Our Plans That are Written in Sand at Low Tide...

Well, here we go.
Up into the Sea.
We start in La Paz.
Then head North (sort of).


Then we go to Isla San Francisco and hopefully don't bump bottom at 3 am this time....Then hop along the coast beach combing and diving our way up to San Evaristo.Where hopefully we won't have to re-stock on beer quite yet...

Then to the lovely pink sandstone and yellow cliff surrounded Los Gatos.Beach combing heaven!

Then Nopolo maybe.
A few other places.
Then Agua Verde.Where we can buy fresh goat cheese.
Not that Jim likes it...

Then a bunch of other places, like Isla Montserrate, Isla Carmen, Loreto, who knows...

Then back here for the big plans...
Uh oh.
Big provisioning.
Pick up Stanwich and Timay from the airport, then go South.
Yep, South around the Cape.
Then North.
Yep, North up the Baja.
Doing the Baja Bash.
Returning to Southern California.
Ick.
Time to work.
Time to head back "home" for awhile.
Unless someone out there wants to adopt us or sponser us?

"From Muertos to La Paz" or "Hanging With The Big Boys Again"

The Norther finally died down, so time to head up the Cerralvo Channel to the San Lorenzo Channel and into Bahia de La Paz.


Which means up at sunrise.


We were amazed at the size of the drug lord's new casa house under construction at the North end of Bahia de Los Muertos.We had a really smooth trip ~ just motored on up due to the loose shroud.
Easy.
In and anchored over at The Mogote seven hours later.
Then arranged a slip with our favorite marina, Marina de La Paz, so we we? did I say we? could adjust the rigging and maybe get our fuel polished and provision.
And they put us with the big boys...


See that little catamaran parked there?
We fit in right?

In another couple of days we will head up into The Sea of Cortez for the rest of April and all of May.
Which means little or no internet...
You will have to use your imagination to figure out what trouble we are up to, what we are doing and what we are seeing...

"Squid Marks" or "Waiting Out a Norther in Muertos"

This is what we find after crossing The Sea of Cortez.
Suicidal squids have left their marks.So we peel them off the deck and eat them toss their little carcasses overboard.


Along with a few flying fish...
One who ended his flying fish life peacefully in our dinghy.



So now we sit at anchor in Muertos waiting for a Norther to blow through.
We watch whales cruise by the anchorage with whale watching pangas way too close to them.We read.
We make french toast out of stale bread.
We bake fresh bread.
We swim.
We get over our colds.
We enjoy the beautiful turquoise water.
We see that the restaurant has put out a little dinghy dock.We go to the restaurant on the beach and have giant hamburgers, fries and ice cold beers.We sleep.
We listen to weather and the nets.
We doink around on the internet.
We wash dishes.


We watch three boats sail around the anchorage chasing each other.

We read some more.
We enjoy this Norther.

Out of The Black Hole and Into The Snow Globe Again

The Black Hole being Mazatlan, as we could not hear the weather reports on the single side band nets.
The Snow Globe being the crossing from Mazatlan to Muertos.
Remember my analogy of putting your home inside one of those snow globe things and shaking?
Well this time we got to shake all night long and into the next day.
We left Mazatlan on Tuesday morning around 7 am.
Decent weather - at first...
Started having a Southerly wind, which was fine because we could always fall off the wind and go further up into the Sea of Cortez.
However, the Southerly made for lumpy seas.
Jim was partially through a headcold and it started with me on Tuesday.
Yuk.
We had a double reef in the main and the jib up - both engines running and passed another boat.
Yipee.
The wind started really picking up in the afternoon so reefed the jib in partially.
The first part of the evening we still had 20-25 kts of wind, then it started clocking around to the stern - thought oh boy, it's going to calm down.
But it ended up clocking around to the Northwest and then we got 20-25 on the other bow.
Yipee.
More confused seas.
And I feel like my head is going to explode from the congestion.
Lovely feeling.
Then at about 4 am we noticed the port lower shroud was really loose - uh oh.
So we dropped the mainsail, but Jim had to go up on the cabin top to help pull it down.
He harnessed on, but I still don't like him up on deck at 4 am in 25 kts of wind.
Got it down and the starboard engine fuel filter was getting clogged, so we kept the RPM's down on that engine.
We fell off the wind a little to make it more comfortable and finally the sun came up.
I was so happy to see the sun!!
Jim slept some and I couldn't keep wind in the jib, so furled it.
Then we pounded into the seas and finally in to Muertos 27 hours later.Aaaahhhhhhh calm!
We both slept for a few hours.
Jim made me tomato soup for dinner then back to bed for me.
Then about 10:30 pm I felt a lot of wind, got up to check and a boat that came in and anchored after us was really, really close so I woke up Jim who yelled over to the other boat that it was time for them to move.
We felt they had anchored too close to us, but didn't say anything earlier (should have).
Well it took them a long time to pull up their dinghy and anchor and there was 25 knots of wind and they were swinging around real close, so I ran up to the bow and grabbed a fender and Jim ran over to the other side and between Jim and the other boat owner fended them off or they would have hit us.
Ick.
They re-anchored further away.
Wind died down, we go back to sleep and I finally feel a little better in the am. Yipee.
So now we are looking at turquoise water, can see the bottom, can see our anchor chain on the bottom and we both jumped in for a saltwater shower this am.
Aaahhhh....
Weather is calling for a strong Norther here this afternoon and tomorrow so we will sit here until probably Sunday, then head to La Paz to provision then head up in to the Sea.
Yipee!

