Wednesday January 19, 2011 Mazatlan

A wise woman told me to forget the last 9 months and just post, so that is what I am going to do.  Play catch up as I go.  So, Evergreen and crew are in Mazatlan.  We spent the first week at Marina
Mazatlan and are now at the dock at the Singlar Marina undergoing repairs to our engine.  We have had a chronic overheating problem which we decided to have checked out prior to leaving for the South Pacific.  Total Yacht Works came highly recommended, so here we are.  Turns out that we have a leaky head gasket.  Took about a week to confirm the diagnosis after testing the exhaust manifold, pulling the head and sending it to the machine shop.... So, then it was going to take 10 days to get the part.  Well, Dennis decided that was not acceptable and ordered the parts himself.  They are currently in San Diego, where they will transported across the border and put on a plane to Mazatlan.  The parts are in a race with our French Polynesia Visas coming via DHL.  Their ETA is Thursday.  So we will see what gets here first. In the meantime there are always projects to do on the boat. We were without our engine when we moved from Marina Mazatlan to Singlar, so used our dinghy to move us to the new slip.  We had help from Patrick and Jack from "Just a Minute", Doug and Carla from "Moondance" (who have first hand experience with this procedure) and Robert from the boat next to us.  It was an uneventful move.

Josh is enjoying Mazatlan, getting lots of kid time in.  He has two friends at El Cid, so we rarely see him after school work is done.  He will be sorry to leave here.  School is going pretty well.  I found him a book on WWII which he really enjoys reading.  Math continues to be the most challenging subject, he does well with it, just doesn't like it.

As usual with cruising, there is lots of opportunity for socializing.  Could easily get in the way of boat projects if Dennis would let it :) !   We have been following football - unusual for us, except that the Packers are doing well.  There is a sports bar in town called Yoopers that broadcasts in English and has a good happy hour....We also enjoyed going to the old section of town with Doug and Carla from s/v Moondance.  It is very pretty.

It has been pretty cool temperature wise - lows in the 40s and highs only in the 70s.  Very different from our experience last winter.  Is good for doing projects and sleeping.  I have no real desire to get wet though.
The following are some essays Josh wrote about some of his experiences.


Spearfishing


by Joshua Morrison 1/2011

One day while my dad and I were at the anchorage of Agua Verde we decided to go spearfishing. I had just gotten a new speargun and was anxious to try it out. There was a large pinnacle rocck out in the middle of the bay that looked promising. When we got to the rock it was kind of murky but it was not bad. We circumnavigated the rock and saw some nice parrotfish but they were too deep and swam away. After awiele we decded to move to a rocky area on shore. Once we got in the water my dad caught a parrotfish about half an hour in. The thought of my dad having a better fish than me triggered my competitive nature. With my competitive side going I caught a bigger parrotfish less than 5 minutes afterwards. We were done after that and went back to the boat, cleaned off and cleaned the fish. My dad cooked the fish and it turned out very good. That was a good beginning to spearfishing in Mexico.

The Crossing from Muetos to Mazatlan

by Josh Morrison 1/11/11

My mom, my dad and I left La Paz for Muertos which is 58 miles, so a long day for us on our boat. We got into Muertos late at night, ate dinner and went to bed. We left early in the morning to go to Mazatlan, what a short night! Mazatlan is 190 miles from Muertos so we did an overnighter. An overnighter is when we go all night; we take shifts so one person is watching the boat and two sleep. The weather was uncomfortable but there was lots of weine, so we went fast. It was our first overnighter since we got back to the boat from our summer break in the states. The entrance to the marina at Mazatlan was kind of difficult because there were breaking waves it it. My Dad had to time whent we went in. Once we were in the slip and setled I went boogie boarding with my friend Jack. After boogine boarding we went to the hot tub at the marina and hung out. What a good end to a hard couple of days.

