Category: Uncategorized

(Pronounced: Zee-what-ah-nay-oh)

Wed 22nd March 2023
We are now in Zihuatanejo and will remain here until Kathy flies back to the UK in 2 weeks and I will move the boat to somewhere safe where I can haul it out before I return to the UK for the hurricane season.

I will expand on the trip below, but basically we have traveled through various levels of paradise, ending up at anchor in Zihuat which is definitely in the running for one of my favorite towns ever. As we left the very dry desert vistas of the Baja and traveled south, the land got greener and greener, with that comes more humidity, and also more bitey things. Along the way the waters filled up with more and more interesting creatures, now we have to watch out for Crocodiles in the water and it is not recommended to dive on your hull in the Ixtapa marina because of these guys. While it is in the mid 20’s (77 f) in La Paz now, we are often in the high 30’s (100 f) here.

The boat has performed really well, but it wants some attention. The last time we were in a marina or tied to a dock was a few months ago and the topsides could do with a good washdown. An oil change is due, and the hull needs some antifoul. We are low on fresh water. These warm waters cause the hull to foul very quickly, i.e., in a few days a clean hull will be covered in a light growth, after a week it’s really bad. I have been paying local divers to clean the boat at various stops along the way, but the antifoul is now missing in a few areas.

Starlink.
This is our first voyage with Starlink for our internet access and I had decided to only connect it for an hour at most each day to get the weather and check emails. It’s quite heavy on the batteries. Guess what, we need bigger batteries. We have spent many an evening now watching the BBC, comedy and documentaries. we use it on passage, when the sun is shining or the engine is running and read tweets instead of looking out for fishing nets or whales. I hate the often used phrase ‘game changer’ but it really is for long distance cruising. I no longer need to worry after a few days out of cell phone range if the weather is turning bad, I can contact people ahead, marinas etc from remote anchorages, and I easily provide some customer support for my old work while in very remote areas. I had a great 30 minute video chat with a friend back in Liverpool on Skype when making 6 knots in rolly seas a few dozen miles offshore. Nice one Elon, you’re great with cars and rockets, why not just stick with them eh?

The trip south
I have left it a bit late to document our trip, we did hope to make it to Acapulco, but decided to take in as many places as we could heading south, and even being lazy about it, it still seems like a roller coaster of a trip. We had lots of amazing experiences along the way, but I will just mention a few with pictures below.

6th Jan – Los Mochis
From Topolobampo we took the local mini bus service to Los Mochis and met up with Arturo who lives there. A clown joined us for a few stops and visited everyone on board looking for a financial contribution to his somewhat complicated personal & social condition. While passing the hat around he was jabbering on in some crazy deranged squeaky clowns voice. Given that just yesterday cartel gunman had been controlling these roads and stopping vehicles, he wasn’t the most calming of entertainers, especially if you’re like Kathy who has seen far too many scary clown thrillers.

Los Mochis is a big city, and we wandered around the main park before our bus was ready to leave and take us to El Fuerte.

El Fuerte
Arturo joined us on the next bus route to El fuerte, where he spends a lot of time with his girlfriend and her family. We found out later that one of the Cartel members also shared the journey with us. He kind of stood out, but everyone ignored him.

We stayed in a posh hotel, very old and grand, but not at all expensive. El Fuerte is a small town out in the country on the banks of the river Fuerte (Strong river). It has thrived on the lush agriculture and mining in the area. we are close to the copper canyon railway here.

Arturo took us to a local refuge for animals where we enjoyed feeding them. Unfortunately Kathy ignored Arturo’s very strong warning about ‘deeting up’ (The application of insect repellent containing DEET) and she really suffered for that.

This hotel claims to be the birthplace of El Zorro, and each night he does a performance in the restaurant, fortunately we were able to be in and out before he had cloaked up.

After a couple of days we headed back to Las Mochis, took advantage of the Walmart there, then took the next boat back to the boat, bought a dozen Garrafones (20ltr bottles) of water and headed back out to sea.

16th Jan – Altata
We had a great sail south from Topolobampo to Altata, in a previous post I describe how I did this journey on my own and couldn’t find the entrance to the lagoon at Altata, huge breaking surf seemed to cover every possible way in. Since then a few people have told me it’s really easy so armed with more confidence, we had another go. This time it worked out well, however when the channel seems very narrow and it’s dropping from 20 meters deep to 4 meters in just a few boat lengths, it can get quite scary. I saw two fishing boat that looked like they were heading in so I decided to follow them, bad move. They were going to fish off the side of a big bank. A quick course correction and we made it back into the chanel and into the lagoon.

The most striking thing for me was seeing the fishing boats in the bay/lagoon. They fly a sail, a bit like a spinnaker from a rig that has a mast and two poles one extending out over the stern and the other over the bow, making the three corners for attaching the sail. it then fills and just skims the surface of the water. I think their net is dragged over the other side of the boat and they slowly drift the length of the lagoon, several miles at a fairly slow pace. I expect this is a very traditional setup, however I don’t suppose in the old days when they reached the end of the lagoon they would fire up their 250hp outboard motor and scoot back to the start upwind. Still the 40-60 boats make quite an amazing spectacle.

20th Jan – Mazatlan (Old port)
We stayed a few nights in Altata before heading off to Mazatlan. This would be another overnighter and Kathy and I prepared for our 4 hour on / off watch system. Unfortunately we had to motor at the start and as soon as we cleared the sand banks a dense fog descended on us, with very poor visibility and a night passage to handle, we fired up the Radar, praying it would work, it hasn’t been used for years. It did work, but I needed to get Kathy up to speed on how to use it. Along with the AIS we hoped to be ok. It was in the middle of the night when a target I had been tracking seemed to be deliberately aiming for us. These waters are full of very large (200ft ish) Shrimp and Tuna boats, some of them have helicopter pads on them for quick crew changes. Fishermen can be quite worrying with their seemingly random courses, I often wonder if boredom causes them to come and look at the little sailboat from England sending out its AIS beacon. This one was starting to freak me a bit, I turned off the autohelm so I could steer and take avoiding action if it got any closer. The radar had it as being under 0.1 mile from us, I could hear its engine, but no visible contact as the fog was very dense now. The next thing it appears out of the fog, I could see the crew on the deck, lit by the huge working lights that created big globes of light in the fog. I had been sounding a fog horn, but I doubt they would hear that with all their engine noise. They changed course quickly and I presumed they hadn’t expected me to be there. I checked my AIS setup and realised we were not transmitting our signal, just receiving theirs. This is a power saving option I sometimes turn on. Oops. Being a plastic boat, we don’t always make a great radar target so it’s possible they didn’t know we were there.
Come the morning the wind picked up, the fog lifted and the autopilot failed. Fortunately we could put the sails up, the wind steering went on and we happily sailed all the way to Mazatlan. We spotted several whales on this passage.

We anchored in the old port, we are reluctant to use the marinas in the northern part of town, especially as we hit bottom trying to get in last time and I thought we might lose the boat after the surf lifted us up and slammed us back down on the sea bed. The old harbour is also easy to walk downtown from and we had a few chores to do. On our first provisioning trip we found ourselves in the middle of what looked like a carnival parade, but we learnt later it was the parade to chose the Carnival Queen.

So I had to fix the autopilot, there was no way we would get to Acapulco hand steering. I had a plan B, using a tiller pilot, but that was complicated, however I should try to fix that up anyway. My guess was that the remote rudder indicator was not working, it looked ok and we usually get a ERROR 67, which means the remote sensor isn’t working, this has been an issue since we bought the boat and the error never stopped it working. So out came the sensor, it was a sealed unit but on measuring the resistance I guessed the unit was faulty, I pulled the wires apart and they broke apart in the process making me expect that was the problem.

I was only left with about 1 cm of wire sticking out of the unit after I had stripped back the faulty connections, so had to be very careful attaching new wires, I managed it and added a splint to the connections to hopefully give it some ongoing support. It all went back together and we upped anchor and did a waltz around the anchorage, testing it. Thankfully it worked. Also since then we haven’t seen the ERROR 67, which had been popping up every hour or two for the last 8 years now. I presume this connection was always flakey. Looking at the tracks on the chartplotter makes me think the course is even straighter than ever, but that’s probably just wishful thinking.

We got some laundry done, stocked up on food from the mega superstores and the Mercado Municipal, Mazatlan has the best smoked tuna I have ever tasted, and we headed back out to sea and south towards La Cruz.

30th Jan – Isla Isabela
It was an overnighter to Isla Isabela. This island is very special, it has a huge colony of Blue footed boobies, frigate birds and no end of Iguanas. It’s a national park and also has nowhere to anchor easily. The small partially protected bay is mostly rock and many people have had to leave their anchor there as it gets caught under the rocks. This is one of my worst nightmares, we have a very expensive anchor, it’s brilliant, and I don’t want to lose it. Fortunately I had been given the GPS coordinates for a small patch of sand amongst the rocks, it wasn’t much bigger than the size of the boat so we crept in with Kathy and I hanging over the side staring into the water to see if we could find it. We couldn’t, so I launched the dinghy with my snorkel mask and a length of rope and a small buoy. I took my dumbell as an anchor. (It needed using). I put the mask on and hung over the side of the dinghy scooting around until I found the patch. I tied the rope to the dumbell and the buoy to the other end and threw it over, this was in about 30 ft of water. I headed back to Captain Kathy who was motoring around the small bay waiting and we headed back to my mark and dropped the anchor. Next I snorkeled over to the anchor to see it had in fact set in the sand, but right next to a big rock that was also there. Not great, but I hoped the anchor would not drag under the rock, it was fairly calm weather so ‘fingers crossed’.

