We've Arrived In Mazatlan

Yesterday, we left Los Muertos (23 degrees 59.48 minutes N by 109 degrees 49.67 minutes W) on the Baja coast for Mazatlan (23 degrees 16.18 minutes N by 106 degrees 27.32 minutes W)on the mainland. Its a 190 mile sail across the Sea of Cortez -- the longest off-shore sail (versus coastal sail) we've done. We raised anchor at 5:45 am on December 14th and were docked at the Mazatlan Marina at 9 am on the 15th. It was an awesome sail. We had wind of between 15 and 22 knots the whole way across and did it on one tack. As the sun set last night in the west (as it usually does) we were about 90 miles off the coast of Baja and could still see the outline of coastal mountains with the sun in the background. We put a reef in (made the main sail smaller) and changed out our screecher (a sail) for a small jib. Interestingly, with the smaller sails we really did not slow down much at all. We were averaging over 8 knots with a peak of nearly 12 knots -- that is catamaran sailing. We had actually budgeted 35 - 40 hours for the crossing but with the wind we had and the speed we were making we did the crossing in approximately 27 hours!

Barb and I each shared the night watches three hours on/three hours off. That worked out well and believe it or not, Barb has not yet taken a nap today! :) My last off watch this morning was cut short because while Barb was on watch and as the sun was coming up a school of dolphins was swimming beside and in front of our boat. It was so impressive that she had to wake me -- and it was worth it.

The last time I was in Mazatlan was over 25 years ago when I came here with my sisters and parents over Christmas break. While we have not yet been into town yet (home school and cleaning up the boat), the skyline looks much more impressive than when we were last here. Also, last time, I remember every afternoon after we were at the beach and back in our hotel rooms taking showers yelling (six stories down to the maintenance staff -- no room phones) "NO AGUA, NO AGUA". For what ever reason, there just was not enough water to service the hotel. Well, I can tell you today there seems to be plenty of agua as I was able to do a thorough wash down of our boat and I had excellent water pressure.

I sure hope there is water left for us to take showers this afternoon....

Michael