The Vortex Voyage: February 2012

Monday, February 27, 2012

La Cruz

Sunday, February 19, 2012

We are now in La Cruz, 15 minutes from Puerto Vallarta. It's a beautiful small mexican town. We just came back from a farmer's market in the marina vicinity. A great market with local foods and cultural products.

As for the trip here it was quite the experience. Our captain that we became friends with was helping a boat go from La Cruz to Guymuas, a place north of Mazatlan. The captain (Marc) would then get dropped off at our boat on the way to Guymuas and take our boat back down to La Cruz. On the way north to Guymuas this guy's boat breaks down in San Blas about halfway between La Cruz and Mazatlan. They still came to Mazatlan and spoke to us about taking our boat and us down to La Cruz. Marc's friend Steve decided to take our car and look for parts in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta we thought we were doing him a favour. Steve's girlfriend said she would crew on our boat for free. The night before we left we got into a huge argument with Marc, Steve and his girlfriend Isabelle. We were going to call the whole thing off until Steve threatened to do something bad to us if we didn't proceed as planned. This was taken seriously and we followed the plan. We started on the journey south and hit some rough weather. We finally made it to San Blas where Steve was waiting for his girlfriend. We took our dinghy to San Blas' beach, locked it up and left for the town of San Blas (cute festive town). Later we came back at night to find we had no light to see the combination on the padlock that locked our dinghy. We thought we were in trouble with lots of noseams biting us. Minutes later a motorcycle came by with someone holding a light thankfully and we were able to unlock the padlock. We put the dinghy in the water and found out the motor wouldn't start. We problably paddled about an hour before getting to our boat. Later That night a gale storm went by blowing winds up to 35 miles per hour. The boat was rocking during the storm furiously. The next day we left San Blas and 2 hours later our boat was having engine problems as one of the belts broke to the generator requiring us to turn around and head back to San Blas.
The next day we were talking to people who entered the anchorage in San Blas and said we missed a squall, so thankfully we turned back when we did or we would have been in it. That day to La Cruz was some great smooth sailing. We arrived at the marina and lots of people greeted us. The office thought we were come kind of celebrities. They didn't realize it was people we got to know from other marina's in Mexico.

The day after, we get a bill from Steve for driving our car down to La Cruz. We told him we wouldn't pay for that. He charged us for a 2 day trip (which should have only been 1 day by car) and expenses. He freaked out on us yelling and screaming. We both thought Steve was going to hit Neil, thankfully Marc was there so he pulled back. He then started screaming at Marc the person who helped with his boat for free. Beware of Steve Arnold on the boat "Go For Broke". Apparently he had bad dealings with other people in town. His girlfriend Isabelle also yelled at Marc because she wanted money for crewing on the boat even though she said she would do it for free. We ended up paying for Steve's and Isabelle's expenses but that wasn't even enough. Steve went on the vhf radio and started bad talking about Marc and us so all the cruiser's could hear. We also found out that the car needed some serious work done on it. The coolant container had a leak, the car was overheating and other stuff. It was an adventurous trip to say the least.
Good news is that Steve and Isabelle are gone from La Cruz because Steve found the part he needed and is now on his way to Guymuas.

Here are some videos of Mazatlan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCMhLyCWiHQ&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8pGGwdePXk&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggTwIz5h-ZQ&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JADMhwTEYk4&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-nHYp7tmc&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlUi9D6bYEM&feature=youtube_gdata

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

February in Mazatlan

We've really been enjoying it here. There are tons of Canadians living here so we have great company.

The water here is different. Sometimes, at night, the water is lumiscent. It glows when its disturbed, and if you use a hose, you can make what looks like a laser show on the water. Neil stuck his hand in and it glowed when he pulled it out. We're told its some sort of algae. We saw turquiose, but we're told it changes colour too!

Lots of fish in the marina. The other day we thought it was raining (hard!!), like a big cloud burst, but we couldn't see any sign of rain from below deck, so we went up top for a look. Turns out all the noise was from fish jumping in the water. Yeah, there were tons of them!!

There is a fishing charter or two that go out deep sea fishing every day. They almost always return with a marlin or two or even three.

We have a few visitors with us at the moment. Some fellow cruisers, that ran into some engine problems on their way north. We're helping them get parts and then will probably sail with them (3 additional people) down to La Cruz. We'll let you know when we move again.

In the meantime, here are some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk8yDqsQ3_0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0zWMjYovFc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO40GtrA1aY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zj60vaAxQE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lwG4CLPg1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M0dmmVa6rk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLXbsWdwyyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOlVXZ2eqOs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wEpGv2oUH0