December 28th – La Cruz – Jim’s Blog #11

I hope everyone reading this had a Merry Christmas or other celebration this holiday season. Since we are in a strongly Catholic country at the moment, there is only talk of Christmas and not a politically- correct requirement to mention all other religious observances during this time frame. Nevertheless we hope everyone of whatever religion or non-religion was able to enjoy the holiday spirit.

We attended a cruisers’ pot luck at a local restaurant on Christmas day where the owner provided five 30-35lb. turkeys (approximately 165 pounds of turkey all told) for a total of some 150 cruisers in attendance. We cruisers furnished the side dishes and desserts, and although there was plenty of food for everyone, the more popular side dishes were gone by the time we got to the buffet line – things like deviled eggs and Sheilagh’s scalloped potatoes. We got there an hour early to beat the rush and found that others had been some three hours before – those who had been in attendance during previous years. Although the owner provided the turkeys free of charge, he must have made a mint on the drinks, particularly for those who came three hours early and had to keep drinking to hold their table.

After dinner Santa Claus visited and passed out some 400+ Christmas packages to the same number of local children who formed a long line outside the restaurant. They each got a bag with a major gift and several smaller ones, and as they left they would gather with their friends and compare. I saw a couple of the boys hand off the presents they got to an accomplice and go back to get a second round. I’m not sure they were successful but I admired their enterprising spirit. Actually the local parents keep a good eye out for this sort of thing to make sure everyone gets a present and no one gets more than one.

We haven’t done much this week except relax and do some shopping as the need arose. I think we both finished a couple of books and several boat tasks, but nothing to write a blog about. It occurred to me on Sunday night (the 23rd) that something was missing, that there was something urgent I needed to do. I thought about it awhile and finally concluded that throughout my entire life I was the victim of the “Sunday night syndrome.” This is not characterized only by the thought that either school or work started on Monday, but by the uneasy realization that what I had put off on Friday night to do on the weekend did not get done. So every Sunday night I had to pull out my school assignments, or later my To-Do lists, and see what absolutely had to get done before starting the weekly schedule on Monday. Now I was blessed with the knowledge that for the rest of my life the “Sunday night syndrome” no longer applied. When that thought finally settled in, I wallowed in my condition of having nothing to do to prepare for Monday and no guilt feelings about wallowing.

Last night Sheilagh and I celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary, toasting the occasion with champagne as we sat back in the cockpit of our boat and reminisced. We agreed that this was definitely the longest and best vacation we had ever had, and it was a long way from the one week I had off in the Navy to drive from Corpus Christie, Texas, to Los Altos, California, to marry Sheilagh and whisk her off to Navy housing back in Corpus Christie. Sheilagh finally admitted that the opal engagement ring I got her (in lieu of the culturally-appropriate diamond) had her concerned about the longevity of our relationship. I didn’t realize it at the time, but an opal is one of the most fragile of gemstones, when all I saw was the beauty of the stone with the vibrant colors emerging from the depths. I saw it as a reflection of the inner (and outer) beauty I saw in Sheilagh, while she saw it symbolizing my lack of commitment to a long term relationship. I hasten to add here that I had reported to the Navy with enough money to pay for my initial uniform allowance, and by the time I had asked Sheilagh to marry me 6 months later, I did not have the wherewithal to afford anything more than the opal ring – my salary in those days was $12,000 a year.

She was very gracious at the time, said “yes” to my proposal, but apparently buried her concerns about the nature of the ring for the next 38.5 years. Sheilagh now says that it was her taking very good care of the stone, and of the relationship, all these years that has allowed us to celebrate this anniversary. When I read the last paragraph to her, she retrieved the limited pieces of jewelry she brought with her on the cruise, and showed me the original engagement ring as one of her most prized possessions. Methinks she doth protest too much!

We also had a chance this week to visit the premier marina in Banderas Bay, Paradise Village, where some friends were smart enough to make reservations last April for this time frame. Tourists pay thousands of dollars a week to stay here and bask in the sun at either of the two pools or on the beach. Wherever you are, the waiters will find you and offer to bring you a drink. If you stay in the marina, you have all the benefits of the hotel guests – which amounts to about $750 a month, including wi-fi, electricity, potable water at the dock, and the pools and beach I mentioned. It’s difficult to get a better deal than that. They also have a high-end mall with employees who all speak English, and stores that sell English-language magazines and books. In a sense Paradise Village is a way to visit Mexico and not really leave the states, which is actually a soothing atmosphere to dip back into from the small village culture in which we have been cruising.

Outside of Paradise Village we are forced to consider how to say what we want, and dip into the English-Spanish dictionary to make sure we are using the proper words. This becomes a bit of a hassle, unless the native Mexican speaks some English. And there are a lot of young Mexicans who will step in and help out when they overhear what we are requesting, so we can usually communicate. I ordered two Coca Colas Dieta (Diet Cokes) and was served with two lukewarm cokes that were about three-fourths filled. When I asked for hielo (ice) the attendant went back and filled the cups to the brim – still with no ice. Apparently he hadn’t listened to what I was asking, or I was pronouncing it differently than he was used to hearing it. We ended up drinking the lukewarm cokes and chalking the experience up to more culture shock.

When I think about it, we have had minimal culture shock to deal with compared to those who did this thirty years ago. There are so many cruisers and tourists in Mexico these days, that there is always someone around who can translate, or provide understandable directions, or understand the gist of what one needs. I can’t imagine how anthropologists can handle the culture shock of going into primitive societies with absolutely no knowledge of the language and customs, and live there for years as they record the local culture. I know it’s not something I would want to do.

