Concordia - Copala

Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico

It is just as well that we decided not to move on.  The new hot water heater is not here (surprise, surprise).  Earliest new delivery date is for tomorrow (Saturday) but I am not holding my breath.
This called for drastic action - a Road Trip!

We got together with a few fellow cruisers for a quick day-trip to a couple of nearby small towns, Concordia and Copala, both along the same highway.  We rented a very nice Toyota van with plenty of room for the 10 of us that comprised our group - Roger on SV Sandpiper kindly volunteered to do the driving which suited us fine.

Concordia is the closer of the two towns, only about 50km from the marina, but the combination of road-works in the outskirts of Mazatlan and the slow, winding nature of the highway, turned this into about an hour's drive.

Concordia is a very typical Spanish town with a central plaza and church, built on a high point of land, with the village spreading out on all sides.  Their specialty here is furniture; very high-quality hardwood chairs and tables, etc. thus the central attraction in the square being a giant chair (insert obligatory picture here).  We spent about an hour and a half exploring the town and enjoying some fresh "Mango on a stick" - no elegant way to eat one of those.

Then we drove on for another 1/2 hour or so to the town of Copala.  This is a much smaller but incredibly picturesque village, again built around a central plaza and church.  The streets here are all cobblestones showing wear consistent with the 500 year age of the town.  We had lunch at the local Gringo-trap restaurant, not that it was all that bad, especially the world-famous banana coconut pie.  Most everyone ended up buying some of the local hand-made leather goods, before we headed back to the marina.  With nine people navigating, it's a wonder we only got lost once.

 

{GMST}23|23.67|N|105|56|W|Copala, Sinaloa, Mexico|Copala, Sinaloa, Mexico{GEND}

{GMST}23|17.33|N|106|4|W|Concordia, Sinaloa, Mexico|Concordia, Sinaloa, Mexico{GEND}

 

Gathering Moss

Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico

Unlike the rolling stone that gathers no moss, here we sit, not so much gathering moss as weeds and barnacles, but you get the general idea.

It is hard to believe that we have been in Mazatlan for almost 2 months now and we seem to be further and further from being able, or willing, to leave.  We are still waiting for the new water heater we ordered (see the accompanying photo to prove that we have its spot all cleaned up and ready) - should be here any day now.  Then it will be a simple matter of installing it - normally this would be no problem but this is Mexico and if I have to find some oddball fitting or adapter or something, all bets are off.

Meanwhile, the boat is looking pretty good.  Susanne finished her staining of the cockpit bright work (actually about 3 weeks ago), including the table, wheel and other odds and ends.  This, combined with the new bimini and cockpit cushions has made for a very inviting living space in the cockpit.  We can hardly wait till we are lounging away at anchor in the Sea of Cortez this summer.  Speaking of which, we have been getting the low-down on the sea from a lot of the cruisers here and are steadily equipping ourselves accordingly.  I have been getting some tips on fishing (for dummies?) and we have been exploring the fishing supply shops looking for equipment - prices are about twice what we can find on the web from the US or Canada.

Here is a picture of one of the most unlikely superheros you will ever see; Jellyfishwoman.  A lot of the cruisers have been ordering custom-make jellyfish suits from "Lycra Laura" who pays regular visits to the cruiser's lounge (You couldn't make this stuff up!).  These suits are very popular in the Sea of Cortez (or so we are told), to prevent jellyfish stings and sunburn and are especially useful when scraping the bottom of the boat.  The way I see it is that whoever has such a suit will have to scrape the bottom, so naturally I have so far resisted dressing up like a geek; but I suspect my time is coming.  They do come in a variety of colors - just about anything is OK as long as you don't look too much like a seal (and thus food for killer whales).  Still I think pink is a very bold statement.

As for our plans, it is now looking like we may not head any further south this season at all.  We have a flight booked to Edmonton on April 14th for a two-week visit to the frozen north and we are starting to think it is silly to sail down to PV for what would be a very short visit before we leave, and then have to turn around and start heading back north as soon as we return.  At this point, we have stayed here long enough to start paying the long-term cheaper rates at the marina, so leaving the boat here would be much less expensive, and we still have a few things we want to buy/fix before heading across to the Baja - we almost know where to find stuff here.  It would also be safe to say we are really enjoying our time here and don't really feel any great desire to leave.  We have seen quite a few boats arriving in the marina the last few days, coming from points south and mostly heading for La Paz in the next couple of weeks so it appears the migration has begun.  The winds have shifted to mostly from the south as well, although I am not sure this is more than a temporary blip - the prevailing south winds are not scheduled to arrive for another month or two.

