S/V Loomba-Loomba

We arrived in Mazatlan on 3/17 and we are leaving tomorrow, 3/29, for La Paz on the Baja Peninsula. Drew joined us here at a condo for 8 days and his friend, Vic, joined us for 4 days. We are now back on Loomba-Loomba in Marina Mazatlan getting geared up to head across the Sea. Steve Jobs would be proud: New MacBook Pro, Old MacBook Pro that drowned,  Drew's MacBook Air, Drew's new iPad, Drew's iPhone, Chrissy's iPhone,  new NetBook and Jim's MacBook. We enjoyed being in the condo - with a king size bed, big shower and full kitchen - especially the dishwasher! We toured the city, had some great meals, and enjoyed the condo beach and pool. It was great R&R for all of us and fun to spend some time with Drew.

Drew joined us for a week in Mazatlan and brought us his MacBook Pro and a Netbook for a backup. He was able to take the hard drive out of my MacBook Pro (the one that drowned) and put it in this one - and everything works! So we are back in business. THANK YOU DREW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will do a blog post with Mazatlan pictures soon. We will be leaving Mazatlan for La Paz in the next day or two.

March 4, 2011 Back in La Cruz again. Tom and Claudette and Mike and Kathy Jackson arrived to spend two weeks on Anna. Jim and I have been having fun with the Anna crew and we’ve been getting some maintenance things done on Loomba-Loomba. The Sunday market in the Plaza in La Cruz Breakfast and wifi at YaYa's Cafe Seafood Feast at Enrique's for Tommy and Chrissy's birthday Jim and Chrissy took the bus into Bucerias (in between La Cruz and PV) one day to go to the dentist for a good teeth cleaning and check up (AOK) and to go to the “Mega” Supermarket to re-provision. This alleyway leads to the main market stalls in Bucerias We left La Cruz on Thursday, March 10 th and arrived in Chacala that afternoon. Friday morning we awoke to a Tsunami warning on the SSB net and from a fisherman driving by in his Panga who told us to turn the VHF to Channel 16 to get a message from the Capitan de Puerto. Essentially the Port Captain told us that all the Mexican ports ...

Our first stop when we left Las Hadas  on 2/18 was Santiago Bay. It’s a beautiful Bay just north of Manzanillo Bay.  During the week there is not much going on, but Sundays it is a happening place.  Live music, lots of palapas serving food and beverages, beach vendors  with carts, tables and chairs and umbrellas to rent, jet skis to rent, and waterskiing. The swimming was great.  Water temp was 79! Snorkeling was OK, but the water was murky so the visibility wasn’t too good. Next stop was back in Barra de Navidad Lagoon.  We fueled up, got our laundry done, bought some more fresh food and waited for a bad weather system to pass before heading north. In the mean time we re-connected with some friends and made some new friends. It was Carnival (Mardi Gras) weekend in Barra – lots of partying going on! The French Baker delivers fresh bread and other goodies every morning to the boats anchored in the Lagoon. Market day in the town square every Thursd...

We had a major computer glitch – an accidental dousing of margarita on the keyboard. As a result our main computer with the ability to communicate with the single side-band radio is out of commission. So I can’t make the yotreps position reports until we get another computer with Windows 7 capabilities (our MacBook won’t  handle it) – hopefully in La Cruz/PV. This leg is all backtracking anyway. We are now heading   north to meet Kathy and Mike Jackson and Tom (Chrissy’s brother) and Claudette in La Cruz on March 4 th . They will be on Anna for two weeks.

After leaving Barra de Navidad we spent two nights in Ensenada de Carrizal on our way to Las Hadas. It was a beautiful uninhabited bay surrounded by cliffs. It reminded us of some of the anchorages in the San Juans and BC.  There were only 3 boats – Anna, Moshulu, and Loomba-Loomba. The best snorkeling we’ve had yet. Lots of different kinds of coral and reef fish. Heading into Ensenada de Carrizal Valentines Day dinghy raft up and snorkeling  in Carrizal with Anna (photo by Joe Upton) We arrived in Las Hadas around noon on 2/15. This is as far south as we will go this year. When we leave Las Hadas we will be heading north. Las Hadas means Fairies – it is a truly magical place.  http://www.las-hadas-resort.com/ For 100 pesos (about $8.50) per day we dinghy into the resort and have access to all the amenities. There is a fantastic pool and beautiful beach, a restaurant above the anchorage with wifi so we have wifi on the boat. Happy Hour with free wifi ...