1st Feb – San Blas
Many people had said to avoid San Blas as it has a bad reputation for noseeums (invisible mossies) that leave bad bites, however it sounded interesting so we headed there and up the river to anchor. It had a pleasant town square and a very laid back feel to it. We had hoped to maybe get a place in the state run marina, but as is often the case, due to very low fees, it was full.

We stayed one night then pushed onto to Mantanchen bay.

2nd Feb – Matanchen Bay
Matanchen Bay was getting a lot of flack on the radio nets and on Facebook for dinghy thefts, I’m always surprised by this, having sailed for 8 years from SE Asia to Mexico, we have never had anything stolen, we always take precautions, and would never tempt fate by leaving a expensive outboard dangling of the back of a dinghy in the night in a poor area, in fact we always lift the dinghy out of the water. Also these dinghies are often found on the beach downwind of the boat, with their engine missing. The bay made a pleasant stop, but the next morning we pushed on to the resort bay of Chacala

4th Feb – Chacala

We spent a couple of very pleasant days here, the fact that one of the beach restaurants did decent vegan options for Kathy helped. A lot of RV’ers seemed to like the camps here.

Our next stop would be Banderas bay, the bay of flags! Here is one of the biggest and popular marinas on the mainland coast, it’s also the place where many boaters gather before heading off to the South Pacific. We arrived at the peak of this, and there were many boats there preparing for their first serious offshore journey. More on this and our trip to Zihuatanejo in my next post, this one is getting too long.

Paul Collister
Thursday 23rd March 2023

It’s been a while…well, just over two years to be more precise since I last posted an entry on our blog. As for so many others, our lives and plans have been interrupted by the disruption and uncertainty brought about by Covid 19. Sister Midnight has remained in La Paz instead of sailing across the South Pacific which was the original intention, and Paul and I have hopped back and forth from the UK to Baja California for the last couple of years, making the most of The Sea of Cortez and its beautiful islands. 

It seemed apt to bid a final farewell to La Paz as a new year began. We had just enjoyed a blissfully stress-free and relaxing Christmas there – our third one in La Paz – just the two of us, with as little fuss as possible but with lights, a tree, festive food and a few gifts we’d had a great time.

We left our berth on New Year’s Day to begin crossing the Sea of Cortez before continuing south along Mexico’s mainland towards Acapulco. Our neighbour Bob helped with our lines and wished us fair winds as we departed the marina that had been our base for three years. It had become something of a home from home for us, in that we’d become familiar faces to locals and fellow cruisers alike and we knew the town’s streets and locations so well. It was there, also that we had made the acquaintance of our dear friend, Arturo, who has himself moved on to pastures new. 

Some of the stops along the way will be places we (or Paul alone) have visited before but others would be first sights for both of us. This is one of the aspects of travel that I enjoy most: exploring new destinations. That first walk ashore to see ‘what’s there’ creates quite a thrill. Internet searches and travel guides tell you so much but they can’t account for a particular vibe a person can pick up from a place. As La Paz gradually faded from sight behind us, I counted the months since I had last been at sea and was surprised to discover it had been seven months. It was a warm, sunny and clear day and it felt good both physically and mentally to be back on the water. Our first stop, Isla Partida was only a short journey to an anchorage we’d been many times before. The cove, with its high sloping walls of volcanic rock provides ideal shelter. It is in fact the crater of a large, extinct volcano with an abundance of seabirds and we love to watch the pelicans diving as the sun begins to set. They position themselves above the water and descend rapidly, their bodies’ vertical when they hit the surface with a resounding splash, and scoop up fish with admirable speed and skill. It’s also a great area to dinghy around looking at manta rays and puffer fish in the clear shallow water. We spent two nights there, enjoying leisurely walks on the beaches. The familiar row of fishermen’s sheds, all locked up and deserted, appeared almost eerie. Tables and chairs outside them held knives, weighing scales and other paraphernalia, while fish skeletons littered the ground around them. It conveyed an impression they had abandoned the place in a hurry but that’s probably more to do with my imagination. 

The delightfully-named town of Topolobampo, could just be glimpsed in the distance from where we anchored a few days later in Isla Santa Maria. We were in no great hurry to go ashore, however. Paul had been to this anchorage before and had pronounced the surrounding beach as the best he had come across on his travels so far. It was easy to see why as I stared at what looked like more than a mile of golden sand encircling us, its edges decorated with lines of seabirds. Closer inspection revealed them to be pelicans, gulls and some that we couldn’t identify, but they were all positioned ready to catch fish. We were the only boat in the area and apart from their cries and splashes it was blissfully peaceful. We had arrived a little too late in the day to explore the beach, and inviting as it all looked it would have to wait until we returned after our trip inland. 

We had decided against a plan to book places on the famous El Chepe Express, the train tour where passengers can see the spectacular copper canyons across Sinaloa. After mulling over the cost, the logistics and the fact that it wasn’t permitted to take your own food on board (essential for vegans and veggies), we concluded that the cons outweighed the pros. Moreover, we had been lucky enough to visit The Grand Canyon last year during a three week trip in Arizona. Instead, we arranged to meet Arturo the following day to spend a few days with him in El Fuerte. His girlfriend’s family live there so he would be staying with them, while Paul and I would stay in the nice-looking hotel recommended by Arturo’s girlfriend Katia, who unfortunately had to work so was unable join us on the trip. 

We motored into Topolobampo Marina the next morning and had hardly finished securing our lines when one of the cruisers who had come to help, informed us that the town was more or less in lockdown. It turned out that the son of former drug lord El Chapo had been arrested the previous day in Sinaloa’s capital, Culiacan. As the leader of his father’s cartel, the action sparked a wave of violence and protests from armed cartel members across Sinaloa. The authorities had deemed it dangerous for civilians to be out on the streets and we were told to stay in the marina for our own safety. Some welcome(!) yet also rather exciting in a ‘Breaking Bad’ kind of way. Since meeting Arturo was out of the question that day, we mooched around the marina, which didn’t take long, and read up on the towns of Los Mochis and El Fuerte. Apart from Mexico City we hadn’t really been inland in the country and I was looking forward to seeing these new places, especially with the aid of Arturo’s Spanish and local knowledge. 

Luckily restrictions were lifted the next day and we were able to venture into the town for my first look at it. It was quite a contrast from the seaside elegance of La Paz. The short walk from the marina began by crossing a wide road and railway line that leads to the commercial part of the harbour where cargo ships and ferries are accommodated. From there, the streets become narrower and dustier with old sofas, broken down cars and makeshift stalls outside some of the houses. Every person who saw us greeted us with a friendly ‘buenas tardes’ and there were chickens, dogs and cats running free in the road. The main shopping street was very busy with pedestrians and cars. I noticed that despite the dilapidated appearance of some of the buildings they were all painted with very bright pastel colours as if to offset the condition. It was remarkably effective as your eye can’t help but be drawn to the vivid blues, pinks and yellows that adorned the shops, businesses and homes. 

The waterfront, or malecon, is a lot smaller than La Paz’s. It was lined with tour operators offering fishing trips or tours of the bay, and stalls selling the usual souvenirs and sun hats. We walked up and down it, taking in the fabulous views of the bay before setting off to meet Arturo, who had travelled from Los Mochis to meet us. We spent a pleasant couple of hours with him in one of the seafront cafes, catching up and making plans for the next few days.

One thing we all wanted to do was to have lunch at the acclaimed Stanley’s Bar and Grill which is situated at the top of a hill with sea views in three directions and a great birds’ eye view of the town. We opted to take a taxi up the hill with the intention of walking back down afterwards, as a way of avoiding the peak of the sun’s heat. Stanleys is a restaurant specialising in seafood and Mexican fare which is hardly surprising. It’s never a problem for me as there are always salads available and of course French fries. As the pictures show, the views, as well as the food, didn’t disappoint. The serving staff were smartly dressed old-style fashion in crisp black and white uniforms and the wine waiter insisted I try the wine before committing to a glass.

We took a slow walk back down the hill, all the better to appreciate the narrow, vibrant and colourful streets and the views from the trail. 

After a couple more leisurely days in the marina we set off for our trip to El Fuerte on the 10th January. This meant getting the bus to Los Mochis, just 11 miles from Topoplobampo. It’s a regular and efficient service with several stops along the way. For this reason, it’s not uncommon for sellers and people down on their luck to board offering tissues and gum for sale or asking for financial help for sick relatives via printed notes. We were not, however, prepared for the sight of a clown climbing up the steps and grinning its way down the aisle. I presume he (or she) was telling amusing stories for the entertainment of passengers but someone needs to point out that clowns today are viewed more as harbingers of horror than of amusement. 