Tomorrow, we are going to join some other cruisers to explore a little further afield, visiting a couple of the nearby towns.  Not sure at this time if we are going by bus or what, but I am sure it will be fun regardless.

BTW, the weather is starting to get a little warmer.  We notice that we are more and more often tossing the blanket off the bed at night.  Just a taste of what is to come?

{GMST}23|16.25|N|106|27.2833|W|Marina Mazatlan|Marina Mazatlan{GEND}

Tsunami

Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico

Probably the scariest word in a sailor's vocabulary, especially when not at sea; instead tied up to a dock in the path of the oncoming destruction; is Tsunami!

In case you haven't heard, a major earthquake in Japan caused a world-girdling tsunami wave. Somehow, through no great planning on our part, we found ourselves in what could be the best possible location on the west coast of North America to weather this particular wave.  Mazatlan is just far enough north to be somewhat protected by the Baja peninsula, and far enough south that the tsunami was significantly lessened in severity by the time it got here.  The accompanying picture shows our boat at the peak of the event.  The only effect here in the lagoon was a somewhat accelerated tidal change.  This could not actually be felt at all in the marina but it did make for some higher than normal currents in the canals, causing a few navigation buoys to reportedly shift their positions (we were not actually sure what they were marking in the first place).  The port captain had closed the port to all traffic, so we could not have left if we wanted to, however there was little concern here in any event.

As you can see, the girls were making all of the necessary preparations as the wave approached (train dominoes are apparently very addictive).

The same luck was not experienced by many of the ports along the west coast of Oregon and California, especially at Crescent City, CA and Brookings, OR, both of which we visited on our way south last September and October.  It was very troubling to see the devastation that has occurred in these ports.  We had felt very uncomfortable in Crescent City particularly, where a tsunami in 2006 had taken out the visitor dock and was still missing when we were there.  I guess we were right to be concerned.  We are so thankful that we kept on going south instead of stopping for the winter along the way, which we had seriously contemplated when the weather got a bit rough.  One of the boats we had met at a few stops along the coast did decide to stay in Brookings due to some equipment issues, and we were saddened to see pictures of their craft amongst the carnage shown in some images we found on the Internet.  Our hearts go out to all of the people affected, and especially to those poor unfortunate souls in Japan.

Our next port of call was to be La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (more simply known as La Cruz), an anchorage and marina at the north end of Banderas Bay.  We had not left yet due to our own equipment failures - we have ordered a new hot water heater and are waiting for it to arrive, probably another week or more yet. The tsunami did affect the marina at La Cruz a little, with some damage reported at the docks, but nothing too dramatic.  The biggest issue seems to be the fact that a lot of the boats left the marinas in La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta, to weather the wave in deeper water - an approach that worked very well.  However when they wanted to go back to the marinas, the port captain had closed the port, so there were an extra 100+ boats anchored out in the bay overnight.  Not a big deal - just interesting.

Meanwhile, here in Maz we have been experiencing more of the social scene.  We joined a few other cruisers to partake of the "Art Walk".  This is an event that takes place the first Friday of every month (a week late this month due to Carnaval) which consists of a self-guided walking tour of about 22 art galleries in the old town.  Some of the art was really interesting and sometimes the buildings themselves were even more interesting.  In any case, we spent about 3 hours walking around on a perfect Friday evening and managed to visit about half of the venues - didn't buy anything of course.  One of the good things about living on a boat is the lack of temptation to buy anything bigger than a postcard since there is no place to put anything

At the end of the evening, Sue and I wound up back at the Plaza Machado for a late supper while listening to some local music.  This town sure grows on you after a while.

{GMST}23|11.9|N|106|25.3833|W|Plaza Machado, Mazatlan|Plaza Machado, Mazatlan{GEND}

Carnaval

Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico

What a blast!

