The End

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

Our passage from Mazatlán to San Carlos was about as perfect as it could be.  We had some light west wind on the first day, then nothing but south and SE winds from then on, albeit not quite enough for us to make significant progress with under sail for the most part.

Leaving Mazatlán in our wake

We did manage to do a bit of close-hauled sailing on the first day, and a little broad-reaching on each of the other two days, for a grand total of about 7-1/2 hours out of the 70+ hour total passage time.  Because the wind was primarily on our ass, having our usual double-reefed mainsail up was not helpful, so we just motored under bare poles for most of the trip.  Whenever the wind got up to 10 knots or more, it made for some very rolly conditions, which had the predictable affect on my crew - Sue had a hard time of it, especially on the second day.  All in all though, we far preferred these following seas to the usual bashing into them that we have experienced over the last couple of months.

As we approached San Carlos, there was a distinct fog bank.  Fortunately as the sun rose, it burned off before we were affected.  Our entrance and mooring at our assigned slip was relatively uneventful.

Distinctive formations that let you know your nearing San Carlos

For three days we frantically worked on preparing the boat for an extended stay on the hard, in a hurricane zone.  All the sails were removed and cleaned up somewhat.  We dismantled the Bimini over the cockpit, deflated and bagged the dinghy, removed and stowed the big solar panels and gave the interior of the boat a bit of a cleaning.  I disabled all but one 50-amp solar panel and overfilled the batteries in a vain hope that they will survive for a while on their own.

Yesterday, the boat was pulled out of the water and transported to the Seca work yard out in the desert.  And there it sits...

Tomorrow, we will start our journey back to reality in Canada.  Susanne is pretty excited at the prospect of seeing her friends and family again.

Goodbye Mexico - It’s been fun!

{GMST}27|56.903|N|111|3.16536|W|San Carlos, Mexico|San Carlos, Mexico{GEND}

One Last Leap

Marina El CID, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico

Tomorrow, it appears that our wishes may have come true.

We have waited patiently for something other than a NW wind to bash our way up the Sea of Cortez.   Tomorrow our weather app tells us we will have some light west winds followed by at least two days of southerly winds.  It remains to be seen if there will be enough wind to actually sail with, but at least it should be a more comfortable passage.

We have a long way to go, 385 nautical miles according to my plotted route, so we cannot dawdle if we want to make it in no more than 3 days.  We have a slip reserved at the San Carlos marina for a Thursday, May 10th arrival and a haul out scheduled for the following Monday, May 14th.

Meanwhile, here in Mazatlán we have really enjoyed ourselves,  making several trips to and from the town center and the spectacularly revamped Malacon.  We have found a few great restaurants and are probably overindulging a mite.  Oh well, a long passage at sea should cure that!

We are as prepared as we can be for this passage.  We had a diver clean the bottom of the boat and the prop.  We provisioned at the new, nearby Walmart store.  We have added some time to our local phone. 

There is a low, slack tide at around 9:30 AM tomorrow morning, which should allow us to get out of here.

BTW It is really starting to warm up here - summer is coming fast!

{GMST}23|16.124|N|106|27.846|W|Mazatlan, Mexico|Mazatlan , Mexico{GEND}