Arriving in Los Mochis, a town much bigger than I expected, we met up with Arturo and discovered we had a bit of time to kill before our bus to El Fuerte. We decided to walk to a park he recommended, and I managed to get another picture in front of the town name structures for my ever growing collection, as shown in the pics below, along with our hour in Parque Sinaloa. 

The bus to El Fuerte was thankfully free of clowns. It was full though and Arturo, always up for conversation with strangers, encouraged Paul to engage in a chat with the young boys in the seats behind us. It’s a good way to practise informal Spanish and Paul’s been making great progress since I’ve been away. 

It took just over an hour to get to El Fuerte, a town which on first impressions, certainly seemed lived up to its guide book description of ‘a tranquil, verdant town of handsome colonial architecture and lush mango trees’ as we walked in the sunshine from the bus station to our hotel near the centre. Checking in, we were glad of Arturo’s help with some of the more convoluted questions at reception. Apparently there was a hard sell for us to book places for that evening’s Zorro show (for a hefty sum) in the restaurant and I think they thought they’d succeeded when Paul asked for the show times. We booked our table for the slot that avoided the time when the performances began; I swear their faces dropped. 

We knew the hotel made much of the character of Zorro. It’s claimed the legendary character had been ‘born’ in the building. Zorro, renowned for carving the letter Z into the clothes or bodies of his adversaries, was a fictional character created by Johnston McCulley. His story was the inspiration for tales, TV series and films about a masked bandit loosely based on real-life character Don Diego de la Vega, who is alleged to have been born on the site the Posada de Hidalgo is built. Merely the site then, not the actual building. You can’t really blame the hotel or indeed the town for capitalising on the association. It’s always interesting to have context when visiting a place. We just didn’t fancy watching a mini pantomime while eating dinner (especially as it looked like audience participation might be required). The statue is impressive though.

The hotel is beautiful. It was originally an old colonial mansion and was transformed into a luxury hotel with rooms tastefully fitted out in wood and marble. Ours had a high ceiling, large wooden double doors and long wooden shutters on the windows. A small balcony overlooked the leafy side street and a games court. Some pics below of the opulence and style we enjoyed there. 

After unpacking we headed to the bar for drinks and guacamole by the pool before taking a walk along the River Fuerte with Arturo, who has come to know the town well during his visits from Los Mochis.  

Dinner in the stylishly decorated restaurant was entertaining enough without the Zorro reenactments. Our waiter, keen to practise his limited English on us, discovered that he and Paul shared the same name and made reference to it every chance he got. This led to excitable mentions of Liverpool, football, and anecdotes about his wife – all while laughing and exclaiming as if this was turning out to be one of the best evenings of his life. With the tip we felt he had worked hard for, Paul said it was quite an expensive dinner…and we only just managed to escape before the unmistakeable sounds of the Zorro show reached our ears.  

Arturo arrived the next morning in his girlfriend’s car. We had made plans to visit the local museum before driving a few miles out of town to see a wildlife rescue park. The museum, handily situated next to the hotel was created in and around an old fort and the pictures and exhibits typically depicted historical figures and events connected to the area. The views from the top of the fort were spectacular on such a sunny and clear day.

The day had grown hotter by the time we reached the park at La Galera early in the afternoon. Set in woodland, next to the Fuerte River, there are picnic areas, nature walks and boat rides nearby, but to get to the animals you have to walk across the suspension bridge spanning the river. Before we did this, Paul and Arturo applied liberal amounts of insect repellent. Despite repeated entreaties and warnings from Arturo who had been bitten there before I chose not to, thinking myself immune to them as I hadn’t been bitten since my arrival in Mexico. That was a decision I would come to regret bitterly. The bridge was a bit rickety but we lingered a while on it to look at the fast-flowing Fuerte River rushing below us. 

As well as the very reasonable admission fee, the man who took our money encouraged us to buy little sachets of food and bottles of milk for the animals, which we did. This man runs the place himself and all the animals that are brought to him are treated, rehabilitated and released back into the wild whenever possible. It was delightful. We had a fantastic afternoon walking around and feeding goats, donkeys, parrots and even a raccoon, who slid the offering from the palm of my hand into its mouth with surprising gentleness – as did the parrots who picked the peanuts from my fingers with their beaks very courteously, as if fearful of hurting me. Now and again I felt slight ‘fly-like’ movements on my bare legs but just waved them away, too intent on looking and walking and petting the animals to notice that mosquitos were indeed feasting on my legs and ankles. No apologies for the amount of pictures we took from the afternoon.

It wasn’t until a full day later that the itching began. I had noticed the red bite marks on my legs, but still convinced myself they wouldn’t bother me. Just after we’d left the hotel  and had a final walk around the town before getting the bus back to Los Mochis, my trousers began to rub on all those red marks and I made the mistake of scratching my calf. That began almost 10 days of trying to resist the urge to scratch the intense itching. There were so many of them my legs felt like they were pulsating at times. I found a cream that provided relief – for the 10 hours advertised on the tube. I could almost tell the time by when it wore off and I had to reapply. Needless to say that was a valuable lesson learned. The pic below shows them at their worst.

At Los Mochis we bid farewell to Arturo. It might be a while before we enjoy his company again but we are certain that we will. 

Back in Topolobampo, we left the marina and spent a relaxing couple of days anchored in the lagoon. Now, we had the time to walk along those golden stretches of beach and sit in the cockpit watching the birds while enjoying the delicious guacamole Paul makes. During one afternoon walk, we were surprised to come across three cows grazing in the rough, bushy landscape. We hadn’t seen any cows at all in Mexico up to this point and to see three of them there seemed a bit incongruous. We spotted them again the night before we left, ambling along the sand by the shore.  

Our next stop along the coast was Altata. This meant an overnight passage. We’ve got into a comfortable routine with these now, whereby I take the 8pm until midnight watch and Paul the midnight until 4am (depending on conditions I can cope with of course). Dinners on these occasions are always simple, and in the comfort food style such as pasta or veggie burgers. For this trip I made empanadas with ready-made pastry circles we’d bought, and various vegan fillings I had created the day before. Checking the instructions, I was surprised to discover they should be fried in a little oil instead of baked in the oven. They turned out well (Paul had four!). We had thick fog on this passage but the radar on the iPad in the cockpit alleviated any anxiety about not being able to see other vessels and hazards. Swirling fog gave an eerie atmosphere to the night watch, especially when the book I was reading was about a haunted lighthouse. 

There was a notoriously tricky entrance to navigate before we reached the anchorage. Only a small break in the bay, which has almost landlocked protection provided by narrow barriers of sand beaches, allows boats through. Paul had tried once before to get in but the shallowness and breaking waves all around had put him off. From afar it looked to me as if the boat would have to skim over strips of land to reach the lagoon! With careful planning regarding tides and by closely watching the depth as we got close to the sandbars, we dropped the anchor and I breathed a sigh of relief (one of the very few fears I have on the boat is going aground).  

Our customary walk around a new place was marred a little by the limitations caused by the bites on my legs. They were so sensitive to anything touching them, that walking set off unbearable itching spasms. It wasn’t quite warm enough for shorts so I resolved to grit my teeth and bear it rather than miss out on an evening walk around the seafront. Altata is known for the unique design of the shrimpers’ boats. Colourful spinnakers are rigged on the pangas as they slowly drift in the shallow water with their nets alongside the boat. They make quite a striking sight when the fleet is out fishing. 

After getting a few essentials in one of the small shops in the town, we headed back to the waterfront to find somewhere to eat. The short row of bars and restaurants on the malecon were fairly empty and we chose the one which had a few tables occupied. We had the feeling it would probably be more busy at weekends and further into the season. We were approached during the meal by a man selling things. Discovering we were English, he urged us to buy some green beans he produced from his sack. They looked good and we agreed to have some. I didn’t realise we would get the entire big bag of them he was holding. Still, they kept well and lasted for a few meals. We spent a couple of days in Altata catching up on rest and chores. I found it a quiet but charming place, as the pictures show. 

It was cold when we weighed anchor at 8am on January 19th. Accustomed as we were to shedding layers as the day went on, it was unusual to find ourselves adding them. Paul ended up at the helm with a full set of oilies and a lifejacket! 

Another overnight passage saw us leaving the Sea of Cortez and entering Pacific Coast Mexico. I was looking forward to seeing Mazatlan again. I had really loved our visit there the year before. It had that vibe that appeals to me but which is impossible to describe objectively. No fog on this leg but the cold temperature remained and the sea, although not rough, was choppy enough to cause rolling. Luckily the wind was in our favour and we sailed most of the way – always nice because it’s peaceful, saves on fuel and is obviously greener. The autopilot broke a few hours before we reached the old harbour at Mazatlan and Paul hand steered for an hour or so when we needed the engine on. It would need to be looked at and assessed during our planned week in Mazatlan before we could consider moving on from there. 

