Off to Hawaii

OK soooo...Week 4 has started with us running!
We never heard back from the boats in the old port about wind vanes (a way to automatically steer the boat) and eventually we took the bus down to find that everyone (along with their wind vanes) had left! Shock! Horror!

Ray at Mazatlan Yachts showed us a wind vane on a boat that has been abandoned for 15 years and we started negotiating with the authorities to buy it, but they backed out of the deal after a few days.

So we started the checkout process on Thursday morning. We were checked for animals and bugs and given a clean inspection by the authorities. We now have all our paperwork in order, all our food stowed and we are ready to go.

We leave tomorrow (Friday May 1) for Hilo bay, Hawaii. It is 2700 nautical miles. Averaging 4 knots gets us there in 28 days. Averaging 5 knots (ha!) would get us there in 22 days. We have enough food and water to last more than 60 days. So we are planning for about 30 days. If it takes more than 40 days, it may be time to begin worrying.

The weather looks beautiful all the way to hawaii with 15-20 knots of wind from the East and NorthEast along our general course. Check out passageweather.com for a pretty view of the wind on the way to Hawaii.

We'll update you all when we get to Hawaii!

Bellow is a picture of a diver at the Mazatlan Aquarium and all I could think is that he looks like he is being beamed up to the Star Ship Enterprise. yes?no?

Mazatlan, Week 3!

Ok.....so we are still here but we are making progress with getting the boat ready. We moved back to Marina Mazatlan last week to have our engine looked over. The engine is in good condition so we are getting some maintenance done to keep it that way. For this to be done we have moved over to Singilar Marina which charges us in Pesos (Marina Mazatlan charges us in U.S $) and as such we are able to save 12$ a night.

On Saturday Dalia climbed up to the mazatlan lighthouse which is the second highest naturally elevated lighthouse in the world. Our friends Pam and Joe on Sea Escape joined the climb up. It was a really cool view of Mazatlan! In other news we got a sim card for our phone (because calling cards are so difficult to find) and Justin gave Dalia a hair cut.


the view from the top of the lighthouse.

Week 3 is just starting so we will write more as the week develops!

All righty...more has happened. We got our injectors removed and they are being serviced, tested the holding tank, fixed the sink in the head and a couple of odd little jobs. Our hand held GPS died, a couple of days of research and announcements on the Morning cruisers Net provided us with a cheap replacement. The crew on Ocean Blue II provided us with a free SSB receiver which unfortunately broke down :( but we recovered quickly when Justin went out and bought one (for double the cost in Canada). Still in search of a hank on storm jib and now a self steering wind vane. We have a lead on 2 possible candidates in the old harbour however cost and time for instillation will be deciding factors..stay tuned for more on the self steering wind vane!

Last Friday, Steady Beat organised the Friday Night Raft up where we met Pamela on Precious Metal, the crew on Rutea, Sole Mate and old friends on Aquarius, Sea Escape and Escapade. It was a fun evening that ended with a 4 dinghy raft motoring back to the marina (lots of water pouring into our Ghetto Duck!).

Pamela came to visit Steady Beat on Sunday evening to have a look at the boat and give us advice on the crossing to Hawaii. 20 years ago, Pamela did a crossing with her husband and children from Victoria to Hawaii and onto New Zealand. Since then she was running a charter service from her home town Port Hardy on Vancouver Islands north tip and she had much advice and recommendations for us about sailing to Hawaii and in and around BC. We feel inspired and really excited about getting up north and doing some cruising up there. But first lets get there;)

We hung out a lot during our week with Jim and his friend Marty aboard Escapade going to the pool, out for dinner and some boat projects. The biggest was when Justin decided to finally change our almost useless Engine Kill switch. Jim and Marty came to help with the project and then we all raced over to Precious Metal for cocktails...it was a fun and late night!


We were sad to find out one morning that Bob from "Bobs Marine Mart" had passed away. Before we left Mazatlan he had helped us find many things for our boat, offered us lots of advice, took care of all the cats and was a pleasure to talk to. We will miss him.

