Another metamorphosis took place at the exact time as we changed our course for Mazatlan. Since making the right turn out of the Bay of La Paz and into the Sea of Cortez, approximately 2 hours after leaving La Paz, we had been on a downwind run with fair winds of 0 to 10 knots and following seas of less than 3-5 feet, which you may recognize sounds like a popular well-wishing saying to any sailors leaving the dock. So we had had a pretty good set of conditions for the first part of our trip, apart from the fact that we had been motor-sailing the whole time (that is running the engine with the mainsail up for balance) because the winds were too light to make any significant progress under sail only. But when we made the turn toward Mazatlan, the wind picked up to a steady 12-15 knots. So we decided to put up the genoa (that is the foresail), turn off the engine and set up the Hydrovane. Remember Hydro-Dave? He’s the additional crew member, our mechanical second mate who is supposed to relieve us of the task of hand-steering the boat and in whom we have put so much hope to make any future multi-day passages and especially overnight watches much less work than they have been thus far so we can get more rest under way. Well, that was still theoretical at that point. To put Hydro-Dave to work, you have to be under sail and up to that point since we completed his installation, we hadn’t encountered the proper conditions to sail and put him to the test. So it was in a state of apprehension that we watched him take over the steering of the boat after we hooked him up. Our mechanical guy immediately demonstrated the superiority of his sailing skills over ours. It was a beautiful moment to watch the boat being steered without our assistance and only marginally embarrassing to feel outperformed by a mechanical contraption animated by simple laws of physics. The conditions were such that we were able to let Hydro-Dave steer all day and all night till we could distinguish the silhouette of Mazatlan on the horizon at sunrise the next morning (Friday, Feb 5). We only had to make adjustments to the vane setting (that is the top arm of the Hydrovane) a couple times during the next 24 hours, but mostly we were hands-free during the whole time. We were able to read or walk away from the wheel for a few minutes during our day watches. That night Eric and I were able to do two shifts of four hours each (we could only manage two-hour shifts at most in previous passages). We were both able to sleep for the most part of the two 4-hour shifts that we were off and for the first time since the beginning of our trip, we both felt mostly rested in the morning. When we reached Mazatlan in the late morning, though we were not able to express the extent of the metamorphosis in ourselves yet, we could feel the lightness in both our beings. We had just had the best sail of our life and the best 24-hour passage of our entire trip so far!

We stayed in Mazatlan overnight and greatly enjoyed our time there. We had an authentic Mazatleco dinner at El Tunel, a popular whole in the wall in the zocalo (the historical center), a nice stroll through town and a brisk ride back to the marina in one of those local funny-looking open-sides taxi cabs that look like oversized golf carts.

The next day (Saturday, Feb 6), it was important that we made good on our promise to only stay one day in Mazatlan and immediately continue on to Puerto Vallarta as only three days after leaving La Paz, the memory of getting stuck at the dock for too long was still lurking on the back of our heads. But since the distance between Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta is about 180 miles or 36 hours at an average of 5 knots, leaving in the morning or the middle of the day makes for an awkward arrival time after dark in Puerto Vallarta. So we decided to take advantage of the late check-out time (check-out time out of the marina is 4pm) and have a leisurely day at the dock. We slept in, worked out, had a nice breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs on the boat and a long warm shower in the marina facilities. We left the marina at around 3:30pm. Still, it would make for an awkward arrival time before day-break in Puerto Vallarta. So we agreed to pull into Isla Isabela halfway between Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta and pass a few hours there to delay our arrival in Puerto Vallarta. (Isla Isabela is an uninhabited island and bird sanctuary and has been described by Jacques Cousteau as “a wonderland of unspoiled nature”.) We arrived at Isla Isabella at around 9am the next morning (Sunday, Feb 7), spent a few hours at anchorage, had a refreshing swim, a nap, and a quick swing by the water caves on the southwest side of the island before resuming our course to Puerto Vallarta in the early afternoon. We arrived in Puerto Vallarta the next day (Monday, Feb 8) around noon local time. Now you know the whole story of how we got here.

