SV Gallant Fox

Singlar Marinas

Some cruising media regularly criticize Mexico’s Fonatur/Singlar marinas, several of which are located on Mexico’s Pacific mainland and in the Sea of Cortez. The pundits seem to complain that Singlar marinas are overpriced relative to the amenities they offer and that’s why they are empty when other marinas in the same area are full. So far we’ve stayed at two Singlar facilities (Puerto Escondido on the Baja side of the Sea and Guaymas on the mainland) and plan to have our next haulout at a third (Mazatlan). We’ve learned that the cruising media, like all the other media, mixes truth with fiction. So pull up a chair and read about our experience - you, too, may decide to visit Singlar marinas despite what certain cruising publications may say.

Here’s what we know or guess about how the Singlar marina facilities are structured. Fonatur is the government agency charged with promoting all kinds of tourism throughout Mexico. Singlar is a sort of subagency of Fonatur that develops, builds and maintains marinas and fuel docks in select locations under an ambitious plan that if all goes well may someday be used by boaters to travel all over Mexico, from Singlar marina to Singlar marina, from Ensenada down Pacific Baja, throughout the Sea of Cortez and down the Pacific mainland, tra-la. I bet Fonatur is working on something similar along Mexico’s east coast. The plan is intriguing but as you might expect with a government agency trying to compete with private enterprises, there are some budget issues and operational approaches that seem…ermm…suboptimal. For example, Singlar facilities are already open for business in places like La Paz (http://www.latitudemexico.com/news/baja-sea-of-cortez/marina-de-la-paz-joins-emprhotur-2.html), Puerto Escondido, Santa Rosalia (http://www.bajainsider.com/baja-california-travel/baja-adventures/boating/santarosaliamarina.htm), Guaymas and Mazatlan, but few boaters know where they are and how to get to them -- because Singlar HQ decreed that none of their marinas shall be publicized until they are ALL up and running. Which of course has not happened yet. So because Singlar refuses to promote itself, and gets only negative publicity from the cruising publications, the Singlar marinas currently in operation remain mostly empty.  Rumors that some Singlar facilities have been sold to private interests remain unconfirmed - the ones we stayed at were pure government all the way.

A second disadvantage of Singlar’s way of doing business, is that from what we’ve heard virtually all marina decisions - not just budgetary matters but even decisions as small as who gets to rent out a particular marina’s conference room - are made by Singlar HQ in Mexico City instead of each marina’s harbormaster. It’s unclear how much experience the bureaucrats in the national capitol actually have with each marina’s particular business environment (does Mexico City HQ even have people familiar with boats?), but if the US ran a network of federal marinas, I doubt a federal wage slave in, say, Washington DC would know (or care) how to create the best working relationships with local businesses near a marina in Brookings, Oregon. I’m just saying that certain marketing and income decisions are better off delegated to Singlar’s local harbormasters and dock masters, who are certainly familiar with their own neighborhood and the boats that use their facilities. Ah well - so goes the running of a private enterprise by a complex federal bureaucracy - but all is not lost. Never underestimate the Mexican individual entrepreneurial spirit.

Singlar’s two biggest advantages to the prospective cruising customer, are that each of them is generally located near all the boating action and onshore attractions; and incorporates the same design so that once you see one Singlar marina with its main multistory tower surrounded by lower buildings, all the same institutional-green color, you will be able to recognize and locate all the other Singlar marinas in any other port you happen to enter. If you do laundry at Marina Singlar in La Paz, you will know exactly where the laundry room is at Marina Singlar Santa Rosalia. You will know where to look for the harbormaster’s office, fuel dock, and onshore heads and showers. Handy. The Singlar docks are all fairly new and in good shape - nice reassurance in heavy weather. To the right is a view of the Singlar Guaymas facility with its green tower and whatnot, as seen from the fisherman's statue - that's how centrally located these marinas are.  Some Singlar marinas have extra features - like rooftop spas and pools; or the 20-ton TraveLift crane at Singlar Guaymas. Some of these extras may already be operational (Guaymas’s spa, for example) while others are not (Puerto Escondido’s pool). But, give them time - Mexico’s private marinas experience similar technical difficulties - like the perennial water and power situation at Marina Mazatlan. So you can’t put the hate on Singlar just because everything is un-perfect.

