Lost my sunglasses 2.4.09

We decided to head into town in Santiago and check out the place with Joe & Deb on Wednesday. It was another spectacular morning & we jumped in the dinghy to the beach. Beaching the dinghy takes finesse – timing the approach just perfectly, jumping out & keeping the bow forward, and pulling it before the next wave approaches. No problem! Some days everything goes right, some days not. Today was one of those days. Now before you get too excited….no, we didn’t flip the dinghy. Long story short, somehow I ended up underneath the dinghy….again! You will remember that I was held underneath the dinghy just before Christmas in 07 when we did flip it that time. Well…here’s what I recollect about the incident.

We were coming in, a wave had just broke & we were right behind it. Perfect! I jumped out of the dinghy & was running forward when Michael said “Oh, here comes another wave”. I dashed forward trying to get to the front of the dinghy to pull the nose straight (so it wouldn’t flip) and somehow was bowled over by the dinghy and ended up directly underneath. Completely underneath and stuck between the sand & the dinghy. Fully clothed mind you! As the dinghy moved along & I pushed myself around it, I finally found the engine and was relieved, at least now I could breathe! Above water, Michael was frantic. He couldn’t see me and didn’t know where I was! He screamed my name (I didn’t hear him) and Pacific Jade who was on the beach tending their dinghy turned around and saw I was no where to be found. Once I got a breath of air, suddenly Michael lifted the dinghy like a car hood and I escaped. Of course my shirt was over my head, my hair was in my face, my hat & sunglasses were gone & every spot on my body was filled with sand. Haha… I managed to see my hat floating away along with the power bar I was eating that was in my pocket and scooped them up. I swam out to deeper water & tried to rid myself of all the sand & compose myself while cursing like a sailor. I was pissed! Everyone convinced me to go back to the boat & rinse off & change and it was on our way back to the boat I realized I had lost my sunglasses. And they even had croakies on them! Damn it! My favorite, new sunglasses! Oh well, I wasn’t hurt – just scared shitless. I jammed my pinkie finger & one of my toes, supposedly while trying to get the dinghy off of me and I’m still pulling sand out of my ears some 3 days later, but not even a scratch on me. We joke now that I was trying to lift the dinghy with just those two digits ‘get this thing off of me!’…haha… So, yep, the dinghy attempted to kill me – again! It better start behaving! I will trade it in on something else if it’s not careful.

Once I was showered & in dry clothes, we made attempt #2 to get into the shore and was successful. We jumped on a bus into town and paid our 5 pesos each. Joe & Deb had also never been into Santiago so we just jumped off when we thought we were at the end of town. We were looking for the famed Chandlery in Santiago and after asking a couple people, found it. There’s one thing about boaters – wherever there’s a ships chandlery, there is cool stuff that must be checked out! We figured it was just because we used to own one, but Joe & Deb assured us it wasn’t! We spent quite a while inside ooh’ing and aah’ing over all of the boat & fishing supplies. We also did a quick check at the internet café for any job offers, but were only treated to another interview request. We found a flat chicken restaurant and had chicken, tortillas, salsa & rice…yum! We walked around town & found a Mercado that we walked through & picked up some fruit & veggies and trinkets. The town center was beautiful, as always...

And while we were eating lunch, we were surprised to see that the circus was coming to town and they were advertising it up and down each street with several bright red vehicles each pulling trailers full of animals! There were tigers, monkeys, camels, llamas & lots more! It was quite a spectacle!

Michael went to the bank for some $$ and the ATM said it was ‘unable to distribute money right now’, so we went back and now we are over our limit. Damn! It just isn't our day! o back to the internet café to let them know we didn’t get the first disbursement. We walked down the main street as Joe had seen a chiropractor sign and Michael is in much need to get cracked. We found it, but it was closed. There is one in Melaque that we’ll stop at when we’re there again. Had a quick refreshment & noticed a BBQ place on the opposite side of the street so we stopped for a BBQ brush, something Michael has been looking for in Mexico since his fell apart. After all that excitement we jumped back on the bus back to the boats. We had a wonderful stroll along the sandy beach to our dinghies & went back to Pacific Jade for one of her fabulous margaritas. After such a stressful day, a margarita was just what the doctor ordered! Haha… Back on our boat, we ate dinner, watched a movie, & thanked our lucky stars for the outcome of the day.

More to follow…
Rene