Mazatlan and Bob Marley

By Aaron

We departed Ensenada de los Muertos at 0330 to cross the Sea of Cortez bound for Mazatlan.  We were hoping to arrive before nightfall the following day.  Fortunately the wind was a steady 17-22 knots on the beam with waves on the port quarter allowing us to occasionally do a bit of surfing.  Seeing our speed hit 7.4 knots is a rare event for us when there’s no current helping out. 

A nice beam reach the whole way

We ended up making the 196 mile crossing in 32 hours. 

Sunrise during Nicole’s watch

W e arrived in Mazatlan in the morning and dodged some fishing nets heading for the anchorage at Stone Island.  The fishing nets are a long line type, marked with a black flag at one end (one hopes) and a milk just or some such thing on the other end.  They’re quite long and if you cut between the two markers you’re likely to end up going for a swim.  Friends on SV Ventured experienced this first hand and we thank them for the warning. 

Want to see a picture of the world’s highest lighthouse?  Well you’ll have to Google it because this is the world’s second highest lighthouse. 

What a difference a day makes… With a single hop we’ve traded in cacti for palm trees, and it’s amazing how much more green it is on the mainland side. 

Beach view from the anchorage

We went to shore to grab some lunch and do a little sightseeing.  A dog greeted us on the beach as we pulled the dinghy up.

We were pretty hungry and Benji’s Pizza was right there so we decided to grab a table.  Benji’s also offers some cruiser-friendly services like garbage disposal and fresh water.  Also we’re pretty sure they’ll deliver pizza out to the boat if you ask.

Benji’s Pizza

The sign out around back, complete with an anatomically correct surfing donkey.  I do love beer camping! 

This is Nic.  A really nice guy to talk to.  Well, Nicole did all the talking since the conversation was in Spanish.  Nicole asked what the dog that greeted us was named…  The dog’s name is Bob Marley.

Our favorite!  Vegetarian pizza but add pepperoni.  The cook came out to confirm. 

Bob Marley stayed politely off to the side while we ate.  I hooked him up with a couple pieces of pepperoni though. 

After lunch we decided to head into town and look around Old Mazatlan for a bit.  Nic showed us to where the pangas ferry people across the channel to the main harbor.  The ride was much cheaper than the water taxis in Cabo and only set us back 50 pesos for the two of us to make a round trip.

We made a point of visiting the beautiful Catedral Basilica de la Inmaculada Concepcion

Nicole and Coca-Cola wish you a merry Christmas

Hey Hon, a baby donkey!  You better pet that.

We went to the Mercado Central… it had everything there!

The market had vast amounts of beef and pork bits

After spending the afternoon walking around town we decided to head back over to the anchorage and hike to the top of Isla de los Chivos.  Why?  Because there are goats there.

Isla de los Chivos is the one on the left

Bob Marley was waiting for us when we got back and joined us for the hike up the mountain

Looking north out over the commercial harbor

We found the goats about half way up.  I wanted to get closer but there were some mean looking ones with big horns.

I went down to take the goat picture.  Nicole had to stay and hold back Bob Marley since he was really interested in going after the goats.  His English sucks so it was hard to convince him that it would be a bad idea.

Bella Star at anchor

I got to the very tippy top where I had a staredown with some kind of vulture.  Nicole had to stay back again, because as unafraid of angry goats as Bob Marley is, he was even less afraid of sheer 300’ cliffs.  That dog had no problem going right to the edge to sniff the breeze, scaring the bejeezus out of us.

I gave Bob Marley a little scratch or three before we headed back to the boat.  Seems like he’s got it pretty good.  We do too.