Mantanchen Bay and San Blas

We left Isla Isabella on the morning of December 7th. It was a cloudy, blustery day, and it rained on us as we sailed east-southeast toward Mantanchen Bay. Most of the morning we were close reaching into 15-20 knots of wind from the northeast with a single reef in the main and a partially furled jib, making about 4 knots. At lunch time I fell off, south of the rhumbline, in order to get more speed and reduce the heeling (so that Claudia would have an easier time making lunch). This turned out to be a good move. The wind shifted North as we closed with the coast, giving us an excellent angle. We made 5-6 knots most of the afternoon and passed San Blas about sunset.. At that point it started raining again. Visibility was poor and our electronic charts were again off by about a mile and a half. Luckily, the anchor lights on other cruising boats guided us into the anchorage. We anchored over a mile off the beach, but in only 20 feet of water.

The next day we took our dinghy into the beach, where we found a row of palapa restaurants. Many of the restaurants were staffed but we appeared to be the only potential customers. We left our dinghy in the care of one of the restauranteurs and walked out to the highway, looking for a bus to San Blas. Before the bus came, a taxi offered to take us in for 20 pesos.

We spent the day looking at the old town of San Blas. It has a nice marina (up a river from Mantanchen Bay) and a pretty town square, but not much else that interested us. The famous bells of San Blas (immortalized in a poem by Longfellow, that speaks somewhat jingoistically of the decline of Spanish civilization, and the rise of Anglo-American culture) were represented in a ruined church that looked like it had been built well after Longfellow's time. We heard there is a good river tour but we would have needed another day to take that, and we decided not to spend another day.

We got back to the beach near sunset and felt obligated to have dinner in the restaurant where we had left the dinghy. This turned out to be a mistake. At sunset the notorious, biting sand flies of Mantanchen Bay swarmed forth. The restaurant provided insect repellant along with the chips and salsa, and we used it liberally. They also burned coconut husks which, they assured us, would repel the bugs. But it was all to no avail. As we ate our pescado al ajo, the bugs ate us. They crept up under our clothing and found areas of skin that we failed to cover in chemicals. We had itchy bites all over.

In the morning we sailed south again, heading for Banderas Bay.

Here are a few shots of San Blas and Mantanchen Bay. It is pretty, but I don't think we'll be coming back.

Isla Isabella

We left Mazatlan on December 3rd and sailed southeast to Isla Isabella, an island famous as a nesting site for frigate birds and boobies. We had light winds and calm seas the whole way. We left Mazatlan around noon and arrived at the island around 9 the next morning. It was exciting to see the island appear on the horizon in the early morning light--although it was not exactly where it was supposed to be. My new Navionics electronic charts show the island about a mile and half southeast of where it actually is.

We anchored in a beautiful little bay on the south side of the island. This bay is a notorious "anchor eater" so we buoyed our anchor and hoped for the best. When we went ashore we were stunned to see so many nesting birds so close to the beach and hiking trails. The birds seemed completely unafraid of humans--some of them seemed to be posing for pictures, turning their heads one way and then another, as if trying to show me their best side.

The island has no permanent human population, but a group of panganeros (fishermen) were camped in shacks on the beach. We also met members of a diving group from San Blas, who were camped in an abandoned building.

On our second day, we circumnavigated the island in our kayaks. It was a rainy day, with ominous clouds, but the scenery was still spectacular. On the east side of the island are some tall rock spires that rise from the sea called the Monas. We found a HaHa boat named Liberty anchored in the lee of the Monas, but the crew had gone to shore.

The third day we went ashore again with my Nikon camera and walked over the whole island, taking lots of pictures. Some of the best are shown below.

In Mazatlan

We have spent over two weeks in this friendly, beautiful city. We were greeted warmly by members of the cruiser community who live in the marina. Some of them stay here year around, others winter here and spend summers in the north, still others, like us, are just passing through. They have been a tremendous resource--helping us find parts needed for boat projects, educating us about nearby cruising destinations, and encouraging us to explore. On our first day, Cap'n Mike of Sea Wolf took us down to the harbor, explained how to use the bus system, and pointed out various sites. We have been using the buses on a daily basis to go all over the city.

We signed up for Spanish classes at a local language school. Claudia and I had a private class with our own teacher, Rosie, who quickly assessed our (limited) Spanish and helped us learn more. We received 2 hours of instruction every morning, after which we went out for lunch in one of the many local restaurants. This city is famous for seafood. We are especially fond of the camarones, which go particularly well with Pacifico beer, which is produced locally.

When we arrived we were exhausted and grumpy--ready to give up the so-called cruising lifestyle. We quickly recovered, however, and have had a lot of fun here. We had Thanksgiving dinner with a big group of cruisers at the marina and have met a lot of truly interesting people with boats. We have met fewer Mexicans, although we really like our Spanish teacher Rosie.

I've spent some time on academic projects. I revised a manuscript for Jurimetrics, and I wrote a short article for Law & Human Behavior, so my sabbatical, while recreational, has allowed for a little productivity.

At this point we are looking forward to moving on. We will head south for Isla Isabella tomorrow.

Our only complaints are about the facilities at Marina Mazatlan. Our dock was a long way from the bathroom and is right next to a restaurant, Fufu, that continually has open mike nights. This provides us free entertainment every night, which is largely good except for one thing. Every aging rocker who passes through does a set at Fufu and they all do a version of a song we have come to loath through over-exposure--Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.

The first symptoms of JBO (Jimmy Buffett Overload) appeared in Claudia during the trip down the coast of Baja. We listened to the "Margaritaville" channel on Sirius Satelite Radio for hours on end (as seemed appropriate), until Claudia screamed that if she heard another Jimmy Buffett song she would, well, scream. Fortunately, there are about a hundred other channels on Sirius. But it was impossible to change the channel on the live music at Fufu's. Claudia and I kept a running tally of MTM (minutes to Margaritaville), and it was rarely more than 60. Some of the performers do it several times a night. I know it is considered a classic (of the palapas and beer genre of popular music), but you can have too much of a good thing. I'm so conditioned that when I blew out my flip flop on the Malecon I immediately started looking for dangerous pop-tops, and new tattoos.

Below are some pictures of Mazatlan. The unfortunate sailboat Dream Catcher dragged anchor during a hurricane last Fall and was wrecked. We are having a great time, but intend to be long out of hurricane season.