Stone Island 12.6.09

We’re on our way – woohoo!!!!!! We FINALLY threw our docklines and headed South. After oh so many days of slaving away to get the boat together, get our projects completed, & get out of here…we’ve done it!! After, of course, watching the marathon runners run past the marina, cheering them on with my pom pom’s from last night’s wedding (which appears to be an attention getter!), lots of hand clapping, & words of encouragement: Animo! & Si se puede. The marathon is an annual event, an international marathon with thousands of runners involved. Where I was standing, which is about half way along the route, of the top three runners, two of them were from Mexico, which made the rest of the supporters incredibly happy. As they ran past there were shouts of Mexico, Mexico!!

We made our first passage….which was all of two hours. Haha!! Stone Island is technically still part of Mazatlan….but is light years away as far as I’m concerned.



It’s just far enough that you can ‘get away’ as well as test out all of the systems – watermaker especially – but also solar, generator, etc. but still close enough that if anything is wrong, you could get right back to Mazatlan if you needed to. Stone Island is one of our ‘must do’s’ on our way down the coast. The anchorage is great, there’s a nice dinghy landing spot, there are several palapa restaurants on the beach with incredible food, the water is clear enough to see the bottom of your boat, I could go on and on…



This place just has ‘that feel’ if you know what I mean. We arrived on Sunday and there were 4 other boats in the anchorage – S/V Pacific Jade, S/V Location, S/V Maradon, & M/V TG Wazoo. It was an incredibly beautiful day, sunshiny & warm, and not a lick of wind. Once we dropped anchor we were given the invite to go to the beach to ‘Benji’s palapa for their wonderful garlic shrimp pizza. You don’t have to ask us twice! As soon as things were settled, we dropped the dinghy, attached the engine & away we went!

We met up with the whole group - Joe & Deb from S/V Pacific Jade, MJ & Bill from S/V Grey Max, Anne & Jeff from S/V Outrider, Phil & Carole from S/V Maradon, Don & Lena from M/V TG Wazoo, Jay from S/V Location, & a couple who arrived by ferry from the mainland, Rick & Margo from S/V Cape Starr – and had a wonderful….3 hour lunch! The pizza was incredible as was the company.



The next morning we had a scrumptious breakfast – eggs & bacon! We don’t do big breakfasts very often and it’s a treat when we do and being here was the perfect reason to indulge. A group of us got together for a coldie, a walk along the beach, a stop for what was supposed to be a light snack but turned into lunch & dinner, and then back to the boats. Phil & Carole from S/V Maradon invited everyone in the anchorage over to their boat for happy hour, “hora feliz”, with munchies & wine. It was a wonderful day, getting to know & chat with some folks we haven’t cruised with before.



While we walked the beach, we were amazed at the new structures that were being constructed. When Hurricane Rick hit Mazatlan, it devastated the small community of Stone Island. Many buildings were completely destroyed or in need of significant repair.



At Benji’s palapa, an American named Eli works there and was telling us how he was so awestruck at the destruction, but most of all how as soon as the day after the storm, everyone in the community was rolling up their sleeves, cleaning & rebuilding their structures – all without the slightest hesitation. Eli explained that this is, by far, the best community he has ever been in and told us story after amazing story of examples. Very cool…

Now that we know that everything works correctly, we’re headed further South to a spot called Mantanchen Bay tomorrow around noon.

Let's go have some fun!! More to follow...
Rene