Happy Birthday, Benito Juarez

Leaving the fuel dock in Puerto
Escondido - compliments of our
friends on True North

This year the birthday celebration takes place on Monday March 18^th. As a guest here, we do our best to be aware of holidays, as many places in Mazatlán (and frankly everywhere in Mexico), will be closed to honor and celebrate the birth of Benito Juarez. He is considered the most popular Mexican president of the 19th century. Juárez was called Benemérito de las Américas ("Meritorious of America"), a recognition he received due to his triumphs in the French intervention and in favor of the freedom and independence of Mexico. He is the only individual whose birthday (21 March) is celebrated as a national public and patriotic holiday in Mexico. A great abundance of cities, streets, institutions, and other locations are named in his honor throughout the country. [information courtesy of the Mexican Government @ https://www.gob.mx/sep/articulos/conmemoramos-el-natalicio-del-expresidente-de-mexico-benito-juarez]

on a mooring ball- Puerto Escondido

So, from this lead in, you’ll ascertain that we made it from Guaymas to Mazatlán over the last month! We’ve traversed more than 530 nautical miles, crossing from the mainland to Baja on February 13 and celebrating Valentine’s Day en route to Puerto Escondido. On this overnight journey, I had the waxing crescent moon to illuminate from behind for a few hours before the orange ‘smile’ melted into the blackness of the sea. Oh so magical!

2nd night sunset & crescent moon

Leaving Bahia de los Muertos @5pm

Cool sunset cloud action on Day 2

Marina Cortez, La Paz. Red arrow points to 
our 'tiny boat' among the Big Boys

In Puerto Escondido, we met up with friends there and spent a few glorious days of companionship, fine weather, killer sunsets, hiking, and enjoying the amenities of the Marina at Puerto Escondido and the charming town of Loreto, a rental car ride away from the marina. The big deal was that we’d escaped the Guaymas dock (!) and continue to be thankful every day for the blessings and opportunities that come our way as we explore Mexico.

A week later – and weather permitting – we headed south to meet up with friends in Los Gatos. They’d been patiently waiting for us as we had boat issues then weather delays for many days before departing Guaymas. The Northers are strong during winter months and heavily impact travel options as you traverse the Sea of Cortez.

We’ve been buddy boating with our Guaymas buds since Los Gatos, bumping along to enjoy various anchorages on our way south, ending up for almost two weeks in La Paz - for a variety of reasons. Whilst in La Paz, we thankfully had some great times with long-time sailing friends, along with some amazing meals and fun margarita outings. The sad boat remnants of the October hurricane are still raw there and remind us of the power of Mother Nature.

Squid on board!

Exiting the La Paz bay to align with high tide so we moved out with the flow, we stopped at Bonanza on Espiritu Santo and Bahia de Los Muertos further south to prepare us for the 190-mile crossing. At about 5 NM per hour, we crossed from Baja to Mazatlán in 41 hours. “Two sleeps” later, with calm seas, extremely light winds and motor sailing the entire way, illuminated briefly by another waxing moon, we arrived at the harbor entrance into Mazatlán. 

As sometimes happens during the night, the little squid jump up and land on our deck. We had quite a suicidal crowd of them on Day 2 early AM.

We planned our departure carefully to arrive at high tide so we could experience a mild passage into the harbor. Our last experience was extremely dicey, so we scheduled accordingly! Aside from the large dredge that greets you at the entrance, along with speeding pangas and party trimarans with music blaring exiting the marina, we made a smooth entrance into the busy harbor, sidling into a lovely slip at Marina Mazatlán.

Tecno Diesel - Carlos & staff

Mike removed 4 injectors from our Perkins 4154 engine and we took them to Tecno Diesel. This is their modest and busy little shop. Carlos will come to Pura Vida tomorrow (post holiday) to work on the engine with Mike.

I hiked to the local fuel station to refill our 20 liter jerry cans with diesel, one at a time, 7 runs.  Started at 7am so it was cooler and less traffic. There was a little taco cart that was rocking with business non-stop down the road from the Arco station, so I just had to stop to pick up tacos for

breakfast. It's a common breakfast here. Tasty b'fast.

Marina Mazatlan at sunset

I’ll say again how thrilled we are to be here, as our last journey to Pacific mainland coast was 2016! Looking back at our ship’s log – realizing, that’s eons ago. But in the intervening years as I’ve mentioned before, our health, work, and various boat projects (oh, and Covid) kept us from making it this far.

In the coming weeks, our next destinations include the town of El Quelite by taxi with Pancho (where they make Los Osuna tequila), Mexico City by plane and sailing down to Puerto Vallarta and other points along the Pacific coast.

Restaurante 1535 @ Bahia de los Muertos
- fish burrito, enchiladas, margaritas!

Happy campers before crossing to the mainland

This is the engine head- result of Mike spending
'quality time' in the engine room