Michael's a HAM! 1.28.09

Well, those of you who know him will agree... But seriously, he took & passed his Technician HAM exam offered today by fellow cruisers. Woohoo! The paperwork will be submitted in the next few days and we'll be excited to learn his call sign. When we do, we'll share it!

Congrats Michael!

While he was busy taking tests, another cruiser arranged for a tour of the local hospital in Colimilla and a fundraiser as the hospital is in desperate need for some equipment. The hospital was incredibly basic, even to my un-educated eye. The hospital is hoping we can raise enough money, only $180 for a respiratory machine. We hope we can help them out! Cruisers often help cruisers, and the local towns they stay. In the Barra de Navidad area, there is a strong wind that comes up most afternoons that blows pretty hard in the lagoon. Often there is a boat that winds up 'dragging anchor' and is in need of help. The dinghies to the rescue! Folks jump in their dinghies and attempt to help out the boat whether manned or unmanned. In Zihuatenejo there is a 'sailfest' that the cruisers raise money for the town, work at the schools, & assist wherever needed. It's just something we do!

Oh, and I uploaded some more photos...
Rene

Sailing to Melaque with friends 1.24.09

We had a wonderful day today. Our new friends, Ron & Wendy, who we met in the grocery store a little while ago had talked with us at the fishing tournament about going out for a sail with a few friends. We figured – why not?! I was dying to get out of the lagoon and so we said yes.

Ron & Wendy had rented a condo in a complex with 3 other condos and had become good friends with the other 3 units and invited them out as well. We had a total of 10 on the boat, 8 guests plus us. Ron & Wendy were from B.C., Luigi & Pat from the U.K., Laura & Adam were from England, & Ed & Chris are from Canada as well. They were all here on vacation, some her for 2 weeks, some up to 8 weeks. We had a FANTASTIC time! They all came aboard with coolers & snorkeling gear and we headed out of the lagoon around 11am and had a wonderful sail outside of Barra. Ron has a sailboat that on the Shuswap Lake in B.C. and took the helm for the majority of the day. He looked as if he was in 7th heaven as he was steering the boat and showing others how to steer.

We had some incredible whale experiences out there that was the highlight of the sail! Two of the guests were worried about getting seasick so they were watching the horizon the entire time. Suddenly, Chris shrieked – WHALE!! There were whales that were breaching far away, probably 300 yards from the boat. We all watched while we were sailing back to Barra and were preparing to drop the sails. Everyone was looking intently in the direction we had last spotted them when suddenly, there was a spout that was so loud, both myself & Pat jumped and Pet even though we had ripped a sail! I was so stunned…all I could say was WHALE!! There were two huge whales, just off the port side of the boat that were probably 20 feet from us! They were spouting & gracefully arching and showing their tails right in front of our eyes! It was absolutely, completely amazing. And what an experience for all of our guests! We joked that we didn’t charge extra for that sight…but I think everyone was too stunned to get the joke. And our final whale encounter was once we turned around and was headed over to the anchorage in Melaque, a humpback whale did a turning breach right out of the water that I swear was National Geographic perfect. He came all the way out of the water, turned around, & flopped hard on the water – so much that Michael swears he felt the impact in addition to hearing the sound! Incredible…

After the spectacular whale sightings, we headed over to an anchorage in Melaque & dropped a hook for some lunch and snorkeling. Luigi made wonderful sandwiches & had fruit, croissants, & snickers bars and several of us jumped in the water to check out the snorkeling. I got my first jelly fish sting as I must have jumped right onto the rascal. It wasn’t that bad, it felt like someone slapped my leg really hard and eventually in the afternoon, I had red welts where it had stung me. But by the next morning, it was all better. I considered the snorkeling poor as it was very murky, but I eventually found a perfect spot to hover & watch the beautiful fish. I saw some absolutely gorgeous yellow angel fish that I haven’t seen before and some little fishes that were half orange and half blue – but every fish had it’s vibrant colors – orange, yellow, blue, purple, red – you name it!

