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La Cruz through La Paz



We left La Cruz on March 29, had a pleasant night anchored at Punta de Mita, and left for San Blas at 6:30am. It was a great day of sailing – hard on the wind and then close reaching in flat seas – doing 6-7 knots in 12-15 knots of wind.
 
These two boobies were hanging around the boat for about an hour.

We arrived in Mantanchen Bay (by San Blas) about 4:30 PM where there was a major swell rolling in and the surfers were in heaven (when the surf is up the break is about a mile long – apparently it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest surf break) . Jim borrowed a board from Wildflower and actually caught  some waves and then we surfed a few in the dinghy!


 Surfing the waves in the dinghy (hard to tell the size from these pictures and movie)

We spent two nights in Mantanchen Bay and left for Mazatlan at 7:30 am on April 1st. It is an overnight passage. We had some great sailing until about 11:30 pm when we had to turn the engine on. The rest of the way was quite rolly and uncomfortable from the large short period swell. We anchored in the old harbor in Mazatlan at about 9am on April 2nd.  This was our first time anchoring here. The harbor buzzes with activity from ferries, water taxis, tour boats, sport fishing boats, etc.. It was quite entertaining.

We left Mazatlan the morning of April 3rd thinking we would get into Bahia Los Muertos on the Baja side early in the morning of April 4th  (under good conditions it would be a 32 hour trip). Instead, we arrived at 12:30 am on April 5th and it took us 40.5 hours. It was a very uncomfortable trip with steep waves/close waves,  1.5 knot current against us for much of the way,  wind against seas, seas coming from two different directions, etc. – not dangerous, just slow and uncomfortable. The best thing about the trip was the full moon – it was beautiful and made it easy to anchor in Muertos in the dark.
Loomba-Loomba Hobby Horsing Across the Sea of Cortez

   








Sunset the first night.

Ed from Sand Piper and Todd from Wildflower
Virg from Wildflower and Annette from Sand Piper

Celebrating our arrival in Muertos with Wildfower and Sand Piper.
View from the Muertos Restaurant
E
Semana Santa Week at Muertos - the whole beach looked like this.
Every kind of camping gear and water toy you could imagine - even a couple of bands!
Huge families with multiple generations.
We left Muertos at 6:15 am on April 6th headed for La Paz where we arrived at 2:30 pm. It was a calm motor boat ride all the way to La Paz with the current with us.

La Paz, like La Cruz, is one of our favorite towns. Good restaurants, provisioning and bike riding. Since we’ve been here several times I won’t repeat the usual tourist photos – just a few random shots:
The Shack Burger
"The Shack" Restaraunt in La Paz - we were there at the end of November too!
Our favorite shrimp taco stand in La Paz.
A drive-through beer store.
We have purchased pottery here.
Limon or Mango?

We will be leaving La Paz in the next few days and slowly heading north in the Sea of Cortez to Puerto Escondido where Kelsey and RL will join us.




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