Our autopilot part that was shipped to us a week ago has been held up in customs in Guadalajara for the past several days for a lack of sufficient import documentation. We had reason to visit the U.S. Embassy here in Puerto Vallarta the other day, and we learned that we may be required to remove the inoperable part from the boat and take it to customs to show that we are replacing it with the new part. Our intention was to send the bad part back to the manufacturer to get it fixed; so we could use it as a backup. If we have to go through this “proof of replacement” process, we couldn’t bring in the repaired part. Other cruisers call Guadalajara the “Black Hole” for getting anything shipped into Mexico. We have now learned that we should have found a cruiser who was having visitors from the states, set up with their visitors to receive our part from the factory, and then have those visitors carry it through customs. I guess NAFTA has relaxed the requirements for travel between the U.S. and Mexico, but not for the shipping of goods between the two. But without bureaucracy how would one-sixth of the population (at least in the U.S.) have jobs – and the number may be higher in Mexico.

I close with a picture of Sheilagh basking in the warm (?) sun in her hammock perched between the mast and the staysail support. It was a little over 70° when she climbed into the hammock with her book and cuba libre, but then the sky clouded over and a wind came up, so I covered her with a quilt. It does seem a bit weird to be using a quilt over a hammock, but she was happy – and that’s what counts.

More later . . .

December 22th – La Cruz – Jim’s Blog #10

[Be sure to check out the newly-added movie clip of the dolphins on the previous blog - #9]

When last we reported our progress, we were planning a sailing trip out into Banderas Bay to see some whales and at the same time, make some more potable water with our water maker and dump out the holding tank way offshore – the latter two actions were needed because the marina doesn’t offer those services as yet. We did our best to find whales by going to the area where they were said to be, by following the whale-watching boats, and by observing bird activity (which follow the fish that follow the smaller fish that feed off the plankton that whales also eat) – all to no avail. Our four-hour excursion yielded no whales, although we did accomplish the other purposes for our trip. Then, after we had tied up to the dock, we heard that whales had been sighted just outside the marina while we were away looking for them. Isn’t there some rule about being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Thursday we attended a local Spanish class and were given a recommendation on a book we should get that the class will be using, Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish; so we hustled off by bus to Nuevo Vallarta to get the book and check out some more of the area. We missed the bus stop and found ourselves back in the same area we were in before, Puerto Vallarta. Turning lemons into lemonade, we took the opportunity to check out Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, and a large new mall across from where the cruise ships tie up. Sam’s club on Thursday afternoon was similar to a Costco on Saturday, with very determined senoras jockeying their carts for positions in the checkout line. As we stood in line, we suddenly had two other shoppers insert their carts in front of us. Unsure of whether we had misunderstood the concept of first-come-first-served, or whether there was another concept we were unfamiliar with – such as locals-take-precedence-in-line – we abandoned our cart and tried Wal-Mart.

At Wal-Mart we got a few things we needed and thought we could carry with us on the bus – no cases of beer, no heavy items, and no bulky items – and had no difficulty with the checkout lines. As we were loading our packages into our backpacks, we ran into the owner of the boat next to us in the marina who owned a car. He already had a full load of cruisers (cruisers with cars often advertise on the morning radio net that they are going somewhere that day and offer to take other cruisers with them), but they offered to carry our packages with them. This allowed us to go into the mall without checking our packages at every store we came to, but the mall was definitely priced for the ocean liner passengers, so we bailed out and took the bus back. Now we have made most of the errors you can make when riding local buses, but this was a first for us. We got on a bus with minimal (if any) rear suspension and a bus driver who took the speed bumps as challenges to his forward speed. Naturally we took the only seats, which were in the back of the bus, and were entertained with a Disneyland-like E-Ticket ride for the next 30 minutes.

On Friday we decided to take a bus to a remote village north of Banderas Bay, called Sayulita, that was mentioned in the local marketing literature as a good surfing spot. Two other couples decided to come along; so we started off on a new bus adventure. I guess you could say that this blog is more or less a bus-riding blog. In this case we needed to take a bus in the opposite direction from where we wanted to go until we reached a fork in the road. There we got off the bus, ran across the freeway during a break in the traffic, and boarded the bus that would get us there. This bus driver must have been on probationary status for not being on time, because he seemed to take it as a personal affront every time he had to stop and pick up passengers – reminding one of the saying “wouldn’t business be great, if we didn’t have to deal with customers!” He also felt that he had to go as fast as his gears would allow him on a two-lane mountain road. Halfway there we slowed slightly for a car that had been demolished by a semi-truck alongside the road; so this E-Ticket ride suddenly got serious.

The beach at Sayulita

We made it okay and stepped out into a quaint village that reminded us of Carmel – a lot of pricey stores and restaurants, cleaner than any village so far, where the tourists outnumbered the locals by at least ten to one. In this case the shops seemed to be run by ex-patriots, while the locals hawked their wares on the beach or in small stalls at the other end of town – with notable differences in prices. With two major cruise ships in town, a large number of their passengers must have picked Sayulita to “get in touch with the real Mexico.” It was a bit disappointing to us, since the cost of a lounge chair on the beach was 150 pesos a day ($15) rather than the cost of a beer or two that we were used to paying in the real Mexican villages.

On the way back we found that luck (?) was with us, as we got the same driver as before for the return trip; so we got the added thrill of having him pass a semi-trailer rig going uphill on the same two-lane road where we had seen the accident before. In this case he crossed two solid yellow lines to do so – yes the dotted lines allow for passing here in Mexico, as they do in the U.S., not the solid yellow lines. We barely sneaked back in front of the semi before nearly wiping out the suddenly-appearing lead car in the oncoming traffic. Just a few kilometers later, we were stopped for about thirty minutes with a mile-long line of traffic, as some heavy-duty tow vehicles were attempting to pull the truck and car from the earlier collision back on the road. We have to admit that riding the buses here in Mexico has added a thrill to our lives that we had been missing all these years.

Finally on Saturday we took another bus ride into Nueva Vallarta and learned that the bus schedules are less frequent on weekends. As a result we ended up walking a couple of miles before we finally succumbed to a taxi to get where we were going. I’m sure we will finally figure out the system as soon as we are ready to leave.

