Too Much Bang and not Enough Boom

Other than having to dodge a large fleet of fishing vessels at midnight and the Baja Ferry at 4 am we had an uneventful crossing from La Paz to Mazatlan. Who would have thought that in 10,000 square miles of ocean we could be on collision courses with other boats? That’s why you must always maintain a watch.

We enjoyed four days at El Cid Marina in Mazatlan.  It was great to reconnect with Kathy and Dean as they had just arrived back to their boat. A few days after we launched from Penasco our wind indicator seized. This little device is at the top of the mast and shares information on wind speed and direction to our instruments so we know how fast and from which direction the wind is blowing. We were able to order a new one, have it shipped to their place, and they brought it down for us. Thanks guys!! Derick just needs to go to the top of the mast to replace it.

When we arrived in La Cruz, we were waiting on another delivery.  We had a Starlink system sent to Derick’s cousin Al and his wife Tara who winter in Bucerias.  It took a bit of doing on their part to connect with the DHL driver as he couldn’t find their address. They ended up tracking him down on foot as they all moved around Bucerias Centro looking for each other. Thanks guys, for your efforts!! 

Starlink is becoming a very popular addition to boats worldwide.  It provides high speed satellite internet and Wi-Fi on the boat.  It will be easy to quickly check on weather forecasts and stay connected to the outside world. Barb is very happy that she can even watch live stream Canucks hockey games now!  Our system arrived from Mexico City within a week.  The Mexican one is about ½ price of a Canadian Starlink, and we can “park” it when we leave the boat at the end of the season. We have heard form other cruisers that the system is opening up along the Central American coast so we are hopeful we will have decent coverage all the way to Panama.

Another project we tackled in La Cruz was to try to tighten up the gooseneck and boom. Even after taking it home in the off season for repairs there was still too much movement.  With our heavy boom, because of the in boom, furling sail, the movement was causing rivets to shear off.  Not good. So, the boom, gooseneck and vang all had to come off again. The rivets were replaced with screws and the shock in the boom vang was fixed so it is working again. Let’s hope we have it solved this time.

Derick had to get a pair of glasses repaired, the screw had fallen out and was no where to be found. We found an optical place, she had it repaired in about three minutes and charged us 20 pesos or $1.43 Cdn. He was a happy camper!

La Cruz is one of our favourite places. Along with boat repair services there are a number of restaurant and bar choices. Tacos On The Street, twice, La Cruz Inn to watch the Friday Night dancing horses, The Treehouse and tonight we will be test driving a new recommendation La Braza and this is just a small sampling of what is available.

Provisioning is always a unique experience. Today it involves a dinghy ride from the boat to Marina La Cruz’s dinghy dock. A ten-minute walk from the dinghy dock through La Cruz to the bus stop. 30 pesos for the two of us to ride 20 minutes to the Mega Soriana (big grocery store). 1 hour to actually shop. A much shorter taxi ride back to the marina, in part because our taxi driver thought Mexican roads were some sort of racetrack. Finish the trip by loading all your groceries back into the dinghy head back to the boat and then move them all from the dinghy to the main boat. Now if you have any energy left you can put the groceries away.

Tomorrow morning, we raise the anchor and head the 122 nm, an overnighter, to Tenacatita. Even with these recent delays we are still on track for Barra de Navidad by December first to catch the Panama Posse starting events.