Ensenada de los Muertos, Sea of Cortez

Ensenada de los Muertos, or translated in English, Cove of the Dead. This is a beautiful anchorage with clear green water, white sandy beaches, and desert beyond the beaches. There is one restaurant on one side of the cove and an exclusive resort at the other end of the cove. Potential developers of this area would like to change the name to Bahia de los Suenos, or Bay of Dreams.

Years ago, 1920's, this cove used to be a cargo port for near by silver mining operations. In later years it was used for transporting salt. Currently it is a potential development for tourism.

Muertos is 190 miles west of Mazatlan across the Sea of Cortez. We crossed the Sea with John and Rosie, of Serena Ray, and Ed and Annette, of Wind Song. It took us 27 hours to cross. We left Mazatlan with 2-3 foot swells and 10-15 knots of wind. We had a half moon and brilliant stars during the night. In the early morning hours the seas went flat and wind dropped to less that 5 knots.

We saw all kinds of sea life - flying-jumping sting rays, sea turtles, flying fish, and dolphins.
Once anchored in Muertos we have continued to see flying sting rays, flying fish, dolphins and a whale. I wish I could grab the camera fast enough for pictures of all the sea life.

We have been swimming from the boats. The water temperature is about 75 degrees. The day temperature is in the low 80's. The nights are cooling down to the 60's. We have been walking on the beaches exploring and collecting sea shells. We have had pot luck dinners with our friends.

While the first day and a half the weather has been good the past 2 days we have had wind up to 20 knots in the anchorage. It has prevented us from moving on, however, tomorrow looks good to head north to La Paz.

Mazatlan, Sinoloa, Mexico

Happy Spring! We have been in Mazatlan for the past few weeks. Wally has been busy repairing and installing a new auto pilot, shower sump, water pump, and many other items that he seems to keep busy with all the time.

While Wally has been working I have been visiting my family in the States. I was in 3 different locations and 8 flights round trip. I enjoyed all the visiting, shopping, and playing. One of the highlights was my granddaughters first birthday party.


We are leaving in the morning for La Paz. We will spend the next 2 months exploring the Sea of Cortez.

Mazatlan, Sinoloa, Mexico

We have arrived at Mazatlan, our home port in Mexico. We went first from La Cruz to Mantachen, a distance of 63 miles and 10 hours. For the 6 hours we had huge seas of 12-14 feet about 10 knots of wind. We were bouncing all over. Remember we are now hand steering due to no auto pilot, great on building arm muscles. The second day we made a run to Mazatlan, 134 miles and 21 hours. The seas were calmer this day. We were fortunate to be following Serena Ray during the night. They were our north star to follow.

Wally has many projects to complete while in Mazatlan. All of our new parts, auto pilot, shower sump and water pump, have arrived from the States via Ed and Annette of WindSong. While Wally will be working I am flying home to the States to visit my family. I have the better deal.

I have continued to improve seasickness. First use the electrical impulse ReliefBand, swallow Sturgeon ( a medication not approved in the US), suck on Ginger Altoids and anti acid tablets. When all of that fails, pray that it will be over soon.

We had the pleasure to celebrate Ed and Annette's, Wind Song, wedding. We had a celebration, and affirmation of wedding cruising vows on Serena Ray. All of us were participants in the celebration. We had Ed and Annette as Bride and Groom, Wally as the Reverend, Linda - Wedding Planner, John - the Chef, Rosie -Assistant Chef, Teresa -Assistant Wedding Planner, Steve - photographer.

La Cruz, Nyarit, Mexico

We are slowly making our way north to Mazatlan. Our first leg of the trip was Ixtapa to Las Hadas, a distance of 189 miles and 30 hours. We had a very rough night with seas 10-14 feet and wind 20-25 knots, both coming from opposite directions. First time, Wally was even saying he had a quesey stomach. We stayed 1 night in the anchorage at Las Hadas.

Second leg was from Las Hadas to Barra de Navidad, a distance of 26 miles and 4 1/2 hours. I love these short runs. Our friends John and Rosie on Serena Ray have been waiting for us in Barra. We were grateful they were there as when we were coming into the bay we decided to get fuel. Unfortunately it was low tide, we hit a sand spit and went aground. John and Rosie with their 40 hp dingy and another 45 hp dingy had to pull us off the bar. There is a saying here: If you haven't gone aground yet, you will. Makes us feel a little better.


