We are back in Mazatlan for a very brief summer. We arrived on August 1 after a three day two night, 250 mile passage from Isla San Francisco in Baja. It was an OK trip, with us being able to sail for all of about two hours. We had good timing though, and avoided all of the huge thunderstorms that seem to be hitting Maz every three or four days.
We will be in Maz until November 5 or so, when we will head south to Ecuador - no more hot sticky summers for us. We love Mexico, but the weather here is a bit difficult in the summer - 90 degrees and 100 percent humidity. We will spend about $150-200 a month to keep cool with our $150 Home Depot 8000 btu AC unit that is mounted in the overhead hatch. I have carried that damn thing around for the last 8 months and now it is really getting a workout.
We left a lot of friends who are summering over up in the north Sea of Cortez - they are a lot of really tough people - I don't know how they do it. About July 15 it seemed to get really hot - I mean hot - and it was quite humid. On a boat there is no way to get any relief. It was time for us weaklings to head to a marina with some Alternating Current.
In Maz we will travel inland for a couple of trips, and get the boat ready to head south. We are leaving this Sunday for a 10 day trip to Morelia - not a minute too soon. We will also travel to Mexico City sometime, and local areas around there - sometime in late September. You can travel by bus in Mexico for about $100 - 125 per day - staying in lots of really cool places. You can spend a lot more or maybe a bit less - but that is the amount we seem to spend.
We will have quite a few more stories about our 8 month trip - I am working on a book "The right way to cruise the Sea of Cortez on $30,00 a year" - no - not really - but I have been accused of being a bit opinionated - so might as well write a book.
Anyway - the Sea is a great place to cruise - we leave it smiling going south, but longing for a bit more. When you finally start to figure out what is going on you can have a really good time - some of the best cruising we have ever had.
So stay tuned - we will have a lot of opinions about the right way to cruise. For now - here are a few pictures of our trip.
A tope shark I hooked up in the north Sea near Bahia Los Angeles - its about 5' - managed to get it on the boat before releasing the lure and the fish - very scary.
Lots of great sunsets....
Puerto Refugio breakfast tacos - homemade tortilla and smoked triggerfish
Gary wrote this so if the spelling is bad don't tell marianne