April 6, Update

APRIL 6, 2008
How time flies. I can't believe I let this much time go by since making an input. I will try to catch up. I will also try to explain a few of our contact issues.
I last updated this page when we were about to go into Mazatlan. We had a great stop over there and stayed at the Mazatlan Marina. I would highly recommend this for cruisers looking to rest up for a while. A lot of Americans were here most of the cruisers were here waiting to go north into the Sea of Cortes for the summer. After 3 days here we again headed out. We are trying to get to Puerto Vallarta by Friday March 22.
Out of Mazatlan we made one stop at San Blas a little fishing village on the coast. Nothing of real note here except for the fact we took a jungle cruise. If you have seen one jungle you have seen them all. I did like the fact that on the way back our guide stopped and bought me some cervaza's for the return to the dock. Out of San Blas we sailed a little south to another bay where we overnighted and then headed into PV.
On our way to PV we would have got in earlier except I turned into the wrong entrance and missed the port entrance we were suppose to go to. All looks the same on the map. If you have been reading my notes and you are keeping track that is #2. Anyway we turned around and went 3 miles south to where we were suppose to be. It is Saturday the day before Easter and at the Marina no one is there. The rule is you take an open slip and wait till Monday and settle up. This is Easter weekend and the place is very crowded so we took the best place we could find. As my friend Dick Miller says, "if you are going to take someone's seat take the best you can find". Your probably way ahead of me on this, we got in tied the boat up and then the security guards came and told us we had to move. I really didn't want to move because this was really a great slip for us and the boat. After buying some time I ended up telling the guard I wanted to talk to his boss because I was told I had a reservation. He wanted no part in calling his boss over the weekend so he finally left us alone. My Spanish American is better than I thought.
A great time was had by all in PV. We met up with friends from Denver, Jeri Lynn and Jeff, who were there on business. On Monday my sister, Mary and B-I-L, Tom. came into town to spend the next week sailing with us to Manzanillo.
Mechanical problems are a fact of life on any boat especially one that is in salt water. Tuesday after Tom and Mary arrived I turned on the generator to charge the batteries and it would not stay running. I changed the fuel filter , checked the coolant, air filter, and basically everything you can do get it going. Nothing worked. I got with Paul on Pencoya to see what advice he might offer and both of us worked on it all day. He finally called a mechanic friend, Teacup, to take a look at it. He looked around opened the breaker box and found that a 10 cent piece of plastic had broke which caused the engine to fail. No substitute for experience. A 10 cent part added up to a bottle of Scotch for Paul and a hourly rate to Teacup for finding and fixing the problem.
Wednesday we are off for a a few stop overs and then into Manzanillo. Our first stop was Bahia de Ipala and very small village with a very small bay. Mistake on Captain Frank's part #3. We should have left and gone on down the coast. This anchorage was very rolly and there were other boats there so you didn't have room to maneuver. Short version of the stay here. we drug the anchor and went into some buoys with a bunch of rope tying them together, pulled up anchor to leave at 5am and got the prop caught in the ropes, deployed anchor again to keep us from going ashore , pulled anchor back aboard and had a fishing boat from village pull us out of harms way away from the rocks on shore, put dive gear on and went under boat to free prop and cut ropes. In this process somewhere we broke the windshield on the boat. We have had better nights.
That was enough excitement for this trip so with another stop and then into Bahia Navidad we seem to finally get into the flow. We stayed 2 nights at anchor in the lagoon and then moved to the Marina for 2 days. Very nice stay because we got to enjoy the amenities of the resort. This became one of our best stops to date.
After 2 days we came into Manzanillo where we currently sit in the Marina at Las Hadas Resort. This is the resort they used in the movie "10" with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek. We patiently wait for the front windshield to be shipped to us so we can continue the journey. Mary and Tom left yesterday after spending a few days at an all inclusive resort just down the beach from our Marina. As our first sailing guest aboard Destiny I hope we didn't scare them too much and hopefully they give us their blessing to continue the trip.
It is now Sunday morning the weather is the same as it has been everyday since leaving Ensenada the first of March. Blue skies and a light sea breeze with the temp in the 80's and humidity in the 90's. Hopefully we get the window installed this week and as soon as it is in we are off for the Marquises. Until next time happy sailing to all.