We spent 4 days in Barra enjoying the pools, being with our friends, and kayaking. During the time we were in Barra the Chili earthquake occurred. This resulted in a tsunami warning for the Pacific coast. We were notified by VHF radio that there was a warning. We monitored all the reports to determine our course of action. Many boats left the anchorage and marina to go to sea for deep water, suggested greater than 150 feet. We decided to stay in the marina. The only things we saw were huge current changes in the bay.

Next leg of the trip is Barra de Navidad to Tenacatita, a distance of 15 miles and 3 hours. In route we lost our auto pilot and our running lights. While we had planned to spend a few days at Tenacatita we decided that without auto pilot and not knowing if the weather would change we would leave the next day. We are currently buddy boating with Serena Ray.

We went from Tenacatita to Chamela, 30 miles and 5 hours. We had seas 6-8 feet and wind 5-10 knots. We are currently hand steering the boat. We stayed one night at Chamela. The next morning we left, Chamela to La Cruz, a distance of 92 miles and 14 hours. We started up with 5-10 knots of wind which built up to 20 knots going around Cabo Corrientes (Point Conception of Mexcio). We came into the marina at night and were definitely tired after hand steering.


We have been in La Cruz the past week. We have mostly been working on boat projects. Wally determined that our auto pilot is history. In addition, our shower sump is going out and our water pump is failing. We have ordered all new equipment and should arrive in Mazatlan with our friends Ed and Annette. Wally will have his hands full repairing all of these things. I will be playing Girl Friday.

In addition many of our friends are here. As you probably note we have friends in every port. Our friends Jim and Lucy on Passage II, and Craig and Eva on South Trails, both from Ventura, have arrived. It is great catching up with them. We have been kayaking, dock parties, evenings out and visiting, shopping, and visiting surrounding towns.

We plan to leave in the morning with our friends John and Rosie on Serena Ray and Stan and Val on Pax Nautica heading first to Matanchen and then our last leg to Mazatlan.

Ixtapa, Guerrero, Mexico

Sometimes we find that we have to stop. And that is what we have done in Ixtapa. While we love all the activities and social life of cruising we have been taking a slight break. Some of the break has been brought on that Wally was sick and then I was sick, however, we have both recovered.

Marina Ixtapa is the largest marina in Mexico. It has a capacity for 621 boats, although I think it is only half full and it does feel small. It is a very pretty marina surrounded by mountains. Many hotels and condiminiums surround the marina along with some good restaurants. There are not many tourists. The local businesses say that business is very slow.



We were told in this marina to be careful with Angel as there are crocodiles in the water. We were not sure it was true until we had a huge crocodile swimming by our boat! As you can guess, no swimming in this area. Also we have iguanas on the dock. This marina keeps us on our toes as we walk the docks.




We rented a car for the day as we were getting land sick. We wanted to travel inland to see the mountains. We rented a Dodge Atos. What a fun small car. I think Wally thought he was a race car driver all day. We had been a little nervous about driving in a foreign country, however, we found it was not a problem for the 2 of us. I think it may have been a problem if Wally was alone as reading the signs in Spanish and staying on the right side of the road seemed to be a challenge! We had a great time exploring. Along the way we saw goats, donkeys and cattle along the roads. The countryside was beautiful. It went to a lot of green foliage, pink flower trees and jungle to cactus. We saw lakes and rivers. We will in the future continue to explore inland Mexico by car.



We are planning to leave Ixtapa on Wednesday, weather permitting. Due to the El Nino year we have definitely had weather challenges. Last season the weather was the same every day. This is the furthest south we will travel this season. We will begin to head slowly north back to Mazatlan. We then plan to go to the Sea of Cortez April and May.

Zihuatenjo, Guerrero, Mexico

Zihuatenjo and Ixtapa has a population of 100,000 people. Prior to 1970 Zihuatenjo was a small fishing village. In the 1970 the federal government developed the near by resort Ixtapa and the population has grown.

