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| Our last night in Mazatlan (with an Indio beer tower!) |
Sunday afternoon we made the easy 40 minute hop out of Marina Mazatlan to a sandy beach anchorage at Isla Venados. It was only three nautical miles and we motored over relatively flat water. We were both feeling a little sick to our stomachs, not from being at sea again, but from cutting the ties to shore and being unsure of what lies ahead. It's a little hard for us to get back into the groove of cruising after enjoying so many of the amenities of life on shore. John enjoyed his house-sitting jobs in Mazatlan this summer and I loved being a CLOD (Cruiser Living On Dirt) again in Seattle. Even being on the boat tied up in a marina gave us many freedoms and luxuries that we don't have such easy access to when we're anchored out.
But once we dropped the hook I felt a peacefulness that I don't necessarily feel on shore. There are fewer distractions. We aren't compelled to have the computer running 24/7 because there's no Wi-Fi. Instead we pay more attention to our natural surroundings and interact with whoever else happens to share the anchorage. As we were getting ready to get in the water to scrub green slime off the hull a couple with two young boys stopped by to introduce themselves. They came down from Redwood City on this year's Baja Ha-Ha on an aluminum boat named Heavy Metal and we had a nice chat.
We will be preaching dinghy safety for some time to come (see previous post about our dinghy theft). Our replacement 2HP motor is chained to Nakia's stern with the biggest padlock we could find. Instead of hanging the replacement dinghy against the side of the boat John decided to try setting it down on the starboard foredeck where it rests on the forward hatch and lifelines. This way we're still able to open the hatch above our berth for fresh air at night.
John didn't get much sleep as he kept a "robber" watch through most of the middle of last night. On top of that we had a bit of lightning, thunder and rain to keep us awake. In spite of our sleepless night we are thinking about pushing on through to Isla Isabella later this afternoon, so that we can finally put Mazatlan behind us. An overnight trip would put us at Isabella at sunrise.
{GMST}22|14.160|N|106|27.678|W|Deer Island|On our way to PV{GEND}