18th Dec
It’s lovey resting in Zihuatanejo, but Kathy arrives in Mexico City tonight and I have to get off to the metropolis to meet her. It’s a short ride to the airport and I have a very chatty driver who lets me slaughter his language with his helpful corrections along the way.
Mexico is cold, and the altitude make breathing a bit uncomfortable, I check into the airport hotel, dump my bags and head over to international arrivals. Kathys flight is delayed by nearly an hour so a lot of hanging around, then Kathy calls me to say she’s through immigration and off to get her bag, she should be so lucky, another 30 minutes and a WhatsApp from Kathy, her bag didn’t make the flight!
What happened was her flight to Amsterdam was delayed and she had to run through the airport to make the Mexican connection, however her bag didn’t feel the need to rush quite so much.
I can’t really describe how Kathy felt about this, it was just a few months ago in Italy when her bag spent a week going around the system in Manchester when it was meant to be with us in Milan. And in a similar vein, this suitcase was stuffed with Christmas presents and foodstuffs for the christmas meal. Mexico is not the place really to leave food in suitcases for too long.
We took off next morning into town to a large mall so Kathy could buy some essentials she had lost.
Then in the afternoon we caught a short one hour flight back to Zihuatanejo. The suitcase arrived into Zi airport two days later and all perishables survived, so all was well in the end. However Kathy may be traumatised for some time and find it difficult to face the luggage conveyor belt again.
She soon settled in to her aquatic other home.
We anchored away from the main beach in Zi, close to the end of La Ropa beach, which is much quieter and the water is a little cleaner, allowing me to swim most days.
In Zi there is a large catamaran called Picante (Hot/Spicy) that takes a gang of tourists out each day for a trip around the bay and out to sea to watch the sunset. One of their tricks when there’s a bit of wind is to let guests fly on their Spinnaker. At first I couldn’t understand why they had chosen my boat to be the hazard that these excitement seeking swingers might hit, but later I realised they where tying their stern to a mooring buoy not far upwind from me.
For the next week or so we basically just chilled at this spot, enjoying a drink on the foredeck watching the stunning sunsets each night.
We had a very low key Christmas, Kathy cooked a great dinner.
31st Dec – 3rd Jan – Isla Grande
So with Christmas over we headed off to start our trip north to the Sea of Cortez.
You can see above how far it is from Chiapas, on the border with Guatemala all the way up the coast (into the wind and waves) to Guaymas / San Carlos halfway up the sea of Cortez.
First we visited Isla Grande, close to Ixtapa with very clear water. I was able to dive and clean the hull a bit, I’m getting better at holding my breath and on each dive I was able to get a little bit further down the keel. However the other reason for going to Isla Grande was to be away from the mad fireworks in Zi on New Years Eve, and instead watch the gringo hotels put on a show from a safe distance. It was OK, but I definitely am not getting the same thrill from the whizzes, whooshes and bangs as I did as a kid. Soon we will visit a bigger fireworks display, that may contain drones at the Mazatlan Carnaval.
I had ordered a new autopilot from the UK, to be delivered to Zi, however over the last week or so, I had been trying to get Customs officials in Mexico City to release it. They refused, the Autopilot cost around £2000 just for the electronics, I plan to re-use my drive motor. Customs told me that was too much, and without an import agent, costing about £4000 I couldnt import it. So they returned it to the UK. Customs told me to split it into two packages and resend it and it would be processed without any problems. So I contacted the suppliuer in Portsmouth and asked him to break it into two boxes both around £1000 and send it back to me but in Mazatlan, with me paying another £140 in shipping fees.
So on the third day of 2026 we left for a long passage north to Barra de Navidad,
Our first leg to Cabeza Negra (Black Head) would be the most challenging for Kathy, it was 134NM, 27 hours hand steering into the wind. On most of these passages we would be lucky to get a few hours each day where we could sail, most of the time we had to motor. We would have the mainsail up in the belief that it would stop the boat rolling a little in the constant ocean swell. Yet if there was no wind, the mainsail would flap around a lot.
5th Jan – Cabeza Negra
Cabo Negra provides a place to rest a little and some very basic provisioning ashore. We stayed on board and rested for another night before leaving the next day for Bahia Santiago. I found the trip much easier with Kathy doing some night watches so I could get a little sleep.
The next leg took us 60 miles further north
6th Jan – Bahia Santiago
Now we were in the domain of the Northerly winds usually controlled by weather events further north in the USA. There’s a place in the USA called ‘The four corners’ where a lot of the weather for our sea is determined. The four corners refers to a place where four states meet. If you’re into the weather, this place is very interesting in how it determines so much weather.
Consequently, we have to choose our days to move, and so far we have been lucky to get gaps in the wind, where the waves and swell were also low so that we could move along in comfort. This is more important when hand steering as waves will throw you off course all the time requiring more effort in the steering department. Of course this is one of the worst times, excluding hurricane season, to try to make progress northerly.
