Mazatlan to San Blas\Mantachan Bay - 2012

Late November early December 2012.Anchored in Matanchen Bay

Avoid shrimp boats! We must have seen a dozen about ten miles out.

We had to get off our course (route) a few times to avoid them.

 

Avoid the rock at the point, OK 😬 we did.This rock was not on our chart plotter!

This is when we decided to start using "The Guard Zone" at night on the Garmin radar.

 

A 128 nm trip from Mazatlán to Matanchen Bay (San Blas, Nayarit) which had one overnight passage.

Our autopilot was out so we hand steered the whole way 😵.

 

Here it was time to set up the dingy. Used our electric pump and it worked great.
Later we found that we really did not need the electric pump. The foot pump does just fine. We do not blow it up very often. Once inflated it stays that way all crusiing season.

 

 s\v Elegant'sea

 s\v Elegant'sea

 s\v Elegant'sea

OK all fired up lets go!

 

Oogachaka - a Ha Ha boat.

 

Oogachaka a couple years later went on the Pacific Puddle Jump.

 San Blas square.

 San Blas we had heard about a  lot before going cruising. It has a small marina we chose not to go to because of the bugs and the fact that it is a marina. The town itself is about ten blocks and OK. It is not on their beach but a river. It is a drive to the beach which is Matanchen Bay where we anchored.

Yesterday we dinghied in then walked down a dirt road to Mantanchen, the town.

We are out there 😟

 

 

Restaurants along the shore of Matanchen Bay.

 

First time use of dinghy wheels, they really work

 but not going across a small sand bar would help.

 

We locked our dinghy to a big pole. The 25' life line cable Chris made up for us at Downwind Marine sure comes in handy. 

The food always seems to be good.

 

Matanchen Bay.it's the life man. Chip, Rob and Ken.

On the right is Elizabeth and to the far left is Brian from Autumn Wind a Catalina 34.

 

Matanchen Bay.

Burning cocanut husks to help keep the no-see-ums away.

Works but the smoke will get ya.

 

Five Baja Ha Ha couples, we were all playing Mexican Dominoes.

 

Ken and Patty on Oogachaka are on far left. A Baja Ha Ha power boat.

Nancy of Shindig standing up.

 

Rob middle left of s\v Shindig an Oyster 48 Baja Ha Ha boat....heck they all were there!

 

Just another great sunset.

We are anchored in Mantachen Bay. They make good banana bread there and have a Corona distributor there. There we went to the bus stop and waited with three locals for the bus. A cab came by and they flagged it, asked if we would join them so we jumped in. A good ride to San Blas it was and then we went to the square. It was lively and interesting. We walked around enjoying the goings on and all the locals. 

 We decide to look for a restaurant with WiFi that is in the Pacific Mexico Guide pg 53 and 56 the Wala Wala restaurant. We eventually found it. On the way we almost went to the marina for a look see and to say hi to a couple Elizabeth and Brian on Autumn Wind that had just left Mantachen Bay to stay there a couple days. We decided it was just too hot. We made it about 80 percent of the way. Oh well so we went to the restaurant. As it turns out the WiFi was broke so we had some food and had some good conversation with the owner.
 There is a good jungle tour here at San Blas, Nayarit  but we are not touristy types so we skipped it.

San Blas, Nayarit square.

 We went back to the square and had some good ice cream. Sat around and enjoyed the sights. We also walked around and to the library on the Estero el Pozo (the river San Blas is on and marina is on).

We sat on a bench and saw two young lovers on another bench a bit away. They were making out and so we decide to show them how a couple pros can do it and we made out for a bit. That was nice.

 We did walk down a lot of side streets and got some good vegetables from a street vender. I also got some street tacos from a street vender but am not sure what I asked for, they could have been sausage. It was red meat of some kind and spicy. Not bad but not what I was looking for.

 Today we are relaxing and getting ready for a short four hour sail to Chacala pg 60 Pacific Mexico guide.

Mantachan Bay.

The water is warm, the sunsets are great and if you can get up for them the sun rises are great also. I have not seen one since this last passage though as we are not getting up for them.

Today we tried to listen the Baja net on the ICOM802 SSB, it is at 8 PST time so not too early. We did not get good reception. We met some new people on a new boat in the bay named Steve. He said he gets it great and so I think we should too. We will try again or may have. It depends when we send this email.

A few of the boats in the bay have left and a couple new ones have arrived and one of them has left. At this time there are three boats and none use or have used any generators or had dogs barking. Nice and quiet. You can hear the waves breaking on the beach but I think I have said that before, and here it goes again...you can hear the waves a breaking on the beach!