Essays by Joshua Morrison

Crocodiles of La Manzanilla


One of the days when my aunt and uncle were visiting with us we went to La Manzanilla to see the crocodiles. We got to the first place where you could see the crocodiles and we got out of the car that Larry’s (my uncle) brother drove us around in. We walked up to where you could see the crocodiles. I noticed that at some places there was no fence and you were just on a raised surface. Everybody was a little freaked, besides my parents, they had been there before. It was definitely a first for me in the respect that I had never been so close to crocodiles that big. I wanted to get some food for them from a place that sells fish for that very reason but mom said later.

We then went over to the north end of the pond where you could see the crocodiles. Even though they were farther away than the (sort of) fenced place there was nothing stopping them from walking right out to the heavily populated beach. It was a huge risk and we all thought “Never see anything like that in the States”. We sat down at a palapa restaurant and had refreshments. Since I was so psyched to feed the crocs we went got some whole fish (when my parents were here last there was only parts of the fish). The crocs weren’t really excited for fish at all but it was still cool seeing them lazily eat the fish. When we ran out of fish we got in the car and went back to the hotel.

It was a dark and stormy night
It was another beautiful day in the Barra de Navidad/Melaque area. The weather had been perfect, not too hot, not too cold with a nice afternoon breeze. It was great weather for my aunt and uncle visiting from New Mexico. We spent the day exploring Melaque and La Manzanilla. It was fun to feed the crocodiles and watch them lazily try and find the fish. We stayed that night with my aunt and uncle at their hotel instead of going back to the boat. The next day it was raining and that is quite unusual for that area. The next morning we bid my aunt and uncle goodbye, and headed over to the Barra lagoon. We took a panga in to the mother boat to find that she was wet because we had left some hatches open. Also to my mother’s horror we picked up a mouse somehow. That afternoon was filled with mopping up the boat and more rain.

Later that evening we were watching Mission Impossible III (good movie) and we started hearing thunder and seeing the outside get a lot brighter. We went outside and gazed in amazement at the incredible display of thunder and lightning. I felt sorry for the people in Tenacatita, a couple miles north of Barra, it looked like they were getting some of the lightning right above them. We eventually went in to finish our movie and I went off to bed. I didn’t go to sleep because I was a little freaked when it started raining and blowing so much it made the boat heel. I got out of bed to see that my parents were already securing items and my dad started the engine. My dad steered the boat so it stayed pointed into the wind to avoid the wind catching our side and using it as a sail to make us heel. My mom and I looked for any boats that might be dragging. I stood up in the back of the boat when it started to die down and commented that I should go get my shampoo and take a shower. After the ordeal I thought, ”it’s my mom’s fault for the wind” because she said earlier that “We’re in a calm anchorage” while she held up glass wine glasses. When we started heeling, they were on the side of the counter and just slid off the counter onto the floor, SMASH! PIECES!! . I blamed my dad for the rain because he ordered some drinking water from the store so Mother Nature said “OH!!! I’ll give YOU water!!” and that’s how we got rain.

Racing in the Banderas Bay Regatta by Joshua Morrison

When we were in Chamela on the way back up to the Sea of Cortez we were invited to go over to s/v Gato Go for dinner and a movie. Since it was a bouncy anchorage we didn’t put the motor on the dinghy and just rowed over to GatoGo. GatoGo is a big Kenner 43 foot catamaran, that’s a boat with two hulls instead of one, so it’s a big boat. When we got to their boat my mom started making dinner with Craig and Bruce the two guys onboard. While we were eating dinner Craig asked if we wanted to crew with them for the Banderas Bay Regatta and we said “Sure, why not”. When we got to La Cruz they gave us some papers that we would need to get into the party and so we could be crew. So for the kickoff party they did some folk dancing at Paradise Village (a very very expensive hotel resort) and I was thinking “I’m glad I brought my computer if this is going to go on for a while”. We met up with Craig, Bruce, and the other crew that they had, Tom and John. Then the party kind of dispersed to the yacht club and/or any of the restaurants around. We went back to our boat to sleep and get ready to go back in the morning for practice sailing on Gato Go. The next day we got to the marina at Paradise Village with Tom and John then set out for a practice sail. For the first part we practiced our start and got a bearing on where everybody was going to be and who would do what. After scaring ourselves half to death with how close the boats got we went out into the bay and practiced using the screecher (a big sail that’s kind of like a spinnaker). After practice we went in to go eat and go home.