Happy Easter!

This has to be the most laid-back Easter for us ever!
No Easter Baskets.
No Easter egg hunt.
No chocolate bunnies.
Nada.
Nothing.
Oh wait, Jim made me an appletini!
I wore my flower petal headband for most of the day.
I washed the sheets.
I vacuumed.
I beaded a bracelet.
I washed some towels.
I made lunch.
I washed some dishes.

"Powdered Sugar and Flames Don't Mix" aka "Deb's Birthday"!

Oh boy another party!
This time for the birthday celebration for Deb of "Pacific Jade".
About a dozen of us headed over to the tower on the Isla to "Citrus Ocean".
Quite the cool view from the bar way up at the top of the tower!












Of course I came prepared with party hats, leis and mermaids for our glasses!





"Lovely Reta" John and "Meerkat" Jim always enjoy the party hats!Pirhana "Pacific Jade" Joe too!
Not quite sure what these hora feliz snacks were they brought us...
Chicken toes?
Worms?
I think some kind of cheese puff cracker something or other.

Then down a few floors to dinner.
And cake.
Always cake.
Courtesy of "Lovely Reta" Debby!
Notice how clean the tablecloth and area surrounding the cake is.Now Deb blows the candles out and the powerdered sugar combines with the flames and poof!
Goes everywhere.
A sort of flame up powdered sugar bomb.
Now look at the table...We were pretty much coupled up.



After all, Joe had Deb.




John had Debby.





Which left Tom with The Little Mermaid...





Deb did an entertaining cake face plant.And wore the party hats any way we suggested.A fun time was had by all ~ including us!


Cool place.

Fun night.

Always a party in Mazatlan!

Miami Mazatlan Dinghy Cruise

We joined Bill, Joanne and Joanne's Dad Joe of "Tica", Deb and Joe of "Pathetic Jade" "Pacific Jade" and Bill and Mary Jane of "Great Max" "Grey Max" joined us in a dinhgy cruise up the canals to see the houses.
Wow.
Doesn't quite look like it did 10 years ago...I don't remember any houses 10 years ago.
Now parts of it look like Miami or Fort Lauderdale!


This one even had a full bar set up in the backyard!
No one was around, so we probably could have snuck up there and had a drink and gone for a little swim...



I am just not 100% sure about their building methods...




MJ came prepared.





So did the Dad.





Then we headed to Seafarer Restaurant and the new little marina on the other side of the isla.


Way cool!


The restaurant is surrounded by a salt water aquarium!

Complete with puffer fish, a ray and a sea turtle!

Of course we knew six other people sitting a few tables away ~ "Windward Bound", "Gypsea's Palace" (Jim used to work with Teresa of "GP") and "Wirewalker".

Bill of "Wirewalker" had the perfect shirt on.I need to find one for Jim.
Except with Jim's Beer Removal Service, not Bill's Beer Removal Service or we would have to change Jim's name to Bill it would be dumb.

Back in The Land of Oz Maz!

The more time we spend in Mazatlan, the more we LIKE it!
After a couple of nights anchored at Stone Island we headed up the whopping eight miles of coast to Mazatlan's pleasure boat harbor.
This time we parked at the Singlar Marina ~ a sister marina of the one we stayed at in San Blas.We are surrounded by friends.
The social life is insane.
We need a calendar just for activities.
A mid-afternoon beer break with "Lovely Reta" and "Eyes of The World".
Chatting with Bill and Diane of "Wirewalker".


A really long walk into town to do a little geocaching.
With one being at "my place"!
Then walking even further and further in attempts to find the no-longer open microbrewery...
Miles.
Feet hurt.

Then joining Bill and Mary Jane of "Great Max" "Grey Max" (who are sort of condo sitting) for hora feliz.
Cool view from the condo!


"Meerkat" is pointed out for you.




Cool view of the pool.


Then Don and Lenna of "The Grand Wazoo" (formerly of "Windward Luv" in our old cruising days) joined the impromptu hora feliz.And then...
We were joined by Deb and Joe of "Pathetic Jade "Pacific Jade" and then by Tom of "Tis Magic".
Deb, MJ and I went for a little dip, complete with plastic to go hora feliz cups.Back to the condo where the hora feliz turned into an all evening feliz.
Well until 11 pm anyway.