The primary economic activity is tourism. Zihuatenjo is the third most visited area in Mexico after Cancun and Puerto Vallarta. Fishing also continues to be a way of life for the locals.

Most Mexican towns center evolve around a town plaza. In Zihuatenjo the center of town evolves around the basketball court which is along the beach front. The beauty of Zihua is its bay surrounded on land by the Sierra Madre mountains.




We have been enjoying the towns local restaurants, local beaches and activities. We went on a countryside tour with our friends Tom and Alicia, on Alegria, to see a coconut plantation, a traditional tile making plant, and local beaches. We were able to watch The Super Bowl at a local bar with our friends Rick and Karen, of Eyes of the World, and John and Debbie, of Lovely Rita.

We were able to participate in Carnival for 5 days. Carnival is a festive time occurring before Lent. During Carnival each evening bands played in the basketball area. The bands would often play until 2-3 a.m. As we were anchored in the bay there was not much sleeping as sound amplifies over the water. We especially enjoyed the parade with all of the colorful floats, dancers and marching bands. It appeared that the theme of the parade was around ecology and the sea. Many of the floats had people dressed in mermaid attire. After the parade we joined in the music at the basket ball courts. There were food booths around where we sampled tacos, quesadillas, tamales and flan. It was so exciting and fun to be part of the cultural event.











Due to the weather conditions this year the anchorage was quite rolly. In addition the water conditions are poor in the bay so we were unable to make water. We were fortunate to find a local vendor who would deliver, by panga, water and diesel. In addition they would pick up our laundry and return it the next day. Rick, Eyes of the World, had a great syphon which he called a jiggler that transferred the diesel to the fuel tanks in a short time.










We left Zihua Sunday for Ixtapa Marina. It feels really good to be tied up to the dock after being anchored for a month. While we are sad to leave all our new friends in Zihua we have already made new friends at the marina which we have come to find out is normal with cruising. We celebrated Valentine's Day with Tom and Alicia at a local restaurant. We will stay in Ixtapa until............

Zihuatenjo, Guerrero, Mexico

We left Bara de Navidad January 28 to Las Hadas which was 26 miles south along with our friends on Serena Ray. We spent 2 days at that anchorage. It is a beautiful setting surrounded by huge white hotels which reminds one of Greece. Unfortunately, John got sick and he and Rosie were unable to continue south with us. We will meet up with them again later.
We left Las Hadas for Zihuatenjo 197 miles south. It took us 30 hours. If we were driving in a car and it took us 30 hours to go that far we would be miserable, however, in a sailboat we made great time. We had great weather with a full moon for most of the night. It was exciting to pull into the bay of Zihuatenjo.



One of the events that we came to Zihua for was the 9th Annual Zihuatenjo Sail Fest. Our friend Pamela from Precious Metal had asked us to volunteer for the event. What a wonderful experience we have had.





The Zihua Sail Fest is organized by volunteer sailors for fun and fellowship for cruisers, locals, and tourists. The Sail Fest raised $450,000 pesos this year. Proceeds benefit the local poor children's schools and other educational projects.

We had 5 days of activities which included a Kick off party with a live auction, a tour of the local school being benefited by the funds, a Benefit Concert with excellent musicians, a Chili Cook Off with Silent Auction, a Sail Parade around Zihuatenjo Bay and Ixtapa, a sailboat Pursuit Race, a kid's beach day, and a final Wrap up Beach Party with awards.


The local boats who anchored in the bay participated in the Parade. Locals and tourists signed up and payed to go on the various sail boats. The same for the Pursuit Race, guests signed up and payed to have a chance to race on a sail boat. Wally and I had the opportunity to be on the Committee boat and watch all the racers over the start line and returning for the finish line. All guests and cruisers had a great time.


We thoroughly enjoyed meeting new friends and participating in the weeks activities. We would recommend it to all cruisers. One can also check the web page out for more information www.ZihuaSailFest.com.

During this past week we experienced an unlikely storm. We had 36 hours of non-stop rain which included lightening and thunder.
We heard there was 10 inches of rain during this time.
One really appreciates a dry boat and bedding after that amount of
rain.


We are beginning to explore the area now that Sail Fest is over. We are enjoying the local town, people and activities. Carnival is beginning so we will stay to enjoy the cultural experience.