Leaving Isla Isabela we had very little wind in the morning so we started out motoring, but by mid-day we had 8 to 12 knots of following wind so we raised the asym spinnaker. The seas were very smooth and we had several hours of great downwind sailing. We saw at least a dozen humpback whales and a couple put on quite a show. There were a few dolphins and flying fish as well.
By the time we got to San Blas (about 15:30) it was near low tide and there was not enough depth for us to be comfortable entering the estuary so we went another 3.5 miles to Matanchen bay where we anchored. Matanchen has a very large area with good anchoring in sand / mud at 10 to 15 ft and pretty good protection from north and east winds. We were expecting very light winds from the north, which is what we got, so it was very comfortable. And a friend from our Mazatlan anchorage was just a couple hundred yards away so we got to reconnect with Marty on New Horizon.
The next day we took a dinghy ride into Fonatur Marina in San Blas and spent the day touring the town with our HaHa friends Kim & Jaimie (Amazing Grace III) and Eric & Kimberly (Gladiator). The town is small enough that you can walk from end to end in 15 to 20 minutes. We went up to the old colonial fort on the hill overlooking the city.
The statue is Padre Jose Maria Mercado who took part in the War of Mexican Independance. In 1810 he commanded forces that took San Blas for the insurgents but died months later when the town was retaken by loyalist forces.
The town has a nice church that used to have a set of bells that were the inspiration for the poem “*The Bells Of San Blas” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A long-ish poem about a by-gone era ruled by the church. The church is quite nice and had a great floral display.
There is a nice central plaza, a small market and a number of hotels.
On the map we saw McDonalds and were relieved to see that it is a very nice traditional hotel.
