PV to PE

Dear Blog,

Since our last update we have crossed from the pleasant and friendly northern half of Mexico to the dreaded and scornful south… Our first such unpleasant anchorage was Bahia Tenecatita. In this hellhole they only have two bays and one is protected by the other. The outside anchorage had a snorkeling spot called ‘the aquarium’. I thought it was impressive but I think Jacques Cousteau would have turned his nose up at the place. We got to so bored with snorkeling that we moved over to the other anchorage to see how much worse it could be. It was horrible. There were two sailboats and four powerboats. When I saw all those powerboats I said something like “Sylvie, I want to go home.”

Anyway, it actually seems like the second half of Mexico is better than that first, contrary to the above stated drivel.

Ummm, we actually sailed first to Chamela Bay and then Tenacatita, not that the order matters to you. But I know it matters to you, guy following the blog with detailed maps looking for holes to expose our story with. Well not this time!

The thing I wanted to mention about Chamela is that we entered the anchorage at night using our radar. Very sophisticated, I know. We were both crapping our pants but we eventually found our way in. Friends of ours did the same thing a few weeks later but managed to hit one of the many wooden fishing pens throughout the bay, leaving an ugly scar on their hull.

Our next destination was Barra de Navidad, for, you guessed it, Christmas. On that sail to Navidad we caught a big Yellow fin Tuna. Mmmmm, I bonked him on the head to death and then ate him for lunch.

There was also another incident along the way where we were trying to get our dinghy back into the water after having left it on the beach for a while. The trick is to wait for a lull between breakers and then gun it. Well I waited too long and the better part of a wave soaked our groceries and us, all to the great amusement of the onlookers at the beach. As we finally got away I noticed one lookey-loo filming us, so I did what any respectable citizen would do and I gave him the finger. La piece de resistance for his short film.

We had a wonderful little Christmas at Barra de Navidad. On Christmas eve our friends aboard Saltbreaker showed up after having hustled down the coast from the Sea of Cortez, a beautiful and undeveloped slot of ocean up north. Needless to say they were exhausted but happy to be in much warmer weather. We both needed

some gasoline so we cruised over to the Pemex (the federal monopoly on gas/diesel) but they were sold out of gas. Another boat seeking gas was playing music and enjoying themselves so we went to say hi. There were a few moments of hesitation between the time they offered us some of their champagne and to come wake-boarding with them in the nearby lagoon. But we soon accepted. Would we be kidnapped and held ransom, would they shot us at point blank like all Mexican drug lords do? You’ll have to ask us in person for this one. The details are just a bit too juicy.

Christmas day was delightful. The Saltbreaker fellas came over and we did secret santa. I got all things that are coconut. Heaven! Included was a 2-foot machete for cutting my own.

Early the next morning we rushed out of there for Zihuatenajo. Jeff Appelbe, our good friend and smuggler of boat goods was due to arrive on the 27th and it was going to take us two days to get there, leaving Jeff to fend for himself for a night in scary old Mexico. We motored at top speed burning diesel like it was free, due to the ever-present lack of wind. Our time in Zihuat shall be described later by the aforementioned visitor.

We had been planning some land travel to Mexico City for a long time and Zihuat seemed like a good jumping off spot. So we ever so hastily moved the boat over from a remote anchorage into one that was predominantly occupied by Canadian sailboats and Mexican fishing boats. We asked a nice couple from BC if they could “keep an eye on the boat for about 5 days”. They said sure at about 3pm and we were on the 7am bus the next morning.

We first crashed with an old traveling companion of Sylvie’s named Benjamin. An interesting, jovial, slightly insane dude but probably one of Mexico City’s finest residents. He showed us around, fed us and entertained us while taking care of his flu-ridden girlfriend. After doing typical touristy things we jumped couch for some of my friends. We stayed with Jeroen, a charismatic 7 foot Dutchman that I studied with in France, Anna his girlfriend and his parents who were in town. “Oh no, we don’t want to impose”, but impose we did. After a lot of sight seeing, great food, old friends and indulging we hopped back on the overnight bus back to Zihuat.

The next morning we were to depart for Puerto Escondido. But when I went to test the batteries I noticed they were dead. Would we make it to PE? Would the engine start? Did I get the flu on the 3.5-day sail? Was Ustupu unscathed after being abandoned with all those scary fishermen and Canadians??????