The next day began the races, for the start of racing there was a parade of boats out the channel doing all kinds of stuff; we dressed up in various costumes. For the start instead of having 55 boats start all at once which would lead to sunken boats they had six classes leaving at different times. The slower boats did shorter courses than the faster boats. The course for that day was a lot of upwind sailing and catamarans don’t go upwind very well. We just tried to go as fast as we could on the upwind so we could catch up on the downwind. Of course that never really happened but we had fun getting almost last place. After the race, we hung out in the pool at Paradise Village and had dinner at another restaurant then went home. The second day we were happy because it was a course with supposedly not much upwind and a lot of angles good for catamarans. Although we didn’t finish we still had fun. We all got a little mad at one boat that completely didn’t go around one of the marks. The last day of racing was the same course as the first day so we knew we weren’t going to do very well. To make sure we didn’t finish the wind died right when we were headed up to the last mark. The committee boat gave us an offer to turn around and not go around the last mark and they would give us the points for last. The other option was that we could try and finish, so we took their offer and turned around. Not even five minutes after we turned around the wind picked up so fast that I had gone downstairs for a little bit and when I came back up it was windy! We were saying “couldn’t it die down and pick back up after we finished”. So we just went in with last place and the awards ceremony was next. I’ve been to enough things like that to know it’s going to take twice as long as they intended to. After dinner, I decided to see if any of the little kids wanted to go to the pool because they might have been bored, but none of them wanted to. So I ended up walking around and went to the boat and played on my computer for a while until everyone got back from the awards ceremony. Gato Go is so big they had two extra staterooms to spare so we spent the night on their boat.

On Sunday, instead of taking a taxi we went over to La Cruz with Gato Go. We had fun getting into the marina from their boat in the anchorage because it was very windy which made the water choppy. It was fun racing on Gato Go in the Banderas Bay Regatta. That is all the racing we’re going to do for a while. We won’t do any with our boat ever.

April Fools'

Well, here we are in La Cruz - the trip around Cabo Corrientes was definitely not flat.  It was probably the most exhuasting watch I have had in recent memory.  It was windy (15-20+knots) and bouncy and of course we were heading right into it.  To add to it, there were 6 targets on the radar all night long.  At about midnight as I came on watch s/vGatoGo passed us by, then Persistence and several others.  Throw some big ships in the mix and it felt like the sailing version of the 580 on a holiday weekend!  We made it in to La Cruz by mid afternoon, the sailing was fine as soon as we rounded the corner.  Seems like just about everybody we have ever met sailing was here or has come since. It has been interesting watching the boats we know complete their preparations for the puddle jump and take off.  I have decided that I am glad that we are not doing the jump this year, but am definitely taking notes!! The last of the puddle jumping kid boats that Josh hangs with (s/v Totem and Capaz) are leaving tonight.  The kids are cramming as much video game time in as they can, we'll probably have to pry the controllers out of their little hands....Tomorrow will be a quiet day for Josh, but today our boat looks like the "Evergreen home for video game addicted boys".  I am way outnumbered

WHY WE ARE STILL IN LA CRUZ

We will be here well into next week due to a dead fresh water pump for the engine.  It was not rebuildable and not one to be found here, so we are flying a new one from San Diego via Tiajuana on Monday. Thankfully we discovered this issue here and not under weigh - that would have been no fun.  For an engine that is 27 years old with as many hours as it has, it really has not had too many issues, and we have bascially had no problems since La Paz. And as Dave from s/v ExitStrategy reminded me today - Cruising is all about doing boat maintenance in exotic places.  La Cruz is also very comfortable -especially when you are in the Marina, which we are.  The town and people are friendly, the kids can run around safely, the food is good, there are big stores close by to provision from and it is great fun to socialize.  So what's not to like?  The only downside is that when we finally do leave we will have to go to the Sea of Cortez more directly than we had planned - not necessarily a bad thing, just another lesson in flexibility.