The last two nights we have been treated to live music at two restaurants in the little town of La Cruz. The first was open-mike night at Philo’s Restaurant, which serves pizza and ribs on Thursday nights. In addition to excellent food and Margaritas, we got to hear Jimmy-Buffett-like live music for several hours, along with a stand-up comic from Great Britain, and a number of other musicians who did quite well as far as our limited ability to assess good music could judge. Friday we went to the only German restaurant in town, where we heard two very good Flamenco guitarists, a man and his wife, Latcho and Andrea, who make the rounds in Mexico. We realized as we left the restaurant that so far we have heard more live music in the nearly two months of our cruise than we had heard in the past 20 years or so.

Here's a good picture of the lovely Sheilagh at Sayulita

Christmas is fast upon us and we will not be following the family traditions we have been keeping for the last 30+ years. We will not be seeing any of our daughters and their families this Christmas, but are communicating regularly by Skype (a computer-driven phone service that costs about $.02 a minute). I plan to send a message to everyone with known email addresses on Christmas Day, letting everyone know what we are up to. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. More later . . .

December 18th – La Cruz – Jim’s Blog #9

[First an update on Jim’s Blog #7 of December 12 at Matanchen Bay and San Blas! Our son-in-law, Hayden Metz, did some research on Longfellow’s poem on the Bells of San Blas and included two references in his response to that blog, which can be accessed on the web. Apparently Longfellow never visited San Blas and the bells he was talking about were on a church on the coast used to warn sailors of the nearness of shore – no relation to the old church on the San Blas town square that quotes a verse of the poem on a plaque attached to it. And Longfellow was not commemorating a battle nor something like the midnight ride of Paul Revere in which a poor peasant sees the enemy coming and risks his own life to ring the bells for the townsfolk. No, nothing so dramatic!

Longfellow was merely romanticizing something he must have read about and had no direct knowledge of. Those Romantic Poets did that a lot (I was an English major in college and had to take a course with that name), and few of them actually lived so close to nature that they got dirty. It’s difficult to glorify real nature, once you’ve hiked into the mountains, gotten your boots and socks wet in a stream, couldn’t light a fire with the wet wood lying about, and squirmed all night on the hard ground in a sleeping bag that didn’t keep the cold out. I leave it to you to read the poem and draw your own conclusions.]

We left Chacala on the morning of the 15th after retrieving our anchor that had been all tied up in fish netting and line that had probably been sitting at the bottom of the bay for some time. Thankfully I didn’t have to dive on it to pry it up, because 25’ is a little too deep for the simple snorkel I have, or even for the hookaw that I described in an earlier blog. We made it to La Cruz on the same day, after motor-sailing most of the way (using both the engine and the sails) because the wind was fairly light.

One of the problems we had to deal with were some sea mounts, identified on the charts as a hazard but not necessarily accurately charted, that rose to within 3’ of the surface of the water when entering Banderas Bay from the North, which was our destination and approach. Since our draft (the depth of our boat in the water) is 6’, those sea mounts could cause us to shipwreck if we encountered one. Therefore we had to steer way around the area where they were located. We use our electronic GPS (Global Positioning System) systems in addition to our paper charts to show where we are. GPS shows accurate positions on the globe, but the computer display of the land masses often use old charts that have not been updated in many years – some as old as the 1800’s. So we can be sure of where we are on the globe, but the little-visited bay of Chacala showed us at anchor 2 miles inland from the shore. As a result we make sure we keep our eyes open during the day and our radar on at night, as we approach any sort of land. So there was no way we were going to trust it to locate the sea mounts for us. As it was, we took about a 2-hour detour into the bay to insure we wouldn’t run aground.

During the last two hours, however, the wind picked up and we shut down the engine and sailed on a beam reach (wind perpendicular to the boat) in 17-20 knots of wind, making nearly 7 knots of speed over the water. We encountered several dolphins during the trip that swam and played in our bow wave long enough for Sheilagh to get a short movie of it.

You have now heard Sheilagh's famous "wahoo!" at the end of the clip, along with her attempt to communicate with them using her conversational English. They did not respond in kind.
We also saw a squadron of small manta rays swimming in formation just under the surface of the water. Sheilagh put out her fishing line behind the boat to see if she could catch any kind of fish, but didn’t get a nibble.

We are now in the La Cruz Marina just 5 miles north of Puerto Vallarta, where we plan to spend the Christmas holidays. We spent the first day cleaning the boat from top to bottom, including shining up most of the stainless steel on the boat. Even though stainless steel is not supposed to rust, rust develops anyway, and we take a variety of cleaners and a toothbrush to keep it at bay. A lady on another boat heard us talking about trying to get up a few really tough rust marks; so she offered us something she called “toxic waste” that is apparently available in Mexico, but would not be a “politically correct” cleaning solvent in the U.S. She warned us not to touch it with our bare hands, which gave us some pause. We tried some on the rust spots that develop between the stainless steel stanchions and the fiberglass of the boat. The rust came right up, but we noticed that it started stripping the stainless steel of its shine; so we suddenly developed a politically correct attitude about the stuff.

The marina we are in is a brand new one that was supposed to be completed by December 15th, the date of our arrival. Unfortunately, like a lot of projects I have personally been part of in my career, the project is not on time, and it may be over budget as well. The day after we arrived was Sunday; so there was very little work being done. However, on Monday the place looked like an anthill with workers everywhere – some dredging up the bottom, some laying concrete, some building fences, some wiring the electricity to the docks, some even laying thatch on the roof (thatched roofs are everywhere around here and supposedly they keep the rain off during the rainy season, but we won’t be around to see it). Suddenly we have hot water in the showers. I notice the dredging activity is going around the clock; so that must be one task that is further behind than the others.