After getting my fill of fresh water and lunch, we motorsailed back into Barra, successfully avoiding the bars as we were came in at low tide. We had such a wonderful time enjoying our new friends and although we have seen whales previously, we never tire of them as they are spectacular – so graceful.

We’re thrilled that we could take the group out and experience our life a little bit. We were given some ‘coconuts’ ($) for gas as it is illegal for us to earn money on our Mexican visas. The water taxi took the group and Ron & Wendy flew out the following day. My camera had a dead battery and I only got a couple of photos, but I hope that our guests will send us some photos of the day so I can post them!

Pacific Jade is back in the lagoon from their adventure and we are planning to join them to leave Barra and head South to Santiago Bay, hopefully later in the week.

More to follow!
Rene

Fishing Tournament 1.22.09

After putting the boat back together for the past couple days & working hard to find jobs for the summer, we needed to relax. Our friends John & Deby on Lovely Reta, Rick & Karen on Eyes of the World, and Mike & Wendy on Boddhistava all from Channel Islands Harbor finally made it into the lagoon and we were so excited to finally be in the same place as them!

There was a big fishing tournament going on at the Grand Bay Hotel and we decided to go over for the weigh-in on the first day of the tournament. Oh yeah, and there were some big fish….marlin, sailfish, & dorado’s.

The entry fee was $3000 US per pole and a minimum of 3 poles per boat and lots of boats! The fishermen were incredibly friendly and we even saw the marina manager of Marina Mazatlan, Jaime, down here!

Oh, and did I mention the Tecate girls?

Many of the cruisers headed up to the marina for the 10 pesos beer and 12 pesos shots of tequila. We had a wonderful time and were doing well with shots of tequila…until a bottle was bought!

Hey, Rick - is that a worm in your tequila??

After that, well, things seem to get fuzzy. Haha… But we had a great time – I even have a video! Of course, I think I’ll keep that one off of the website. But it was great having a good time with old & new friends.

Boats continue to come & go in the lagoon and the average boats here still runs around 30. Pacific Jade headed out to an anchorage called Coletta de Campos and had a lovely experience – a local Mexican family swam out to the boat and invited them to their house for coffee the next day. They went to the house and were immediately adopted and offered the use of anything at the house – the car, food, etc! They had the family out to the boat one afternoon and said it was a wonderful experience. I have to admit, I am very jealous as that is exactly what I am down here to experience. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to experience the same somewhere else.

OK…more to follow!
Rene

Good news on the generator 1.20.09

So last I left you, we had wrestled the generator out & taken it to a mechanic in Melaque. We went & picked up the monster and were bummed to hear him say it was working fine...but he needed to come to the boat to make sure nothing else was wrong. We were very suprised at this news as we were convinced it was something with the armeture, brushes, & bearings - something! And even more suprised that he wanted to come to the boat to check it out! We were in a neighboring town and so we all jumped into his pickup truck, with him & one other worker and Michael & I and the generator and drove to Barra de Navidad, then all four of us jumped into our dinghy and made the journey out to the boat. They hung out in the engine room while Michael put the thing back together, observing and asking a ton of questions. They spoke absolutely no english and we all laughed as I had two english/spanish dictionaries on my lap and was translating both to spanish for the workers, then listening to them in spanish and translating to english for Michael! It was quite fun. See, I'm really getting good at speaking spanish in normal conversation, but when it comes to saying weird words like 'fan belt', 'volts', 'under load' and such...I need help! Shockingly though, we got our points across and had fun learning at the same time - me learning Spanish, and teaching them some English!

OK, so they get to the boat and are working away and for some odd reason, when we fire up the generator, it runs for about a minute and then dies. Starts up, runs for a couple minutes, then dies. The mechanic was convinced that the capacitor was blown again and took it with him and said he would look for a new one in either Melaque or in Manzanillo, a larger commercial port South of us. We took him back to his truck with high hopes he could find a replacement! He said he would call us when he found the part.