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT MEXICAN TOURIST VISAS

When we arrived in Cabo San Lucas last November, we were issued Visas good for 180 days.  Back then, it seemed like an awfully long time, and I didn't do the math.  As it turns out, our Visas expire on May 7.  Our haul out date in San Carlos is May 15th. HHMMMM!  Well, we had heard that you could get a 30 day extension, and the internet talked about extensions. So Kevin (s/v Albatross) and I decided that since we were here, we would go to the airport in Puerto Vallarta and see about getting extensions for our families.  Quite the adventure it turned out to be and in the end, no extension for the visas.  Four hours, 3 immigration offices, 1 port captain, 1 marina and lots of bus time were all we had to show for our efforts.  I polled some of the more experienced cruisers the next day and found that yes, sometimes if you're livning right, the moon and stars are lined up and the person in the office is in the right frame of mind, you might get an extension.  Try Mazatlan..... And the consensus is that as long as you are not flying out, no one looks at the tourist visa anyway.  The general suggestion was to not worry about it, and if we get caught play dumb and pay the fine.  More on that later.....

A Perfect Day

So, you might think that every day is perfect in the life of a cruiser, and generally speaking that is so.  However, some days are just more perfect than others and yesterday was one of those. We had a leisurely start and after a good breakfast, we left Tenacatita around 10:00 am.  It was sunny but not hot.  The forcast was for 10-15 knots of wind from the north/northwest - in other words right on our nose.  However it was blowing from the south -way cool.  We put up all the sails and actually sailed out of the bay.  Josh and Dennis put the fishing lines out and less than an hour into our sail to Chamela - we had a fish on the line!!! Josh pulled in what we finally decided was an Amber Jack - sadly not so good eating.   While we messed around with the fish, s/v Gato Go (a 44 foot Catamaran) sailed past and took the picture for this blog.  With fishing lines back out (with instructions to catch dorado or sierra) we continued north. As we settled onto our tack to Chamela - Dennis mentioned to Josh that we would go faster with the spinnaker up - so up it went - smoothly, no problems, just up and out.  The seas were a little mixed, so the ride was just rough enough to make lunch seem like a good thing to put off.  We had been lazing in the cockpit for about an hour so it was roughly 1230 when - whirrrrrrrr!  A  hit on one of the lines!!  Josh had just gotten to it, and the other line went out too.  Well, slowing down under sail is not the easiest, especially the when flying the spinnaker, but we did the best we could.  While Josh reeled in his line, Dennis reeled in the second line, but the fish had let go of that one.  Josh pulled in a good sized sierra - good boy!  We had just gotten it situated, dragging on a line behind us, when the other line got a hit - another good sized sierra!!! We ran around re-situating ourselves to bring a fish on board.  I brought the first one that was dragging behind us in, Dennis exchanged it on the line for the second one, and there we were- looking forward to fish for dinner.  We pulled into Chamela around 4pm.  Gato Go had made it in ahead of us, but went to look at the anchorage at the islands.  Was a no go for them in the islands, so we made plans to meet at their boat for dinner.  It was a great evening of food and fun. Craig showed me how to make ceviche with part of the sierra, it was great and I hope I am able to duplicate it.  Bruce made pizza on the grill, what a treat.  Then we grilled up the rest of the sierra.  With a tossed salad it was a wonderful meal.  We watched Julie and Julia, and just when you think life is perfect, Craig pulls his pineapple upside down cake from the oven.  Oh my gosh our stomachs had died and gone to heaven!!!  As Josh and Dennis paddled us home in the dinghy, we noticed the bioluminesence in the water was working overtime.  It was like fairy dust in the water - even the fish were glowing.  What a way to end the perfect day.