When we set out on this adventure, we included Puerto Vallarta as one of the stops we would make along the pacific coast of Mexico. But we didn’t spend too much time thinking about it. We mostly envisioned our visit here as a nostalgic reminiscing of our last visit 10 years ago when we came here to celebrate my 30^th birthday. We also envisioned our visit as a deeper cultural experience since we had a great time then but were lamenting the fact that we couldn’t connect as much with the locals as we had hoped to because we didn’t know much Spanish or anything much about Mexican culture at the time. This time, we have bridged the language and cultural gaps. But what we have not anticipated is that we have returned here under different circumstances and with different needs. We are no longer the tourists looking for 4-5 stars amenities on a short vacation break. Instead, we are on this great adventure that we’ve hoped would change us but which so far has continued to allow us to demand the same familiar expectations we have brought from home with us everywhere we pull in with our boat. Well, I guess we had become too comfortable with that, especially after our extended stay in La Paz and we have forgotten the previous warnings we received when we first arrived in Mexico that La Paz was the last port catering to Gringo cruisers in Mexico all the way to the Caribbean. Now we have come to experience why. We’ve reached the confines that most pleasure cruisers will reach. And the handfuls which come here are only transiting to continue on south or go across to the South Pacific thinning further the cruising population as they move further. We were faced with this harsh reality when we arrived at the marina here in Puerto Vallarta last week. The marina charges almost the same rates per day as the hotels and condos surrounding it. The major difference is that the marina offers zero amenities. It has no bathrooms, no laundry facilities, no Internet access. The voltage/amperage on the electrical boxes are not guaranteed to be within safe range for most electrical devices on a boat and are for use at the boat owner’s own risk. The marina office won’t bother to provide you with water if you are not going to be here for an extended period of time. So you have to get water from other boaters who have it and make any creative arrangement with them in the form of dinner, food items, boat parts, etc to ensure they receive proper financial compensation for the water you use. As you see, the jungle expands well beyond its recognizable vegetal and animal forms into day-to-day human interactions here. And when we thought our current visit here may turn into a second honeymoon with the place, instead it seems to have become the entry point into the world of unfamiliarities and unpredictabilities that we suspect now lies ahead of us. We wanted to go on this adventure to be changed. Well, we certainly couldn’t make the changes occur at will. But we can sense that change will occur out of necessity from this point on. Contrary to what you may expect, this has made Eric and me a stronger team. We are no longer debating domestic day-to-day priorities like doing laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, etc. Instead, we are devising new plans together to meet our basic needs like where does our water come from next, how do we ration it, do we have a backup plan if the water pump breaks? Life has aligned along common concerns and purposes.

Another reality that started to set in since we arrived in Puerto Vallarta is that of our aggressive itinerary ahead. We are supposed to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec (the southwest portion of the Pacific coast of Mexico, south of Acapulco, between Puerto Angel and Puerto Madero) around mid-March to avoid violent gales known as Tehuantepecers that average force 6 (that would be wind speeds upward of 45 miles/hour) throughout the year but are less frequent in the early spring. It is now less than a month away. And we still have almost 500 miles to Acapulco. So we’ve also started aligning on a strategy to get there. We’re thinking of doing overnight trips and pulling into shore every other night to get some rest all the way down the coast till Zihuatanejo first, and then on to Acapulco. There are lots of places to pull in on this part of the coast. We’re thinking about leaving tomorrow. Next stop: Bahia de Navidad, about 160 miles from Puerto Vallarta or 32 hours at an average of 5 knots. We’ll be back online when we get there…

Following are a few pictures taken in the last couple weeks since our last couple days in La Paz: 2/1/2010 – 2/15/2010.

Potluck on our dock in La Paz a couple nights before our departure - 2/1/2010

We were moored on dock 3, slip 303 at marina Palmira for 72 days!!!

We became well acquainted with many of our dock neighbors and received lots of help from them during our stay, rides to the grocery store, incredible support during Miette’s disappearance, and wonderful stories at sundown. They surprised us with a farewell sundown potluck a couple days before our departure. What a wonderful send-off. We hope to see many of you guys further down the road…

The food…

Tamales and fixings.

Ceviche, spicy pineapple & other gourmet foods from the galleys of our dock friends.

…and the people who made it…

Our designated bar tender, Charlotte of ‘Willful Simplicity’ (You may recognize her as our medicine woman who made the magic cure for the Baja Ha Ha post-stress syndrome during our stay at the anchorage of Los Frailes. J)

Bill of ‘Apple II’, Mark of ‘Ebbie’ and Dave of 'Freedom Spirit'.

Joe of ‘Lucky Lady Two’.

Eric of ‘Pacific Mystic’, Sharon of ‘Lucky Lady Two’, Susan of ‘Apple II’

Jim and Dianne of ‘Prairie Oyster’; Scott of ‘Ebbie’; Marvin of ‘Roksan’.

Dave; Cricket of ‘Fusion’; Wally of ‘Stella Blue’.

Leaving La Paz – 2/3/2010

After making the right turn out of the Bay of La Paz and into the Sea of Cortez, approximately 2 hours after leaving La Paz, we were on a downwind run with fair winds of 0 to 10 knots and following seas of less than 3-5 feet.

This is what a perfect downwind run looks like: wing on wing, that is when you have the mainsail on one side of the wind and the foresail on the other side. Pretty.

And here is the view at the top of the mast.

It takes great concentration to keep the sails in that position!

Sunset.

Changing the course from Puerto Vallarta to Mazatlan – 2/4/2010

We changed our course because we couldn’t pass the best sailing day of our life and the opportunity to test our new Hydrovane. 

Introducing, Hydro-Dave, our new most competent crew on Pacific Mystic…

I can’t stop watching him…

This is what the best sailing in the world looks like: a perfect beam reach, that is the wind at a 90^o angle to the boat (look at the flag). Beautiful…

…all day long!

Arriving in Mazatlan – 2/5/2010

Approaching the Marina harbor in the mid-morning…

Valerie, looking completely refreshed after a good night of sleep while Hydro-Dave was steering all night…

Later on in the day, a night on the town…

Dinner at El Tunel

Our table

View of the entrance to El Tunel from the street

Old cathedral in the zocalo (historical center).

Street sign. Advice with a rhyme.  It asks dog owners to not let their pooch soil the sidewalk.