One thing I have noticed here is that, unlike building activities I have observed in the U.S., everyone here is working, and working diligently – in other words, there are no groups of supervisors standing around talking, while one or two men do the work. Naturally there are fewer pieces of heavy equipment being used, and more labor intensive activities, but it seems they are progressing as quickly as they would with the machinery – and probably at less cost.
And it’s not just the marina being constructed. We took a walk the next day and noticed dozens of structures being built including homes, apartments, condominiums, timeshares, golf and tennis clubs and more. Apparently La Cruz is just a few years behind Puerto Vallarta in being developed. We were told in San Blas that a lot of the residents there were driven out of their homes in Puerto Vallarta to make way for the new development there. We also noticed a lot of beautiful homes set into the hills on the way down the coast; so it won’t be long until there may not be too many small villages left.

We went into Puerto Vallarta today by bus – a distance of 8-10 miles that took 45 minutes by bus. We stopped in a mall and got our weekly dose of McDonald’s hamburgers. We also noted dozens of high-end restaurants that would destroy our daily budget with one meal. The city itself, and the outlying areas around it, are copying the look and feel of any typical U.S. tourist city. We decided we much prefer the smaller towns and villages we have been visiting. The problem at the moment is that we need parts for our autopilot, something for one of our sails, and some canvas shade covers that need to be shipped here from the U.S.; so we will have to cool our heels until the shipments arrive.

La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta are just two towns/cities that lie along the edge of Banderas Bay, supposedly the second largest bay in North America – probably after the Chesapeake. It is a full 15 miles across, which means a 2-3-hour sail just to cross it. Tomorrow we intend to do a day-sail in the bay to see if we can spot some of the hundreds of whales and manta rays that are entering the bay just at this time of year to propagate the species and thrill the tourists. We’ll let you know how that turns out. More later . . .

December 11, Mantenchan Bay--Sheilagh's View

Its Tuesday, December 11, 2007, (I had to check at the bottom of my computer because days are starting to blur, a good thing). We’re in a large, shallow bay just south of San Blas, a little fishing town before Puerto Vallarta, which is a two day sail south of here. THIS is what we thought Mexico would look like. We arrived late yesterday and settled in just as the sun was setting behind a point with palm trees silhouetted. The bay wraps around us ¾ of the way (the entrance being the other ¼) and it is all beach backed by an old banana plantation. We were cautioned to anchor out about a mile or the “no see ums” would eat us alive! We were sure to put up the screens on the boat, spray those with repellant and then rigged a screen for the companionway entrance. No bugs yet.

When we dinghied in this morning we saw that there are thatched stalls most of the way around the beach with hammocks, plastic chairs and booths for buying food and beer. There are also coconut husks that are burned out that they use as “smudge pots” to ward off the bugs. We walked down some dirt road to the paved road to catch a bus to town. Each place we stop and explore has gotten increasingly intriguing—San Blas is a delightful place with the classic plaza, a rather garish church (with reminder not to enter with sleeveless shirts or shorts) and a “Mercado”, a series of vegetable, meat, fish and canned food stores under one roof. I’m getting better at picking out produce and paying. For bread and vegetable/fruit shops, you take a tray and tongs (for the breads and rolls) and load up what you want then give it to the “caja” who totals it up and collects your pesos. Two little kids (from the U.S.) who are cruising with their parents observed (loudly as kids are wont) that the bread shop is “dirty”—as kids are wont, they were right! There’s a different expectation about the cleanliness thing….bees and flies were crawling all over the breads and just got shooed away. We learned to carry our own toilet paper because it is often missing from a bathroom (as well as the toilet seat sometimes!) and its customary to place the used toilet paper in a trash can beside the toilet! And since I’m talking cleanliness, we take the veggies home and soak them in water with bleach added to be sure there is no bacteria on them. My stomach still gets tight on the overnight passages and I don’t need real bacteria to complicate my system!!

The vegetation is much more lush than on the Baja side, it’s got a very tropical feel to it. We’re going on a jungle tour tomorrow morning. Apparently there is a small river that comes down beside the town and several enterprising people take people up the river in pangas—seems there are crocodiles in them waters and a great variety of birds. . I forgot my camera again today but will bring it tomorrow for sure.

The next day we’re going to go to another bay a day’s sail away and then we’ll get into Puerto Vallarta. It’s so clear and quiet here, “the big city” may be annoying. I’ll let you know! Each place has such a different flavor, its difficult to make comparisons.

December 12th – Matanchen Bay – Jim’s Blog #7

On December 9th we left Mazatlan for an overnight sail to Isla Isabela, a National Wildlife Preserve off the coast, that was on our way to Puerto Vallarta. The day before we celebrated Sheilagh’s birthday on the 8th by joining our friends, Ed and Cornelia (of A Cappella) and Steve and Denise Pepper (of Brendan) at a poolside cantina at the El Cid hotel for carne asada tacos and Margaritas – treated by Steve and Denise. We followed that with massages as we had planned, along with our friends, Ed and Cornelia, and finished off the day with a fairly good prime rib dinner – treated by Ed and Cornelia. Beef does not seem to be something that the chefs down here in Mexico practice with much; so the steaks and prime rib can get pretty tough. Thankfully this one was fairly tender. One also has to be careful ordering fish in Mexico, because the first one I ordered (in La Paz) stared back at me with its full head and tail lying on the plate. I sent it back to the kitchen to have the head and tail cut off, but I still had trouble eating it after having seen it eye-to-eye earlier.

As we left the harbor and raised our sails, we noticed the furling lines (which we had just replaced) were tangled in the reefing lines, so we had to point the boat into the wind and carry out a fix on the fly. Just as we finished the repair we noticed a ruffled sea approaching from the north, indicating approaching wind. Then just as we turned back south, a brisk 13 knot breeze hit our sails from the rear allowing us to shut down our engine and sail. That 13 knot wind continued to push us south all day on a fairly flat sea. Both Sheilagh and I felt it was one of the finest days of sailing we had ever had. We put up the Monitor self-steering gear, set the angle of the boat with the wind, and sat back with novels and read and took naps for the rest of the day. The wind finally died during Sheilagh’s 9 PM – 12 Midnight shift, which forced us to take in the sails and start the engine.