Tree and stockings

Star cookies are not to be eaten with hands

Challah

Guess who's rowing

Ice skating in Mexico City.  

Diego Rivera

Messing with the locals

Old Grenoble amigos.  From left to right:  Jeroen's Dad, Sylvarita, creep, Elena, Alvaro, Alvaro's brother, Ricardo, Dianne,
Anna, Jeroen, Jeroen's Mom.  

Jeroen trying to look cool

Teotihuacan

Benjamin, Carmen, Aglai

Los Hermanos, grande y pocito

River trip we took in our dinghy.  It was beautiful but kinda smelled like poo!

Alex's panga

White Christmas

Crocodile slides, tennis & one Pina Colada for 2

We decided to stay in our first Mexican marina after six weeks of commuting to land to get supplies, water and to simply go for a walk.  We also decided to stop at not just any marina, but Paradise Village Marina in Nueva Vallerta (outside Puerto Vallerta).

We stayed for an indulgent three nights and took advantage of everything on offer: a pool with two big crocodile slides, tennis (the court backed onto the two tiger cages), clean water to fill our tanks with, daily showers and a dock for boat projects.  All of this for the amazing price of just under $20/night.

We also decided to really treat ourselves and splurged on sushi at the mall, one virgin Pina Colada by the pool and attended a Mexican celebration at the adjoining hotel.... if you count standing on the outskirts of the party watching musician's backs and drooling over the desert table.  Otherwise, we were there!

Before leaving Bahia Banderas (the big bay that houses Puerto Vallerta) we spent a week swimming in quiet bays, walking to waterfalls up horse paths, snorkelling and enjoying the sweet serenity and beauty of a less developed Mexico.

After all of this excitement, we once again hit the liquid highway feeling rested, clean and ready for quieter - less developed - little paradises.

Frequent visitors

Tigers, Parrots, Tennis Courts

Siesta

More Mexican investment properties

Gross

Gifts for local orphanage

Sponsors are taking note

Our own personal waterfall

The snake we asked the maitre d' to remove from the waterfall.   (Dan's bravest face)

Ustupu

The croc

Diciembre

Dear Bloginsteins,

Since we last spoke, a long month ago, we’ve traveled a grand total of 600 kilometers.   Most of you could probably drive that in 6 hours but it has taken us a month.  We are so slow.   But we’ve been in some fantastic places that warrant long stays.

We got sick of Cabo San Lucas mighty quick, especially after our friend got his dinghy and outboard motors stolen (worth about $5k).  Cabo is a heavily developed ultra-tourismo town and we wanted to get the hell on with our trip so after we bought a bunch of supplies and headed east.  Our plan was to sail straight across from Cabo to Mazatlan, 400 km crossing; the furthest we’ve been from land yet.  Ladies and Gentlemen we finally had a proper sail.  We sailed 96% of the crossing and loved every minute of the wind and swell. Conditions were ideal for Ustupu and she really shined. 

The first destination on the mainland was Mazatlan.  We anchored in the historic part of town at an old decrepit yacht club called Club Nautico.  Here is what Sylvie remembers about Mazatlan – she is yelling as she says these things:

-Smoked marlin and tuna from the massive old style market
-Ummm
–Wandering old Mazatlan and the hills by the marina
- The sweet market (again) which contained no ukuleles. We read a book from the 70’s that said the Mazatlan market had an entire guitar section, but when we got there Sylvie was severely let down to find that there were no musical instruments, let alone a ukulele.  I suppose it’s technically possible that our 40-year-old info was obsolete.
-Tostadas
-Not being able to understand enough Spanish to determine if there was meat in the food she was ordering, and then eating around meat (little pieces of bacon and weiners) in meals she’s ordered.
-Surfing Playa Bruja

All in all Mazatlan was pretty sweet and we can see why people get stuck there for months. 

On a side note, we were warned by people in Cabo San Lucas to be careful in Mazatlan.  “Bad peoples in Mazatlan”.  And back home we were warned to be careful in Mexico in general.  So far in the month we’ve been here we haven’t seen anything to indicate that there is any danger for tourists in the regions we’ve been to.  Yes, we’ve been staying smart and avoided seedier parts of town, especially at night.  But the violence that’s going on is almost strictly drug cartels vs. cartels vs. government.  Tourists just aren’t what they’re interested in.  I’m not saying there’s no violence in Mexico against tourists or that no one’s getting robbed or targeted, but I will say that I’d rather spend the night wandering the streets here than lots of places in the US. 

