The bash back to Mazatlan 2.11.09

We’re all stocked up and ready to head North. We left Barra de Navidad, and all of our friends on Wednesday early morning. It’s the bummer part of cruising – you get to make some incredible friendships and then have to leave as everyone has different plans! But it’s so worth it in the long run. Our friends Wally & Linda on S/V Andanzas made it into Barra and were hanging out in the marina as he is recovering still from back surgery while we were in Santiago Bay and we were excited to hook up with them on Tuesday.



We met them at their boat and then did something so decadent & luxurious….we hung out at the hotel pool!




The Grand Bay Hotel & Marina is a very expensive spot. Rooms are rumored to cost $350/night and even the marina is expensive - $2.55/foot/day! For our size boat, it would run us about $125/night! Yikes! A little too $$ for us. Now there is a big discount if you say a month and it ends up being around $1K for the entire month. So the general rule is if you’re staying 10 days, you may as well stay a month as it’s the same price. BUT! I will tell you that the pool was absolute luxury. They had lounge chairs with big, fluffy cushions on them PLUS a lounge cover that was like a terry towel fitted bed sheet that covered the entire chair. AND a super fluffy towel! Haha… I enjoyed every minute of it. The pool was cool in temperature and in coolness! It had two water slides that Linda & I enjoyed. The boys both have sore backs so they were just hanging out talking



but Linda & I went to each of the different pool areas & did the water slides!





We also walked up to the lobby and I took a photo of the marina with the boats anchored in the lagoon just outside.



We’ve been without internet since Monday evening but hope to catch up on posts via the radio and will upload photos when we get to an internet café. It was great catching up with Wally & Linda and since they’ve decided they will do a 2nd cruising season next year, we are hopeful we’ll be able to cruise together!
Tuesday evening a group of friends and us went to the Hotel Alondra for one last sunset & cocktail evening. Joe & Deb on Pacific Jade, Bill & MJ on Grey Max, & Michael & Cece with crewmember Dan on Ramble on Rose were there and we enjoyed a windy, chilly evening atop the hotel.





We split up from the group after sunset & went to dinner alone as Michael’s back was hurting. What happened to his back? Well, he thinks he has figured it out. He had previously attributed it to his upper back & neck needing a chiropractic adjustment, but now that we’ve traced it back….it is probably that he strained or pulled a muscle when he was lifting the dinghy off of me back in Santiago. He pulled a kind of ‘hercules’ move lifting the dinghy (it weighs in excess of 100lbs) so we figure he had some adrenaline coursing through his veins and lifted it wrong. It continues to get better each day and he’ll be fine.

We were up & out of the lagoon by 8am the next morning. There is a bit of weather heading our way so we wanted to get into Tenacatita before the winds built. We made it before noon & enjoyed a nice, mellow day reading & relaxing. ‘Chip’ and the other friendly dolphins came over to greet us and spent most of the day feeding around our boat and rubbing their back on our anchor chain. I tried like hell to get a video of them rubbing their back on the anchor and got one that is pretty good! They would do a figure 8 – come up right beside the boat, maybe 2 feet from the bow of the boat, then dive down and rub their backs against the anchor chain for a minute or so, then start the figure 8 again. It’s pretty cool to watch! We also had human visitors come over to the boat to say Hi, previous boats we have met during the season and a lot that we have not seen or heard of. More boats from Ventura – it’s amazing how many there are out here from our hometown! There are about 14 other boats in the anchorage. It’s beautiful here… We’re planning a couple days of hanging out here – snorkeling & visiting with friends and then leaving on Saturday. It’s bad luck to leave on a passage on Friday – and especially on Friday the 13th! So we’ll wait… :-) Then we’re on to Chamela for a couple days, then Ipala – and we will wait until we have a weather window to round Cabo Corrientes.
We didn’t get a chance to check e-mails so we’re not sure if we have a job offer yet…but we’re anxious to hear! Wish us luck… We will post as often as the radio waves will allow…
Rene