We arrived at Isla Isabela a couple of hours before dawn so we heaved to and waited for dawn, along with two other sailboats that did the same thing. This island was filmed by Jacques Cousteau 30+ years ago, and is known for its blue-footed boobies. There is very little anchoring space and what space there is has a bad exposure to the south. We listened to the weather report at 7 AM before entering the anchorage and learned that large swells were expected that would make anchoring there both uncomfortable and dangerous, if our anchor should drag. As a result we took a turn about the island and headed off to Matanchen Bay near San Blas, which was our backup destination. We didn’t see any blue-footed boobies up close, but we did see a thermal generated by a southerly wind coming up against a south-facing cliff that must have contained 500 birds soaring without any need to flap their wings. As a glider pilot I was envious of the birds and the thermal they had all to themselves.

Isla Isabella with hundreds of birds overhead A shrimper with birds waiting in the rigging

After leaving Isla Isabela, we motored for about 6 hours to get to San Blas, surrounded by such flat seas toward the end of the trip that the surface seemed like a vast pool of mercury with no hint of wind ruffling the surface. We encountered numerous shrimpers with large nets hanging on both sides of the boat, maneuvering to scoop the shrimp from the bottom in the thousands. We also saw what appeared to be a breaking wave directly across our bow, and we instantly feared a reef that we hadn’t heard about. We slowed immediately, turned away, and consulted the charts and cruisers’ guides – but found nothing there. As we approached more closely we found that the phenomenon was caused by small fish leaping in the air in groups that had the appearance of fans standing and cheering in sequence to form a “wave” in the stands of a football game. The birds noticed this as well and came diving in like fighters strafing the surface until they dived underneath and emerged with whole fish that they swallowed down as they took off again.

San Blas is a fishing community with one of the prettiest town squares we have seen yet. Fronting on the square is an old dilapidated church beside a newer gaudy one. We wondered why they hadn’t torn the old church down until we learned that it had been immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in a poem called “the Bells of San Blas.” I guess it pays to keep the old church around, if that helps bring in the crowds. As soon as I can get to a web site, I plan to find out what the poem was written to commemorate. When I find out I will let you know, unless one of you discovers it first and responds to the blog.

The old church and the new one actually <<<>>>

As we toured the town we continually heard large firecrackers being set off in various locations. We asked about them and found out that we were there on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is what the firecrackers were celebrating. I’m not sure how the sound of gunfire would be appreciated by Our Lady, but the local dogs seemed to take it in stride along with the local people. So now we have attended celebrations of the Revolution in La Paz, a world class marathon in Mazatlan, and Our Lady of Guadalupe in San Blas. Apparently Mexicans know how to celebrate life a bit more than we ever did.

This morning we took the “jungle cruise” up the local river surrounded by mangrove trees and a variety of other flora and fauna. We had heard there were crocodiles in the river, and were poised to take pictures of them, but we encountered only a small 3’ croc lying on a log, which we would have missed if the guide hadn’t pointed it out. The crocodile was hardly visible, so we got no good pictures of it, but here are a couple of pictures we did get of a bird and an iguana. We saw lots of birds, a couple of iguanas, the baby crocodile and, thankfully, no snakes. Instead of showing our wildlife pictures, which don't begin to compare to what you see on TV every day, I will show some tame-life pictures of me and our friends, Denise and Steve Pepper (of the sailing vessel, Brendan).

Back in the boat this afternoon I pulled out our hookah – no, not the opium pipe – this is an air compressor assembly with air hoses that allows Sheilagh and me to dive down to a depth of 20’ as we breathe through regulators attached to the air hoses strapped to our backs. We bought it specifically to allow us to clean the bottom of our boat periodically, so we don’t develop a floating garden on the hull. We also intend to use it to do some snorkeling in areas where additional depth is called for. Sheilagh begged off on the hull cleaning, mentioning that she would be continuing to cook on this trip, so I can see that we probably didn’t need to buy two hoses for this function. As it was, the hull was covered with a thin film of green, which came off easily on a Teflon pad. The biggest problem I had was an improperly sized weight belt that kept sliding off my hips and down to my ankles, reminding me of my earlier days as a toddler, when I couldn’t keep my pants up.

Here is the Hookah setup, driven by a small 12 volt battery behind the air compressor box. The floating bladder continues to supply air if the battery runs out or the battery cables come unplugged.

Tomorrow we head to Chapala, another small bay on the way to Puerto Vallarta. More later . . .

December 8th – Mazatlan – Jim’s Blog #6

Today is Sheilagh’s 60th birthday and she has given me permission to reveal that fact. It helps that she looks an attractive 40 or so and has kept her youthful enthusiasm about nearly everything. Yesterday I challenged her to climb a stone stairway to the top of a cliff to get a cerveza in the restaurant on top – yes I went with her. She wasn’t excited about it, but she did go along and helped count the 179 steps it took to get to the top. What made this little diversion exciting was the weather-beaten and cement-cracked set of irregular stone steps clinging to the side of the cliff with the handrail broken off in places. Naturally we forgot the camera, but we can assure you that the view was worth the effort.

On top in the courtyard of the restaurant was an old artillery piece that was trained on the entrance to the main port – we’re talking very old artillery here. It seemed similar to the old artillery we saw at Fort Point at the southern foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, where artillery was set up in the mid 1800’s to defend against the South in the Civil War. Our Mexico Boating Guide (by Captains John and Patricia Rains) mentions that the U.S. Navy occupied Mazatlan for 8 months during the Mexican-American War; so that may be the date of the weapon.

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Back to Sheilagh’s birthday – we will be luxuriating with another couple in a local spa associated with the El Cid Hotel all afternoon, with prime rib for dinner. Massages will be in order for all, along with sipping umbrella-drinks by the pool. We noticed a couple of other tourist women on the bus yesterday as we returned to the marina, and we decided they couldn’t be sailboat cruisers. Their fingernails were long and well groomed and all the usual makeup was in place, along with hairdos. One could see that they weren’t in the habit of handling lines, fixing the plumbing, or doing oil changes on the engine – all of which Sheilagh cheerfully helps out with or does by herself. The spa treatment is to restore some semblance of femininity to her, although I prefer women who are less concerned about their looks and more eager to get their hands dirty.