Next town we hit was San Blas just south of Mazatlan.  We anchored in the Mantanchen Bay about 10km from San Blas. San Blas is where I finally renewed my love for coconuts.  A simple yet somewhat obsessive pleasure for me is fresh coconuts…. the ones that are freshly cut off a tree and some guy with a 2 foot machete cuts the top off and you drink the milk with a straw and then he cuts the rest open for you to scoop out the meat.  My god it’s refreshing on a day when it’s 90 degrees out.  San Blas, for us, was all about swimming at night in the phosphorescence and lots of dinghy exploration.

The following bay was Chacala, which was similar to Mantanchen Bay except we could swim to shore from the boat.  But the rest of the time revolved around getting coconuts and going for hikes.

After Chacala we spent a night in Jaltemba hiding behind an island from the swell and wind.  The water was crystal clear and we snorkeled for the first time.  We saw tons of fish and got stung a lot by little jellyfish.  It was a beautiful spot.

And that brings us to our current anchorage called Punta de Mita.  Within an hour of leaving Jaltemba we caught the best fish of the trip, a handsome albacore tuna.  It was a perfect fish for 2 people and it yielded 3 meals.  We go coo coo for tuna tacos.   As we rounded the point for our destination we started seeing these perfect curling waves.  We looked at each other and kept asking if this place had good surfing.  It should be mentioned that surfing is a big part of this trip for us.  I brought my board from home and Sylvie had planed to buy one in Mexico.  Thus far the surfing has been spotty and mediocre.  Our surfing morale went sky high after we anchored here however.  The first thing we did was paddle in from the boat to a rock break on the main beach in town.  Well I paddled and Sylvie swam in on her noodle, a normal scenario amongst Ustupians.   Right off the bat I caught a wave and we knew we had arrived.  The next morning we rented a long board because it was a small but long break and we were in surfing heaven.  We surfed again and again and Sylvie bought a sweet little 7’ board in town for a great deal.  We then met a couple, Corey and Lisa from Colorado who were awesome folk.  Corey wanted to get rid of his kayak and he offered it to us for free.  How could we say no. So we went from being deprived of water toys to inundated all in the span of 3 days.   

But alas, the swell has died and it’s time to move on.  We’re south bound again to explore the rest of Bahia de Banderas.

Toodeloo Blogeyboos.

Dan, Sylvie & Ustupu

Crazy sunset

First restaurant we ate at in Mazatlan

Tuna

Intonation

Dinner on the boat

Crossing the Sea of Cortez.  I'm passed out amongst the disaster.

Poop on pants

The wave

I like cocos in the morning

I like cocos with hot sauce

San Blas

Sylvie couldn't get enough of this

Noseeums.  They bit Sylvie but not me.  Weid.  

Ascent complete.  Yessssssssss.

I like making people climb for my cocos.

I like cocos all the time.

Add caption

Who looks of greater defeat?

Take me to land!

Our new free Kayak! 

Tequila, Ropes and Gringos

We have finally made it to Mexico.  Our trip has gone from ‘yay, we’re sailing down the US coast and it’s very nice and very expensive’ to ‘yippy cayo-cayee we’re in Mexico and can now relax and drink and swim and do whatever the heck we want!’.

Prior to leaving the US we gave ourselves 8 days in San Diego to do our final preparations and get some projects done on the boat.  Instead we ended up refinishing a lot of the teak on the boat working from morning till evening and seeing nothing of San Diego.  I also wasted a bunch of time on our wind turbine which broke somewhere in Oregon.  For whatever reason I had the replacement part shipped to a guarded military base and chased it down for 3 days.  San Diego, we blew it.  Sorry.

But on October 24^th we finally left the US behind.  We signed up for a sailing rally that goes from San Diego down to Cabo San Lucas (called the Baja-Haha).  This annual run takes about 150 boats from the US who are too scared to do the trip by themselves down the coast in a convoy unlike anything you’ve ever seen.  The parties start in San Diego and happen at every stop along the way, but these aren’t parties where you get to meet the locals and stay up way too late, not at all.  These parties cater to the average age of the group which is about 65.  So the party usually starts mid afternoon and is over by 6 or 7pm so that everyone can get home and eat their prunes and discuss how wild the party was. 