Our week in Mazatlan was great. We did the laundry, tidied the boat, ate out a few times, visited places we hadn’t been to last time, had lazy days on the boat and made several provision visits to supermarkets. More importantly, Paul successfully fixed the autopilot. We also watched a carnival procession the first night we were there, that played out a bit like a beauty contest on wheels. Its purpose was to choose a carnival queen and the women were perched atop cars and vans, each dressed lavishly in the colour they represented. Crowds of supporters followed behind the vehicles, dancing and flag waving and banging drums. Entertaining to watch but the music (very trumpet heavy) was excruciating to my ears. 

Our time in the Sea of Cortez now done, and I think we did it justice during our time there, it was now time to navigate the uncharted waters (for us) of Pacific Coast Mexico and to explore the coastal towns of Mexico’s mainland. February promised to be exciting. 

12th Jan 2023.
The lighted boat parade was shifted until after I collected Kathy from Mexico airport, so I decked the boat out in cheap xmas tree lights and made plans to take it out with Kathy and join the parade, however bad weather arrived in the form of strong northerly winds, and the parade was cancelled by the Capitania de Puerto.

So on the 11th December I flew to the capital Mexico City and met Kathy at the airport. Just before Kathy landed I got a txt msg from American Airlines saying they were “sorry that Kathy’s bag had missed the flight. It would be sent on on a subsequent flight”. She had changed flights at Atlanta, and even though there were no significant delays, her bag had not cleared customs in time and had been sent on to Mexico, but via Detroit. We couldn’t wait as we had a flight back to La Paz to get, so after many hours of failing to breach their customer service firewall, “Press one if you are happy, press any other number to return to this menu”, we got the bag forwarded to La Paz and collected it a few days later.

Kathy soon settled in and we were off on our supermarket tour to collect the various ingredients to make the Christmas meal(s).

We spent Christmas on board SM and had a great time, very relaxing, Kathy prepared a fine meal and pudding. I worked off a few calories by taking the Kayak out for a ride.

I got my dates mixed up and we were meant to leave for the islands and spend New Years Eve at anchor, however we left a day late and instead saw the new year in, in the marina. So on the first day of 2023 we sailed out of La Paz (Literally) and went to spend a night at anchor in Caleta Partida, 20 NM north of La Paz. We had great winds and flat calm seas. We sailed almost from the marina exit to the spot we dropped anchor.

I was very pleased to be back on the water properly, Carlos the diver had just cleaned the hull and we sped along. I really have noticed how a clean hull is essential to getting the top speeds. I also caught a dorado on the way, which was nice.

The following morning was fun as the windlass failed after 5 seconds of effort. The windlass has a sealed gearbox, full of oil. The motor is bolted to the aluminium case and has to be removed to gain access to the gearbox and the solenoid. Just a few months after we bought the boat in Malaysia, the solenoid failed. In trying to replace it I found the corrosion between the steel and aluminium was advanced and the cast case had a crack, which meant the unit was doomed to fail soon. So 6 years ago I had a replacement windlass shipped out to Malaysia from the UK. It cost me £900 then, the cost today is around £1600. Of course the shift in the cosmic balance caused by this act, meant the failure of the old windlass would now be delayed by six years.
For now I hauled the anchor up by hand and we made the overnight passage across the Sea of Cortez to the ferry port of Topolobampo on the mainland.

We sailed out of our anchorage and continued to sail, past the huge Sea Lion colony at Isla Islotes and through the night arriving inside the protected waters of Topolobampo early the next morning. We anchored 4 miles away from the port in a beautiful quiet spot and relaxed before heading into the Marina the next day.
I took the old windlass apart in case it might have a simple fix, but as the cover came off the motor a cup’s worth of lube poured out from the motor. I think the gearbox seal might have failed. I could be wrong but I don’t think motors are generally flooded with oil.
So I swapped the windlass out for the new one. I was able to drill some holes in the base plate that allowed me to fit the new one in just the right spot. Very lucky really to get it to line up with the bow roller and the chain hawse so well. I did get through an awful lot of drill bits making just three holes in a 4mm SS plate.

A tip for anyone else new to this sort of thing, either wear footwear all the time, or be very careful to clean up all the steel swarf from the drilling. I was removing shards of steel from my bare feet for a few days after the job ended. Hosing the deck down didn’t remove them!

Another job I had to do was replace the 110v shore power plug on my cable. This is a sure way to start a fire. The existing plug was rated correctly, but for some reason these often overheat and this sets off a chain reaction of making the connection worse, which causes more heating.

From the anchorage I hauled up the anchor with the new winch, which seemed to work ok.

We motored into the Marina and were warmly welcomed in by Nelson and his staff. Unfortunately there was trouble waiting for us. If you know anything about Mexican drug cartels you will have heard of El Chapo, A man in the same league as Pablo Escobar. Well Señor Chapo (Guzman) is in jail in the States, and the morning we arrived the security forces had arrested his son Ovidio, because of this all hell had broken out in Culiacan, the capital of this state we were in, and also in the town of Los Mochis, where Arturo lives and where we were hoping to visit. There had been street battles and the cartel had taken control of the highways and airspace around these towns. Roads and airports were shut. A passenger jet had been fired on, no cars, trains or ferries were moving, people had been told to stay indoors, all businesses had closed, and we were advised to stay on our boat until things calmed down. It didn’t worry me too much as a similar thing had happened three years ago, and once the police had realised they were outnumbered, they had simply handed the prisoner back to the cartel, in order to avoid any more trouble. This time, the prisoner was whisked away to Mexico City and may even be extradited to the USA at some point.
By the end of the day, the street battles between the cartel and the military had ended, between 30 and 100 people may have been killed, and the suburb in Culiacan where he was arrested remains sealed off by the security forces.
The following morning I took Kathy for a coffee in town and we did a bit of shopping, everything seemed normal.

The next day Arturo joined us and we had a lovely lunch in a hilltop restaurant overlooking the bay here.

So Arturo returned to Los Mochis, he had left us with interesting information about the troubles.
We had planned to go into the mountains on what is known as the ‘Copper Canyon Route’ on the famous ‘El Chepe train’ but it was very expensive and presented us with a few problems around our timetable. So instead we opted to get on the local bus service and head into the heart of El Chapo land. changing buses in Los Mochis where a lot of the fighting had been. We were heading for ‘El Fuerte’ a very pretty town some way inland, and we would stay in a historic hotel built in the 19th Century as a huge family home. This trip would prove very interesting. A real insight into the darker side of things here. More in the next blog post.
As I write this, everything is calm but that may well not last. We leave here tomorrow and head south towards Mazatlan, several vehicles were set on fire there, but generally it’s going to be a safe destination, and I have no concerns about our safety. More on Ovidio here

Paul Collister

Sat 29th October.
Just finished the main part of moving the computer system I work on in Latvia, to the cloud. It’s mostly been fun and very interesting. Decided to print everything off and stow the printer ready for my departure. However the macbook can’t see the wifi network of the printer, nor can the phone. Possibly the printer is at fault, but I suspect it’s down to Apple and the ventura upgrade I did on the mac and the IOS update I did on the phone, I bet apple have decided not to support old printers that don’t 100% implement the wifi standard the way they like, my printer could be a security threat after all and steal all my money, print off a few plane tickets and jet off with a handsome flatbed scanner down the road to somewhere nice. I’m furious, partly because I threw away all the old printer leads that had the big square USB V0.01, I’m so angry with Apple I may sell my shares in the business, that will get their attention once they realise I’m serious!. (P.S. in restrospect, selling my shares would have been a very smart move at that point [sad face] )

Monday 31st, Halloween I understand.
Just noticed a line in the Starlink dish warranty “.. not covered for damage due to: Lightning, electrical surges,fires, floods, hail, windstorms, earthquakes, meteors, solar storms, dinosaurs or other forces of nature”, I’m feeling comfortable on the dinosaur front. Now I don’t want you thinking I’m the kind of guy who routinely reads product warranties, it’s just I’m looking for evidence for a fictional row I’m having with a guy on facebook about using Starlink on boats. Thinking about it, that’s probably worse.
Just finishing stripping, sanding and applying two coats of varnish to the starboard rub rail. I was fascinated by the Greek myth of Sisyphus and his rocks after hearing a version on Radio 4 as a teenager.
Last night Peter and Marcia, who had the baba 30 along the pontoon from me, and now have a lovely tatoosh boat, invited me over for dinner. We celebrated the victory of Lula, I must say it was great seeing Marcia so pleased, she is from Rio, but lives in Chile with Peter now, He is from New Jersey. We discussed dialects and and how Spanish varies so much across latin America, and I made them laugh with some coarse scouse impressions like ‘yeritederlah‘ as a expression of concern for one’s welfare in true scouse (“Are you alright there lad”).

Skip ahead to the 7th December.

I took the boat out to the Islands to get a bit of snorkeling in before the sea cooled too much, it’s down to 24 degrees now, which is a bit on the cold side.
I stayed in Caleta Partida in between Isla Espiritu and Isla Partida. I was there for nearly a week, the starlink dish worked very well, and I had a relaxing time, kaying most days and doing a bit of snorkeling and I also cleaned the boat hull and prop. I decided to leave my boat scraper there for next time, it’s sitting nicely 5 metres down and is marked on the gps for my next visit.
At one point I dived into the water and found myself about 2 metres above a huge turtle that was slowly swimming away from me, quite a sight.