The trip to Bahia Santiago was completed in 13 hours and as you can see from the track below, I managed to get some sailing in.
You can see I put a tack in to just make the entrance to the bay, I had to get the motor to help a little but I just made it into the bay, and we continued to sail right to our anchorage.
This bay has the large port of Manzanillo, it’s very busy and I am always conscious of crossing the shiping lanes. There is a traffic separation zone, to force big ships to arrive on the east and leave on the west. As a little boat, I’m meant to only cross this zone at right angles. We have the same setup around the top of the Island of Anglesey back home, this is mainly for the Liverpool Dublin/Belfast ferry and cargo traffic. I remember calling Holyhead Coastguard for permission to cross the separation zone on our trips to Ireland in Lady Stardust. I didnt bother calling the port captain this time, we were almost at 90 degrees and I don’t think he would have been interested anyway.
We had a night or two resting in Santiago at anchor while a blow passed through, then it was off again to the last part of this trip to Barra.
8th Jan – Barra De Navidad
It only took about 8 hours to arrive into the lagoon at Barra and drop the hook, and we soon settled into a relaxed pace of life. The biggest panic of the day would be making sure we got the attention of the French baker as he tours the boats in his Panga selling his wares.
The original plan had been for Kathy to arrive into Barra for Christmas, but as it turned out Zi worked well, and for me, I’m glad I didn’t have to make the passage from Zi to Barra on my own.
One of our biggest problems with this lifestyle is getting decent fresh bread. It’s not buch better in the USA either. People like sugar in their bread, I don’t get it. Despite having a French baker on our doorstep, or boarding ladder, we decided to try the Dutch oven as a way to easily make bread. I had consulted in advance with Tim, Galway’s head Baker, and had a plan. The Dutch oven is basically a very very heavy pot. I thought being a pot with a handle meant I could cook it on the stove, but the recipe called for the thing to go in the oven for a long time to get warm, then even longer to cook. None of this is great on a small boat in the tropics. However having spent more on this pot than any other kitchen item, I felt obliged to give it a go.
Kathy made the flour mix and spread it on a piece of plastic sheet, where we kneaded it. The plastic sheet was used so that we could lift it up and roll the dough into a pan. Of course the dough was too runny, and for some reason when I lifted the sheet, holding the four corners, it opened in the middle and the mix poured onto the stove top and down the side of the cooker.
We scooped up what we could save and chucked it into the dutch oven pot and sent it to the heat.
The end result was a disaster , but provided a few laughs along the way.
Kathy has made much better loaves with much less effort in the traditional way before, so we will revert to that.
I have a dutch oven for sale at a very good price if anyone is interested.
From here we made the short hop of 30 miles to Chamela
16th Jan – Chamela
15th Jan – Tenacatita
After a week or so in Barra de Navidad, we decided to head north to Mazatlan. First stop Tenecatita. This is just a few hours north of Barra and a very popular stop for yachties here. In Bara the lagoon is very muddy, here it’s lovely, lots of activity at the only beach bar, and sailors all get together for pot luck dinners and beach ball games. It’s all a bit to sociable for me and Kathy, and we anchored near the entrance to the bay in order to get a quick getaway in the morning. I was able to dive and scrub some of the Barra growth off.
Chamela was just a stop for the night to break the trip up. Kathy actually enjoys the boat rolling in the swell, I used to hate it, but it doesn’t bother me much now, so despite a bit of rolling we had a very pleasant stop here.
17th Jan – Ipala
Chamela to Ipala was about 11 hours (55 miles) and required a very early start in order to arrive in daylight. As it turned out we made good speeds on the way, I think we had some current helping. It was on this leg a shark swam past us, I have seen fins in the past, but this guy was close and massive. He actually looked very menacing, it was quite a sight.
All along this passage we have been surrounded by whales and their newborn calves. Frolocking in the water and bashing their tails down like their not happy.
We left Ipala for La Cruz in the Bay of Banderas.
18th Jan. La Cruz
La Cruz has many delights, for me this fish market is one. The fish is caught by local fishermen in their small pangas. This has to be more sustainable than the huge ships that head out from Mazatlan, equipped with lots of hi tech including helicopters to spot the fish.
I would buy fresh tuna for a fraction of the normal price, and being so fresh, would taste fantastic.
We took a berth in the marina at La cruz for a week, and then extended it for another 4 days due to bad weather which would have hampered the next leg of our trip north. Finally I could get a hose pipe on the boat and give it a really good clean, the first since leaving Chiapas. Having fresh water allowed me to clean the bilges in the boat as well. Part of this operation was to repair the bilge pump. It had stopped working and was blowing the trip (fuse) on the main panel when I turned it on. I assumed the motor was damaged, yet when I pulled it out, I took the motor cover off and found some string wrapped around the shaft which once removed fixed the problem and the pump whizzed away emptying the bilge.
