Where were you during Total Eclipse 2024? If this becomes a favorite conversation starter at future cocktail parties, we’re finally going to be part of the popular crowd who has a cool answer. People might start thinking of me as being somehow extroverted. Laugh, as they say, out loud. After years of struggling to be the person who has ready and interesting answers to leading questions during what can be awkward social events, I am finally prepared.  Quick! Someone invite us to a cocktail party so I can make small talk!

Where were we (you asked, interestedly)? Sailing along the path of totality with our spinnaker flying, real eclipse glasses at the ready, still a little stunned we had found ourselves in exactly the right place at the right time to witness this surely historical event in the heavens.

We’d gone to Mazatlan, ground zero for all the huge eclipse parties and the destination of close to a million visitors putting feet on the ground, preparing to be wowed. Even NASA was showing up with scientists, extremely interesting telescopes, and (oh, my heart!!) MOON ROCKS! And people would apparently get to touch the rocks! Had I known in advance that would have been possible, I may have had to medicate myself and buy a ticket. Thankfully, they were sold out by the time I connected the dots between Mazatlan and the eclipse. Blissed out from rock hunting at Los Muertos, it didn’t really register on my radar. I was too involved with porphyries and breccia; earthly things, you know. Not heavenly bodies of any kind. When you are totally focused on the here and now of where you are in time and space, the future holds little interest.

So in spite of the many hundreds of thousands of people descending on Mazatlan for the eclipse, we were not among them. At least, not deliberately. We went there to see our friends on S/V Copacetic, Zaq and Lisa, before they returned to Canada to fill their cruising kitty after their first successful season aboard. We had not even secured a marina space. Somehow, though, they managed to have a last-minute slip for us at Marina Mazatlan, two docks down from our friends.

The eclipse was a bonus, and the fact that the boat next to us was selling eclipse glasses to raise money for the local animal rescue organization seemed a stroke of good fortune. Less than an hour after docking the boat, I overheard another cruiser collecting his glasses from the boat next door. Did they have extras? They did! We took two pair and handed over our pesos. We figured we would stay in the marina a few days, and then hang out in the Stone Island anchorage and view the eclipse from there. Things were really lining up for Team Galapagos! We had a great visit with Zaq and Lisa, grateful as we always are for the friendships made during our trips, and hugged them goodbye on April 3 to go drop anchor at Stone Island. We figured it would get crowded with boats as the days passed and we were not wrong. We settled in to wait and enjoy our time there.

But have you been to the Stone Island anchorage during a time of celebration? Or anywhere in Mexico populated by people? Because if not, I assure you that it is what I would call ‘high energy’.  It had been Holy Week while we were at Marina Mazatlan. This is the Mexican equivalent of Spring Break and is a time of great celebration culturally. There are a lot of parties and no one parties harder than Mexico. Americans could learn a thing or two about being able to have a good time with their fellow country-people.  We were kind of partied-out by the time we left the marina.

At the anchorage, there were already a number of cruising sailboats. Hundreds of people lined the beaches with many Banda bands competing for their part of the airwaves, many party boats (also with Banda bands), and a lot of those fun looking Banana Ride boats where people basically ride on a long, narrow banana shaped floaty and get pulled at light speed through the water. For a couple of days all of this is wildly entertaining and if I was in the right mood, I’d probably enjoy the party atmosphere on one of the catamarans, even with 200 of my closest friends I’ve never met yet. I’ve never heard so many bands with tuba and unlimited snare drums in my life.  After a while, though,  it is, in a word, overstimulating. Mazatlan was a madhouse.  I was done being there long before April 8, the day of the eclipse. We decided to get out and see the eclipse by sea.

Interestingly, and we didn’t know this before we went, there was some big kerfuffle in Mazatlan regarding these Banda bands and how they are everywhere all the time on the beaches. Unlimited Banda music is apparently not the thing foreign tourists in Mazatlan are after and some of the hotel chains were wanting to limit the performances. The musicians, who depend on this music for their livelihoods, took to the street in protest and won their case. But it’s interesting that people would come to an area to visit and think that somehow the local folks should change the culture just for them. I mean, we don’t have to like these bands. Personally, they are not my favorite. But I have a choice about where I go so if I am looking for a quiet day at the beach, perhaps Mazatlan is not the place I’m going to be. It would not occur to me to think that people in another country should suddenly decide to do things my way just because their way doesn’t please me all the time. I wonder at the narcissism that would allow people to make complaints like this; enough complaints that hoteliers would actually consider dialing back the amount of local music. Since covid, we have experienced a decided difference in the attitudes toward foreigners in the zeitgeist here. These kinds of issues do not help the anti-foreigner sentiment that appears to be taking root in certain areas.