The Singlar harbormasters and dock supervisors we’ve met stay as flexible as they can under their bureaucratic structure, and they all work with their guests to get things done, especially given that all the Singlar marinas are new, the staff relatively young, and some bugs still in need of working out. Some examples: at present Singlar marinas are, in fact, generally somewhat more expensive than their counterparts (where counterparts exist), but short stays at a Singlar facility will certainly not break the bank. Singlar facilities give weekly and monthly moorage discounts - a week’s stay for our 40-foot boat at Singlar Guaymas in May 2008 cost us about $125 - tax, shore power, garbage drop, and Internet service included. The Singlar facility at Puerto Escondido charged US $15 per day for a mooring buoy (onshore garbage drop & water at the marina dock were free) for a 40-foot boat in April 2008, but weekly and monthly discounts apply to the mooring rate. You just have to ask about them. We’ve heard that if you pay for moorage at a Singlar facility but leave before your time is up, the harbormaster might hold the unused days for you to use them at a future date when you return to the same Singlar marina. So, you might be able to pay for two weeks moorage at, say, Singlar Santa Rosalia, stay there only one week, and then ask the harbormaster to hold the unused week until you return to Santa Rosalia later in the season. The point is, ASK. Some Singlar marinas, like Mazatlan and Guaymas, have haulout facilities but their haul out fees vary. The cost for a haulout at Singlar Guaymas was US $450 in May which we hear is significantly more expensive than other providers - but a stay at Singlar Guaymas before using another yard for your actual haulout might be more attractive to your bottom line for other reasons; and/or the haulout pricing can change overnight. So check it out thoroughly and compare your alternatives for yourself. Because? None of the other boaters we met on the Singlar Guaymas docks was disappointed with being there.

Like the folks running Mexico’s private marinas, the Singlar employees we’ve met are qualified for their jobs, work hard 6 days a week and do what they can to help their guests get whatever they need - whether it is negotiating moorage fees, arranging Internet access, getting water delivered to the boat if none is otherwise available, or working out how to get your propane tanks filled. Here’s what’s most important: each Singlar marina tries to be a good neighbor in their community - for example, Singlar Puerto Escondido allows non-guest boaters to drop off their garbage and fill their water tanks for free from the Singlar docks, and offers non-guests access to their laundry, showers and Internet for the same prices as they charge their paying guests. Singlar Guaymas regularly drives into the Guaymas neighborhoods that have inadequate water capacity, and gives the residents fresh water from the marina’s cisterns - at no charge. That’s a nice touch I don’t mind supporting now and then by being in a Singlar slip for a week.

My advice? Make a Singlar marina one of YOUR cruising destinations!

m

Guaymas, Sonora - Mainland Mexico

Guaymas.  A mere 20 miles, more or less, southeast from San Carlos.  Hot, in May.  Before arriving there about a month ago we had gunkholed about 10 miles north of San Carlos at Playa Chollado (nice snorkeling when the seas are calm)(which, after 24 hours, they weren't); moved a half mile north to Bandito Cove (great sea caves nearby when the seas are calm)(which, after 24 hours, they weren't); and then turned southeast again to find better shelter at the large Bahia de Algodones with its reefs and white sand beaches, close to San Carlos itself.  All these anchorages have good holding but unfortunately when the swell decides to run, a cruising boat gets bounced right out of these open roadstead-type spots.  Sailling is like that sometimes.

