We arrived in Mazatlán on July 31, 2009, technically 2-1/2 months after the start of hurricane season. From our own experiences and from what we heard from other long-term cruisers during the summer of 2008, most of the tropical storms and other strong weather events don't get active this far north in the Eastern Pacific until later in the season. Thus we'd decided to very cautiously push our luck this summer and stay out on the water for the early half of the season, always keeping abreast of the daily weather reports. As it happened, the early summer of 2009 was an unusually uneventful season which had allowed us to explore the Sea of Cortez in comfort, and almost as thoroughly as we'd wanted. We returned to Mazatlán just as the midsummer thunderstorms were becoming active along Mexico's mainland.
As is always the case when we pull into a marina, we set about cleaning and making
whatever equipment inspections and repairs we could – which as per usual resulted in pulling everything out of the lazarettes and into the cockpit, like so:
During August, we innocently assessed a few projects that would keep us busy but none that involved any major outlay of time or money. We only had a 2000-hour routine engine overhaul to look forward to, by the fine mechanics of Total Yacht Works in Mazatlán. Blissfully ignorant of what lay ahead for us in September, in late August after we'd cleaned up The Fox and gotten some chores done, we treated ourselves to a little 9-day road trip inland to Morelia and Pátzcuaro in the central highlands of Michoacán. Just to keep things chronological, I'll address that delightful wee vacation before moving on to what befell us and Mr. Yanmar when we got back…
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