We took the time, while in the marina over the past week, to fix a couple of things on the boat that were damaged on our trip over from La Paz, and we replaced our Mexican courtesy flag. We took one trip to do some body surfing on the beach, but found the waves had been blown out by a stiff ocean breeze. We also did some shopping in the local market, where we attempted to get Sheilagh over her fear of negotiating a good price for a piece of clothing she wanted. The salesgirl was asking 50 pesos ($5) for the item, but Sheilagh considered the price a low one and thought the girl could use the money; so she was ready to pay for it. I stepped in and bought a baseball cap that was listed at 50 pesos – I think this was the 50-peso store – and suggested a price of 90 pesos for both items. I knew I could have gone lower when the salesgirl immediately said okay and didn’t have to consult with her manager. We decided we should have offered 30 pesos each and ended up with a price of 80 pesos at the very most for both items.

It is difficult to try to bargain, when the price is so much better than it would be in the U.S., but both the buyer and seller are not really happy unless there is some negotiation. If we willingly pay the asking price of 50 pesos, the seller thinks she should have suggested a higher price to begin with. If we don’t get a lower price than the asking one, we think we paid too much. I still remember coming back from a shopping trip in Bangkok with a hammock I had gotten for $10 from an asking price of $15. I was happy until the next guy showed up with the very same hammock that he had gotten for $5. He was pleased until the best bargainer in the squadron returned with the identical hammock for $1.50. I assume the hammock cost about $.50 or less to make, so the seller realized a profit of 20 times his cost from me.

Mazatlan has been a very enjoyable place for the past week, but it is time to move on. We will be heading south to Puerto Vallarta tomorrow and we will write more from there. We will be buddy-boating with Ed and Cornelia Gould of A Cappella; so we are staying in touch with other boaters on at least a daily basis. There is a short wave net every morning at 7 AM, called the Amigo Net, where many cruisers sign in and give their essential travel data; so if they fail to check in the next day, someone can follow up. We also get a good read of the daily forecast from a weatherman on that net each morning to keep us up on high seas or high winds that we should avoid.

All of our travels are dependent on the weather, as we are not fans of sailing in storms. There is also a reason why cruisers “set sail to” instead of “travel to” other places – because we do set sails and do our best to get to where we are going in a straight line. However, the wind and weather can cause us to veer away from our set course, or even seek shelter in another location; so if you don’t hear from us for awhile, please don’t panic. We will be checking in when we can. This next trip should take about 4-5 days before we will be back in Wifi range. More later . . .

December 4th – Mazatlan – Jim’s Blog #5

The day after we got here in Mazatlan we heard that there was an event on the beach scheduled for 5 PM (just before dark) to release baby tortoises for their “run to the sea.” We took a bus into town and walked all along the Malecon (the wide avenue bordering the ocean where it is possible to observe the beach without a hotel getting in the way) watching the waves, the bathers, and the setup of a number of fireworks launch areas. We finally found the location for the tortoise run, noticing that there seemed to be a lot of birds checking out the situation as well. I have to admit I was anticipating the clash of nature – birds against turtles – that I had seen in nature documentaries. The beach was lined with at least a couple of hundred kids protected by a metal barrier from the onlookers. Each of the participants was given two or three small turtles by the local aquarium and instructed to release them on the sand all at once. It was quite a picture to see the little kids urging on the tiny turtles in their attempt to get into the water.

The birds stayed away – probably because of the crowd of people on the beach – and the turtles variously scrambled for the water or waited for the water to come to them. This was no real-life Jacques Cousteau documentary of the trials and tribulations of baby turtles trying to plod across yards of beach from their nests with birds and other animals picking them off one-by-one; so that only a few make it into the sea. The turtles were released a few feet from the edge of the lapping waves and it took them very little effort to make it as they were shepherded by nature-lovers all the way. Without natural predators interrupting their “journey” I wonder if we might not be causing an overcrowding condition for turtles in the future that will require us to introduce a natural enemy or allow humans to imbibe more turtle soup.

The tortoise launch area on the beach at Mazatlan - the small black specks are tortoises.

In this protected scenario the incoming waves flipped the tiny turtles up in the air and back up the beach; so it appeared that only a few were making headway. Some of the kids seemed to be crying that they had to give up the turtles, while others were coaxing them onward. One adult was bent over with his camera focused on a single turtle to record its first encounter with the sea – only to have an errant wave nearly flood his camera. I could swear that as he stepped back swiftly, he crushed a turtle behind him, but he may have just compressed it into the sand. I thought a photo of that would have been distinctive – which is why some people call me jaded. Frankly, I thought it would have been easier to use the turtles as skipping stones and have a turtle-skipping competition, rather than make them struggle on the sand and face a wall of water coming at them every few seconds – but what do I know of nature?

We learned that the fireworks displays had been set up along the beach to celebrate an international marathon scheduled for the next day, and the rockets were going to be lit off at 8 PM; so Ed and Cornelia Gould, Sheilagh and I joined some other cruisers for happy hour in an outdoor restaurant to await the action. A host of dignitaries was first introduced on the dais near us – bookended by a number of attractive young women in two-piece costumes (also wearing tennis shoes, and ball caps) who were identified as the “Pacifico Cerveza Girls.” It seems the marathon was being sponsored by the Pacifico and Modelo beer companies – I guess beer is as good as pasta to give the runners that carbo-loading to run a good race. The fireworks were set off a few at a time from about five separate places on the beach and all together they lasted for about an hour. We happened to be a few dozen feet from one of the firework setups; so it was as if we saw one entire set of fireworks "up close and personal."

