Back in Mazatlan

Same marina, new slip....Way better

Whats that boat in the background....?





When I arrived back in Mazatlan it was sooooooo hot as to be almost unbearable.....Actually it WAS unbearable. The daytime temps were in the 90's with humidity running 85%. Sure glad I had added A/C to the boat. It ran 24/7  for the first two weeks, then just during the daytme after that. I have made the committ, committ, commitment (Tom, that joke is for you) never to return till Oct. 15th or later. 


After the first two weeks I began to venture forth and re-connect with all the people I had met here the season before. Coffee at Calypso, dinners out and even a baseball game to see the local semi-pro team. It was still blazing hot, but mostly bearable.


My friends Wally and Steve talked to me about making a trip south to La Cruz for thanksgiving  and they finally talked me into it. It's an overnight run (24hours) for me so I volunteered to take crew. Wally took Colleen, Steve took Joanne and I took Kathy and her daughter Kathryn who are Canadians who live here full time. Kathy has no seagoing experience, but her daughter has crewed on a large sail boat, so I had deck boss with me on the trip south, plus a very good cook to man the galley. (note to all, Kathy is married and I'm a friend of her husband. Kathryn is 22)

We sailed with the tide on NOv. 18th to find flat seas and no wind. As wally and Steve we on sailboats, I gave them several hours head start as I planned on catching up with them someime at night. As soon as I cleared Deer Island, out went the riggers and in went the lures. After a few hours and two Dorado and two Bonito I reeled up and had the other two boats in sight. Wally , who was in the lead , radioed that he had run accross a long-line, but had cut himself free before he fouled his prop. He radioed his exact location, so Steve and I knew where to cross.


Next morning we all arrived in La Cruz.........

Driving California to Mazatlan

I left Ojai September 30th in my car for Mazatlan early in the morning. I had promised Rick (Mazatlan Yacht Services) I would stop in San DIego and pick up a "few" boxes of parts for him in San Diego.
This turned out to be 12 boxes and about 400 lb. of Zincs, varnish and other assorted things.
The first day I made it all the way to Nogales, Arizona, just accross from the Mexican border. I stayed in a cheap hotel next to a Mexican auto insurance office, where I got my policy.

The next morning I crossed the border and did the usual stop at Km. 21 where I got my car import permit and tourist visa. For some reason I failed to declare the US $3000.oo worth of parts I had aboard. DUH!!!
Mexico has great toll roads. Almost as good as the California "freeways". There are just a lot of toll booths along the way, but it's a lot better than taking the back roads through every little town. After a another day of driving ( you don;t want to drive at night, as cattle can wander onto the highways) I stopped in Los Moiches for the night.

Bright and early next day I set off again heading south only to be pulled over at another toll booth by the local "revenue agents" or customs officials. They happened to see all the boxes in my car and began to tear everything open for a look. They found the reciept for Rick's supplies and I had no proper import permit for all that stuff. NOTE: I DO have an import permit (for 10 years) for misc. stuff for MY boat, but NOT for as much as I was carrying. After they suggested I return to Nogales, Mx to obtain the proper permit, we agreed that 1300 Peso's would smooth the way south for me if I paid them directly.
SO, I paid the bite and took off. Bad news was I paid them almost all the Peso's I had on hand and I had several more toll booth's to cross before Mazatlan.
I scrounged every peso coin I had in the car till I ran out. Then switched to US dollars (which they are NOT supposed to accept) to finish my trip south. It was a bit stressful, but I made it that afternoon...WHEW!!

I don;t have any pictures of my drive south and I'm waiting for some folks to Email me ones of my adventures since I returned. I'm working on that now........

My "Next big thing"

Update 12-13-2010...Owen Alexander was born and now I have a grandson!!!!!!!

2011, another summer of love

Alex and Kaitlyn's new house in Chile Reno

Me, Ron Hungate and Steve Mussio

Michael working on the road crew

I flew back to SoCal mid-June for a family visit, so much needed work ($) and to escape the heat of summer in Mexico. Father's Day was great!!...It also gave my ribs a chance to heal a bit more, although they still remind me from time to time, what happened.

While back in Southern California, I took time to do a road trip and  visit  Alex and Kaitlyn in Reno, Nv.

Father's Day 2011...Missing from poto is #1 Son Mark

They had just bought a new house and are expecting my first grandchild (a boy) in December. After spending a week with them I drove north to Portland to see some friends I had not seen in a good while. I drove to Portland Ore. and saw Ron and Toni Hungate, Steve and Martha Mussio. I had last laid eyes on all of them in 1980. Steve and I had played in a band back in the late 1960's with my cousin Raleigh and both Ron and Steve had worked for me when I was in the trash business. What a trip to get the hang out with them for a while. Also living in Portland was my x business partner and good friend Tom Morton. Tom had helped me deliver my boat from SoCal to Puerto Vallarta late last year.