"Carnaval" in Mazatlan is a huge event.  For a city of about 400,000 the population is supposedly closer to 1 million during Carnaval.  People come from all over Mexico to attend this week-long party.  All of the events are very well organized although anything that has a published start time runs strictly on "Mexican" time, which means it will definitely not start before the advertised start time - after that it is anybody's guess.

We joined a few other cruisers to go downtown to an area along the beach known as Olas Altas to view the fireworks.  We took a bus downtown (to El Centro) around 7 PM and had a potato each for supper at a street vendor (Yes, you can make a meal out of the stuffed potatoes), then followed a procession through the streets leading up to the Burning of Bad Humor (Quema Del Mal Humor) at the main venue.  We took a short-cut to buy tickets to the Olas Altas area so we arrived before the actual burning took place.

The Olas Altas venue is more or less a mile long street party with about a dozen stages set up with extremely loud live music on each one, mostly Mexican bands but some rock and roll thrown in for good luck.  Admission is 25 pesos (about 2 dollars) and beer is cheap.  Hard to say how many people were there - I would guess no more than 200,000 or so.  The fireworks are set off from several sites along the sea wall, about 5 feet from the crowd and mostly take place immediately overhead, with the ensuing smoke and falling cinders.  After the 10:30PM start at around 11PM, they lasted about 25 minutes, all set to music blaring from speakers spaced along the wall.

After we left the event around midnight (just as the bands were really getting into gear), we persuaded a bus to take us back to the marina  (the buses are basically private ventures at night).

The next day, we had tickets to a banquet and some bleachers for viewing the parade.  We left around 2PM and had a nice buffet dinner before the 5:30PM parade got going around 6:30PM,  This is probably the most anticipated event at Carnaval, the crowds along the Malecon started gathering the night before.  The security was high, especially around the small concentration of "gringos" around the hotel that hosted the banquet.  A bit of an over-reation as a result of some bad publicity about the violence in Mazatlan, scaring the tourists away.

The crowds were very well-behaved, not nearly as wild as we were expecting, just families out to watch a parade like in every other city in the world - except that there was a huge number of them.  The parade route is about 5 miles long and every inch of it is crowed with people.  Lots of vendors selling Carnaval masks and novelties and lots of Pacifico tents selling beer.  It seems as if Pacifico (the local brewery) is the biggest sponsor for Carnaval, which tells you where the money is in these hard economic times.

One thing that was very different from any parade that we have attended before is the fact that it is all done at night, with the floats all lit up and fireworks going off sporadically.  And the floats were spectacular - a lot of work and imagination goes into each one.  The theme this year is "The return of the muses", so the name of the game was music, a little heavier on "The Beatles" than I would have expected, which is OK with me.  All in all, we had a great time and are sure glad we decided to stick around for Carnaval.

Back on the boat, the refrigerator is working fine, if a little noisy; the sink drain is draining and, after a day of labour, I have managed to get the old water heater out of its compartment - had to cut it into pieces to get it out as it appeared it must have gone in before the cockpit drains were put in, or else I missed something.  We are not sure what we are going to do about it now; lots of cruisers here do not have a water heater and don't miss it - if the summers are as warm as they say, we probably won't really need it either.  We may just postpone the decision for a while and contemplate the extra storage space we could have instead.

{GMST}23|11.75|N|106|25.5667|W|Olas Altas, Mazatlan|Olas Altas, Mazatlan{GEND}

The Domino Effect

Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico

Things had been going pretty well lately.  Maybe too well!

We have been really enjoying Mazatlan, touring by bus or on foot, finding no end of cool places to have breakfast (Panchos pictured here is about a 15 minute walk from the marina), lunch or great, inexpensive nights out (Shrimp are a local specialty, prepared just about any way you can imagine - and I know just about everything there is about the shrimping business).  It is easy to see why so many Americans and Canadians make this their home, at least for the winter season.

We have made several trips to the local big box stores like Mega, Soriana, Walmart, Home Depot, etc.  It is interesting just how similar the stores look to those back in Canada, and how different the actual selection of merchandise can be.  There are some things you just can't get here, as we were soon to find out.