Algodones has a pretty beach - been used for a movie set or two - and the northern portion is a total gringo resort atmosphere.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the weekend we were anchored off this nice beach, we noticed that the people with low melanin content but many pesos all stayed in the resort's palapa bar drinking $8 margaritas, while the browner local families brought their own beverages, snacks and shade and kept to themselves on the southern portion of the beach.  It was clear that both groups were enjoying themselves that fine weekend, so who am I to judge, but sitting at anchor and seeing the big picture, the voluntary separateness of the two groups really got to me.  We had seen much less of that in places like Mazatlan and Santa Rosalia, so it was jarring to see it here, although it was so near a town we had already seen was saturated with People Like Us who were not interested in even saying "please" or "thank you" in the local language, much less actually spending time cheek-to-jowl with the natives.  Plus the swell was still coming in and it was a bit breezy, so the snorkeling on the Algodones reefs was a total bust.  We moved on.  But to show you how picturesque this area is, on the left over there i's a photo taken at Playa Chollado, looking southeast across the mainland coast, and in the distant background you see Bahia Algodones and the buildings of the northern portion of San Carlos and one of its marinas.

The last anchorage we stayed in before arriving in Guaymas was Bahia Catalina, a mere 5 miles distant and at the head of the inlet into Guaymas's channel.  Catalina has a pretty setting and excellent shelter from high cliffs all around, but sadly is so near the Guaymas outskirts that locals can easily get here to toss all manner of things on the beach - from scrap tarps, to plastic jugs, to stoves, to use your imagination.  We saw many vehicles drive up to one part of the beach and park, the doors would open yet nobody would get out, and then after 15 minutes or so the doors would close and the vehicles would leave.  And then the police cars would cruise past the area.  Upon reflection, it appears there may have been some transactions of a sexual nature being conducted, if you get my drift.  Oh dear.  So we stayed on the boat, the locals stayed on the beach, we stayed safe, and we moved on to Guaymas.  No, I did not take pictures.

I liked Guaymas the moment we entered the main shipping channel.  They have the coolest, biggest, most obvious pair of range markers I have ever seen, and I'd like to see them in every port - they're that hip.  Big, rhomboid, red and white like two giant pairs of Mick Jagger's lips - I'm just sorry that the photo I took of them fails to do them justice:

We enjoyed Guaymas. Unlike the very gringo-vibe we got of San Carlos, Guaymas is a true Mexican town* with a rich history and some still-standing buildings from the late 19^th/early 20^th century to prove it. During the California Gold Rush in 1848 and after, the French tried to move in to California and northern Mexico to do a bit of mineral exploration and while they were at it maybe take over a country or two. They succeeded in exploiting some minerals (see, e.g., The Boleo mines in Santa Rosalia) but they failed in taking over Mexico when on July 13, 1854 the Mexicans defeated them right in downtown Guaymas. Firing squads were busy. In the early 20^th century there were revolutions aplenty, General Huerta was executing all his former allies, Pancho Villa was shooting up Sonora and Chihuahua (and embarrassing General Pershing and Woodrow Wilson), and Guaymas was the epicenter of a lot of violence. Must have been terrible to be a regular citizen of Guaymas during those days, just trying to get by without catching a bullet. Three Mexican presidents hailed from Guaymas, so there must have been a lot of politics going on, back in the day.

A few Chinese merchants lived in Guaymas, and if you explore you can find the ruined remnants of what might have been the old Chinatown.  There are even a couple of Chinese restaurants downtown (Restaurante Mandarin on Calle 21 (or is it 22?) is popular with the locals).   The downtown area near the fishermen’s monument includes a spot where there’s a small collection of antique carnival rides that are still operational - so if you have toddlers or small children, take them for a spin in a miniature airplane ride that looks like it’s out of the 1940s (and probably is)(OSHA regulations be damned).

At this point I’d like to make a few remarks on the fisherman’s statue that is the landmark for the malecon and is but a stone’s throw from the fine Singlar Guaymas marina. The fisherman’s face looks as weathered and grizzled as any 65-year-old’s, but the body? Oh, lordy - he’s built like Groundskeeper Willie in the Simpsons when he gets upset and rips his shirt off. In fact, this fisherman's monument was probably the inspiration for Groundskeeper Willie.  Check out the tris, delts and gastrocs on the studmuffin over on the right, there:

That's how I like my men:  Wearing pants and a hat, and dragging another big fish to the table.  Hott.

