And That's a Wrap

The final sailing post of the season is always a hard one to find time to write. We spend our last weeks trying to squeeze every drop of fun and sun out of our time, and then when we get back to Guaymas we rush to get the boat put up for storage so we can get back home. Once we are home there are plenty of chores and projects to keep busy. Now that we have been home for over a week I figured that I better just sit down and write some of the things I wanted to write about before they slip into my memories and become harder to recall.

In our last communication we were leaving Jaltemba to head back to Mazatlan. We stayed long enough in Mazatlan to celebrate my birthday before waiting on our weather window to continue north. For my birthday celebration we planned an overnight in a hotel so Lily could rest in the air conditioning, allowing us to enjoy a nice dinner out at Topolo and the entertainment of the opera at the beautiful Angela Peralta Theater.

At the restaurant they started us off by making fresh salsa at the table with the spicyness to our specifications—she got it just right, not too hot and a good amount of garlic. The food was excellent, but most notable was the Mexican coffee drink that we ordered after dinner. Wow! It was not just a drink, it was a show. So I have to share it with you. First The waiter brings his cart to the table then begins warming the drink glass with fire.

He added sugar then cinnamon which lent a very nice flavor in the end.

When adding the alcohols he continued with the flames. While this was remarkable our inner alcoholics were thinking that he was burning off all the alcohol!

The finished product was not only beautiful, but it was also very tasty! (And in case you are wondering there was plenty of alcohol left in the drink.)

The opera was actually 2 different operas in one night and, the theater made a perfect venue. Jim has been to an opera before, but it was my first. We both enjoyed it, however, it was a very late night for a couple of old sailors—we were ready to go back to our room for sleep by the end!

Another notable event happened while in Mazatlan during a stroll through Machado Plaza. We saw a military band get out of a bus, so we followed them to see what the event might be. They headed to the same theater where we had seen the opera. Upon closer inspection, they were very young—perhaps a military school or ROTC type group? Anyway, while they were organizing to enter for their event we noticed one of the young men had a Cara Cara, so I struck up a conversation with him. This nice boy even asked if I wanted to hold the bird, which I did (of course). It was pretty cool. I am glad for my skin’s sake that he let me wear his glove, but it was pretty hot and sweaty inside of it.

When we left Mazatlan for the long sail to Topolobampo, we enjoyed a beautiful sky for sunset.

The calm seas made for comfortable motoring through the moonlit night when the winds died.

One of the things we enjoy about going to some of the same places at different times is how conditions and sea-life can be so different from week to week. This time at one of our favorite anchorages outside of Topolobampo we saw lots of beautiful bright blue jellyfish. As hot as it was we were getting into the water frequently to cool off, so we took turns—one of us being on jelly-fish look out while the other was in the water.

Have I mentioned how much we love Topolobampo? It is so peaceful and beautiful there. We are always amazed why more cruisers don’t go, but also kind of happy about having the place to ourselves. Enjoy some beautiful sky.

We were content in Topolobampo and had a really nice daily routine. We would get up early to dingy to the beach for a nice walk. Though I was more comfortable on the calm side (ever the worried mom that Lily would get herself into trouble in the larger waves and current), we would usually visit both sides—the calm bay we anchored in as well as the beach across the sand spit open to the sea. After a few hours we would swim a bit to cool down and try to be back to our boat before 8AM when it starts getting hot. You can see here in the picture how narrow the sand gets separating the bay from the sea making it possible to quickly visit both sides.

Most days our walks would disturb the local herons out hunting for breakfast…sorry birds.

Here we are anchored in the bay. Do you see Lily? She loves that she can be so far out into the water and still touch bottom in many places.

All she wants to do since she caught her own fish in the surf a few years ago is get in the water and hunt. Mostly what she pulls out is trash 😕 , but it does not deter her. If it doesn’t fight back, she just lets it go. There are lots of blue crabs here in the water and on the beach. She isn’t interested in the hermit crabs (they don't move fast enough for her I guess),

 but the blue crabs often catch her attention. They are way too fast for her though. They either swim away or quickly bury themselves in the sand. One time Lily stuck her head underwater for so long trying to get one that was burying itself that I though for sure it must be holding her under—I know, ridiculous, but I never knew she could hold her breath for so long.

On the sand there is another kind of crab that Lily loves to chase. These little red guys pinch back, but it doesn’t stop her.

And yes that is me screaming as she chases it my way…

Another amazing thing that we happened to see by being here at just the right time, was a hatch of these beach crabs. These baby crabs were smaller that my pinky nail but collectively made the ground look like it was moving in waves as we walked through. It was incredible. And look at how big these baby’s main claws are compared to their bodies (remember the whole thing is smaller than my pinky nail).

In the mornings when we arrived at the beach it was low tide. There were always lots of these scattered across the sand. (I think it would make a great poo emoji.)

We think it was evidence of some kind of shellfish. So Jim spent one morning trying to dig one up—to no avail. He got deep enough to feel the tunnel over a foot deep, but never reached the source of this “beach art”.

While those two were busy trying to dig up some kind of clam, I enjoyed the solitude of a walk on the beach.

Some days Jim would try his luck at fishing. I’m not sure why he doesn’t try his luck at more catching, but it’s his time to spend. We both buy fishing licenses each season in Mexico even though I do not fish. By law if there is fishing gear on the boat, everyone on the boat must have a license. This season it cost about $130 for both of us. Jim caught one fish this season. Let me present you the most expensive fish I ever cooked for him (it was a tasty breakfast).

Just as we were finding our enjoyable daily routine, another hatch happened—the dreaded no-see-ums! In spite of burning mosquito coils in the boat each morning while we were at the beach and keeping all the screens closed, we were both getting eaten alive. I had hundreds of bites over every exposed skin surface. No-see-um bites are like mosquito bites only they don’t swell up as much (they typically turn into little blisters), and they itch for a much longer period of time. Since we were starting to run low on food and water we decided to stop trying to fight them and just make the final long sail home. Here is our final sunset and our final moonrise at sea for this season.

In retrospect we had a very good season with no major problems, breakdowns, or failures. That is a good thing, and it made the extra time in the boatyard this year worthwhile. It was a more solitary season than usual. Starting so late we didn’t run into many people or make many new friends on the water. But that was okay…there’s always next season.

I’m not sure if we will remember this season as being the season of the jellyfish (as we saw so many in Mazatlan and in Topolobampo), or the season of the naked sailors—insert record scratch sound here—what?! Yes, to those of you who plodded through reading this far here is a bonus story if you will. It never got included in my other posts this season, but several places we encountered boats with naked sailors. The first one was at Agua Verde on the Baja side. There was a huge catamaran anchored in front of us when we went to anchor. I said to Jim (mostly as a joke), “hey, is that guy naked or wearing flesh-colored trunks?” A little later after we were anchored Jim got out the binoculars and out of the blue says to me, “nope, it’s a naked guy”.  It seemed a little odd mainly because everyone else on the boat had clothes on. But the most notable naked sailors were while anchored at Isla Isabella where there was a sailboat with young naked couple on board (I suppose, aesthetically speaking, naked sailing should be a sport for the young). We learned a good lesson in skin protection from these folks who only came out before 10AM and after 4PM. And while we are on the subject, why is it that the fallback stance for a naked man is feet in a wide stance with hands on the hips? (I know you were hoping for a photo or two here, but you can stop scrolling--no bonus footage of naked sailors!)

While we may occasionally enjoy a dip in the sea “au natural”, I don’t think there is any danger for us becoming naked sailors—there are just too many moving parts and too much that could go wrong.

I hope you enjoyed our sailing season as much as we did. Thanks for reading!