A strong northerly was forecast which would mean the port would be closed for several days so I headed back. I arrived in La Paz around the same time as the early Baja HaHa folks.

The Baja HaHa is a boat rally that travels from San Diego in California down to Cabo San Lucas at the bottom of the Baja Peninsula. There’s usually a few hundred boats, mostly sailboats, mostly Americans, that get together to travel as a pack, stopping off along the way twice for big organised parties. When they arrive at Cabo San Lucas, many of them travel on to La Paz and then explore the Sea of Cortez, others continue onto the mainland and explore there and many of them will continue into the south Pacific in the spring as the start of a much bigger ocean crossing. The rally didn’t run for the two years of covid so I expect the numbers where quite large this year. I can’t criticise people for wanting to travel as a big group, safety in numbers, comradeship etc, we did a similar thing on the ARC rally in 2006, but I couldn’t hack it now. Too many excited people all talking at once, and statistically, at least a third of them will probably be trumpers.

Back in my berth in La Paz, the marina is now full, thanks to the southern migration from the states, lots of excited people and the morning net is full of newbies asking where they can buy propane, who sells engine parts etc. The anchorage is quite busy too, but it could still take another 50 boats if needed.

November brought the annual day of the dead festival, again this was the first time the city had staged an event since covid started so I was very pleased to be able to attend the national theatre grounds to see some very strong visuals.

Paul Collister.

I have been back around 4 weeks now the first week was great, the rest not so good.

I had just got settled in and headed to the market early on Saturday to get some fresh food, the trip back from the market takes me down a steep hill towards the beach, I normally go quite slowly down these hills, scared the bike might run away with me, however this particular morning I was feeling very positive about everything, and decided I must fight my fear of falling off the bike and try to set a new record, if not for speed, at least for scaring myself. So instead of pressing gently on the brake as the bike speeded up,I peddled faster. All was going great, and would have been fine if it wasn’t for that pesky hole in the road, caused by all the recent flood water ripping up the tarmac. Having little bike wheels doesn’t help either. Anway, the bike stopped dead, I didn’t. Fortunately I was able to break my fall with my face. I smashed some teeth up, my glasses shattered and embedded themselves in the flesh around my eye and as I skidded along the tarmac, my skin sacrificed itself in order to provide some breaking friction. There was a lot of blood involved, I think my chances of pulling that morning were seriously reducing.
Lots of people rushed to help, and once I stood up I realised it was going to be ok, no broken bones, but a day later the ribs started to make their position on that matter known. Fortunately this all happened outside a dentists, as one of their staff was leaving. He obviously had medical training and persuaded me to go to his surgery so I could clean up and try to stop the bleeding. There they looked at my wounds and it just happened that a surgeon was in the building and he explained I needed stitches and he could do them right then if I wished. He removed my sunglasses from under the skin and put a dozen stitches around my eye and a few in my lip. Further inspection showed a few teeth to be smashed. They then bandaged me up and told me to come back in a week and they would remove the stitches and advise on the teeth. They wouldn’t take any money for the help they gave me, which was just amazing really.
So two weeks after the crash, I’m pretty much recovered, ribs still hurt a little and the dental work starts tomorrow. Once the teeth are fixed up, I’m sailing out of here to get some snorkeling in.
Kathy will be heading out to join me mid December, which will be great. Then we will leave La Paz and explore new places.

So now I’m back doing boat jobs and programming. I replaced the 12v Cigar lighter system in the cockpit with more sturdy connectors, I think they are called SAE and seem more robust and should be good for a few amps.

Next I replaced the cigar lighter plugs on the Searchlight and the Foghorn I made in Malaysia. Now I knew there was a problem with the foghorn, besides the power connecter, something to do with the push button you press to make it work. So I put the thing down and plugged it in. Boy is it loud. I almost fell overboard with the blast. Then I remembered, the problem was the push switch I bought, was a push to break, not to make, so you had to press the button to stop it. Having woken up all of La Paz, I replaced the button and it works great, as did the searchlight.

People are busy fitting Starlink systems to their boats here. If you don’t know, Starlink is an Internet Provider from Elon Musk which uses the 3000 satellites he has in low earth orbit, which increase by 50-100 most weeks as his spaceX company launches them. On your boat you have a small dish and can get 100mbs download or better. And it works as your sailing along. At the moment the satellite you connect to has to have sight of a land station for the downlink, which limits you to a few tens of miles from the coast when going offshore, but that will change soon. At the moment all of the sea of Cortez and the whole of the coast of North America (Not sure about up north around Alaska)is covered.
This really is a game changer in so many ways. The ranks of the Digital Nomads are swelling, property in remote areas, and sailboats in remote spots are being taken over by yuppies who prefer that life to crazy rents in LA or Silicon Valley. For us sailors, we now have Netflix anywhere we drop hook, or even on passage, that doesn’t interest me. What I love is being able to get good weather forecasts easily. Working at anchor has lots of advantages, but then again, I’m trying to avoid work. Downloading the parts diagram for the gearbox when broken down in the middle of nowhere could be helpful. Kathy will love the connectivity with family & friends.
So I did some research into how these Starlink dishes work, which took me into the workings of phased antenna arrays. Now I was really impressed, such clever technology that a flat printed circuit board can be made to act like a highly focused beam, and track a satellite moving really quickly while at the same time compensating for the boats motion!, this is done without the dish moving and happens in milliseconds. I just had to have one.

I ordered it and it was here about 4 days later. I bought the RV version, which basically means I’m licensed to roam with it, and I can pause the monthly $65 contract when I don’t want to use it. The dish was about $400. Bye Bye Iridium.
It was up and running in minutes, and I made a video call to Kathy and it was perfect quality, no noticeable lag or jitter.
So now I can anchor in remote spots and not worry when all the other boats up anchor and leave that they know something about the weather that I don’t.
I also need to have good contact with the rest of the world so I can keep up with who my prime minister is on any given day.

I took the boat out the other morning just so I could reverse back into my berth. That went very well, mostly thanks to the bow thruster. Carlos had recently scrubbed the boat and the props so that helped.

There has been a lot of live music in town these last few weeks.

So not a lot else to report on, the boats in good shape, The dinghy repairs might not be holding up and need some attention. Now I have the boat reversed in I can varnish the starboard side. I checked the gearbox oil in the outboard again and I think my repairs are good and that machine might last a bit longer.
I’d really like to go for an electric one as a replacement, I’m hoping to get a watermaker sorted soon, lots of new lithium batteries in the next year, and an electric hob and I can then get rid of the butane and petrol onboard, making us quite self sufficient, if only I could catch fish and bake bread!

Paul Collister

24th October 2022

A month ago I left the boat and headed back to the UK. I try to get back during August/September to visit friends and family, it’s also very hot on the boat.

The trip home was easy and despite the UK being beset with public sector strikes, the trains were running fine on that day and I was soon back in Liverpool reunited with Kathy. As I left a hurricane had started to make its presence known and was on course for the Baja Peninsula, early tracks had it just missing the boat, but it was a worry, eventually it passed La Paz without causing too much damage, just a lot of flooding.

The flight back to the UK, via Amsterdam passed over Galway and Liverpool, but sadly didn’t want to stop at either, wouldn’t it be cool if they had bell pushes like the busses!

Liverpool was busy as usual, plenty of tourists and nice late summer weather, I managed to leave just before it turned to Autumn (Winter to most civilised people).

After a week in Liverpool I popped over to Galway for a few days with Tim & Asta before they headed off for a long sailing break in our old cruising grounds in the Ionian. It was great catching up and enjoying the great cooking and fresh bread always on offer at Tim & Asta’s home on the waterfront

Flying back from Galway to Liverpool one gets to see the scale of the offshore wind farms, below is just one of many in the Irish sea. I’m a big fan, I know plenty aren’t but given the current alternatives, i.e. mass extinction, then I’m cool with it.

I toyed with the idea of buying a bigger apartment in Liverpool while I was there and looked at several possibilities, mostly in the new build/off plan area, so I could rent it out until I finish this bout of cruising, but I didn’t see anywhere that really excites me, also, I was aware that the UK was heading for big economic troubles, and I wondered if there might soon be a property crash, which looking at the current forecasts seems distinctly possible.

Another job I had to tick off was changing my registered doctor, I joined a practice in the University area of Liverpool and below you can see the entrance. This is in the cluster of victorian buildings that house the Liverpool school of Tropical Medicine and has played a big part in finding treatments for diseases like Ebola/Aids/Covid19 etc. I’m looking forward to seeing inside the builing as compensation for my next illnes!

Another thing that happens in September is that Kathy, my daughter Yasmin, my best friend from school days, Dave and myself, all have birthdays. So Yasmin generously hosted us in her house and Isaac (my son) drove up from london so we could all celebrate another year passing.

So no sooner had I arrived, and I was on a plane flying back into La Paz.