Also, I found a site - http://www.go2sancarlos.com/guaymas.htm - that describes more of the Guaymas area - although it unfortunately fails to include information about Marina Singlar Guaymas, whose docks are within spittin’ distance of the fishermen’s statue (more on that, later).

 These days, Guaymas is a cruising destination not just for its history and the ease of provisioning in all the downtown shops; boats arrive at Guaymas to haul out for the hurricane season just like they do in San Carlos, except there's no waiting list. There are at least two boat yards in Guaymas - one of them is the Singlar facility - at which you can haul your boat, make repairs and keep it in dry storage from May to October.  In short, it's well worth it to investigate Guaymas as a nice alternative if you are looking for somewhere out of the traditional hurricane zone to store your boat during the hottest time of the year when most norteamericanos would much rather leave the boat behind and travel elsewhere. By far, most of the cruisers we met during the preceding months have houses “back north”, or condos, RVs or whatnot that they spend the 5-6 month hurricane season in. We were surprised to find that folks like us whose only residence is our boat, are in a very small minority of the cruising community.  So we moved on - but many others (or at least, their boats) stayed in Guaymas, and that's just fine.

* Whatever “a true Mexican town” is. In Guaymas’s case it means that in contrast to San Carlos, Mexicans still live and work there, more Spanish is spoken than English, and if you want to buy anything you have to use pesos.

m

The Sun Shield

Funny thing about cruising in southerly climes.  The water is warmer and the sun is brighter.  Even as finely-insulated a vessel as a Malo has to expend more energy to keep cold things cold in its refrigerator.  Even if GB has already insulated all the voids around and behind said refrigerator, it will still have to work harder as the sun shines on the part of the boat's hull nearest the fridge.  A contiunuously running fridge can really deplete the battery reserves of a boat at anchor.

We learned that cruisers in the hot sun have a way of easing the fridge's burden:  they hang reflective material over the side of the boat's hull facing the sun, where the fridge is closest to the hull.  The reflective material is a standard reflective visor that drivers use to shade their cars' dashboards from the sun.  In Mexico, a basic auto visor sets one back about US $3 - the cheapest boat equipment ever.  We were so excited we bought two.

Some cruisers stop here and just hang the auto visor over the side of their boat.  Which appears to help.  Others, though, aim for even more energy efficiency.  So, following the advice of those more experienced in these matters - other cruisers and a Mazatlan refrigeration mechanic/boat engineer - I cut the two auto visors to 35" long (their original height of 23-1/2" was just fine), and stitched them together (to improve the overall R-value, I guess), then weighted the bottom with a series of five 2-ounce fishing weights, the better to stabilize the shield against the breeze and wave action.

But that's not all:  covering the auto visors with white fabric seems to protect them from the elements and improves their reflectivity, according to folks who have studied the matter.  We used what was available in town and bought ourselves the finest pure-white shower curtain US $13 could buy.  Cut it roughly in half and had a pice of vinyl fabric 37-1/2" wide and 52" long - enough to fold around the auto visors and stitch the sides closed, and hem the top with an inch to spare above the top edge of the visors.  GB set 3 grommets in the top hem so we could tie the finished sun shield to the Fox's hull at the stanchions and lifelines.  We hang a fender or 2 over the side on top of the sun shield to keep it in place in light breezes.  However, we've found that fenders alone don't keep the shield in place when the wind blows above 15 knots or so - still a few bugs to work out. 

Energy results:  this sun shield appears to have improved the fridge's efficiency in the sense that it allows the fridge to run colder, on a lower-energy setting does not have to run constantly.  We haven't crunched actual numbers to accurately determine our true energy savings, because daytime temperatures can fluctuate widely; we're lazy; other activities get in the way (like cocktail enhancement).  But I have seen that with the afternoon sun shining on the refrigerator's side of the hull and the sun shield in place, the fridge has an inside temperature of 34.3 degrees F.  It's chillin'.

m