We are leaving today for La Cruz, we are hoping the Cabo Corrientes forecast is accurrate and we have a flat ride in......

Just in case you think the Morrison's have given up adventures, or how to really use Charlie's Charts

We are using Charlie's charts as our cruising guide, and have had no real issues with the info in it. I guess there is another slightly more current guide, but we don't have it.  Anyway, we left Z town and Josh didn't want to do a "get up before the buttcrack of dawn" overnighter.  So we decided to head to Lazaro Cardenas. It would give us one medium day and a short overnighter into Manzanillo.  Figured even though it looked icky, the anchorage would be well protected for an overnight stay. We arrived about 3:30p, had to move out of the way of a container ship, the port control called asking what we intended, I told them we were headed to the first northeast anchorage for the night. Seemed a little weird, as nowhere else has cared one way or the other. Then the very nice gentleman asked if it was an emergency? Getting weirder, but I replied no, we were not having an emergency. All this is going on as we are taking down the main (in the only wind we had all day I might add), with very long pauses in betweeen. Then we went on to anchor in this small lagoon - with the nastiest water we have seen to date. The port control guy comes back and asks all the usual port captain questions, hailing port, number of people on the boat, last and next port etc.. again with many pauses. We finally had the anchor set, I had heard nothing from the port guy for the last 15 minutes or so, so we got on with relaxing, making dinner etc....About 5:30 a harbor patrol type boat arrives and the fun truly began. After much back and forth, we finally understood that he wanted us to move, and that we would have to go to the harbor master the next day to get "the paper stamped". At one point we asked if we could just leave - but oh no, once you are there you have to get "the paper stamped". We were getting nervous about running out of daylight, so we pulled up anchor and headed up the river to the place they wanted us to anchor. Unfortunately the drawbridge was down, and when I called to have them open it, it was broken (you could see sparks from the welder they were using on it)....I was starting to freak out and again asked if we could just leave... but our little friend was adamant that "the papers had to be filled out". So there we were anchored in the channel, barely enough room to swing with the current. Definitely a bad scene, hard to see too, cuz it got dark. We had decided to make the best of it  I had resigned myself to a sleepless night on deck to make sure nothing hit us.  Next thing you know, our little paper stamping cog in the  bureacratic wheel came back and said the Navy would come inspect us, then we could leave and not deal with the papers the next day. So, the Navy came - very nice man with a big gun, black soled boots and no english to speak of...Took copies of the papers I had, and took pictures of the boat. We're thinking cool, let's eat and blow this joint....Not so quick missy. Senor Navy returns and wants to take pictures inside the boat. Well what are we to say but "sure come on in".... He took a picture of each room, the fuel tanks, the TV, the electrical panel, no rhyme or reason really. Finally about 8:15 we were set to go - which we did. No letting the proverbial door hit us in the stern as they say. Dodged a container ship on its way out, 2 tugs and a container ship coming in.  I really have never been so happy to leave a safe anchorage in my life!  Sailed thru the night to Maruata. Met up with another boat there that said - Yeah boats aren't allowed to go there unless there is an emergency....Now we find out. Guess that's the downside of old guidebooks.....But, I guess any Morrison adventure you walk away from unscathed is a good adventure.. Right?????

March 8, 2010

Well, it is hard to believe that I don't manage to find time to update our blog any more frequently than I do.  Wish I had a good excuse, but I really don't.  But let's catch up any way.