I took the shot below of a local fisherman after he returned to the dock a few boats along from me, he passed me on the way out and the pelican was sitting on the transom all the time and he was feeding it any fish bits he didn’t want. It seemed like the bird was his pet and seemed quite happy to go along for the ride. I didn’t see many scenes like this in Liverpool 😉

I have been on the boat for 3 days now, everything was perfect when I returned, the boat has had a good wash from the hurricane and everything was still working.

I set out this morning to kayak over to the Magote and explore a little mangrove creek. The entrance is silted up so you need a high tide to get in and there was a big tide this morning so off I went at 8:30 before it got too hot. It was an easy paddle and I had a swim before returning. While paddling around I had a video chat with Kathy who told me there had been heavy rain in Lpool and it was quite cold, I must say I felt a little bad about that, but it didn’t last. I’m hoping Kathy will be flying out to the boat soon, I’m not sure she would like the heat as it is right now.

Arturo has left La Paz, he has moved to live with his new girlfriend over on the mainland, I’m hoping to visit him later in the year as he is only twenty miles inland from a port I can sail to. So I have lost my translator and dining companion, consequently I’m stepping up my Spanish learning.

Apologies to all my friends I had planned to visit but didn’t make it. Can I blame an old lady for messing up some of my plans, probably not, hopefully I will get to see everyone when I get back next year.

I’m planning to spend a week or two doing some programming work and a few small boat jobs before heading back out to anchor in the islands, I’m keen to do some swimming / snorkeling with the fishes before the water cools down too much. It’s around 30c right now, but will be dropping quickly, and in a few months a wetsuit might be required. When Kathy arrives we may well head over to the mainland and then travel south, possibly as far as Acapulco.

Paul Collister

It’s been 6 weeks since I arrived back at La Paz and I haven’t left the dock in that time, other than in the dinghy on a couple of trips to the Magote sandbank to have a swim. So sorry, nothing exciting to report

I have fixed a few things on the boat, the biggest deal being the drains on the sinks, which are now plastic and should last a lot longer, or at least be maintainable, than the rusting steel originals. The boat has had some varnish, at about the same rate that it is losing it. The anchor windlass solenoid problem had been resolved. So the jobs list has dropped but also topped up by a broken outboard engine with no coolant and a failed oil seal in the gearbox, and a new design for the shower sump drain has been identified as needed, post the sink drain repair. Also the PI computer is dead, it has been eating up SDRam cards and I don’t know why.

On a personal level, I have been ill for 2 of the weeks since I returned, and I decided to get my ears looked at while I was here, there’s little chance of getting anything done in the UK with the state of the health service there, even before Covid, there was a 6-9 month waiting list to see a hearing specialist. I have Eustachian tube dysfunction, which is stopping me diving, in fact stopping me hearing. I saw a specialist here and had tests done, and I’m taking medicine and doing exercises involving balloons (Don’t ask) and things are improving, in fact my left ear is now working well. There may be hope for me yet.
I failed to get an appointment with the American Embassy in London for a visa, they were booked up 9 months ahead. That will have to wait, but after a lot of hassle, I booked an appointment with the Mexican Embassy in London for my return in August when I will be travelling back to Kathy for 4 weeks. However my Visa for Mexico ran out a few days ago, and I became an illegal immigrant thereby making me eligible for the new program of rehabilitation of people who had overstayed their visa. It cost a few pennies, but the upshot of it all, is that I now have a temporary Mexican residents permit, which allows me unfettered travel to and from Mexico for the next four years, after which I can upgrade to become a permanent Mexican resident. I’m not sure how long I will remain here, but I will be returning regardless of where we head next.

Arturo’s girlfriend has been here for the last few weeks, so I finally got to meet her, and she has been cooking me some wonderful Mexican food. I have been promised some Nopal, which is very Mexican, I have seen people buying it in the supermarket and wondered if they really would be eating it

There’s not a lot happening out in the bay here, an abandoned sailboat broke loose and went aground on the beach during some high winds a few weeks ago, It appears it was a good boat a few years back but the owner died and his family took over but as they lived in the states they seem to have neglected the boat and over a few years it was stripped of anything of value. Now it’s just an eyesore. I have popped a video I made on youtube, link below.

In other news, a couple of the die aboards died, in one case it seems to have been Omicron that pushed him over the top. A lot of people have been quite ill with it, but most are back working after a couple of weeks. Most people I have met here seems to be triple vaccinated.

Dirk & Silvia, our German friends on Lison Life made it safely to French Polynesia without issue, they seem to be having fun there.

So far the hurricane season has been muted, not a lot is expected with it being a La Niña year, during La Niña years the water is cooler so less likely to allow hurricanes to exist, but it’s still a worry as the boat will be on its own for 4 weeks during August/September. So far we had one hurricane very early in the season that wreaked havoc much further south.

I’m taking advantage of my stable situation here, with good internet to do a little work on the solar/wind monitoring projects I built, basically I’m moving all the software to the cloud on AWS, and re-writing a lot of the linux scripts to run as Python Lambda code. I’m finding it very interesting, this whole idea that I have no knowledge of where my code lives/runs or sends it output to, other than an email address you send data to, and a web address where you can look at results. Once completed in a few weeks I can hand the whole lot over to a younger person to maintain and I can finally hang my hat up as a paid professional software engineer and focus more on being a lazy sod living on a boat in Paradise 🙂
PS. I meant to post this two weeks ago, as my visa was due the be delivered the next day, but I thought by saying I had it, when it was really ‘in the post’ might jinx it, so I held off posting, which seemed to jinx it. The printing machine broke at the immigration office and after a lot of hassle, and some stress I got it a couple of days ago. So in the last two weeks, I have indeed fixed the PI, repaired the outboard, and greatly improved my hearing. Tomorrow (Sunday) I will be on a flight back to Manchester, via Amsterdam to be reunited with Kathy and my family for 4 weeks. Today was spent stripping the boat down just in case a hurricane comes this way.

Cheers,

Paul Collister.

Sunday 15th May.
We spent Saturday provisioning for the next month afloat. The plan was to deliver Kathy to an American Airlines flight to Phoenix, departing from Loreto on the 26th May, in 11 days time. I would then spend a couple of weeks slowly making my path back to La Paz, where the boat may well remain in dock until the hurricane season has passed later this year. 

We had a last meal with Arturo at a vegan / veg venue that has nightly music.

We left around 10:30 on Sunday on slack water and sailed up to Isla Partida, a four hour trip. Two days previous, Carlos had been with his cousin and scrubbed the bottom of the boat, it made a huge difference and we raced along in a light wind doing 5-6 knots. We were soon anchored in our favourite spot at Candeleros enjoying a very calm evening.

Later that night we watched the Total Eclipse of the moon in its full glory. 

Monday 16th
Up early for the 4 hour sail to Isla San Francisco, or Franciscito as it is also known. Again we sailed the whole way in a strong southerly, A walk across the island to the east side for exercise and then I made Guacamole for our dinner.

Tuesday 17th
A short hop up the channel between The Baja Peninsula and the island of San José and into the small fishing village of San Everisto. There was a strong southerly still blowing and the waves had been building all night, as we left the protection of the horseshoe bay it hit us full on the beam, the period of the waves had the boat rocking like the pendulum on a grandfather clock, and a lot of crashing noises filtered up to the cockpit from below. Kathy dashed down to protect what she could. On deck everything was fine and I enjoyed the lurching around, after 15 minutes we turned to starboard and put the wind and waves behind us. Out came the sails, off went the engine and we settled into a couple of hours of fast sailing.

Normally we would anchor in a small cove away from the town, but I had been told there was a nice beach restaurant there and I wanted to check it out. The bay has a spit that comes out and to get protection from the swell you have to tuck in behind the spit in quite shallow water. There was already a 45ft yacht there and so we went in front of them anchoring in just 3 metres of water. By the time we had swung with the wind, we were directly in front of them, but with 60m between us, given the short scope of 20m of chain I had out, I had no worries about us hitting them, but they called me on the VHF saying they were concerned. I let them know we were well dug in and I was sure in the lightish winds there was no chance of us dragging, but they were worried that it might be a problem as they were leaving at 5am. I couldn’t understand why that would be an issue, but assured them I would listen on CH16 and they could call me when they left if there was a need. As it turned out their anchor chain woke me up and they left without any issue. I’m still confused by the whole thing, as they had a boat that looked setup for sailing around the world, they were quite elderly, and I presume very experienced, so what was the problem?  I worried if I might get like that in ten years time.

We went ashore and I immediately recognised the restaurant as one that Jim and I visited over 2 years ago. We had drinks and promised to return for food, which we didn’t. Jim and I bought a Parga fish here from the neighbour who I recall had a very cute toddler granddaughter who was amused by us gringos.

Wednesday 18th
The next leg is always tricky, going north from San Everisto, up through the San Jose channel, there isn’t anywhere to stop out of the waves for the night, unless it’s a northerly or westerly wind, any southern component in the wind will cause waves to build through the channel and creep into most anchorages, the nearest safe place is Agua Verde, but that’s 8 or more hours to the north. However the southerlies were still blowing strong and so at 9:30am with the sails up we left and were making great progress. I could tell that the anchorages en route would be too rough so we settled into a long ride to Agua Verde, arriving at 19:30 to find a crowded bay. There must have been about 15 yachts and a few motor boats there. But it’s a big space and we found a nice spot near the beach and anchored in 4 metres of water. We would spend the next 4 nights here. 

