Another Mexican Adventure
The four of us were on board last night and there was a band playing on shore. Barry and Ian were busy installing a new chart program on the computer so Helen and I headed ashore in the dinghy to find out what was happening. It was dark and on the way in we saw a fellow rowing a fairly large boat and we wondered what he was up to. When we got ashore we found a Mexican wedding going full tilt. There was a live band and the main characters in the wedding party were all standing and everyone was singing heartily. We just observed from the side for about 10 minutes and then headed back to the boat on the dinghy. OH, OH as we were speeding along something slowed us down and I thought we had caught something. Sure enough the motor quit and low and behold we were in the middle of a fishing net. The guy in the boat had set a net in between the shore and the boat, what a dummy.

Well, I leaned down and tried to untangle the net from the prop. NO LUCK, it was pitch dark and I didn't know what to do, I couldn't even tilt the motor to get the prop out of the water. Fortunately someone in the trailer park ashore had seen us and started shouting and asking us if we needed help. They shone a big spotlight on us to find out what was going on. We yelled back and let him know we needed a knife. We figured we would have to swim ashore, I had a dress and my panties on, nothing else, too bad I didn't have a bra because I would have taken the dress off, but no, I would rather be cool, so in I jumped in dress and all and swam ashore. I got the guys knife, a lovely Swiss Army joby and swam back out to the dinghy and hacked the fisherman's net to bits getting the prop untangled. Helen rowed part way to shore and I jumped back in and swam ashore to give the guy back his knife and thank him. He wondered if we were going to come ashore and try and get the prop untangled, but I figured I would let Barry look after that. Helen rowed the dinghy all the way back to the boat, going way around where we thought the net might be. Barry took it all in his stride and went in the dinghy and got all the net out of the prop. I don't think there is any damage but we haven't tried to run the motor again yet.
Today we are on our way back to Manzanillo and Helen and Ian leave tomorrow morning. We were under sail with the boat rigged as a cutter and we got caught on a fish line. Barry jumped in and tried to get it off the keel. We were still making way so he was having to swim like crazy to try and keep up to the boat. We had let all the sails loose but the boat still was merrily moving along. We turned up into the wind and then slowed down enough so Barry could get the fish line loose, then we just kept going. Never a dull moment. We are looking forward to the four of us going out for dinner on the town tonight. Tomorrow is Ian's birthday. Crew hard at work.