March 8, 2013,  Mazatlan Old Harbor to Marina Mazatlan

This is the day that we leave the Old Harbor of Mazatlan.  We have been here a month and it is time to go.  Before we head south we are going up to the other end of town, the Golden Zone, to one of the new marinas to have the sticky thru hull cleaned.  We will be tied to a dock with  showers and electricity and running water next to a hotel with a  hot tub, but it is hard to leave here.  Everyone has been so friendly and helpful.  We have tried almost all of the taco stands but there are still a few that we never got to.  The night watchman had a cheery “buenas noches” when we come in late at night after dinner in town.  The guys along the street all give us a smile when we walk by.  The fishing boats and pongas wave as they go by.  The 20 minute walk into town has become very familiar.  I know just where all the stray cats hang out and which ones are friendly enough to let me scratch their ears for a minute.

 So we are up early to run through the check list and move out.  Little by little, we get everything shipshape although we seem to be moving very slowly.  We take the dingy ashore to check out from Club Nautico and tell Bill that we were leaving his mooring.  Drop off a last load of trash and several bags of stuff that we have decided we don’t need.  Back on board, we hoist the dingy on board, fold it flat and lash it down.  Everything is finally ready about noon.  Alan called the marina earlier and was told that 2:00 would be the best time to enter the harbor.  That would be slack tide and the dredging machine would be on a lunch break.  It is about 10 miles up the coast so the timing is just right.

Out of the harbor there was a light breeze, just enough to raise the main.  Since we have not run the engine for a month, we left it on to charge the battery as we sailed up the coast.  Gradually the shore line changes from little houses perched on the hills to large hotels lining the beach.  Almost before we know it, we are there.  We try to raise the marina on the radio to let them know we are coming in but can not get an answer.  Eventually Alan calls on the phone.  Still no answer.  They must be our to lunch.  It is almost 2:00 so we decide to just head on in.  The harbor mouth is very narrow between 2 breakwaters and faces directly out to sea so that the swell runs straight in.  Just inside it makes a sharp turn to the right so we cannot see if there is anything in the way.  It is also very shallow.  Carefully, carefully we move on in, watching the depth gage, 2.8, 2.6, 2.5, 2.1, 1.8, finally at 1.1 it begins to climb again.  The depth reads in fathoms and a fathom is 6 feet.  Rhapsody is about 6 feet deep so I get very nervous any time the depth gage shows less that 2.  This was the worst we have had but we were in.  Just around the corner we come across the dredger parked along the side while the guys have lunch.  Still no answer on the radio but we had our slip number so we kept going.  then, just as we spotted where we thought our slip should be we realized that there were 3 men there waving us in.  Alan executed a very neat u turn, since the wind had suddenly come up and was against us, we tossed out the lines and we were in.

With much writing in notebooks and comparing of notes and numbers, we were checked in and told to report to the office after 3 when everyone would be back from lunch.  So here we are, surrounded by tall condos.  The docks are about half full and most of the boats are from Canada or the northwest.  Everyone speaks english.  It almost feels like we are back in the US.  I am so glad that we did not come here first and so sorry for those cruisers who only come here and never experience the funky joy of the old harbor downtown.  We will get the work done, take advantage of the laundramat and showers, see if we can find the hot tub, hit the Walmart, Home Depot and Mega store and hopefully be out of here in less than a week.