The path of exact totality was actually a few miles south of Mazatlan, so we anchored up early the morning of April 8 and headed south, then west along the path the eclipse would take. Raising the spinnaker for the first time this trip, with its new ATN sock, turned out to be almost effortless and soon we were drifting along under the ‘pretty sail’. This was more than a symbolic victory for us. Our last spinnaker sock just was not adequate and the raising of the spinnaker generally resulted in what we called a ‘shit show’ on the foredeck. It was a lot of trouble. This ATN sock is brilliant and worth every penny. As the moon began to cover the edge of the sun, we took our positions on the aft deck, readying our protective glasses, prepared to be amazed; to be some of the first people on the planet to see this eclipse.

It did not disappoint! All kinds of gasps of awe and wonder were emitted from the aft deck of our boat as it glided gently out to sea. We honestly had not been prepared for that level of jaw drop. Now we understand why so many people travel so far and at such great expense to view a total eclipse of the sun. We got to bear witness to this celestial display for almost 4 1/2 minutes. I will never forget being in almost complete darkness, and yet able to see the sunlight on the horizon in all directions,  air temperature plummeting, looking directly at the sun; a mere wedding ring of fire around the moon; a momentary marriage of the opposites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just as quickly as it went, when the barest sliver of sun emerged from behind the moon,  it instantly lit up the entire sky. Even that smallest of slivers offered a return to warmth and what seemed like complete daylight. We felt truly fortunate and maybe even a little primitive in our response to the sight. For even though we understand the science behind how this darkening of the light could possibly occur in the middle of a sunny day, the forces that shaped this event are beyond our capabilities to grasp. We stood as our ancestors would have, filled with wonder at what game the ever-capricious gods could be playing at and hoping the darkness and cold were not permanent. I was just that close to making some kind of sacrifice!

Just think of the deep symbolism of this event:  The sun, the fiery, life-giving divine masculine, representing thought and logic, personality and ego, directional growth toward goals, and all things that are evident and easy to see and measurable, being obscured, actually overpowered, by the moon. The moon archetype is the divine feminine, representing things that are hidden beneath the surface, growth and development that is beneath the level of awareness (think roots of plants in the winter, think the solution to a problem that suddenly pops into your mind from somewhere),  the water of emotions, the waxing and waning of natural cycles, intuition, creativity, even love. In our deepest moon moments, we dream and imagine. And in our broadest sun moments we plan and go forth and act. Were we to have only the sunlight and no darkness, life as we know it would cease to exist. Were we to have no sunlight, life as we know it would cease to exist. We need them both.

In four and a half minutes of total eclipse, the dual nature of life on earth comes into balance and stands still. I believe it is the longing for connection to these eternal archetypes that drives people to travel thousands of miles just to witness an eclipse. Even if people know nothing about symbolism, even if they are not particularly aware of their own spiritual nature (or even if they don’t believe they HAVE a spiritual nature), they are drawn to something so much bigger than themselves; something that puts our place on the planet in perspective. In a world where the next catastrophe feels like it could be just around the corner, a mere mortal push of a button, the eternal nature of the earth’s place in the cosmos is a comfort and a tonic for souls that are raw from the overstimulation of current events and trying to keep up with the mundane things of daily life.

When it was over we sailed on down the coast until we came to the town of Teacapán, where we dropped anchor for the night off the beach in about 25 feet of water over sand. While good holding, it would be a rolly night, which we accepted considering at least we would not have to stand watch if we were at anchor. In this way we avoided having to do an overnight to our next stop; Isla Isabel. This is a favorite place and where we still sit, anchored in the sand behind Los Monas; the guardian rocks of the anchorage on the east side.

It’s great to not be in a hurry. We have been able to explore every part of the island this time, even going out to the moon-shaped Islote Pelon, a rock islet off the north west coast. We did a snorkel excursion to that island. It was a bit of a disappointment but you never know until you go. I’ll leave you with a couple of obligatory photos of Blue Footed Boobies, one of the cutest birds on the planet and a key reason why people visit this island. Sure, they star in the show, but there is so much more to Isla Isabel than the blue feet of cute birds. We’ll do another post about that another day.

S/V Galapagos, standing by on 16 at Isla Isabel, where cruisers have not forgotten how to use the VHF radio!