Lady Stylish (Ronelle)

Most of the rest of the summer I spent working and staying at Ronelle's and my sister's house. I worked some, layed around a lot and entertained Ronelle's friends with my shaving cream routine (Don' ask!)

October 1st rolled around and Mexico began calling. I decided to drive my car back down to Mazatlan.......But that a whole other story, LOL........Stay tuned.............

7 weeks later.........

Chillin at the hospital

Well, it sure went slow, but I'm about 84.273% back to normal. In two weeks I'm flying home for the summer. It was a really slow recovery. I read about 20 books, watched a bunch of videos and went stir crazy. Actually the past few weeks I've been venturing out mornings for the coffee social at Calypso's.

Now  that I'm feeling well enough to have some fun in Mazatlan before I fly home. I have hired an Englishman (Tony) to look after Godzilla while I'm away. He currently has about 55 clients here in Marina Mazatlan, so I feel confident she'll be well taken care of in my absence.

We are comming into rainy season, and that meens tropical storms and hurricanes. I'll be taking most everything off the deck including the dingy and motor, bimini top , canvas dodgers and anything else that can be blown off by high winds. WHen a storm is imminent, Tony's crew doubles everyones dock lines, check fenders, etc. He also comes aboard monthly to run engines, air conditioners, check bilges, etc.

I had planned to haul the boat while I was gone, but I haven't heard a peep from my insurance company about paying my hospital bill, so that may have to wait till fall.

Dinner at a sidewalk cafe

Update 6-8-11....I took some pictures of Old Mazatlan on my last excursion into town and will post them here. Not sure how long I'll be home this summer, but I plan to write about whats going on there after I get settled in there....Also, the first hurricane of the season is on it's way. I can;t think of a better time to head north, LOL

Old Mazatlan

Tony and Mary @ Pedro & Lola's

Old Mazatlan has a colonial feel. Much of it is from the 19th century. The streets are clean and there are lots of sidewalk cafes where, on weekends, live music of all types is playing.

The whole rib story......

Ok, time to write the story of the rib deal and let everyone know the gory details. I was not going to elaborate on the event, but changed my mind. Not sure why, but maybe I'll get a kick out of reading it one day. Just not THIS day

I left my regular boarding steps in Channel Islands Harbor becuase I didn't have room aboard to carry them around. So, I either used the swim step at the stern, or found something to step on over the port gunnel if the boat was tied up bow first. At the time I had been using a half-full 5 gallon bucket of used oil as a step crawled aboard, put things away and lay down. For some reason the pain was bad, but at that time I had no idea of the damage. I actually slept most of the night but woke up the next morning not able to breathe very well. Word gets around the dock pretty fast and several people came by to enquire about me. I knew I had broken some ribs by that time and friends Joe and Joanne took me to a clinic for Xrays.

Xrays confirmed I had broken 4 ribs and the Doctor there prescribed some pain meds and told me to just refrain from any activity for 3-4 weeks and they would heal. At that time there appeared to be no bleeding or punctured organs. Back to the boat I went to do nothing, but the meds she had prescribed did not a bit of good to ease the pain. I started looking on line for information on rib injuries and found that the only treatment was pain managment so that one could breathe normally.

I put out a call to my fellow cruisers for something a bit stronger to ease my suffering and was given some Oxycodone. WOW, it was the 60's all over again, LOL. I took a small amount and began to feel some serious relief. By Friday late afternoon I was feeling much better, but sudenly started to get dizzy. I tried sitting in different positions but kept getting worse. I started to sweat a lot and my vision began to blur. By this time I sensed I was in some serious trouble and got on the raido and called for help. Within what seemed like a minute I had 10 people outside my boat ready to help. One of my dockmates (Rob) was a fireman/paramedic who came aboard and took a look. After about 3 seconds he said it was time to get to the hospital. BY then I could hardly stand and they used a dock cart to wheel me up the ramp to a waiting taxi. Another dockmate Karen took the taxi ride with me to the hospital along with my passport becaue by then I was a little out of it.

At the hospital the Doctors rushed me into the emergency O.R. and stuck a tube into my chest to drain the  blood that had started to pool. ( 1.5 liters by that time) My blood pressure was 40/60 and I think I was circling the drain by then.

6 days later they let me out with a bag and the tube still attached. A week after that they removed the tube. 2 weeks after that Im here writting about all of it. I'm almost back to normal now although I still sleep semi sitting up.

I think the most amazing part of this whole event was the speed and willingness of my fellow cruisers to spring into action. I had so many visitors at the hospital every single day. Even from people I hardly knew. WHen I got back to the boat I was brought food every day. People monitored the radio night and day in case I needed anything. People went shopping for me anytime I needed something. I have no doubt that had nobody asnwered my call for help that Friday nite I wouldn't be writting about this now.
I will never forget that, ever. It;s like a debt I can never repay.