Two days later, he hadn't called. But in the meantime, Michael had been scratching his head on why the generator was failing! There are only 3 things that it would die like that - no fuel, no water, or no air. He originally thought it was a water problem but tore that apart and found no problems. So he began the arduous task of determining if there was a fuel issue. The fuel comes from the same tank as the engine so we knew it wasn't a problem of bad fuel. The filter looked perfectly clean but when he took the downside and dumped it into a 5 gal bucket and pulled right out of the bucket, the generator ran without issue. He consulted with John from Jonco and decided to take the line off of the filter and place a different type of in-line filter in place, a super simple paper filter, and see if it works. Well, it does. We're still scratching our heads why the super duper filter seems to have failed while this simple paper filter is working fine, but alas - it works!

But of course, now we're still without a capacitor. On Monday, we took a bus up to Melaque and talked to the mechanic. He couldn't find the capacitor anywhere here. Of course! But said he had it tested and it was not dead, as he suspected, just low. Whatever that means. So we took the capacitor back to the boat and replaced it on the generator and WHAHLAH!! IT WORKS!! WOOHOO!!!!

We've been walking on eggshells for the past week hoping among hope that it will continue to work without fail and so far, so good! All of the prayers helped!

Now let me tell you something else... When we first took that taxi into town with the generator, the taxi driver helped us significantly with the mechanics since they only spoke Spanish. Then, he gave the mechanic his personal cell phone number when the mechanic asked as we didn't have a phone and he said he would find us if the mechanic called. We worried that with his help, we would be upcharged by the taxi driver. It was a comment Michael said when we initially dropped off the generator. We ended up going in to Melaque without the taxi driver & dealing totally with the mechanic ourself for the rest of the transaction. And even after spending about 2 hours on the boat, and who knows how much time looking for a replacement capacitor....the mechanic charged us absolutely nothing. NOTHING! It was shocking...and a bit ironic. Oh ye of little faith. But a case of beer & some tequila is heading his way! :-)

So woohoo! We're now able to begin planning to go cruising again!! We are still looking at purchasing a little portable 2500 watt generator somewhere…and John from Jonco is going to Puerta Vallarta this weekend and will look for one for us. Just as a spare, just in case. You know?!

More to follow...
Rene

Jonco 1st Annual Pig Roast 1.18.09

Well, we changed plans...again...and decided to hang in Barra de Navidad for another few days, rip the generator out of the engine room & take it in to a mechanic in Melaque. Michael worked hard to wrangle that monster out of the engine room, stripping it down as much as he could to minimize the weight. The mongrel weighed in around 80lbs! Michael had hoped to take it in his backpack so he could shoulder the weight, but it ripped the backpack on the first attempt so we put it in some heavy-duty canvas bags and gingerly moved it into the dinghy. Luckily, Joe & Deb and Mike & Marylyn were also going into Melaque the same day so Joe helped lug it on the 8 block walk to a taxi. Funny enough, when Joe first helped Michael get it out of the dinghy, he said "it isn't that heavy"...but after walking the 8 blocks to the taxi, commented "that's a heavy @($#%&!!". haha... We had been given several suggestions for mechanics in Melaque and drove to one but he took a look at it and sent us to another one down the street. The 2nd mechanic, named 'El Chalan' which translates roughly to 'the helper' took a look and said he could do it. We left it with him on Friday and he expected to have it done by Monday unless he needed parts. We will call him first thing Monday to make sure no special parts are needed. So keep your fingers crossed that it will run better! When we get the generator back, we'll have Jonco come out & help Michael put humpty dumpty back together. We spent the rest of the day hanging out in Melaque and while there, I found a photo processor & dropped off our 2 underwater cameras with high hopes of some spectacular photos. They won't be finished until Monday either but if there were any that develop, I'll post them as soon as possible.

