Ruminations of a Sailor: The moon and it’s splendid glory

Our dinghies resting at Alfonso's, Mantanchen Bay

We had the incredible opportunity of experiencing the solar eclipse - sitting on the stern of our boat - on April 8th in Mazatlan, Sinaloa. We bobbed happily in Marina Mazatlan and watched, with so many others, as the experience unfolded. It was awesome and breathtaking. The crowds and atmosphere were hushed in awe, well except for some joker on another boat playing Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. I guess they couldn’t help but break the beautiful silence. There for a moment after a few minutes, you get to thinking, boy I hope this darkness passes - because it’s on the cusp of a Sci-Fi movie.

While everyone is lauding the performance of the sun during the eclipse, I am thinking the moon should get some pretty top billing, too. In fact, the next night, as we left Mazatlan on our journey south through the night, the moon shone in its brief glory.

As the sun dropped into the dark blue sea, the tiniest crescent of moon appeared above the afterglow on the horizon and hung there, mostly in shadow except for a slice of bumpy white bottom. It was as if to say, I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve. If you thought yesterday was cool, check this out. And so I did and thought I was pretty darn lucky to have both experiences, so different from one day to the next.

Whilst I tried to take photos, a sloshing boat is not conducive to taking photos of the delicate moon phase. It was a very rough night for me. Seasick, doing my best to keep my 'shift' from 7 - midnight but alas, that was not to be. It became a tough night for both of us. For me, the sometimes cruel rock n roll of the sea; for Mike, the broken cadence of getting any sleep between my issues. Bottom line, we are still talking!

Can't show you the moon but the sunset was nice

I really have a thing about the moon. It’s a very important part of our boating lives with the monthly changes in nature, from tides to night brightness, to watching the waxing and waning as the days pass. And I just happen to like the mystery associated with it, as well.

Pool privileges at Marina Vallarta, Dock M

We are in Puerto Vallarta docked happily at Marina Vallarta and earlier this week, walked through the evening artisanal market along the malecon. Along with buying Oaxacan tamales and Venezuelan empanadas, there was plenty of stuff to admire, but it was a young lady selling botanical art that drew me in. Wearing floral jewelry, according to her, "harmonizes us and guides us towards well-being". Well, there you go. I am happy with my selection. The crescent moon is filled with lantana, a local flower sealed in resin.

Filling water jugs at Chacala

Yacca fruit at San Blas

At the dock Marina Vallarta

Since my last writing and this last moon cycle, we’ve covered a lot of nautical miles and plenty of miles walking:

El Quelite – taxi ride from Mazatlan with our friends, along with a stop near La Noria, where we had a fabulous tour and tasting at Los Osuna, distillery of tequila (in their words: Tequila in the Process, But Not from the Region – as true tequila is made from blue agave grown in the tequila “AVA”). Our bilingual guide was fabulous and informative.

Incredible natural history museum in CDMX

Mexico City – we had a most pleasant flight on Aero Mexico, where we spent 6 days exploring around the massive city based out of our nice Air BNB in Roma Sur. Mexico City (CDMX) is truly an overwhelming place! We went during Easter week as we’d learned from more than one Mexican that it’s the least crowded time in CDMX as the “locals” are off to the beaches. There’s still a ton of people and traffic and noise.

Following the eclipse, we left Mazatlan on April 9th and have sailed ~ 206 NM, via:

Great but buggy eve at the beach, Mantanchen

Mangrove and crocodile tour

Mantanchen Bay / San Blas – known for their unforgiving no see ums and banana bread, we did the Kiekari mangrove nature-filled boat ride and crocodile tour while Alonso watched our dinghies on shore. Alonso was the guy at the palapa bar and in his genuine effort to provide excellent customer service, drove Mike in his car to buy tequila since he only offered cerveza and Mike is allergic to beer. After the long ride to town and the local liquor shop, we felt like we needed to sit on the beach to enjoy that specially secured beverage, 30-30 brand reposado (not recommended). While we sat on the beach, Alonso burned extensive coconut husks and shells for us as the smoke reduces bug attacks. Regardless, Mike and I served as a very tasty dinner for those little bastards, and we’ve suffered the itchy, red welts for many, many days.

Guacamole & margs at Chacala

Chacala – where banda music fills the anchorage all night, and the expanse of beach and beach-front palapas are filled with visitors from all over.

La Cruz – a sleepy village that we have some history with from prior visits, but it has grown up dramatically since our last visit in 2016.

Puerto Vallarta – a bustling sprawling city that’s a 10-peso (~.59) bus ride from our marina. It’s such a delight with many offerings of color, food, entertainment, nature and so much to experience. We’re planning our zip line, horse / mule, and ATV ride for this week. We have a few more days before moving on to new adventures and are deciding our possible routes north. We’re still with our buddy boating friends who we’ve been with for several weeks. Since they are on a cat and we are on a heavy monohull, we travel at different paces.