out of the luxury of Paradise Village Marina at 8:00 am on Wednesday morning headed for destinations unknown. We wanted to get to the Sea of Cortez in the next couple of weeks with an intermediate stop in Mazatlán. The weather forecast indicated the next few days may be a good weather window to head north. The plan to head to the anchorage, Punta de Mita, about 12 miles away and listen to the forecast for the next couple of days included the option to change our minds. In past trips in and out of Banderas Bay, we typically stayed at least a night in this anchorage. Having been in a marina for a month, the thought of hanging out in an anchorage for a night to get our sea legs sounded appealing. Lingering in the air was a feeling of "Been there, done that". While motoring toward Punta de Mita, Robin listened to the morning weather forecast. Since the prevailing winds come from the north/northwest, we wanted a forecast for either very light winds and swell or winds from the south for the trip to Mazatlán. The forecaster indicated the next 2 days would be light winds with lots of wind starting on the third day. The trip from Mazatlán takes between 30 and 36 hours. Skip Punta de Mita - let's head around the corner to someplace new, Chacala, and spend the night there. Then, we will head to Mazatlán the next day to take advantage of the calm conditions.
See you next year Banderas Bay
Several other boats departed from Punta de Mita just as we approached the anchorage. We could not hear the last part of the forecast. Robin hailed Dick on Corazon (already underway), to get a relay on the remainder of the weather forecast. Dick indicated the forecaster changed his forecast to "high winds" the next day -- up to 30 knots from the northwest. Wow - that's a big change in the forecast from 10 minutes ago. Hmmm, what to do? The radio chatter and debate amongst all of the boats heading north continued for hours.
Treats from the galley wench on a calm passage
As we headed toward Chacala, Robin spotted a splash in the water. "Ooh,its another whale" Then, the another splash. "That does not look like a whale". Duncan peered through the binoculars just as the next display occurred. "Its a manta ray!" he exclaimed. For the next few minutes the huge (12+ foot wing-span) manta ray jumped in the air. What a show!
Okay, now we need to figure out our strategy if the winds are going to be 30 knots tomorrow. After consulting the cruising guides, we decided to head to a bay called Matanchen Bay near San Blas. Matanchen Bay looks well protected from northwest wind and its 70 miles closer to Mazatlán. Skip Chacala - let's head to Matanchen Bay. Meanwhile, the other boats travelling ahead of us made various decisions on where to go. A couple of boats decided to go to Matanchen Bay as well.
Duncan kicking back on a relaxing passage
The remainder of the day was calm except for a couple hours where we actually sailed rather than motored. As we approached Matanchen Bay, we started to discuss the possibility of continuing on to Mazatlán. If the conditions remained calm through the night and we continued motoring at 6 to 7 knots, the ETA for Mazatlán would be 2 pm tomorrow. If the wind picked up at night, we could turn around and go back to Matanchen Bay. Skip Matanchen Bay - let's head to Mazatlán with a back up plan of turning around if conditions became unfavorable. The other vessels in the vicinity decided to continue in to Matanchen Bay for the night.
Just as we changed course for Mazatlán, a voice on the VHF starts asking all cruisers in the area to switch to channel 22 to listen to an announcement. This sounds interesting. Duncan switched the VHF to channel 22. An American man from the sailing vessel, JAMA, made the announcement that any cruiser coming into Matanchen Bay MUST check in with the port captain in San Blas even if they only plan to stay in Matanchen Bay for a few hours. He capped off his speech with "If you do not check in with the port captain, we do not want you in San Blas or Matanchen Bay". The prospects of such a warm welcoming committee persuaded the vessels headed to the bay to change course and head toward Mazatlán rather stopping for the night.
Richard & Marianne accompanied us for many fun outings in Mazatlán.
Destination Mazatlán
A gorgeous calm evening with a quarter moon and stars lighting the way, Whisper motored through the glassy calm conditions. The calm conditions lasted until about 11:30 am the next morning. Just as we approached Mazatlán, the wind picked up to 20 knots with higher gusts and the seas started to build.
Fortunately, we were only 8 miles from the harbor. After a nice sail, we arrived at Marina Mazatlán to a full welcoming committee at the dock. Our friends, Richard and Marianne from MR Destiny, were moored just one dock away from us. Unfortunately, on their trip north from Puerto Vallarta, they encountered a major oil leak in the engine resulting in the need to pull the engine and replace a seal. We will miss cruising with them in the Sea of Cortez since they will head back to San Diego after the engine is repaired.
Horses roam the beach at Stone Island.
Lots of time in Mazatlán was spent doing chores as well as spending time with Richard and Marianne. We visited lots of our favorite restaurants in Mazatlán during the easter week which is called Semana Santa in Mexico. Traditionally, Mexicans flock to the beaches during this week. Tents and campers are set up on every beach in Mexico. Lots of fiestas and celebrations occur throughout the week. Many aspects of this week reminded us of Spring Break in the US.
The beach at Stone Island.
A visit to Stone Island was one of the highlights of this trip to Mazatlán. Richard and Marianne showed us the ropes for getting to Stone Island via bus and panga. Wide, white sand beaches and palapas welcomed us to the area. Lots of locals visit the beach as well as cruise ship guests. Looking like gringos from cruise ships, several restaurants tried to solicit our business. As we munched on shrimp diablo, quesadillas and fish,we enjoyed watching lots of folks playing on the beach.
Classical guitar under a palm frond roof!
Another highlight was an evening of classical guitar at the palapa near the marina. A classical guitar student from the university in Guanajuato came to the palapa by the marina to entertain the cruisers. What a treat!
Chores are never a highlight, but it feels great when they are finished. An entire day was spent cleaning the teak decks. Construction dirt from the marina in Puerto Vallarta permeated the teak causing the decks to look pretty dirty. The amount of dirt washed from the decks was amazing and disgusting. Duncan took care of Whisper's power plant by changing the oil, oil filters and fuel filters in the engine and genset. Robin topped off the human power plant supplies with food and beverage provisions with the thought that finding a store for a couple of months may be difficult. Duncan arranged an appointment with the fuel dock to fill up Whisper's fuel tank. We topped off the fuel tank and returned back to the marina. With the chores complete, the hard part begins.
Moonrise over Marina Mazatlán.
The worst part of our visit to Mazatlán was saying goodbye to Marianne and Richard. During our stay in Mazatlán, they made several hard decisions. With the work needing to be done on the engine and the associated disarray in the boat, they decided it would be best for Marianne to return to San Diego and start the next stage of their lives back in San Diego. During our summer trip to the US, we will visit Richard and Marianne in San Diego. We are hoping they take a fall vacation to come visit us in San Carlos. We tearfully said goodbye to Marianne as she departed for the bus trip back to the states. The second difficult goodbye took place as Richard helped us with our dock lines as we departed for the Sea of Cortez.
Pulling away from the dock in Mazatlán, we left with both sadness and excitement. The Sea of Cortez awaits. Now we will find out if the Sea of Cortez is as wonderful as everyone indicates.