By the way, I ordered a set of compact docksteps...DUH!!!

Mazatlan!!!!...(Part 1)

Isla Isabella

Rock at Isla Isabella

Tim and I left San Blas at 6 am March 27, with a planned stop at Isla Isabella. I did this so as to not arrive in Mazatlan at night and to cross the bar at San Blas at near high tide. Isabella is about 40 miles north of San Blas, and 90 miles south of Mazatlan. There is nothing on the island except birds!!!..Thousands of them. We got there at 11am and dropped the hook, planning on leaving for Mazatlan around 9pm.

During the day I noticed pangeros laying drift nets around the island. By 5 pm I was in danger of being encircled. The thought of trying to leave in the midle of the night with all those nets around prompted me to up anchor and get outta Dodge.

The weather forcast was for moderate winds and seas that evening, but it was an uncomfortable ride north . Smack dab on the bow. A steady fifteen knots and 4 foot chop. I set our speed at 6.5 knots, which I hoped would bring us into Mazatlan at daybreak.

13 hours later we spotted Isla Creston at the entrance to Mazatlan's commercial harbor entrance on the radar. The sky had just begun to lighten and we pressed on towards the entrance to Marina Mazatlan 8 miles further up the coast.

The marina entrance has a bar, but not nearly has shallow as San Blas. So even though it was low tide we powered through, past the newer El Cid Marina to Marina Mazatlan. This is where most of the cruisers I had met along the coast recomended. It was a good choice. A little older, a few less amenities, but cheaper. So many of the people I had met and talked to along my journey were here, I was amazed.
It seems to be a jumping off point for cruisers either heading into the Sea of Cortez for the summer, or leaving their boats here and flying/driving north to the U.S and Canada. There are also some cruisers who have moved ashore and live here year round. All in all a very friendly place. Perhaps more so than any other big city I have visited so far.

I first came to Mazatlan in 1971 with my Dad and some of our cousins. Wow, what a different town. It has expanded far north and modernized a great deal. Here in the marina, a lot of cruisers meet for coffee at a place called Calyipso. There, and on the net much discussion goes on as to the days events. It's hard to walk off the dock and not find a group of people, sitting at a sidewalk cafe, you have met and not sit for a spell and yak it up. Very socialble!!. The bus schedule is a lot easier to navigate than Puerto Vallarta's, it seems.

Tim and I after being up for 32 hours

Looking north

Mornings at Calypsos

Fish Market

Shrimp dinner with new friends

Godzilla resting in Marina Mazatlan

Marina Mazatlan

Island off Mazatlan

More on Mazatlan later, but here are a few pix for now......

San Blas...the Mosquito Coast.

Hard to Port!!!!!

San Blas actually turned out to be  bit of a suprise. Somethings good, somethings...well.

The first day I arrived, I anchored in the estuary, across from the marina. Although a free anchorage, it's right up against a mangrove swamp. At sunrise and sunset the no-see-ems come out to feast. I had planned on closing all windows and ports during these times and running the A/C, but suprise...The Genset would run for 15-20 minutes and then die. After filling the coolant tank a few times , I figured out that the heat exchanger had an internal leak. I'm growing weary of genset issues!!!..RRRRRRR!!!

Marina San Blas across from the estuary

Next morning I moved to the marina and sent an E mail to Jeff in Channel Islands Harbor for a replacement heat exchanger. This is the least expensive marina in Mexico. It's nice enough, but the bugs will eat you alive!!!

Shrimper "Docked" in San Blas estuary

My first night there I forgot to close the windows at sunset and work up the next morning looking like I had the measels. Luckily they didn't itch too badly so off to town I went in search of some repellant. As I walked into town I spotted a local restaurant/bar called BIlly Bob's. I walked in and it was another pleasant suprise. Mostly an Ex-Pat hangout and everyone there introduced themselves. What a cast of characters!!!. These were not cruisers, but people who lived there. And everyone had a story. This would make a great movie.  Even better was the advice I got for insect repellant!!!

Marina San Blas

Billy Bob's became my hang out for the week I was there. I met another captain named Tim Ray who volunteered to go with me for the 125 mile run to Mazatlan. He lives in San Blas, but said it was cheap to take a bus back, and he was interested in visiting Mazatlan anyway.

San Blas turned out to be a really nice place (except for the bugs). It was also incredibily cheap!. I had gotten used to Puerto Vallarta prices and was blown away by how much less expensive San Blas was. I think it was that it's not a huge tourist town. I re-porvisioned there. Two bags of fresh veggies (verduras) $1.50 US...!!!

After a week in San Blas it was time to get moving again. My new friend Tim signed on for the trip to Mazatlan....Next stop, Isla Isabella.......