Speaking of Jonco, on Saturday John & his wife, Lupita, hosted their 1st annual Pig Roast at their house. It was a lot of fun. He had an entire pig cooking in a bbq pit on his property and asked the cruisers to come & bring a side dish. I love attending shindigs like this as you get to try some spectacular foods prepared by everyone else. We made BBQ'd pineapple - a favorite from a luau evening we cooked up for friends previously. You take the pineapple & cut it into rings, leaving the core. Then you take 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup rum, 1/4 cup butter, & 2 tbls water & heat in a saucepan. Once everything is melted, drizzle it on the pineapple & marinate for a bit. Heat the bbq & grill the pineapples on each side for 5-10 minutes or until brown. It's FANTASTIC!! So incredibly yummy... We decided to take a taxi to their house because we didn't know exactly where we were going and it turned out we got a nice tour of the ranches of Barra as we passed the house but continued for probably 5 miles! We made our way back the way we came and found some other cruisers walking and jumped out with them, who knew the way. There were probably 70 or so people there and everyone was hiding out in the shade as it was a very warm & sunny day. The one thing that John did not remember was chairs and so with some leftover building materials and John's permission, we constructed a couple benches in the shade...perfect!

The pig was roasted to perfection - the meat was incredibly tender and the BBQ sauce spectacular. All of the side dishes were a wonderful compliment to the pig and there were even pitchers of margaritas as refreshments. The majority of people present were cruisers, but some neighbors & other land-based businesses that service the cruisers were also represented. I missed getting a photo of the pig before it was cut up....but it was pretty ugly anyway. We spent about 3 hours or so chatting with everyone & then made the walk back to town. It was a welcome walk as we were all stuffed! We walked through town & made a stop at Diane & Drew's for a bit and then back to the water taxi.

So it's Sunday now and we're resting from all the excitement of the past few days...haha. Actually, Michael has been doing projects like crazy - the head discharge hose was plugged (urine mixes with salt water & creates this crazy crystal reaction and coats the hose....until almost nothing goes through) so he took it apart after unsuccessfully snaking it and had to beat, bend, & rinse the hose to get it clear again. Success! The rear head works like new again! He also tightened the packing on the shaft as it was dripping a little too much. So this afternoon he's taking a much needed break from projects.

We're staying put for a few more days, or until the generator is functioning again. The plan is still to go further South and we've been hearing Lovely Reta & Eyes of the World on the radio & know they're close! We're looking forward to seeing more spots and getting back in clean water! Today is 97 degrees outside and very little breeze, it's HOT!

Rene

Coco's Beach video 1.18.09

I uploaded another video, for some reason I have 3 that just won't work. Oh well...

Here's a quick vidoe of our walk to Coco's Beach in Barra de Navidad...and the surf! Look on the left side of the screen to the rounded rock. Just over that rock is the tucked in coves & beautiful sandy beach we hung out at!

Back in Barra de Navidad 1.14.09

We left Tenacatita on Sunday morning and made the small jog back to Barra. There are about 23 boats in Barra now and it's still very nice. We are anchored in just about the exact same spot as before and it's nice here. We arrived on Sunday around 9:30 after a 2 ½ hour motorsail and for some reason I was completely exhausted. I laid down just after we dropped anchor and slept until 1pm! I must be fighting something. Michael has been fighting something for the past few days as well and there
are lots of other cruisers who have picked up a cold - bummer! We went into town yesterday for some internet time, pool time, & visiting with fellow cruisers. We met up with Pacific Jade & Kim & Linda from Endeavor and we all went up to Piper Lover's Bar in time for an incredible sunset (I forgot my camera - again!) and some live music. The sunset was absolutely gorgeous - red, orange, & yellow falling behind a palm tree lined beach….spectacular! We were back to the boat after dark - again -
and had a lovely dinner.