Currently "Total Yacht Works" is on board adjusting the cylinder valves, they brought us our injectors yesterday and apparently our alternator is not far behind. Justin feels that all the projects on the boat are done and I am just organising the meal plane and the provision list. Tomorrow its off to the Aquarium and next week is week 4! and hopefully by Week 5 we will be underway for HAWAII!



All Dalias hair after her hair cut

raft of sea lions on our way from the old harbour to Marina Mazatlan

Mazatlan Week 2

Mazatlan is turning out to be a longer stop than anticipated. We spent 10 days in the Marina where Justin worked on getting the boat ready to take to Hawaii and I spent 120$ on Chiropractic care for my back! I am happy to say that I no longer have back pain so it was worth it! Justin, poor guy, is feeling 10 days of hard work in the hot sun. We managed to seal all the leaks in our portholes (there were a few), build storm covers, stoppers for the dory vents, get our alternator looked at, etc....all in all it was very productive! The boat is near ready to sail off to Hawaii.

We moved to Stone Island for Easter weekend, which is one of the biggest holidays in Mexico. Children get two weeks off from school and most families head to the beach for two weeks. 400,000 people came to Mazatlan last week and Stone Island was full of partying Mexicans. There were a dozen banana boats around us (I thought of you Jade) and many kayakers came to inspect the boat. On Sunday arvo we moved to the old harbour, which is located right in the old town of Mazatlan. We are currently looking for a 3d crew mate, a storm sail, a single side ban radio (to receive radio info) and a couple of other small boat stuff.

We talked to many people during our time in the Marina about crossing over to Hawaii. Opinions and experience vary but we have decided that it will probably be our number 1 choice to get the boat back north. It looks like May-June is the best time to cross to Hawaii and August to get back to the continent.

More news to come in the next few days.......and I promise I will get organised with photos!!!

Photos are of: Sealing the ports, Slacker Kitty on Dock 6 and Justin getting a hair cut by Louis the barber.

La Cruz and north to Mazatlan

So we spent a week in La Cruz enjoying the cheap marina fees, the movies (I had to see Confessions of a shopaholic), Domino's pizza and the company of our friends on Follow You, Follow Me who were waiting for the arrival of their last crew member before sailing off to the South Pacific Ocean.


Allan, Rena, Dalia and Justin

We sailed up to Dalia's favorite beach town,Chacala, on Tuesday morning where we met up with Lovely Reta and Meerkat for a hike up the hill to see some goats and lots of boogie boarding at the beach. After 4 days at Chacala we left at sunset to do an overnight passage to Isla Isabel.




Heather, Debby, John and Justin overlooking Bahia Chacala

We arrived at Isla Isabel at 9 in the morning on Dalia's champagne birthday (she turned 28 on March 28th), finally found an spot to anchor and made english muffins for breakfast. We napped and enjoyed the sunset. Justin did the dishes (as a gift to Dalia on her special day), made a wonderful chocolate cake and yummy pizza for dinner. This was the most low key Birthday Dalia has had since her 18th.....but on the other hand it was the most exotic birthday since her sweet 16th in Budapest and Prague. Not many people can say that they celebrated their champagne birthday on their honeymoon with whales and blue footed boobies off a island in Mexico....it was memorable.

Champagne Birthday!

We left Isla Isabel in the morning of the 31st of March and arrived at Marina Mazatlan in time for the morning cruisers net on April fools day. Right now we are researching the crossing to Hawaii and preparing the boat for such a crossing. Not a lot to be done, a few minor fix up things to be done before we sail for Baja and on to the Sea of Cortez and eventually for Hawaii. We have discussed the crossing with a couple of other cruisers and we are getting psyched for such an adventure. More to come in the next few days.....



Spotted Seagull eggs

Spotted Seagull chick (lower right corner)

Blue footed Booby checking out Steady Beat at Isla Isabella.