In retrospect we should have skipped the Haha and done the trip ourselves.  One of the problems is that most of the boats are way over 40’ and we are 31’.  This means that in general we go about 25% slower than everyone else.  So when the leg took 2-3 days to sail and the scheduled rest was 2 days, we’d get in on the 4^th day and only have one day to rest while everyone else was ready to go.  Making matters worse almost all boats were sailing with spinnakers, which are those gigantic balloon shaped sails that make you go really fast downwind.  Well we didn’t have room for ours so we were extra slow and we’d often have to run the engine to try to keep up. 

There’s something dangerous about running your engine, especially in foreign countries and especially at night.  If you hit a crab trap buoy or anything else with a rope on it, it will most likely wrap itself around your propeller or propeller shaft.  So…. on the first day of rally you cross the Mexican border which is only about 10 miles from San Diego.  Unfortunately there was no wind that day so the majority of the fleet was motoring south.  We were motoring all night and at about 2am I heard a horrible screech from our engine that lasted all of a ½ second and then the engine shut down.  I knew right away that we got something on the propeller but it took us a good 30 minutes to figure out what it was.  At first Sylvie was convinced that we had the corpse of an animal, maybe a snake or a muskrat.  

After a lot of poking and debate it was clear that we had a huge rope wrapped around our propeller and that we would have to dive under the boat to free it. 

We sailed the rest of the night at about 2-3 miles/hour and at first light we dove.  Sylvie went first while I watched apprehensively from the deck.  She managed to dislodge a lot of the rope that had bunched up between the propeller and the rudder but couldn’t get it free.   Then the fearless captain told the first mate to step aside so that she could see how it was done.  Donned with Sylvie’s old wet wet suit, snorkeling gear, a pool noodle and a 6” filleting knife I went down and started cutting away at the rope.  Three cuts later and after some dramatic wheezing, I had had enough. 

The reason for our struggles; a 8,800 strand nylon rope - 1.5 inches - wrapped itself around our propeller shaft like a turban.  We were hooped.

So I got on the radio and hailed the other 170 boats to see if anyone with scuba gear could help.  By now, a full 24 hours after we’d left, most boats were 50 miles ahead of us but a few boats in the back were still trying to sail and were close to us.  The beautiful irony of the whole situation was that the name of the boat who came to our rescue was Set Me Free.  After a few minutes of diving they were able to cut away what we couldn’t and we were back on our way.   We presented Set Me Free with a bottle of tequila and 10 feet of the monster rope when we got to Cabo San Lucas.

In the end we got fed up with the rally and let it go on without us.  We decided that we needed an extra day in Bahia Santa Maria, an incredible bay with surfing, swimming, endless beaches and seafood galore.  

Oh ya, fishing.  We’re finally catching fish.   We’ve caught probably about 15 fish and managed to bring in about 4.  We lost most of them because we don’t know what the hell we’re doing.  But the ones we got on deck have been delicious!   

So we’re in Cabo San Lucas, a bizarre over the top resort town for rich Americans.  We plan to stay here a few days to unwind and replenish our stores before we head on to Mazatlan.  From there, who knows.  We’re not sure what’s after Mazatlan.  We’re planning to go to Mexico City at some point, maybe for new years eve.

Anyway, we’re having an incredible time and are being kept very entertained by one another and the people we’re meeting along the way.  That’s it for now, take care, get back to work.

Dan, Sylvie & Ustupu

PHOTOS!!!!

King of Neptune on his brand new throne that he had to install himself.

Santa Catalina Island

Approach to Santa Barbara

Cruising Palm Desert with Jackson and Vaness

Palm Desert

Los tres amigos

Where the anchoring incident happened.

Handle bars are the new soul patch

Baja Haha start line in San Diego

The propeller incident

Ya, F' you rope that ruined our day.

Sunrisa

Our first tuna.  Thanks for being so delicious tuna.

Baja sailing

Beach clams.  We didn't even die.

Looking for treasures

Sylvie doing a cut-back.