Monday 23rd May
We left Agua Verde at 10 am, heading north we had many options and I wanted to see how the wind played out as we sailed up towards Loreto. Had the sea been rough, we would have gone into Puerto Escondido, taken a mooring ball, and ordered a Taxi for Thursday to get Kathy to the Airport, however the sea was very calm. The winds had dropped off a lot, and although southerly still, were generally around 5 knots in the daytime, picking up in the evening. We also had 4g on our phones now and I could get decent weather forecasts showing very calm days ahead. Basically it looked like we could anchor anywhere now and be fine. So we went to Juncalito, a small strip of beach with some fishing shacks and a row of gringo houses/trailer truck huts. It seemed lovely until we heard some Mexican Banda music, followed by some very rude US Rap songs blasting from the beach.Several groups had setup there for a days outing and had brought along a PA system that would be better suited to Glastonbury than here.  I wonder if it’s because they don’t quite speak English well enough to get the lyrics that they let their children dance to this stuff, Even I was blushing, I’m not even sure it’s legal what the Rapper was suggesting! Fortunately as the sun set, they departed and left us to enjoy a quiet evening.

Tuesday 24th 
We left early for the Coronados, an island and islet just a few miles north of Loreto, where we will enjoy a day before Kathy’s flight is due. 

Wednesday 25th
A great day walking the beach, snorkelling and relaxing. Today is Kathy’s last time here, I doubt she will visit these islands again, but who knows what BA 25.1 or CC 22 might bring.
In the morning we sail down to Loreto, anchor and then go ashore so Kathy can get a Covid Test, required before flying into the USA, in the evening we go back ashore for a farewell meal at ‘Mi Loreto’, where Kathy can enjoy a Mexican Vegan meal.

Thursday 26th
Up early and we lug Kathy’s 23 kg of potatoes, biscuits, stale bread and kitchen tiles into the dinghy. In no time at all we are in a taxi on the way to the airport. Kathy Checks in, and has a 2 hour wait for her flight, I get a taxi back to the supermarket, provision up for a few days and head for the dinghy, only to be accosted by the API (port Manager) that I need to visit the Port capitanía in his office up the road with all my papers. Something I haven’t ever had to do here before, I’m a bit miffed, but I shouldn’t be, I really should have checked in when we arrived. Normally this is done for me when I go into the marina here at Escondido. So I dinghy out to the boat, get my papers and head back to the office to join a queue of other sailors in the same boat, well not literally, but all queued up outside the capitania’s office. When I do get in it seems I am missing a paper, the original entry clearance into Mexico from 2 years ago. He is not very happy with me for not having it and I explain it must be on the boat but it’s not in my folder because I have never been asked for it, he says he must see it, or he can clear me in for a fee. I explain that I will return with it, he again asks why I don’t have it with me and I can pay the fee, I explain that in Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Santa Rosalia, Guaymas, San Carlos and Mazatlan, I have never been asked for it, this makes him more abrupt with me. I explain that I can bring it in on Monday when I clear out and he is happy.
I leave feeling like I can’t deal with authority anymore, and wonder if my hobo life on the waves is going to make it difficult to reintegrate with land based officialdom, I’m already getting stick from banks and the like wanting to know if I’m still a British resident!.
Back on the boat I quickly find the form, and then file it away, haul anchor and head back to the Coronados. Ten minutes into my trip I see Kathy’s flight take off, it’s heading right over me but with her side looking down, so she will have a perfect shot of Sister Midnight, putting along, dinghy in tow sailing up the Sea of Cortez, I bet she doesn’t have her camera ready. As it turns out, I’m right on both counts.

I do accidently record a ray while snorkeling here. It has amazing markings

Soon I’m anchored and snorkelling with the rays and sergeant majors. Kathy is starting her long trip home.

Friday – Monday 30th
I spend a few days just chilling in the Coronados, internet is good here, but on the Monday it’s time to start heading south. I stop off at Loreto, provide the required paperwork to a smiley friendly capitanía, buy some fresh fruit and sail onto Agua Verde for more chilling. I bump into a few hundred dolphins out lunching on the way, they don’t mess when they go out to eat as a group, almost feel sorry for the small fish.  

There’s only a few of us here in AV now, 3 sailboats by Wednesday, I buy some of the local goats cheese, but I’m reminded of the comment in the Navionics app from a guy who spent two days here violently sick, blaming it on food poisoning after eating said cheese. Not sure that should be in a nautical guide, especially when there’s little mention of the huge rock in the middle of the bay.

Sunday 5th June
It seems I have spent 6 days in Agua Verde, The southerly winds are staying strong, not massive at 10-15 knots, but it means a lot of motoring to get south, after 7 days I opt for the first day when they drop to just 10 knots and head out at 7am when it’s flat calm. Once out in the main sea, the wind gradually picks up and by 2pm it’s blowing over 15 knots with fairly big waves, causing the bowsprit to dip into the water occasionally. I push on anyway, as it’s not worth tuning back and waiting another week or more, I’m going to burn a lot of fuel, but it’s ok given I got the northbound trip for free on the same winds.

At the last minute I decide to turn into the protected bay on the Northside of San Everisto for the night. I’m all alone here and it’s very sheltered and peaceful. An early start and I should be in Isla Partida, just one hop from La Paz by tomorrow afternoon.

Monday 6th June
I head into Bahia Candeleros, as we did on the way up, I have the place to myself as a strong westerly wind is due and there will be waves. I’m not fussed, but the boat does end up bouncing around in the night, but all is good and I still get a good night’s sleep. I manage to film a Mobula ray jumping out the water after I kayak over to a group of them and follow them around the bay.

Tuesday I head back to La Paz, anchor overnight so I can get the morning low water / slack tide the next day and on Wednesday at 11 am I’m back in the marina in my usual spot.
It’s been a good trip, and now Kathy has left I can start doing the bigger messy jobs around the main cabin. But first I need to book my flights home for September, and also organise Visas for the USA and Mexico, more on that next time.

Paul Collister
16th June 2022

21st April 2020
Location on google maps

As I mentioned in the last post Kathy fancied a trip to Mazatlan,  she hasn’t been there before and although I had spent plenty of time there thanks to pigeons and strong weather, it seemed like a good run for the boat. Mazatlan is 240 nautical miles from La Paz, we plan our trips based on averaging 5 knots, which is 5.75 mph, or the speed of a good jogger. So it works out that 240/5 is 48 hours passage non stop. Leaving at midday on Easter Sunday meant we would miss Easter Sunday in La Paz and arrive midday Tuesday. If we made good speed, we would arrive at best at first light Tuesday, and if we were slow we should still get there before sunset. The plan was to head for one of the three Marinas in the newer part of town to the north.

I suppose we must be getting the hang of this sailing thing as we didn’t fuss over preparing for two nights at sea, one trip to the supermarket on our trusty bikes sorted out the provisions, a couple of hours organising various ropes around the boat, sheets, jibe preventers etc and we were ready. We would have left early the following week, but Sunday was meant to have the only decent blast of NW winds for a while so we wanted to catch them, however as Sunday approached the forecasts showed lighter winds each day. The forecasts turned out to be quite accurate in the end and we left under motor for a few hours until we cleared Isla Espiritu Santo and caught some good wind.

For the next 24 hours we flew along at between 5 and 7 knots. However the waves were much bigger than expected and were more on the beam, causing a lot of rolling and a small of amount of crashing inside the boat. The new Basil and Jade plants took a hit. The second day the wind left us, so on went the motor for the rest of the passage. Six hours before Mazatlan the wind picked up to ten knots on the nose, and the waves started to build from that direction, so it wasn’t the best of rides, but as we approached land the wind calmed and the waves dropped making for a lovely sunrise and entry into the old commercial harbour anchorage. 

All in all it was a good passage, we were joined by dolphins and a few whales, one young whale coming very close which worried us a little, we didn’t want any agro with the mother. A hundred miles from land a gull decided to rest for a bit on Sister Midnight, it circled several times getting closer each time, before finally trying to land on the arch at the rear of the cockpit, sadly it didn’t see the vhf AIS antenna sticking up and flew into it. It broke the antenna off and also lost control and fell into the water behind us in a most ungracious manner. I think it was ok, it recovered its composure and sat on the water until we were out of sight. The AIS Antenna is now held together with gaffer tape and seems to be working. We had a full moon to enjoy, Kathy got to see it rise on her first watch and I saw it the next night. After sunset and before the moonrise the sky looks amazing, so far from land with no clouds the Milky Way is very clear. It should be better on the way back with no moon at all.

On passage it dawned on me that as Kathy would mostly want to see the old part of town there was no need to go to the Marina district, it’s pricey and requires a taxi to go anywhere. We are so self sufficient on board now that anchoring in the harbour where we can use a nearby dinghy dock for $3/day and we can walk to the old town seemed the obvious choice. Once I had a 3g cell signal I messaged Dirk who had stayed in the old harbour before and he confirmed it had everything we needed. The only problem here is that they built a huge waste water treatment plant next to the harbour and when the wind blows the wrong way it’s a bit whiffy. Also you need to bring your dinghy onboard at night, but that’s a wise thing to do in any anchorage. 