Tuesday we had a bad day. You know how you will have those days that start out so wonderfully and then just magically get worse? That was our day on Tuesday. We woke up & ran the generator, which was doing fabulous. Michael went into town on the dinghy and picked up our laundry & got some fuel & veggies (all of the store owners take delivery of new produce on Monday night) and I was working on the laptop getting the blog ready to publish. We don't have internet at the boat so we have to tote
the laptop into town for internet. Anyway, we were sitting in the cockpit enjoying the sunshine when the generator made a very odd noise. Michael ran down & observed…it not making any A/C power again. Oh great. It seems we have blown up our last capacitor. @#$(%&!! He stressed out about it and shut it down and we went back into 'super-energy-saver mode' and decided to just go in town to do some internetting.

Now we usually go into The Sands Hotel & work there but we decided instead to go to a restaurant called Fortino's in Colimilla instead as they had asked for our help with getting the internet up & running for the restaurant guests. No problem, we beached the dinghy & helped Margarite out with questions and were all set with internet. We went to the table & I had an iced tea…which was oddly placed on a wobbly tea plate. I was working away and when the food arrived, I moved the laptop to the side
of the table and (I missed this part!) placed the side of the laptop right on the corner of the wobbly plate which quickly dumped the entire contents of my glass directly onto the laptop. In lightning fast speed, Michael says he saw me move quicker than he has ever seen me move, I had the laptop upside down & turned off before he could say SHIT! We drained out the liquid and dried it off, removing the battery, & took it back to the boat for more drying time. I checked all of the openings for liquid,
sprayed it with compressed air to attempt to remove any liquid, and ultimately placed it in the engine room which is the driest, warmest spot in the boat for the entire evening. I am happy to report that aside from some sticky keys, it seems to be functioning properly so far this morning. Whew!! The one thing I would always stress to my students and I go and do it.

We met a wonderful couple, Wendy & Ron, from Canada (we seem to meet a lot of Canadians when we're cruising) while getting groceries the other day that are staying at a condo here in town. We invited them to come out & see the boat and much to our surprise, they kayaked out for a visit! It was great talking to them. They have a business in Canada called Reef Knot Sail Cruises and offer a boat charter on the Shuswap Lake. Check it out… www.reefknotsailcruises.com

So this morning I'm working on the laptop while Michael charges the batteries via the motor. We are planning to leave Barra tomorrow morning and head further South to Bahia Manzanillo to an anchorage called Las Hadas where we hope to find a generator repair place. Manzanillo is a large town and has a commercial port there so hopefully we'll get lucky! Wish us luck…

Oh, I am posting more photos & videos today as well so check them out!

I'll write more later!
Rene

Bahia de Tenacatita 1.10.09

We left Barra lagoon on Monday morning, the 5th, and motored North a few miles (about 14 miles away) to Tenacatita Bay. We missed this stop on our way South as we were trying to get to Barra by Christmas so we figured we'd go back for a while! Tenacatita is a very popular anchorage and many cruisers will spend several months between Barra, Tenacatita, & Santiago Bay which is nicknamed the 'Gold Coast' as it is spectacular and each spot offers something just a bit different. Pacific Jade had left
Barra the day before and we made it into the bay after a beautiful motor sail up the coast. Lady Hawke joined us all a few hours later. We tossed a line in the water hoping to catch some fish and thought we were getting lucky...as we had two bites but they both managed to escape before Michael could reel them in completely. Bummer! The bay is spectacular and we were welcomed into the entrance by two whales playing just around the boat. We also had help anchoring by several local dolphins who
welcomed us into the anchorage by surfacing all around us. The dolphins are notorious here and everyone looks forward to seeing them. One is nicknamed 'chip' as there is a piece missing from his fin. They also rub up against your anchor chain, scratching their back. You hear this crazy sound of chain jingling and run up and see some just under the bow of the boat. There were 13 other boats in the anchorage when we arrived.

