Our sail from La Cruz (where we’d been parked for 4 weeks!) to Mazatlan was about as ideal as you could ask for… flat seas, light winds, little traffic. So how to entertain ourselves for 170 nautical miles? In a variety of ways, of course…
Dolphins:
Watching the school of dolphins put on an amazing show at our bow
Dolphin show
Reading:
The pile of books on the go - Sea Change (always good to read about boats with more problems than yours), Fallen Angels (the Sci-Fi book I finally got Jon to start), Rich Dad Poor Dad & Success Principles (trying to plan our financial future), and a fun novel we picked up from Kist
Working on our talents:
My tonga-toed savage feet are quite capable at tying knots...
...Like this finished bowline 🙂 A talent I'm sure will come in useful at some point in life!
Taking pictures:
Another sunset shot
Hanging out in the companionway
And worrying, a little:
The sight of a small high-speed boat on the horizon always springs fear in my heart, as I'm taken back to another time in "Pirate Alley", off the coast of Yemen in 2001. It was here that dad spotted incoming boats and yelled "Leah! Put on a baggy dress, mess up your hair, grab your sister and hide under the table. If things get bad you stay there and don't say a word -- NOW". An emotionally charged moment that has clearly made a lasting impression. These guys were just shark fishermen, curious about who we were and where we were headed.
After all that fun, we made it into Mazatlan’s old harbour at 3:00 am, slept for most of the first day and spent the second day doing errands.
The highlight of our quick stop was having lunch with our taxi drivers at a street-side taco joint. For 200 pesos ($16) they took us from Club Nautico (in the old harbour of Mazatlan) to a small grocery store to buy coffee beans and milk, to the propane plant to fill our tanks, and to the Pemex gas station to get diesel. Fellow cruisers should note — we paid only 10.2 pesos/litre, vs. the 12.6 pesos that the fuel dock 8 miles away wanted, which actually saved us 260 pesos on diesel — and then we paid 36 pesos for propane, instead of 50… so overall we made money on our taxi trip and got delivery and a fun lunch in the deal.
At this point, since we had a “favourable” weather window and full tanks… we hit the road again, this time for Topolobampo!