I won’t bore you with details of our trip around town, other than my highlights, which consist of buying some amazing Atún Ahumado (Smoked tuna) from the market, along with some very tasty Manchego cheese. Hopefully Kathy will post a blog with her first impressions of the place.

Friday 22nd April
I have been trying to take advantage of the local produce lately, Fresh Mangos, Pineapple and Melon, all very cheap and wonderfully fresh and tasty here. Today I made Agua de Jamaica, which is also know as hibiscus tea, it’s a very Mexican or Latin drink made by boiling up a load of Hibiscus flowers with various spices like cinnamon and ginger, straining it and cooling it. I made 4 litres which will last for a few days. It’s very refreshing, especially as the days get hotter here.

Chafe problems.
This is a big deal on boats especially when doing long passages,  I noticed that the plastic jerry cans that I have on deck to carry spare fuel had worn thin underneath. I expect 10 years of rocking ever so slightly around on the hard non-skid deck covering has shaved off some of the plastic and two of them will have to be ditched. The last thing I want is 20 litres of fuel sloshing around the deck. They are tied down, but must be moving just a little. I also noticed the mainsail is looking bad where it rests on the aft lower shrouds, the batten sleeves are cut through.

So we headed off to the hardware store today and I bought some non skid matts which I cut up and put under the cans to help remove the friction there. I wanted to buy some of the foam pipe lagging, readily available back home, the stuff you put on water pipes to stop them freezing, but I failed to even get people to understand what it was, freezing pipes is not something people know a lot about here! I did find some flexible stuff 1” outside and 5/8” inside, presumable to protect pipes so bought a few lengths and I have attached them to the port shroud to see how they work, I figure we might have northerlies on the way home so that would be right, but looking at the forecast later it seems we might get southerlies, in which case I will be wrestling them onto the starboard shrouds crossing the Sea of Cortez.

Monday 25th April
We hauled the anchor up and left the harbour in the morning. We headed to the marina area in the north where there are two fuel stations. The forecasts showed that we may well be motoring all the way back, so we would need to top up the tanks. My plan was to get fuel and then anchor overnight off one of the two islands that face the main malecon and leave Tuesday morning early. To get to the marinas with the fuel you have to enter a somewhat treacherous channel, the entrance gets battered with big surf and is very shallow. Best avoided at low water with any wind/waves.

However it turned out to be close to low water when we wanted to go, but there didn’t seem to be much surf. I phoned up the marina El Cid to see what conditions where like. The number I called didn’t want to talk to me, I wrongly assumed that I had a wrong number, I searched the web for El Cid marina and was put through to the marina office, I asked if the channel to the fuel dock was ok, and got into a strange conversation, based around everything being fine, but they needed my passport details and visa info. I thought this was odd, but went along with it, then she asked were my last port was and I stated Mazatlan harbour, thinking that might stop the questions, but then I was asked how I got there from Mazatlan and had I come via the Panama canal. I told her I didn’t think I had and surely something was wrong that she should ask me such things. I was transferred up the chain and it became apparent I was talking to El Cid Marina in Cancun on the other side of Mexico in the Atlantic!
I then phoned the original number, this time with my microphone turned on and spoke to the friendly staff at El Cid Mazatlan, who said, the channel was clear, deep and I should head in without any worries. If any attorneys are reading this, can you get in touch please 😉

We headed in, I knew from previous trips that it is only deep close to the breakwater and you really have to hug the wall, way closer than is comfortable, as we approached and started our turn, a big roller raced in behind us and lifted the stern high, pushing us forward at which point we hit the ground with some force, the wave continued to lift and spin the boat, the bow swung to port violently, and Kathy thought she was going to be thrown out of the cockpit. I could see we were seconds from having the bowsprit ripped off and being thrown onto the wall. This was the first time I ever thought we could lose the boat in all the scrapes we have been through. However the big wave raced underneath us and lifted the boat out of the silt we had grounded in and I turned hard to starboard, gave it max revs and we swung away from the wall and into 7 ft of water and out of the waves. A quick visual check and the boat seemed to be intact and behaving and I started breathing again. I doubt my actions made much difference as the wave had so much power in it I think it threw us wherever it felt like. We refueled and I spoke to the staff on the fuel dock who didn’t understand when I explained the problems I had had, they just said it was very safe and I would have no problems. I felt it was best to leave right away and get this behind us rather than sensibly find a spot for 3 hours to let the tide in, so we headed back, running aground on the way out, with Kathy exclaiming horror as the depth gauge showed us dropping to 1.7 metres, we need 2.0. I wasn’t too worried about driving into the surf, especially as I was turning into it this time, so full revs agan, and we slid through the silt into deeper water, turned into the surf and we’re away. I won’t be returning at low water again, that’s for sure.
We had a pleasant night at anchor, despite many tour boats arriving and blasting out their music. A few boats would arrive with a mariachi band on the bow.

Tuesday 26th April
We left our anchorage around 07:00 to try to get back to the La Paz area before night on the 27th. We ended up motoring for most of the trip and arrived at Bonanza bay at 3:30 on thursday morning, slept for 7 hours then headed back to our spot in the marina arriving at slack water around 14:00.
The trip back was notable for the number of Jellyfish, Portuguese man o’ war, turtles and various other creatures we saw. No wind and flat seas makes these much more obvious.

Pictures of Mazatlan as we wandered around:

Paul Collister
30th Sept April 2020

Yes it’s officially spring here and the temperatures are rising, usually in the high twenties most days, sometimes hitting the thirties. The nights are cool enough to make sleeping easy. However I remember last year and trying to work on the boat and kicking myself for not doing the big jobs while it was cool. So with that in mind I have decided to make a big push on the boat varnish and paintwork this week. I’m up at 7:30 every morning and Arturo arrives at 8:30. Together we scrape off old varnish, sand and proceed to get 7 new layers of varnish on all the wood.

Other jobs are being fitted in. This morning after hearing a joke that went “Q: What’s the easiest way to double the value of your boat? A: Fill it up with diesel” We poured all the cans of fuel into the tank and took a walk to the petrol station to fill up. The price of fuel in Mexico hasn’t changed at all, but is expected to rise a lot. Mexico is a major Oil & Gas producer, but somehow manages to lose money on every barrel it extracts, don’t ask how, that’s just Mexico.

We met up with Dirk and Sylvia for drinks after Sylvia returned from a quick trip to Germany. They will leave in a few weeks for the South Pacific. Dirk has done his research well and should have a good passage through French Polynesia if all goes to plan. They are busy filling the boat with dried goods and doing final checks and modifications for the long passage from here to FP.

One of the strange jobs I started was on the port Lewmar winch. It was seizing up, this can be due to old grease, but I had serviced the winch only a year ago, and this didn’t seem right. Once apart I could see the top half of the self tailng flange was corroded, this is down to the usual mixing of dissimilar metals. In this case an aluminium alloy and steel. The corroded aluminium was flaking off as a powder and falling down the shaft into the top bearing. I cleaned it up and rather than waste a stack of anti corrosion compound, I decided to make a gasket / washer to separate the metals. I will know in a year when I next service them if it worked.
My main worry is why after 35 years of being fine should it suddenly fail. I presume salt water must have got in to accelerate the corrosion, but why now. Perhaps I left a washer off or something leaving a small gap. Also I don’t normally get salt water in that area. Although I did wash a lot of bird shit off that area with the deck wash which is sea water?
I have covers on them now.

Once the boat varnishing and painting is complete we will head out to the islands for a few days, this should be fun, knowing we have a berth waiting for us anytime we need to return.

On a sadder note, a catamaran was found washed up on the beach in Loreto with the owners dog aboard, It may not actually have been washed up, but possibly drove straight onto the beach by it’s autohelm, either way the solo male skipper was not onboard. A week later a body was recovered from the sea, which I believe is the owner. Presumably he fell overboard on passage, There was quite a blow around then of 25-30 knot northerlies, he was crossing the sea from the mainland and would have been in some big seas. A stark reminder of the dangers of solo nighttime passages especially if you don’t wear a harness.

2nd April 2022
We are back from a trip around the islands. It was very relaxing, despite the calm weather not quite performing as expected, our first night in Bonanza bay had us bouncing in a heavy swell from the SE which wasnt expected. Our last night in Caleta Candeleros was similar, but the heavy old baba didn’t worry about the 20 knot gusts through the night and we both slept through it. On the plus side, all the other boats ran away to hide so we pretty much had the two bays to ourselves, excluding turtles, dolphins and sea lions.
I heard a photo of the recovered man I mentioned above had a diving fin on one foot and that he died of heart failure while in the water. I can’t imagine why a solo sailor would be diving on that passage from the mainland to here, unless he got something wrapped around his prop. Very sad whatever the reason.
I’m now working my way around the jobs I still need to do. A bit more varnishing, also Kathy has said she wants to visit Mazatlan, so we may sail over in a week or so, it’s a two day trip involving an overnight passage.

Paul Collister