We had a great time in Tenacatita - even if we did manage to flip the dinghy.  Thankfully the only permanent damage was to our egos.....  Between kid boats, good snorkeling, spear fishing, the jungle tour and La Manzanilla with its smart crocodiles we had a great time.  Before we knew it, it. was time to leave for Barra De Navidad/Melaque to meet up with Dennis' sister Corinne and her husband Larry.  The calmest anchorage is in the Lagoon at Barra De Navidad, so that is where we parked.  It's a crazy little anchorage - very shallow with not much room to err.  We had waypoints to put into our navigation software, so that helped.  The day we arrived the ocean swell was quite high and it was pretty trippy surfing the waves into the channel.  We made it to the fuel dock - we had to use our jerry jug spares to get us from Tenacatita- and into the anchorage without mishap.  Pretty disconcerting to park the 6'2" draft boat in less than 9' of water!!! (picture above of Barra Lagoon, below right Corinne, Carol & Larry)

Corinne and Larry came in on January 28th. We met them at the airport, cuz gee, that's an exciting thing for us these days.  We took them out sailing the next day - guess they won't be joining us for any long crossings....they were troopers about it, but both of them had trouble with the motion.  We came back into the bay and anchored for the afternoon in Melaque.  Dennis, in true brotherly form, took them out to learn to snorkel.  You would think that he would be past the whole torturing his sister thing, but I guess not.  I'm thinking that by the time they gave up and came to the bar on the beach it was way past "miller time". 
Fortunately in Mexico the sun is always over the yard arm, the beer is cheap and the Margaritas are yummy!!

Larry's brother and his wife joined the party on Saturday - it was nice to reconnect with them (they live in Mexico City).  Sunday we all piled into Casey's car and headed back to La Manzanilla to see the smart crocodiles.  It really is amazing how well trained these big guys are.  You may note in the picture that they know to stay away from the yellow caution tape that bars their exit onto the beach.  I bet Florida wishes they knew how to train their crocodiles to stay behind the tape!!  They must have one or two that haven't learned to read yet, because there are signs at the beach restaurants close by warning you to keep your pets on a leash for their safety.....
The visit ended all too soon, they left here on February 2nd in the rain, and arrived home to snow. We hope that they will come visit us again next season.

Don't know if I have mentioned it before, but it is not supposed to rain here in the winter.  Doesn't seem to be following the rules this winter.  The night before Corinne and Larry left it rained like crazy, so when we returned to the boat the next day it was sopping wet.  To add to my dismay, at some point we managed to acquire a mouse.  Pickky little bugger too.  I think it tried a little of everything it could chew into.  Finally deciding he liked juice, pita chips and ritz crackers.  We searched high and low in Barra for a real mouse trap, but only came up with the sticky kind.  I'm pretty sure I heard little mouse laughing as he ran across those. (picture left is Josh with the monkey at The Sands Hotel searching for the banana in my pack)

We left Barra de Navidad for Manzanillo with our stowaway on board.  What a mess!  In Manzanillo we finally found real mouse traps, and the bartender at the Las Hades resort gave us some poison.  Between the traps and poison, we are hungry mouse less - I hope I don't come across his desicated body in the future. Met up with kid boats in Manzanillo, so stayed there a little longer than planned.  We also got to spend some time with Jim & Diana from gate 11.  s/v Black Dragon showed up from Zihuatenejo as well, so Josh really got a kid fix!  FYI the Las Hades resort area is where they film the movie "10" with Bo Derek.  Very pretty, sort of mediterranean looking.
Finally we had to leave so we would make it to Zihuatenejo in time to meet Sue and Anna (friends from Tracy).  We had a pretty good trip, the last 8 hours into Z town were pretty wild 20-25knots steady wtih on and off rain (did I mention it doesn't rain here in the winter?).  Zihuatenejo is a pretty town - easy to be in.  There is someone on the beach to help you land your dinghy for about 80 cents to a dollar, and the port captain is right there.  Sue and Anna made it in with no problems.  Had another great  visit.  Very relaxing.  Josh taught Anna to drive the dinghy.  He also pulled her behind the dinghy on the tube until I thought her arms might fall off.  We spent a day at an all-inclusive resort and another day on the beach.  Josh and Anna went parasailing too. Another visit that ended all too soon.  We didn't linger in Zihuatenejo after they left.  Basically provisioned and left.

(Above - Anna Parasailing, right - Sue relaxing, below Josh parasailing - self portrait.)

Arrived back in Barra lagoon on Monday and here we are......all caught up.