Made It To Mazatlan! (Sunday, 12/20/09)

It took a little over 48 hours to cross over from La Paz on the Baja side to Mazatlan on the Mainland side. The first night was rolly and lumpy, an uncomfortable and sleepless night. However, we had 15 knots of north wind, so we sailed the entire day and night maintaining a speed of 5.5 knots. At this rate, we knew we would have to slow down in order to arrive in Mazatlan during the daylight, a cardinal rule that we still hold very high... no entering unknown anchorages in the dark! This turned out to be no problem, as the wind died the second day and we had to motor the rest of the way. When the wind finally did kick up a tad it was right on the nose.

The trip was basically uneventful. The family did spot a 5-6 foot shark (species unknown), but other than that there were no other ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’. We trolled for fish the second day to no avail. We kept in touch via VHF radio with ‘Smoke-N-Blues’, who was also making the crossing about 15 miles behind us. That bad-boy racing boat caught up with us eventually and we followed it into the Mazatlan channel.

Finding our slip was no problem at Marina Mazatlan... Jack on ‘Just A Minute’, who was probably sipping a fruity beverage at the ‘out of our financial realm’ glitzy El Cid Marina, sped out the mouth of the channel in his dinghy to help guide us in. I frankly think he just missed us and was overjoyed that we had finally arrived, but he maintains that he was only trying to be helpful. ;) We had only very old maps of the marina area and had no idea where to go. Don on ‘TG Wazoo’ guided us in over the radio and then he personally greeted us at our slip with six other friendly strangers. After being at anchor for so long we weren’t sure if we could remember how to ‘park’ our boat, but it was, as they say,  just like riding a bicycle... especially with all that help. What a lovely welcome!