We spent 6 days in Tenacatita and it was fabulous. The bay has spectacular clear blue water and we went swimming at least once every day. We also spent the days doing projects, snorkeling, kayaking, walking the beach, reading, relaxing & meeting new people. The beach is one long stretch of a white sand beach. There is a resort at the far end of the beach, called the Blue Bay Lagoon Resort, that is an all-inclusive resort. It is reported that last-minute stays are as inexpensive as $70/person
but cruisers are not welcome. The beach is backed by palm trees and at the other end is a small palapa that serves beers & food and a small campground. This is also the site of the movie set 'McHale's Navy' and one of the buildings still stand. There are two anchorages in Bahia Tenacatita, one near the 'aquarium' and the other on the other side of Punta Chubasco. We chose the calmer anchorage on the North of Punta Chubasco and stayed there the entire 6 days. There is a river estuary called Rio
Iguana that you can take the dinghy into that is filled with mangroves, birds, flowering vines that canopy over parts of the channel, butterflies, colorful crabs, fish, and it is rumored to have crocodiles though we haven't seen any. The trip starts out at the entrance to the estuary where you have to either time your entrance to be sure there is enough water under you, or get out & push or drag the dinghy through the entrance. We beached our dinghy as we had trash to get rid of on the way in but
raised our dinghy engine and paddled and pushed until we were in the free flowing water on the way back out. We began somewhere around 10am and made our way through the jungle river trip to the end which takes you to a lagoon and the main town called Playa Escolleras where there are several restaurants, a small tienda for groceries, & lots & lots of beach. We made the trek with Pacific Jade while Mike on Lady Hawke took the shorter ride around the point and met us later. Mike met up with Ryan
on Buddhaventura, an RV'er that we know from Mazatlan and who helped bring us a frequency meter just after Christmas and joined us for lunch. We visited for a while & had a wonderful lunch and then headed back to the boats. The entire trip was about 6 hours.

We did maintenance on the boat, as always - this time Michael scraped the bottom. You see, the boat sits in the water at all times & things begin growing on it that makes it much less efficient, as well as possibly doing damage to the bottom paint which is designed to repel the critters who attach themselves. He hooked up his 75' hose directly to the dive tank and began cleaning the bottom. There was sea grass, critters, & barnacles growing and he used a scraper & a fibrous scrub sponge to remove
all of the crud. While he was scrubbing the bottom, I was giving all of our stainless steel a freshwater scrub to remove any of the salt that was on it to slow down rust. I found a couple missing screws and Michael found a big missing one! One of the heads of a bold holding on the chainplate at the bow of the boat was missing and the chainplate was beginning to pull up. If you will remember, he had a similar failure on his way up the coast from Panama and did not want to deal with it again.
So he enlisted the help of Pacific Jade, Lady Hawke, & Endeavor and they replaced the bolt, under the waterline, while in the water - a somewhat risky job.

I have to tell you how cool these cruisers are. Michael noticed the missing bold and shared this info with Pacific Jade and Lady Hawke via the radio. Now the benefit of using a radio is it's much easier than yelling (haha) and it's just like a phone, quick & easy to use - but the sometimes bad side is something called 'lurking'…which is when others listen to your conversations. Everyone does it and I'm just as guilty as the next guy - I get curious and will follow another conversation when they
switch to other channels. Anyway, Michael was sharing his issue (he was looking for the correct size bolt) with Pacific Jade & Lady Hawke when we were called by others in the anchorage, and at the RV park, offering us the bolts they had. How cool, huh?! Michael pulled out all of the items he needed for the repair but decided to work on the project the next morning as he was reading a book that he couldn't put down. The next morning came around and he was called on the radio - first by Pacific
Jade offering his assistance, then by Lady Hawke, then by Endeavor. He was fielding the calls and went back to reading his book. Finally I looked at him and said "You better get to it…these guys need a project to do!"…hahaha… And a little while later all 3 of them were at the boat and with great precision, the old bolt was removed and a teak plug in place to prevent water from flowing inside the bold while Michael got the new bolt ready, gooped up, passed up and Joe placed it in the hold and twisted
it in place from the outside while Michael did the same from the inside. The whole thing took less than an hour and another crisis averted! On closer inspection though, the bold looks like it has some electrolysis and even though the metal was tested to be 'protected' we will have to watch it closely to make sure it does not happen again. We're very thankful to everyone who helped - Joe, Mike, Kim, & Ryan for their help. What a cool community..

