Southward Bound

We set off the next day heading south. We stopped at Bahia Conception a spot we wanted to visit on the way north. It said the the guide book there were hot springs so in we hopped in the dinghy and headed ashore. Once we arrived at the sandy beach, which had no surf we found people wandering around in the water with plastics tubs in their hands. What were they up to, turns out they were claming. The one fellow would just drag his feet through the sand under water and find the clams and pretty soon he had dinner. HMMM.

We found the hot springs and soaked for a few minutes, they did not rival the ones in Tungsten, I tell you. There were murky once you walked in them, but nice and warm. Then we headed back to the dinghy and tried out hand a claming. We got enough for a nice appetizer.

A couple of days before Barry had caught a bonita when we were underway. We found out that you have to get the blood out of these fish in order to make them good eating. Barry cut the head off and we dragged it behind the boat for about an hour. We had two meals from the sea within a couple of day, bonita then clams. This is the life.

We kept heading further south and then on Wed. we were heading in the general direction of La Paz. It was blowing 20 t0 25 knots behind us so we decided not to go into this one channel that might have got pretty rough so we headed east. Once we were going that way Barry suggested that we just keep going and head for Mazatlan on the mainland, forget about La Paz, so away we went. 50 hours later we showed up in Maz. It was another great sail, wind on the quarter, making 6.5, 7 knots the whole way. It was a bit bumpy and my back and shoulders were aching from wresting with the equipment at those speeds. When you try and sleep and it is bumpy you are awakened as your body tries to not be thrown around the bed. You feel as if you are going to fall so you wake up all tensed up and realize that you are only going to go across the bed, not get thrown across the width of the boat, makes for very light sleeping.

Barry (this is true) suggested that we put up the spinnaker when the wind died slightly and all went well until we tried to get it down, SHIT (sorry Mom, but it was a mess)!! The sock would not come down and the sail was up there flailing around in the wind, with the lines that are attached to it whipping themselves into a frenzy, they hurt when they hip you. We finally unrolled some genoa and blanketed the spinnaker and were able to take it down. Barry swears it is never going to come out of the bag again. I will keep you posted.

While the shute was up I was just loving it. A group of porpoises showed up and we were charging along at 7 and 1/2 to 8 knots, throwing up quite a wave. I think those animals and I were one just powering through the waves, living life to the max and enjoying every second.

When we showed up in Mazatlan we had about 200 feet of fishing line trailing behind us. Thank goodness it didn't find our prop, we both agreed that we were very lucky. I pulled it in as we coasted down the channel and later Barry salvaged the hooks and leaders that were on the line.

We found a group of 2007 Bluewater sailers at our dock and 8 of us went out for dinner tonight. The ribs were delicious and the company was outstanding. We found out that Bruce (Barry's brother) and Marg and their family will be in Manzanillo between Christmas and New Years so we are planning to head south at a great rate in a few days. It will be nice to have some family close, we had no idea they were going to come.