My 0000-0200 shift passed without drama. The sky’s were dark and my vision a little sleep blurred but still able to make out a tiny bit of bioluminescence in the boat’s wake. Handed back over to Elpie and went to bed.
Woke at 0556 and got up. Not my shift but we are about an hour and 20 minutes from Mazatlán. The weather is eerily foggy.
Current location: 23°4.963’N • 106°23.996’W
Went to put coffee on, only to find the water pressure is poor. Plenty of water in the tank and the switch is on Looks like we’ll have a little more boat maintenance when we get in. I was still able to make a welcome coffee though. I’m super hungry this morning, very strange. I munch on cashews and fruit.
We start to see Mazatlán through the mist around 0645, the sun is starting to burn through.
We come into port and anchor smoothly. It’s a little strange to see so many boats and buildings on the shore after so many days at sea and the serenity of Isabel.
Anchored : 23°10.992’N • 106°25.276’W
I help Brady retrieve the spare pump which involves sitting on the folded mattress in the fore cabin, while Brady wrestles out the spinnaker which covers everything else. We find the pump and rearrange the storage under the bed. Making it easier to extract the spinnaker next time. As we do this Dewey and Jim remove the old pump, and then refit the new one. All good, but the new one is 60psi rather than 30psi and there’s a little, short-lived, concern that this might cause leaks. It doesn’t, but the sound is not as pleasant as the old pump. First-world problems.
A Cruisers Academy graduate, Anders, stops by with his dog Mookie. Anders met Brady and Blue by inviting them to his free 4-day music festival. He tells us it has a culture of excessive giving - everyone who comes brings something to share. He sailed his 63ft(!) ketch down here through some brutal weather and regaled us with the intricate detail of his debugging of the cooling system in his engine. That man can tell a story! We’re going to visit him tomorrow for morning coffee.
Elpie cooked a very good chickpea curry for lunch which was much needed after the night passage. It was then time for a mini adventure. Brady asked if I could pilot Tika and I said of course, “I have my Level 2 Powerboat”. I promptly sat on the wrong side though and struggled with the throttle direction, and when I accidentally accelerated hard at the last moment before docking I hit the rocks by the harbour wall stalling the engine. I’m now demoted to Level 1 Powerboat.
All tied up, we went for a walk up a very big hill visible from the anchorage - Isla El Crestón. It was great to get off the boat and get the blood flowing with fantastic views over the city.
After we walked down we were thirsty and wanted to go to Stone Island for drinks and dinner, Anders had recommended it as being highly authentic old-Mexico. We took Tika round (Brady drove) and reversed towards the beach due to a heavy shore break. After throwing the anchor in, we jumped out. Not at knee depth as planned but closer to chest height. Very refreshing. When we reached the beach we were escorted to a table on the beach at Estabin’s, seduced by the local sound of Banda music. With several competing bands playing a few meters from each other.
The whole thing was an amazing experience, the colour, noise, energy of the beach was just magical. Families playing in the water, motorbikes, music, dogs, kids recording themselves kissing with a drone, people selling ‘fuck trump’ bracelets, food vendors like Rikki Tikki and her empanadas with 14million views.
Our food was fantastic as well, I had fish tacos (I love them) and others had Shrimp Aquachile and shrimp skewers. The also served highly addictive salted crackers which I found irresistible - maybe I have a salt deficiency (not).
The guy who showed us the table said he’d fetch Tika (the tender not the lady selling empanadas) for us. The tide had come in and so Tika was quite the distance out. He got another guy to swim (very reluctantly - it was clearly cold by his standards) out and fetch her. When he eventually got to her, instead of pulling in the anchor and walking her in backwards, he pulled on the line, slowly dragging the tender, and the anchor slowly to shore in breaking conditions. Brady made a sensible decision to go out and sort it out himself. Again backing up to the beach, while we rushed in to chest high water again to jump in between sets. Exciting!
We got back to Lintika in good time, having had another great mini adventure. So much fun! Back at Lintika we were treated to yet more Banda music as cruise party boats came into the harbor playing music and games. The MC was very funny to listen to, they were clearly playing some kind of drinking game, with counting and trombone whomp whomp sounds when someone failed.
Then an early night. It’s been a long, but great day after the night passage.
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