Manzanillo to Mazatlan 2011

We left Manzanillo on March 30th which was almost a whole month after what we had originally planned. Amanda spent spring break with us which was great but once she had left to go back to San Diego we were anxious to get moving north. Although there was a prediction of strong NW winds and large swells we decided that things seemed benign enough to take a chance and start our long trip north into the Sea of Cortez for the spring. We figured that we could always stop at the anchorage in Tenacatita if the weather turned poor which was only 35 miles north of Manzanillo. By the time we reached the anchorage at Tenacatita the wind was building and the swells were getting large and nasty and since we were beating into the weather we decided to spend the night on anchor and head out the next morning and hopefully be able to make a straight shot to Mazatlan which was about 285 miles from the anchorage. We headed out of Tenacatita early on Thursday morning but we soon figured out that making a straight shot to Mazatlan was not going to happen on this day as both the wind and swells were getting even worse than the day before. We ended up tucking into Chamela which is another protected anchorage approx. 30 miles north of Tenacatita. There were quite a few boats there waiting out the weather for a chance to round Cabo Corrientes which is about 70 miles north of the anchorage at Chamela. It was nice to tuck into this protected anchorage but by about midnight the swell inside the anchorage got ugly enough to make sleep almost impossible. We had been told there would be good weather on Friday but not until later in the day. We decided to take a chance and leave first thing in the morning (7:15 am) figuring it could not be much worse than the anchorage had become and for a change we were right. The swells out in the ocean had flattened down and the wind stayed in the 10-15 knot range the entire day. We made the decision to go ahead and make a straight shot to Mazatlan rather than to stop at one of the many anchorages along the way. We passed Cabo Corrientes at approx. 5:00 PM on Wednesday and started to head off shore to make a straight line to Mazatlan. Unfortunately during the evening the motor started running hot and at about 5:00 AM the heat alarm went off so everything was shut down while Mark tried to figure out what the problem was. At this point we were approx. 125 miles from Cabo Corrientes and 125 miles from Mazatlan (basically the middle of nowhere). Within two hours Mark and figured out the problem (a clogged heat exchanger) and we were back on our way. The passage although extremely long could not have been better as far as weather was concerned. We motor sailed the entire distance averaging 6.5 to 7.5 knots and made it into the anchorage at old Mazatlan harbor just at dark on Saturday evening, approximately 36 hours after we left the last anchorage at Chamela.

The only thing that really stands out on this passage (other than breaking down) was that there were literally thousands of turtles out on the ocean. It actually got tricky trying to avoid hitting them there were so many. I spent much of my time snapping photos of them which provided for some entertainment on our long slow trek.

We plan to spend a few days here in Mazatlan waiting for a weather window to head across the Sea of Cortez which will probably be sometime mid week. We are really anxious to get back to the clear water in the Sea and look forward to spending the spring exploring places we have not yet seen.