Swimming in the Pacific Ocean and sea life!

Sadly we had to sail by the “mini” Galapagos aka as Isla Isabela in the early wee hours, as the easterly wind didn’t give us good anchoring protection on the East side. We marched on to San Blas to check out the place where Bliss will be stored out of the water in the New Year. Underway the girls had a blast jumping into the Pacific Ocean (no worries oma, we were both tied to the boat, wearing life jackets, and no sails were up), watched bottle neck dolphins playing near our bow, and whales a few boat lengths away. The Baja Peninsula is no longer on our West side, it's the vast Pacific Ocean, and it's tempting to sail South West. Something to look forward to in 2 years!

We have been very lucky with wind conditions this season so far, we get to sail a fair amount. Luckily we are on a sailboat and not a power boat, as our latest boat issue is related to a sticking solenoid! Tod is trying to fix it now. It basically means that Tod is  hammering the starter solenoid  down below while I push the engine start button above decks.  So far it has worked but you never know when this trick will stop working, likely in the most inconvenient place! Good news, our fresh water leak is fixed (hot water tank), so off course we were due for a new boat problem!

sailing by Isla Isabela

reference guides can keep her busy for quite a while

the bird poop rock

hard to catch a good pics, but we saw 4 whales

In the fast lane...another passage under our belt

Mexicans love their music loud! After a 44 hrs passage, where the only sound you hear is coming from birds, winds, and our iron lady if we use it, we have arrived in the touristy part of Mazatlan. We are treating ourselves to the El Cid resort with 2 pools, cause it’s hot and humid, amigos, we are no longer in the dessert with dry heat but in the humid tropics. For $35/night  for our slip we get to use the resort with all its organized stuff, and I can stand all the buzy ness for about 2 days. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not above any luxuries, for sure not after a somewhat rough passage. We sailed 50% of the time, but the wind came directly from behind, and that assures you a rocky passage, where sleep does not seem to come. But we spotted our first whale, migrating north.

Tessa is observing that Mexican streets have a lot of trash, and that’s true, and for sure not very appealing. In resorts like this though, you don’t see it, as they have a gazillion Mexicans catering to mostly Americans and Canadians. Another observation is the general condition of sidewalks. Big portholes are common, and in our last town I almost bumped my head into barbed wire along the side walk.  I’m just to tall for this country, which lacks the annoying lawsuit culture, so just walk at your own risk.

Today we visited old town Mazatlan again, which we like a lot. Tomorrow, we will plan to set sail to Isla Isabella, the "mini Galapagos of Mexico". We loved it 2 years ago, and want to share it with Tessa again. The tricky part will be weather, but so far it looks good for a overnight stay there. In case we don't make it, and want to get a feel for it, you can read about our last visit here.

For now, I’m just parting with some pics of our last harbor Topolabambo, the dusty working town, and the world second largest deep water harbor. Really it’s hard to believe as it seems so sleepy. And some pics of colorful, old Mazatlan.

bus ride to Los Mochis, large town 30 min away

cocina economica, your choice for very simple meals

more money is spent around marinas

ah, the joy of pastries after an overnighter

Tessa trying to hail the shrimp boats on channel 16

 

Feeding the pigeons near the Basilica in Old Mazatlan

Hola, some perspective from Mexico!

In case you are wondering if we have been lazy on the beach, eating helados and street taco’s and drinking mageritas since we arrived a week ago….let me put that vacation  idea to rest !

The Bliss crew has been working non stop to get the boat launched in the water, getting all her boat systems ready to go, taking daily bus rides to provision, finding stuff that is hard to get in Guaymas,  spending a morning to get our Mexican phone working etc etc etc.

No complaints though: I feel alive, and we are all pretty happy to be back here. Mexican people are always very friendly, and adore kids. Tessa is getting used to being patted on her head wherever she goes.  She is also reconnecting with her boat life again, and was happy to find some of her old toys and plenty of books (even some Dutch ones from my childhood, thanks to my sister!). She is having a blast keeping a school journal and is just being her social self, inviting herself over to other boats. And here’s the joy of the sailing community: it doesn’t matter if you don’t speak each other language (our dock neighbors in Guaymas were from Brazil), or if you haven’t seen each other for a while, or just meet for the first time, the connections come easily.

We just finished our first overnight, 180 nautical miles and 34 hrs passage (yes, we are going at a walking pace) from Guaymas to Topolabambo, another coastal, non tourist working town.  Long hours, not enough sleep for the 2 captains aboard, but beautiful sunset, star gazing, seeing dolphins playing around our boat makes it all worth it. The “road” is less sailed here, and our chart of the port entrance was off, so we even run aground twice on our first passage (which we have only done once before here in Mexico)! Fortunately just mud. And the saying "cruising is fixing boats in exotic locations" proves to be true for us too…..we have a fresh water leak, and it’s on the to do list for our short stint here.

Bliss being launched on Tuesday evening

Tessa and I ended up watching an Independence Holiday parade during one of
groceries run in downtown Guaymas

Marina Fonatur in Guaymas where we did our prep in the water

street taco's for thanksgiving dinner

Bliss in the front, with Tod installing the radar on the mast

Leaving Guaymas at sunrise, many panga's and shrimp boats out

Raising the Mexican courtesy flag

everyone doing their own work during passage

Our route for the 1st passage, starting at the boat sign to the red marker
on the left. The chart orientation is North, but we are sailing South

calm seas makes for motor sailing and hanging out, still tethered in though
Dinghy is tied down on the foredeck

The yellow bag is our ditch bag for when we need to abandon ship.
As with our life raft, we never hope to use both items

stretching our legs in Topo, another coastal working town