Mazatlan, Mexico

Posted 8 December 2010

Mazatlan is great, we are having so much fun that I do not know where to start. OK... from the beginning, we left Los Frailes on Thursday morning 2 December and sailed on a beam reach most of the way. It was blowing 15 to 16 knots constant with gusts of 18/20 at times. We manage to sail about ¾ of the way before the wind died and we went the rest of the way under motor. We dropped anchor late Friday afternoon.

Saturday morning we decided to leave all chores for the next day and head into town to explore. There were several cruising couples on the bus with the same idea. On route to the centre of old town, Dinis jumped up and started to wave through the window as he saw a familiar face. He was unable to flag this person down and ask the bus driver to slow down and made an exit. Now all this happened very fast and Dinis disappeared before I could do anything. The other cruising couples looked at me a bit confused and said 'your husband just got off the bus'. I managed to smile and said 'yes, he saw someone we know and was trying to get in touch'. I am sure that all this must have looked strange. Anyway I got off at the next bus stop and started to make my way down the street to find Dinis.

I found Dinis and Hugh 2 blocks down. After Dinis got off the bus he ran after Hugh unable to remember his name. Now how do you get a person's attention without knowing his name. The only thing Dinis manage to shout is 'Hey Cannuck...' Well it is great that we all manage to connect that day. Hugh is visiting his parents Trudie and Steve. They stay part of the year in Mazatlan. We all know each other from Vancouver, all liveaboards at Shelter Island, Richmond. Before we left on our trip we got all their contact information, but we lost these details and were wondering how we will be able to get in touch with Steve and Trudie.

We met up with Steve and Trudie and their friend Ron later Saturday afternoon at a fantastic restaurant. They told us that on Sunday they are going to Stone Island as there is another great restaurant. They usually take the panga there, so we all decided that it would be more fun taking the boat there, anchor and then going ashore with the dinghy.

On Sunday we anchored off Stone Island and Hugh decided that swimming to shore will be great, the rest of us decided that we will take a chance on Dinis and my 'not so perfect' beach landing record. We went ashore without any problems. Great our beach landing went up to about 70% !!

We had a lovely time catching up with events from home and life in Mexico. The food was great again. The time flew by and we decided that it is about time to head back as the sun is getting low. Should we make several dinghy rides to the boat or would all 6 adults fit in the dinghy ? Sure we will all fit. Trudie got into the dinghy first as not to get wet and the rest of us watching the waves, deciding when to make a run for it, so that Dinis can get the engine started and get us out of there. Neat less to say our co-ordination was not in sync. By the time Dinis got into the boat and got the engine started, Trudie got soak with several waves, the dinghy looked like a small swimming pool and both Hugh and me were wet. We manage to get ourselves into the dinghy. Where are Steve and Ron ? Oh no, knee deep in the waves out of reach. Dinis tried to stear the dinghy closer, avoiding the waves, but it was not close enough without Steve and Ron getting wet getting aboard. By now we were all laughing so hard. Well our beach landing record went down again, but we will all remember this day. We hadn't had so much fun in a long time !!

On Monday Steve and Trudie took us shopping. We needed a major provisioning, the last one was in Vancouver. After Sam's Club (Costco) and Soriana (Safeway) we manage to pack Steve's minivan quite full. Steve, Trudie, Ron, Carol and Hugh took us for supper. These Mexican restaurants are great, the food is fantastic. At night Steve and Hugh drove us back. We manage to put all the groceries in the dinghy. It took us about 2 hours packing all the provisions.

On Tuesday we drop the laundry for washing and went to the market to buy some seafood as Dinis and myself want to cook our friends supper. We did not find what we looked for and decided that prawns will do. We bought 4 kilos of prawns, some onion, garlic, tomatoes and cilantro. Dinis did a fine job and we had a great time. We also met Steve and Trudie's Mexican family, Raul, Lupita, Alex (middle son) and Rodriquez (youngest son). What a great family.

Well it can not be all fun, so today we have to do some boat chores. On Thursday we are meeting our friends again at Stone Island and then we will monitor the weather to leave and head south when weather permits.