Skip to main content

Mazatlan and the Passage to La Cruz

We stayed in Mazatlan a little over a week.
The more we are there the more we like it.
There are many excellent restaurants, a vibrant
arts/theater community, a wonderful colonial
 "Old Town", the best and most varied public
 transportation that we've seen in any town in Mexico, 
(I think I will do a future blog post about the various
 forms of public transportation that we have used),
one of the biggest shrimp fleets - thus a great
 "shrimp market", almost any yacht service you 
could need, big supermarkets within biking distance
from the marina, a wonderful dentist, and best of all: 
VERY friendly people.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday "Gila" comes to the
marina with lots of fresh veggies, homemade tamales, and sometimes
fish or shrimp.
The Presidio
This is our new favorite restaurant in Mazatlan
The Presidio's version of a caprese salad
The "Machado". Mazatlan's central square.
Decorated for Christmas

Evening Street Scenes

View of Marina Fonatur and Marina Mazatlan
Bob Coffey and Jim riding the "ferry" across the entrance to
the Marina estuary.
We got a little detour because the Port Captain was on
board and wanted to see the entrance so he could decide
whether to close the port that day or not.
The swell can get huge right there making it dangerous to
come or go.
Our "fruit basket Christmas Tree"


Soriana is one of the major supermarkets in Mexico.
They were ready for the Christmas rush.




I don't know if these live trees will have any needles left by
the time Christmas rolls around.
Back at the Machado - dinner outside on the square




One mode of public transportation - the Red Truck

                                           
This is a Pulmonia. It's a very popular way to get around.
There is even a pulmonia monument on the malecon!
Leaving Marina Mazatlan.
On our way to La Cruz via San Blas.
The trip from Mazatlan south to Banderas Bay
is known for being riddled with shrimp boats
and long lines. The shrimp boats stay in fairly close 
in 130 - 150' of water and the pangero long liners
are usually deeper so you have to pick which one
you would rather deal with.
When we are doing an overnight passage we choose 
to deal with the shrimpers because they have bright lights
and they are bigger than the pangas so 
they are better radar targets.

This is a photo of our radar screen during my middle of the
night watch. This was the first shrimp fleet we encountered.
We were still north of San Blas.
We spent the second night in San Blas. This photo was
taken just south of San Blas. It shows the beginning of
a long line. There is one black flag on a buoy and a long
floating line extends out with coke bottle floats. It is impossible to
see until you are upon it. Almost everyone
we know (including us) has been caught
in one. Sometimes it frees itself, but sometimes it needs to
be cut. If it gets caught in the prop it's a real ordeal.
After rounding Punta de Mita the wind picked up and we
had a great sail to La Cruz.
A great way to end a passage!

We are now at the marina in La Cruz.
We are flying home tomorrow to
enjoy Christmas with Drew, Kelsey, RL and Simon!













Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mexico Ferry Travel: Getting from Guaymas to Baja and Back

Since our car was in Puerto Escondido in Baja and we and Loomba-Loomba were in San Carlos on the mainland, we decided to make an adventure out of getting the car over to the mainland and do a Copper Canyon trip on the way back to Guaymas. This involved two different ferry trips, a bus, lots of driving, and a train. Ferry travel is not cheap or easy in Mexico.  We arrived at the 8PM ferry  (Guaymas – Santa Rosalia) on Saturday May 27 th at 6PM, as required.  There had been some pretty strong northerlies for a few days and the ferry isn’t very big so we asked if it was definitely going to sail. They said yes so our friend, Ray, who had given us a ride from San Carlos, left.  At 7:45 they decided the weather was too bad to go – next ferry would be Monday (maybe). We took a taxi back to the boat and decided to wait until Tuesday the 29 th . This time we had Ray ( who speaks fluent Spanish) call and make a reservation in a cabin for us for Tuesday. ...

Two Fall Road Trips 2023

The first trip was doing the Selkirk Loop. We headed first to eastern Washington, then northern Idaho, then British Columbia. We highly recommend. Crossing the Columbia                                                                                                    Priest Lake, Idaho                                                                                                   The FREE ferry across Kootenay Lake We headed to Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park. It was beautiful, nice hikes, good...

North to Southeast Alaska

Our old friend, Roger, invited us to join him (as crew) on his first leg home from Sitka to Seattle. We did the first leg (and most scenic) from Sitka to Petersburg. He has been heading north on a boat from the Seattle area every summer since he was a little kid so he knows the area well. We flew into Sitka (arriving at 3PM), got a taxi to the harbor, jumped into the skiff, headed out to the boat, and we were on our way to Kalinin Bay on Kruzof Island for the night.  (Jim's hat says "Where's the Fish") The next morning we headed north and into the Pacific along the Khaz Peninsula, inside Klokachef Island, up around Khaz head and then various anchorages around Baranof Island, Admiralty Island and Kupreanof Island. The weather wasn't the greatest, but we did have some sunny days, mostly calm waters, lots of wildlife and good fishing and beautiful scenery: