We are now heading south from Mazatlan.

Moonrise and Moonsets:

The moon rises and sets every day, appearing on the horizon just like the sun. The time depends on the phase of the moon. It rises about 30 to 70 minutes later each day than the previous day, so the moon is out during daytime as often is it's out at night. At the time of the new moon, the moon rises at about the same time the sun rises, and it sets at about the same time the sun sets. As the days go by (as it waxes to become a crescent moon, a half moon, and a gibbous moon, on the way to a full moon), the moon rises during daytime (after the sun rises), rising later each day, and it sets at nighttime, setting later and later each night. At the full moon, the times of moonrise and moonset have advanced so that the moon rises about the same time the sun sets, and the moon sets at about the same time the sun rises. As the moon wanes (becoming a half moon and a crescent moon, on the way to a new moon), the moon rises during the night, after sunset, rising later each night. It then sets in the daytime, after the sun rises. Eventually, the moon rises so late at night that it's actually rising around sunrise, and it's setting around sunset. That's when it's a new moon once again.
This was a phenomenon I was not aware of until the other night. It was frustrating and fascinating to watch the moon set at about midnight. The moonset was as glorious as the sunset but with its departure the seas were black.
I have to thank my Uncle Ned for his advice to learn my radar well; Mexican charts are filled with errors. Land is not where the charts say they are, in fact can be out by miles.There has been many times that we have been anchored in the middle of an island on land. We have a Koden Radar which overlays onto our Coastal Explorer software. It is fabulous as you can see where the land really is on top of the chart. This is quite important as we will need to travel with one foot on the shore when we do the Tehuanepec. The boat will appear to be traveling on land when in fact it will be 1 mile offshore.
We will probably have internet service most of the time; however it has been a surprise quite often at where we have been able to pick up the internet.

We are using several different methods to receive our weather while underway. We have a subscription to Buoyweather.com that allows us to imput our data for our whereabouts; Lat and Long then put the aprox area we will be in the next 24,48,72,96 hours. It then sends us the weather through our ICOM Single Side Band. We listen to the nets that are brodcast on the SSB . A weather person informs us to what is happening out there. We have the Xaxero's WeatherFax 2000 program that allows us to pick up weather. There are also many stations on the SSB that broadcast voice weather, so we are as ready as we can be.

We have said goodbye to many boaters that we have spent the year with in the different anchorages. There are a few doing the same trip as us and there is a new group that are arriving anyday from the Baja Ha Ha. Some of them will also head south and I am sure new friendships will be made.

We would like to say that there a few couples we will truly miss and we know that they will follow the blog. Please drop us an email and let us know where you are from time to time.