The rest of the week was spent just having a relaxing time. I put the inflatable kayak in the water and checked out the spectacular clear water and visited a few boats one morning while Michael worked on projects. We went to the beach one afternoon and met up with Kim & Linda on Endeavor, and other couples from boats who were new to us joined us for a walk down the beach and afterward a beer at the palapa restaurant by the campground. If you didn't watch it, you could keep yourself very busy in
Tenacatita - there were bocce ball games, domino games, card games, walks, book trades, etc. that were scheduled almost every afternoon! It's a great place to really get to know your boat neighbors and the beach is perfect for walking, bocce ball, & shell hunting as it's a nice flat white sand beach.

On Friday evening at 5pm there was a dinghy raft-up scheduled where everyone in the anchorage was invited and we met at a corner of the bay. One of the dinghies set out an anchor and everyone else joined them in a semi-circle and tied themselves to their neighbor. We ended up with 12 boats represented - out of the 13 in the anchorage! Some of the boats there were: A Capella (the organizer), Batu, Lady Hawke, Synchrony, Di's Dream, Finale, Pacific Jade, Rediscovery II (from Kansas!), Hobo, Maradon,
Sailfish, and us. It was great! Everyone brought an appetizer to share and there was some great dishes being passed around! We brought something out of a cruiser cookbook called 'potato nachos' that turned out pretty yummy. Just sliced potatoes, broiled for 10 minutes, then topped (I used Rotel tomatoes) and some cheese and broiled for 10 additional minutes. I had two books to give away as did someone else so they were passed around until someone took them. We had a great time chatting with
everyone and getting to know them and stayed until dark. Marylyn on Lady Hawke has been sick since New Year's day and a few days ago Mike on Lady Hawke ended up with a head cold so we haven't seen much of them this trip. Hopefully they get better soon so we can hang out with them again.

The next morning Pacific Jade moved their boat from the anchorage to the Aquarium anchorage and after they were settled, we dinghied over to the anchorage for some snorkeling! The water was spectacularly clear and we know how they got the nickname the 'aquarium'. The fish were amazing, so many different colors & varieties. The water was a bit chilly as it was a bit overcast but it was spectacular anyway. There was a large coral field with white, black & green coral that looked like a cauliflower
head everywhere and pillars of rock jutting out of the water that were inhabited by pelicans. They seemed to be watching us with interest and I joked with the fishes swimming just below them that they were tempting fate being this close to the pelicans! There were needlefish, beautiful large blue angelfishes, butterfly fishes, and simply ones I can't identify in my book but there were blowfishes, blue fishes with white polka dots, bright red fishes, schools of itty bitty extremely colorful fishes,
clownfish, & little teeny guys with yellow stripes. It was spectacular. I took more underwater photos but am not having much luck finding a photo processor yet. I may have to go into the town of Melaque tomorrow to look for one. I hope they turn out OK!

After snorkeling, I was absolutely freezing (I should have brought my rash guard and am just lucky that I had a one piece swim suit on to help with the cold) so we got back in the dinghy and warmed up a bit. Ryan on Buddhaventura (www.buddhaventura.com) was parked right on the sand by the aquarium and he had made a special beer trip into town for our visit. We beached our dinghies on an incredibly awesome coral beach right in front of his RV and spent a few hours visiting with him before walking
into town for lunch. After lunch we walked back to the dinghies and zoomed back to the boat - just before sunset. It was an incredible day. I have a good friend who always used to tell me she needed to 'get wet' every couple days to really feel good…now I understand. I have developed a severe need for 'water therapy!' Now I have to get back out on the surfboard more!

