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The broadcast message we sent before Christmas didn't get to everyone, so I am sending it again. E-mail is more difficult and less reliable in Mexico than in the U.S. The Internet access place is not convenient to us so I have been calling long distance to IBM's number in Guadalajara. I couldn't get it to work at all and spent a hour on the phone to them. Turns out their SLIP account doesn't work as advertised, so he gave me a PPP account phone number which works better. Still, many messages were returned undelivered, so it's not as good as I would like. Let's hope this one gets out. As a general rule, please don't send us large attached files, video cartoons, pictures, etc. unless we have requested them. It just takes too long to download them. Sometimes the connection breaks in the middle and I have to redial and set it up again. It's hard to find a place that will let you do this. The time limit is five minutes and other people are waiting. We are enjoying Mazatlan very much and will definitely stay here until at least the middle of February. The bus service is excellent and costs 24 cents a ride. The only problem is figuring out where each bus goes, as there are no bus maps. I'm going to ride each one to the end of the line and back to see if I can figure it out. There is much to see and do here and the city is friendly and safe. We'll give you more news in a future e-mail. Thanks to all of you who sent us Christmas wishes, we hope you also had a good holiday. We had get-togethers with other cruisers and a potluck Christmas dinner. On New Years Eve 150 cruisers will take over a local restaurant on the beach for a big party. Should be fun. Here is the previous message for those that didn't get it: A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. We will miss friends and family, but Patricia will be back in Seattle sometime in February and will be able to have a delayed "Christmas" then. We finally got a short weather window and got out of Cabo. When a high pressure area gets stalled up in Colorado and Utah and there is a low pressure region off California, winds rush down the Santa Ana river valley between the mountains causing Santa Ana conditions. This same high also rushes down the Colorado river valley and into the Gulf of California, also called the Sea of Cortez, towards the permanent low at the Equator. This usually lasts about three or four days, but this time it was more than a week with a forecast of another system developing two days later. There were 50 knot winds and 15 foot seas and all the ports were closed. That means that the Port Captain will not sign you exit papers to leave and you must have those when you check in at the next port. We didn't like Cabo much. Ten years ago it was a fishing village with dirt streets and one hotel. Now it is a huge tourist town with many luxury hotels, condos, Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Cafe, Dominos Pizza and all the other junk food places. Most things are pretty expensive, which isn't surprising since everything comes in by air or is trucked 800 miles from the border. Everywhere you go street vendors are trying to sell you anything from a condo to "silver" jewelry. The inner harbor has no anchorage, just moorage for the commercial sports fishing boats and a huge private marina. The rate for us would have been $45 per night, not quite in the budget. However, after four nights rolling in the bay outside the harbor we couldn't take in any more and came into a marina that was under construction. They said we could only stay if we had a problem so, since all cruising boats have some kind of problem, we could honestly say we did have one and needed to get it fixed. Lots of boats did get turned away, so we were lucky. The facilities were minimal, no water or electricity at the dock. The showers were cold when there was water and dark when the electricity wasn't working, but it was much better than being out in the bay, especially when the big storm hit. The boats at anchor were dragging and taking water into their cockpits as they rolled, so we filled the marina up with sailboats and the Port Captain gave permission to anchor in the inner harbor. We had quite an exciting morning squeezing as many boats as possible in and getting them tied up in the high winds. The next day, Sunday, was calmer, so we all had a big potluck and invited the marina staff. Our friends Sarah and Darrell on Mavourneen, a Whitby 42, arrived from Bahia Santa Maria on Tuesday morning. They had had a rough time since leaving San Diego. They broke their rudder shaft 50 miles south of Ensanada and struggled back under jury rig to Ensanada, where they had it repaired. They missed the weather window to go south and got caught in some high winds and big seas. We were so glad to see them safely in Cabo. In the afternoon we anchored again in the bay and rolled uncomfortably until both boats left at 2:00 a.m. It was a beautiful clear night with a full moon, but little wind. At 11:00 a.m. the wind picked up out of the north and we had a beam reach towards Mazatlan. Within a couple of hours we had 14 knots, a reef in the main and the #1 genoa, reaching at better than 7 knots. Although the wind abated in the evening, we still had wind all night and didn't have to motor sail until after dawn. It was really nice to buddy boat with Mavourneen and we chatted frequently on the VHF as we sailed along. At a watch change in the small hours of the morning Patricia had an orange and left one for me. As I peeled it in the dark, she went to get some sleep. It felt funny, so I looked at it under the light and it was spoilt, so I threw it overboard. At the next watch change Patricia woke up and was violently sick. Luckily, we were only four hours from Mazatlan, so I was able to let her rest until we got to the dock. She was feeling better, but very weak. We were met by friends who were already there and they took our lines. We made it by 10:00 a.m., 200 nautical miles in 32 hours, a great passage except for the food poisoning. I was very glad I didn't eat my orange and get sick as well. Mavourneen came in behind us and in the evening we all, except Patricia, went out to celebrate our reunion. Patricia pretty much slept until the next morning. When she got up she said she felt wonderful and was fully recovered. Welcome news indeed. So here we are at the Marina El Cid in Mazatlan. The marina is part of the El Cid Mega Resort, luxury personified. There are two huge hotels about a mile apart, one on the beach and one with the marina, and a golf course in between. There is a free shuttle from one to another and they both have two swimming pools each. The marina has free cable TV at each slip, you just have to get a coax cable to get CNN, HBO, etc right on the boat. There are hot showers and a laundry where a lady does it all for you for $2.00 a load, washed, dried and folded. You can get a good meal at a local restaurant for $5, usually with a free beer or margarita thrown in. Happy hour is two drinks for the price of one and lasts all day! I know, it's a tough life but we'll persevere. We have signed up for a month and may extend it for another. Everyone we have talked to just loves Mazatlan. The marina is at the north end of the Zona Dorado, Gold Zone, where all the tourist stuff is. The main city, including the commercial harbor and the old town, are a few miles south. There is an excellent bus service all over the city for 25 cents a ride. We will make our first exploration tomorrow. Well, that's about it for now. Happy holidays, wish you were here. Colin & Patricia Shannon-Garvey |
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