The city has been gearing up for Carnaval for the last week, and the evidence is shown in the new decorations along the Malecon as well as the unusual number of people out and about - seems almost busy at times.  The city and state governments are making an all-out effort with a show of force to reassure the gringos that they will be safe, including importing about 75 additional truckloads of police from other districts to keep order.  We were treated to a parade of quasi-military vehicles, about 45 in all, driving by the marina, heading towards the Golden Zone and downtown, single file with sirens blaring and lights flashing, complete with heavily armed officers standing in the back of the trucks, looking like they mean business.  We are not sure if this is having the right effect on the average tourists though.

Nonetheless, we do not feel that we are in any more danger here than in any city in the USA, statistically much safer actually.  Carnaval started yesterday but we have not yet ventured into town where the main activities are taking place.  Tonight is supposed to be one of the big fireworks displays so we may try and get out for that, although they don't start until after 10 PM, pretty late for us cruisers.  Tomorrow, we have tickets for a buffet dinner and assigned seating on some bleachers at a hotel along the Malecon to see the first of the two parades - by all accounts it should be something quite spectacular.

Meanwhile, our boat projects have been progressing nicely.  The new bimini and cockpit cushions are finished and look great - I'm sure we will be really thankful for the shade and comfort as the days get warmer.  Speaking of which, they are finally heading that way, close to 30 degrees during the day and not much less than 20 at night - absolutely gorgeous weather.

As you can see, everything has been going perfectly, just ripe for some kind of disaster.

It started off innocently enough with a strange noise coming from the refrigerator.  Not all the time, just once in a while (nothing to worry about, right?).  Then, within a couple of days, the compressor could be heard to start and immediately shut down within a couple of seconds, over and over again, occasionally managing to get going, and still keeping things cold.  That did not last long.  Pretty soon it was obvious that the compressor was in serious trouble and unable get started at all.  Fortunately we did not have much in the fridge at this time, and we have the separate Engel freezer, so we were able to shut off the fridge and wait for the local refrigeration guy to look at the problem (One of the other boaters in the marina has made a business of refrigeration sales and repairs).

To make a long story short, a couple of boat-bucks later and we have a new compressor and electronics, a new filter and thermostat, and are converted to the latest refrigerant.  We have a fridge again, slightly more efficient than the old, which is a bonus, but with the noisiest fan I have ever heard - apparently hard to find the better, quieter models here - another thing to put on the list for when we next go back to Edmonton.

Unfortunately, the fridge was the start of some sort of domino effect.  As Michael (the fridge guru) was flailing around under the sink, he bumped into the sink drain, which promptly broke off at a totally rusted-out fitting.  Fortunately this was about an inch above the water line or we could have had a boat-sinking event on our hands.  There was nothing I could do about the drain other than turning off the sea-cock, until Mike was done with installing the compressor, so Susanne and I retired to the cockpit to read a book and enjoy our spiffy new cushions.

As we were sitting there feeling sorry for ourselves, we heard the bilge pump come on, pumping more water than was reasonable for the small amount that usually accumulates every month or so (from sources that remain a mystery).  In fact, the pump came on a few times while we were sitting there; definitely time to start worrying.  So, I checked all the usual suspects, the thru-hulls and stuffing box, but there was no evidence of any problems.

Then, I opened the back compartment under the cockpit, to find a sort of sauna, lots of heat and moisture in the air, accompanied by suspicious gurgling noises from the hot water heater.  To be honest, I have long thought we were living on borrowed time with this rusty looking beast, but why it chose this moment to let go, I have no idea.  Suffice it to say, we now have no hot water heater and, based on my conversations with the other cruisers here, little chance of finding a replacement any time soon.  I have managed to bypass the heater, so it can no longer attempt to empty our fresh-water supply into the bilge, and I have turned off the valves for the engine heat-exchanger lines so it won't potentially cause any problems for the engine, but it is still a big disappointment.

A trip to Home Depot and some other small plumerios, raiding the motley collection of plumbing fittings, netted me enough pieces to jury-rig a new drain for the sink (ended up using some PVC pipe), but confirmed that the chances of finding a combination 120V / Engine-heated hot water heater are slim to none.  To be fair, the plumbing supplies here are really quite good if you are not trying to outfit a boat.  That is just the reality of the cruising life.

We can hardly wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

{GMST}23|16.25|N|106|27.2833|W|Marina Mazatlan|Marina Mazatlan{GEND}