After several days in Tenacatita, we headed back to Barra de Navidad where we will reprovision, check e-mails (we're anxiously awaiting e-mails from all of the applications we submitted for jobs in Alaska), update the blog, and get fuel & stuff. We plan on spending a couple days in Barra and then head further South to Santiago. That's the plan!

So I apologize for not writing more, we've just been enjoying and haven't spent much time on the computer. I'll write more later!
Rene

Feliz Ano Nuevo 1.1.2009!

Happy New Year everyone! What a spectacular year we have had and we hope to be able to continue this lifestyle for several years. We’re so blessed to have been able to go on this trip, while we’re so young (something we’re told almost daily!), and are really having the time of our lives out here. The cruising community is fabulous – friendly, helpful, & well…fun! The friendships we make here I’m certain will last a lifetime. OK, enough of the sappy stuff…haha!!

Today was another action packed day! I was told about a street fair in Melaque, a town just outside of Barra de Navidad and arranged to join a group of gals going. I hitched a ride with one of the other dinghies as we took ours in for service since we got the parts brought down by a boater. We had ordered the parts but they hadn’t made it to Mazatlan before we left so we asked Pacific Voyager to hold on to them for us but they knew they wouldn’t make it down here before we did, so they gave the parts to another boater who was heading down and we got them! Woohoo! It’s not pony express, but it made it!

Once in town, I joined Rita from Over Heated and Kim & Linda from Endeavor and the four of us walked up through Barra to the bus stop and then jumped on the bus to Melaque.

In Melaque, every Wednesday they hold a street fair that is probably 10 blocks long in one long straight street. You can buy anything here – arts & crafts, local handiwork, undergarments, clothes, shoes, kitchen utensils, watch batteries, sunglasses, DVD’s/CD’s, fruit, you name it, it’s probably there! I had a great time and walked away with some things that had been on my list for a while! A metal lime squeezer as my current one is plastic and has cracked in two places, a bean smasher since we’ve been cooking beans and need to mash them, a watch battery that works in our favorite timer on the boat, a tank top for Michael, a swimsuit for me, fresh eggs, potatoes, a couple DVD’s – Batman, 007, & a Richard Gere movie, and a couple other things. It was very fun to walk around & check out everything. We walked further in town and went to the ‘Super Hawaii’ store that sold lots of ‘gringo’ items and then walked further to find a restaurant where I had a fantastic meal for only $3, drink included! We jumped back on the bus and made it to the boat for a little rest and prepare for New Year’s Eve!

Most everyone went into town around 5:30pm and again, met at the Alondra Hotel for a drink and a fantastic sunset. We had dinner at a restaurant called “Mexico Lindo”, spent some time with Diane & Drew, friends of Joe & Deb from Canada for a while, and then basically bar-hopped from place to place as there were lots of live bands playing and we had to check out each of them! The Grand Bay Hotel shot off a wonderful display of fireworks at midnight and everyone raced to an easy spot to watch them. We listened to a few more sets of the bands and around 1am took a water taxi back to the boat. It was a very fun evening.

We spent the last couple days, well, recovering, taking it easy, relaxing, etc. After getting the dinghy engine serviced, it still isn’t quite right so we have an appointment to take it back tomorrow. We splurged and paid for 24 hours of internet that we can get on the boat and have been applying for jobs & just internetting like crazy. We called Xantrex and they told us how to adjust our changer so that it won’t kill the generator so we will be trying that out tonight. There are three ‘Extra’ class HAM operators in the lagoon and have setup a test on Monday for ham tests. Michael wasn’t able to get his when I got mine due to Uncle Sam calling him away so he’s studying like crazy and plans to take the test on Monday. We’ll leave Barra on Tuesday and go up to Tenacatita for a little while. That’s the plan! Of course, as you know, plans change sometimes hourly.

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year’s Eve and wish everyone a healthy & prosperous New Year.

Love,
Rene