We have moved over to La Ropa beach, we are anchored just in front of the hotel Bill and Mom are staying in. We are not close to Mungo anymore and we are both feeling a little separation anxiety. We have had to anchor bow and stern to keep us into the swell as the boat is now open to the ocean swells.
The access to the beach is not nearly as good as it was in the other anchorage. We have had some very adventurous beach landings. There is quite a bit of surf infront of Mom's hotel so we have several different stradegies to get to shore. Our first attempt was to just anchor the dinghy and swim to shore. That worked pretty well, we would just put out clothes, shoes and glasses in a dry bag, fasten it well, throw it in the water, jump in after it and swim to shore pushing the floating dry bag infront of us. Once we got out of the surf we would open the bag, put on out shoes, shorts and glasses and casually stroll into the hotel. No problema!!!
The second strategy was to row the dinghy to shore, we do not want to subject the motor to a salt water bath. Barry would row until we got almost to the surf line and then we would both take an oar and paddle like crazy to get past the surf break and then jump out and pull the dinghy ashore. Last night we went ashore in the dark, I had a sun dress on, in the dinghy I tucked the dress into my bra so it wouldn't get wet when I jumped out. Once we had gotten our feet under us I realized there were lots of people wandering up and down the beach so grabbed the dress and straightened it out. The next wave proceeded to soak the bottom 6 inches of the dress.
That landing went well but later on that night we still had to get back to the boat, so in the pitch black we wheeled the dinghy back into the water and hauled it through the surf break. Well by the time we managed to get into the dinghy we were both soaked and the dinghy had about 2 inches of water covering the bottom. I guess we will just have to practise to see if we can't become a little more efficient with our landings. We have managed to keep upright on all our landings so far (touch wood) but a little fairy told us the Steven went for another tumble in the surf today, the dinghy landing gods must be frowning on him BIG TIME!!!!
