24th March LEAVING LA PAZ – FINALLY!!!
(Pictures to follow)

And no slur, La Paz is the kind of place where people make a stop-over and never leave and it is easy to see why, but we were anxious to start making our way south and made our third, and final passage, through the San Lorenzo channel which is a mile wide with reef and shallows either side, and completely unmarked. A recent hurricane took care of the old one’s and they’ve never been replaced – Cmap at this point made itself useful – thanks Sully!! Having cleared the channel and set our sails and our course south for Bahia de Los Muertos we were immediately drawn back to the channel as a Mayday went out from a sail boat going into La Paz that had hit the reef and lost their rudder. We took the call and turned back as first responders, but thankfully a boat heading into La Paz also turned around and offered to take the tow in order that we could continue south – we had finally left La Paz! The passage to Los Muertos was awful. The wind died rapidly but a large and uncomfortable swell stayed with us for the entire passage. Engine on once more – that is of course until it stopped!! We bled the engine and anchored in the bay at 2300 hours. Our friends Kurt and Agatha on Maverick where laying at anchor awaiting our arrival to sail in company with us across the Sea of Cortez to the Mexican mainland and Mazatlan.

26th March 2007

0730 hours we engined out of Muertos along with Maverick – no wind – uncomfortable swell – it’s our mantra! To cut a long, boring and tedious story short, apart from 8 hours sailing in the late afternoon/early evening, we engined the rest of the way, arriving at 0930 on the 28th, having engined for 34.5 hours, and amazingly the engine ran the entire time – steady – too soon to feel confident!

During the passage to Mazatlan it became evident that our poor old ‘Denis’ (our windvane steering) required emergency surgery. This we had anticipated prior to leaving the UK and had a full service kit on board. Why Denis? When my Dad died he left us (his children) a small sum each, and Paul and I decided that we would spend it on a windvane for our previous boat ‘Dreamcatcher.’ For the non-sailors among you, the windvane is your extra crew member. He doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t eat and he doesn’t winge, he just steers your boat uncomplainingly while ever there is wind – in short, he is vital. However, we never did buy the wind)vane for Dreamcatcher as our plans changed, she was sold and we bought Aphrodite – our current boat, and Aphrodite came complete with a windvane. As some of you will know, most sailors have a name for their ‘invisible crew’ so Paul agreed that we could still call him Denis, in memory of Dad, but it is, and was always meant to be, an acronym for Definitely Essential Nautical InStrument! (and yes, I know most Dennis’s are spelt with two ss’s, but my Dad’s was just the one!)

So, having arrived, Denis was de-mounted from the stern and surgery commenced. It soon became evident however that we would need an engineering shop with a hydraulic press to remove a couple of parts. We gathered information and finally found a shop, half an hour before it closed for NINE days for the Easter holidays! There was no point leaving without the service as this was perhaps the last place we could get this done for some time. So, in the meantime we decided that it would also be a good time/place to fit boom gallows to our main and mizzen which thus far had swung around madly, usually with one of us clinging on to it as we tried to reef or drop one or the other. Having drawn up our requirements we ordered the steel (pre-fabricated_ and the wood, which Paul shaped and got we got on with the installation (NOTE: For ‘we’ read Paul) got on with the installation while awaiting the opening of the engineering shop. Once the parts were pressed out by Changs on Calle Pesqueira – from the harbour take the Sabalo Centro bus get off at the Fisherman’s Monument on the Malecon, walk one block north then turn right – keep walking along the road until you come to an orange building, which is Changs. We removed all the old bearings and bits and restored Denis to full working order – a bit like hip and knee replacement with some extra work on the elbows and neck joints thrown in!

We loved Mazatlan, the harbour was handy for everything – either a 15 minute stroll into the old town, or a 5 minute walk to the bus stop. The harbour doesn’t do diesel. While we were there we had time to re-acquaint ourselves with Greg and Nancy off Festima Lente, and Michelle, Bernie, Lola and Jana off MoMo. (Nancy is the lady that allocated us our slip in the marina at Chula Vista). We also had an evening at the theatre with Greg and Nancy, the Sinaloa Symphony played Sherezade. It was lovely, excellent orchestra and the first culture we’ve had outside of a yoghurt since leaving the UK!!!

Well, time presses on along with the need to head south and so on the 19th April we left Mazatlan, heading towards Puerto Vallarta (200 miles) It’s presently 1800 hours, we have the cruising shute up (drifter for non UK readers) and are pottering along at around 5 to 6 knots, with our invaluable Denis steering and very much looking forward to our reunion with Paul and Lynne on Pincoya, an English couple we met in Chula Vista, San Diego, and last saw in Ensenada at Christmas.