This was a good reminder of how useless bilge pumps can be. It’s crucial they don’t get any rubbish in them, I have read when a boat is properly taking on water, no end of crap will end up in the bilges and kill the pumps. Tranatlantic sailor used to remove the labels from tins of food that where stored low down in the boat as when wet the paper would come off and block the pumps. We did this on the ARC some 20 years ago and used marker pens to identify the contents. I understand Robin Knox Johnson, ‘the great explorer’ didn’t think this through very well and ended up with no idea what was in his cans as he made the first solo non stop world circumnavigation. Sounds like he only had curry anyway.
Kathy and I took the bus into Bucerias (currently the home of several burnt out cars) where there are several big box stores and provisioned up in Soriana, later we went to another supermarket next door then got a cab home with lots of shopping.
However on getting back to the boat sometime later, I found this coupon in my pocket reminding me that we had put a load of shopping bags into a locker at the second store and they were still there.
I headed on back and an hour or two later we had all the shopping. Must be old age taking over now.
I reported last time we were here about the Sunday market that runs the length of the breakwater/marina boundry wall. It’s great for a browse, but you need to have money to afford the very expensive Artisanal products. I did enjoy the band above, put on to entertain us
30th Jan 2026 Depart La Cruz for Mazatlan. Punta Mita
We left La Cruz de Huanacaxtle at a leisurely pace for Punta Mita, just 2-3 hours west, right at the north west edge of the bay. Here you can wait behind the headland ready for suitable weather to move north.
A few other boats were hanging around too.
After a couple of nights here we left for Chacala, just 6 hour to the north, a very pleasant stop.
From Chacala we left and did a overnight 140 Nautical Mile passage to Mazatlan old harbour, a spot we have visited many times, and despite being very rough around the edges, has a certain charm.
Having Kathy to help makes overnight passages a breeze.
I heard along the way that the Autopilot had now arrived back in Southampton UK. The Mexican customs officer told me that if I split the package into two separate packages , each at half the value, customs would allow it, but I could only do that once a month. So I arranged for the packages to be shipped back in two different boxes , and on two different days. The two boxes arrived with a new customs officer in Guadalahara at the same time, I’m not going to go into the details, but things went badly.
It occurred to me that this autopilot will have been made in China for Raymarine, shipped across the pacific to the USA, then over to the UK, where it flew out to me in Mexico, then flew back to Southampton, then flew back to me in Mazatlan, only to be threatened with a flight back to the UK. I’m not sure who is getting this autopilot’s air miles, but they must be racking up, to say nothing of how much harm this device has done to the climate!
It’s carnival week in Mazatlan, the world’s third largest after Rio and the USA Mardi Gras, however I think these claims are similar to those of the dozen or so ‘smallest house in the world’ I have seen on my travels.
However the city was busy and Bars and food stalls covered the malecon.
We woke up one morning to the sad sight of the boat moored next to us suffering from a little water ingress. I’m thinking there’s an air pocket stopping it from falling over. The stern may be in the mud.
In the picture above, I captured the Baja Ferry leaving, the tour boat ‘El Americano’ (Sister ship of ‘El Titanico’ which oddly returns each night) waiting for the channel to be free while a mad brass band performs at the bow, and a helicopter buzzing through.
And below, a shrimper waiting for his buddy before leaving for a nights fishing.
There are several hundred of these boats moored up the channel in Mazatlan, I used this as a way to explain the term ‘rust buckets’ to Kathy.
We skipped on most of the Carnaval (Mexican spelling), but went to the fireworks. We had to queue to get a ticket to enter the Malecon, it was very busy and in the end we left and watched the fireworks from the cliffside further away.
The navy send out a large patrol vessel loaded with fireworks, and pretend to be the French invading Mazatlan. In a re-enactment of the failed French invasion of 1864, fireworks are traded between the beach and the warship.
Below is one of the cruise ships that visits Mazatlan and docks just up the channel from our mooring. We see about 4 or 5 most weeks, they arrive just after sunrise and leave just before sunset.
25th Feb,
Apologies for the size of this post, I blame Kathy for distracting me from my blog writing duties. So I won’t write anymore, however a lot has happened since Carnival: Customs decided they would treat the two packages as one, not allow them in, and send them back to Southampton. I have now resolved that issue, more in the next blog. There’s also been a killing of a major Cartel leader, El Mencho, causing a lot of destruction just south of here.
Kathy will be reading this from a Liverpool that’s currently thawing out from a bit of a cold spell. She’s just gone from 30c to 3c in 24 hours!
And I think I have recruited a replacement for my part time coding/systems job, so I can really retire soon.
Now I’m a lot further north, the temperature has dropped and nights are very pleasant, and easy to get to sleep. I’ve really enjoyed the last few months with Kathy here, so I may reconsider my plans to quit this life so quickly. Currently I’m thinking of hauling out and returning in April for my son’s 30th, I can’t believe he’s that old, seems only yesterday I was doing packed lunches for his school dinner.
Paul Collister
25th Feb 2026