Just another gorgeous sunset in the tropics – here in Mazatlan

The way home was equally exciting as we boarded a "pulmonia" jeep (a Volkswagen body with an open-air chassis, named for the “pneumonia” it might cause from riding in the open air, I suppose), for the wild ride home with a driver who turned up the music and used his horn to move the other traffic along. Three of us were wedged into the back seat holding onto the roll bar to keep from spilling out the side as we rounded various corners. The 250 pesos apiece to get back to the marina from the beach in the pulmonia was a bit more expensive (30 times more expensive) than the bus ride to the beach for 8 pesos, but how do you compare a Disneyland E-ticket ride with a drive to the store.

Yesterday, Sheilagh and I set out for the local shopping areas by bus, and discovered Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Sam’s Club, McDonald’s, Burger King, Dairy Queen, Radio Shack, and Baskin & Robbins – which goes to show that you can’t escape the large conglomerates from the U.S. We did our best to shop at local places, but we noted a distinct lack of air-conditioning in the local shops, and it was “tropical hot” most of yesterday. One is sorely tempted to go back to the known stores, particularly with sweat dripping from your brow while having difficulty communicating with the local shopkeepers who can only speak Spanish. Although, we carry along a dictionary, draw pictures, and try to communicate as best we can with hand signals, it is such a relief to encounter a clerk who can speak some English.

We also realized yesterday that it has been years since we have ridden in a bus as a main means of getting around. Now that we have more time and less income, we can take our time and actually enjoy the stop-and-go progress of a bus ride that costs us only 60 or 80 pesos – which is the equivalent of 60 or 80 cents. Why two prices? The $.80 charge is for an air-conditioned bus, although we usually just take the first one that comes along. Yesterday we noted that one young man stood up to let an old man sit down; so courtesy is alive and flourishing. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with Sheilagh’s response, when I asked her if I should stand up and let a middle-aged lady sit down. Sheilagh whispered that I was more decrepit than the lady; so I should keep my seat. How’s that for spousal support?

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We managed to walk at least two miles in the hot sun as part of our outing, and discovered a small outdoor-under-the-trees restaurant where we had pork sandwiches with a special sauce. We were directed to the specialty on the menu by a couple who had cruised all the way down to the south of Mexico in previous years and had decided to make Mazatlan their home. We’re running into quite a few cruisers who are making various Mexican ports their home. Apparently it is relatively inexpensive to buy a slip in a marina and just keep the boat there year around. Some go back to the states for the summer and return here for the winter. Since we already own the boat, we have an automatic second home that we can sail anywhere or ship anywhere.



One cruiser we talked to made it all the way to Australia and decided he didn’t want to continue around the world. He used a shipping method called “Dockwise” where a boat freighter is designed to be sunk, the sailboats are floated on, the freighter is raised back up, and the sailboats are lashed down to supports on the freighter. The freighter then brought his boat back to Vancouver, British Columbia, along with a number of other boats (both sail and motor) where he wanted to cruise in the Pacific Northwest for awhile. He didn’t have to unload his possessions from the boat, and the cost was just a few thousand dollars. So there are many options for us as we contemplate where we want to go and what we want to do in this cruising life. More later . . .

December 1st – Mazatlan – Jim’s Blog #4

Whew, we finally made it across the Sea of Cortez! This was more of an ordeal than a pleasure trip from a number of perspectives. The wind was stronger than was forecast, the swells were a bit steeper, and both Sheilagh and I had a bit of Montezuma’s revenge to deal with (apparently based on something we ate or drank during our last day in La Paz). The trip across took 50 hours – two days and two nights – with the need for one or the other of us to be on watch during that entire time.

The first two days and one night were great from a sailing perspective, since we had a strong 20 knot wind pushing us from the port (left) side rear of the boat, and were able to sail for nearly 36 hours straight. The problem was the direction of the swells that came across the bow from left to right and caused the boat to be constantly climbing the front of them and then diving down the other side. It makes for a great amusement park ride, but who wants a roller coaster ride for 30 straight hours? Neither Sheilagh nor I felt much like eating, much less preparing something to eat, in the constantly moving galley. The stove pivots, and there is even a way to lash oneself in the galley, but we had to close all the ports to keep the seawater out; so it was extremely airless in the cabin area.

On top of that we were taking turns in the small head getting rid of whatever stomach ailment we had picked up in La Paz. It’s actually a blessing that the head is so small; so one can brace oneself against the movement of the boat while doing one’s business. Sheilagh had replaced the toilet seat from the original boat with a larger diameter one as a birthday present for me last year, and it is the type of gift that keeps on giving - or taking away as the case may be!

We used our fabulous wind vane to steer the boat during that time, allowing us to recline as best we could in the cockpit and be ready to take over if the wind vane had problems. It worked like a charm, and both Sheilagh and I are much more confident of it than ever before. At dinnertime on the second day, we realized we were approaching Mazatlan too quickly – the wind had been pushing us at 7 knots, not the 5 knots that we had planned for; so we had to take a timeout to slow down. We heaved to, which is setting up the boat into the wind with the sails and the rudder at opposite angles. This allows the boat to sit fairly still in the water and simply drift downwind at a very slow speed. There we sat for about 5 hours to make sure we didn’t get into Mazatlan before dawn, since it is extremely difficult to get into a new harbor safely at night.

At midnight, of course, the wind died, the seas quieted, and we had to start up the engine to make up the time we would need to get to Mazatlan by dawn. We still dawdled a bit at low rpm, so we wouldn’t get there too soon. Then four hours later we encountered 15 knot winds coming directly at us along with 2-3 foot swells – a complete reversal of the winds and seas in just a 20-mile stretch. As we plowed into the swells head on, the boat began hobby-horsing up and down, and we lost even more speed. So we increased the engine speed to give us 6 knots, and were lucky to get 4 knots against the seas. So, after wasting about 5 hours hove to, we were now trying our best to get to Mazatlan during the window of time when they would let us into the harbor and avoid the fast-moving tidal currents entering the port. Lesson learned: wait to heave to until you are within 10-20 miles of your destination – don’t expect the current winds and waves to continue. I hate being a rookie at this stuff!

