S/V Mandolin Chacala to San Blas: 4/4/99

Chacala - 4/4/99

Sunday night (Easter) was one that we just wanted to get through. The music on the beach was loud enough until 3am to require earplugs if any sleep was to be had. During the night the swell picked up causing Mandolin to tug sharply at her anchors. We had set a stern anchor and a bow anchor to keep her pointed into the swell for comfort. As our motion became more erratic I made the bad decision to tighten up the anchor rode in hopes that it would keep us more lined up with the swell. Ellen gets the "awareness award" of the evening for being the first one up when the motion of the boat changed as we went beam to the swells. As soon as we were both on deck it was obvious something had broke loose. Ellen pulled in on the stern line until she came up with a frayed end in her hand. We were relieved that our bow anchor had not let go since we would have been too close to the beach on our stern anchor alone. Since there was no danger and little we could do about the situation we went back to sleep.

The project of the morning was to get out the Scuba gear and try to retrieve our anchor. After diving the whole morning in near zero visibility I finally found the chain and was able to retie the stern rode around it. After following the chain I was surprised that the anchor wasn't visible. Digging eight inches into firm sand I was just able to touch the shank of our 25 pound Danforth stern anchor. The rest was even further down. I was no longer surprised that the rode broke since this anchor wasn't going anywhere but deeper into the sand.

After all the exercise we rowed the dingy to shore near the port captain's office and walked around town a bit. A palapa restaurant on the beach with hammocks looked great for a large jarra (pitcher) of orange juice. The hammocks made for a nice place to nap and listen to the surf. One of the owners told us how to get to the volcano at the south end of town which we hiked the following day.

We must not have understood the directions as we ended up walking (make that trail blazing) through the jungle strait up the side of the volcano until we hit a road almost at the top. Once at the top we could look down into the large caldera of this extinct volcano. We took the easy way down by road and trails now that we had found them.

Since it was still early in the day we weighed the anchors and set sail for San Blas some 18 miles to the north of us. With 10 to 12 knots of wind we had a fabulous sail to windward. A large pod of dolphins passed us on the way. Just after sunset we dropped anchor in Mantechen bay just to the SW of San Blas. The swells were even worse in this anchorage but we decided to just use a single anchor and flopper stoppers which worked out fine.

San Blas - 4/7/99

We waited until 3:00pm for the high tide before coming through the breakwater at San Blas. The same swells that we had experienced in the anchorage were also breaking across the breakwater which made us nervous. After putting up our mainsail and installing all the hatch boards we started watching the sets of waves before coming in. During a lull we motored towards the breakwater as fast as we could. As we entered it was obvious our timing was off as we watched one wave crash in front of us then the next crash right into the back of the boat. Water sprayed everywhere and was sloshing around our feet while I fought to keep the boat from turning sideways in the surf. After carrying us in quite a ways the wave finally passed under us. Now across the bar and with weak knees Ellen and I looked at one another happy that we made it and surprised at how bad things got. We realized that we should have spent more time outside the bar timing our entry and watching the situation. In retrospect we would have moved in closer before making our run for it, allowed us to get across before the next set of waves caught up with us.

Once inside the estuary we anchored near our friends Earl and Francie aboard La Zarder who are part of our yacht club. They left Oregon the same day as us two years ago and we haven't seen them since. It was great to catch up with them. We had dinner in town with some other cruisers at Lupe's restaurant. Wonderful inexpensive food.

San Blas is a small untouristy town where we finally get a respite from the constant pestering to buy something or just give out money. Among it's attractions are a visit to the old fort that overlooks town and the Jungle boat ride to the crocodile farm. We walked to the fort on Thursday and enjoyed the remains of the old church and buildings. The view showed us the whole town and surrounding areas including the estuary in which Mandolin was anchored. Saturday we were awake at 0530 to meet with the folks from the motor vessel "Incognito" for the jungle boat ride. After a walk across town we were able to get on one of the first pangas(outboard powered open boat) to leave in the morning. This was key since much of the wildlife had not yet been scared off by other boats. We were able to see cormorants, owls, boat-bill herons, green backed herons, cattle egrits, crocodiles and turtles. After traveling along this waterway for over two hours we arrived at a crocodile farm where many larger crocodiles can be seen, some that are over 100 years old. The return trip was fast paced and we saw more boats than we did wildlife. Having reprovisioned, we are now ready for our passage north towards Mazatlan.

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