The big disappointment was the electronic autopilot that we have for the purpose of guiding the boat when we are motoring. After spending $500 to “get it fixed” before we started out, we still had an autopilot that wouldn’t steer a straight course. When that happens, either Sheilagh or I have to stay behind the wheel and steer the boat the entire time the engine is running – which turned out to be 10 hours straight. By the end of the motoring, we were both grabbing cat naps for an hour at a time while the other stayed by the wheel. At the end of the trip we were both asking ourselves when the fun would start. Friends of ours had a good autopilot, and were able to relax most of the time that they had to motor. Now we definitely need to get our autopilot fixed or replaced before we go any further.

One morning we ended up with a squid (about 6 inches long – not the giant type that tried to destroy Captain Nemo’s Nautilus) and a couple of flying fish onboard. The waves must have flung them aboard as they were coating the boat with sea salt. I had to keep Sheilagh from biting off the heads and eating the fish right there – she has a hunter/killer instinct – but she threw them back this time. The fact that she hadn’t felt well enough to cook over the previous two days probably had a lot to do with her decision.

We finally got into Mazatlan yesterday morning, and immediately washed the boat down with fresh water, and hustled over to the Marina Mazatlan office to check in and take a shower. Thank goodness the marina staff is used to cruisers who haven’t showered for days, as they were nice enough not to comment on our body odor (which we both noticed on ourselves). After a shower and a lunch with a large Margarita each, we retired to the boat and slept for the rest of the afternoon.

Last night we awoke to a drenching downpour of rain – hastily closing all the hatches and ports to keep out the water. This morning we find that our boat has been freshly cleaned by nature – we only wish we had the energy last night to go out in the rain and raise all the sails to get them washed. I’m afraid we’re not that dedicated. Today we will check out the town and replace the Mexican courtesy flag that was blown off the boat two nights ago. More later!

November 27th – La Paz – Jim’s Blog #3

We are beginning to know our way around La Paz quite a bit better – the places to get specific types of hardware (ferreterias), the shops that sell vegetables and meats that can be trusted to be both fresh and clean, the pharmacies that sell prescription drugs, the local restaurants that can be trusted to wash the salad-makings in clean water, etc. Naturally none of these is located next to one another, and all seem to be about a mile or so from the marina; so we are getting plenty of exercise. Based on our search for “clean and safe” items to eat, you can see that we take a lot more care about what we buy and try in Mexico than we would in the U.S. On the other hand we don’t want to cling to tourist places to eat and buy food that would keep us isolated from the country and the people we are trying to get to know better.

Saturday we heard about a Sunday flea market that required a bus ride to get to. A bunch of us decided to go see what it had to offer. The bus driver had never heard of it, and a Mexican student on the bus attempted to find out where we wanted to go using her schoolgirl English. All we knew is that we were to take the bus to a cemetery on a particular road and then walk northeast along the highway until we saw the market. The student tried to persuade us to go to the Soriana Mall in that general area, but we persisted and the bus driver dropped us off in front of the cemetery with a shake of his head, indicating “gringos are crazy.”

We trekked along the highway for a quarter of a mile and then ran into a succession of shacks that were loaded with old tableware, cast-off clothing, broken toys, damaged electronics – all piled in heaps on long tables. I’m sure the locals couldn’t understand why “rich gringos” would be shopping at the equivalent of Goodwill stores – and we couldn’t understand it either. We trekked back down the road to pick up a bus to the mall, where Sheilagh and I had a McDonald’s hamburger in the “International Food Court.” We then proceeded by bus downtown, where we could walk a half mile back to the marina. Adventure comes in all shapes and sizes.

During the search for the market I found I remembered a lot of Spanish that I had learned 45 years ago during 4 years in high school and college. Words would suddenly pop into my head that turned out to be right for the conversation. I’m sure my tenses weren’t all correct for the verbs I was using, but the nouns came fairly quickly with the male “el” and female “la” seeming part of the noun itself. That night at dinner I confidently ordered a Margarita en las piedras con sal (a Margarita on the rocks with salt) only to have the waiter ask “you want your Margarita on your feet?”

It turns out that the local idiom uses “en las rocas” for drinks “on the rocks,” (or “con hielo” meaning “with ice”). I took a lot of abuse from the others at the table for that little gaffe, but I later looked up “piedras” and found it means “rocks” such as cliffs or crags. You’ve got to watch out for that high school Spanish that isn’t designed to teach one how to order drinks. Incidentally, the word for “feet” is “los pies” – pronounced “peeays;” so it must have been my bad pronunciation to the waiter that started it all off.

We got back to the marina after dinner and were walking along the dock to our boat, when we saw a man beside his boat in the water clinging to a dock line between his boat and the dock. He didn’t say anything as we approached; so our first thought was that he was cooling off in the warmish water. On second thought, we couldn’t see how he planned to get back up on the dock or on the boat; so I asked him if he needed help. He said he thought he could handle it, but that he had fallen in while checking on his dock tie and had been hanging there for about an hour. We got him to put his legs up on the dock and then we grabbed his arms to pull him onto the dock. It was apparent that he had been drinking heavily; so we escorted him up and onto his boat. If he had been hanging there for an hour in less warm water, he could have died from hypothermia.

Just another adventure while cruising, with some lessons to be learned: 1) don’t check your dock lines while drunk, 2) cruise in warm water that won’t cause you to freeze to death if you do check your dock lines while drunk, and 3) ask for help when you need it. The second lesson above is the reason why Sheilagh and I are planning to do our cruising between the 30th parallels north and south of the Equator, where it will always be warm.

Tomorrow we set out for Mazatlan, which is across the Sea of Cortez on the mainland of Mexico. The trip takes two days and two nights of sailing and the weather forecaster predicts some good winds that will let us sail rather than using our engine. We’ll post more from Mazatlan.