We landed on San Lucas Island yesterday. This is the location of a prison colony dating back to 1885. It was run along the lines of Devil’s Island in French Guyana or the prisons in Australia. The prison was closed in 1991, but the infrastructure is still a century old. We walked into the cells where the prisoners were held and the lack of light alone would have killed me. Bats and bugs abounded inside the buildings; the bats would scurry about and flit away from you as you moved around the prison. There was a poster about the San Lucas prison and Barry thought you might like to read about the place. There is a lot of the history of Costa Rica that has taken place on this island. The structures of the main administrative building as well as a church are still in place. There is a huge wide walkway from the water up to the main building and it made me think of men in white suits with Panama hats strolling up and down. It could be a good location from a movie from that era.
We walked along the jungle paths and listened to the howler monkey’s do their stuff. They make amazing sounds, a deep woofing roar, quite unnerving actually. Barry was determined to try and get some fruit off of a tree and dragged a 10 meter long branch around until he found a piece of fruit he could knock down. There were mangoes, bananas, coconuts and some other weird fruit that we couldn’t figure out. You wouldn’t go hungry on this island.
There is a floating restaurant about 100 meters from the old prison. We sat on the deck last night and had fresh fish as the sun set. What a gorgeous view. There are 4 other boats in the bay and we had met 3 of the other boats before so we able to visit with them for awhile. This is quite different from Mexico as there as a lot fewer boats down here so you get to know each other pretty quickly. Most of them are going to be taking there time and staying in Central America this season, so once we leave this area we will not likely see them again. We are headed to another beach today and will take the ferry into Putarenas tomorrow; hopefully we will be able to find an internet cafe this afternoon and you will be able to read about this set of adventures.

We had a good visit with Trish, Graeme and Quinn. There was a little mis-communication going on though and Trish showed up one night after dark and was stranded on the beach. She shouted at us and flashed flashlights and then even managed to call us on the VHF but we were unaware, too bad. We had turned the radio off thinking no one would call us the rest of the night, see you just never know. The next morning we were going ashore, I was headed off to catch the bus to go and see her and Barry says who is that woman waving to us on the beach. HMMMM, who indeed!! She had gotten a cheap hotel room on the beach and was none the worse for wear. Quinn had a lovely time on the boat playing with the winches and the cupboard doors, he loves to open and close them.
The next day I went back to the surf beach with Trish and Quinn and spent the night sleeping on the sand under the stars. I actually had a great sleep; a large dog woke me in the morning when he was startled by my presence on the sand. Trish and Graeme were invited to a wedding of a couple from Invermere.

Graeme getting a lift up the beach and no Quinn is not in the buggy.

It was very simple, held right on the beach. They had a couple of gorgeous flower arrangements and they put them on either side of some driftwood and that was the aisle. They sprinkled flower petals down the aisle and it was a lovely, simple setting. There were very few people at the wedding, just family and us. Trish and Graeme headed off to the wedding feast and I wandered the beach, listening to the surf crash under the stars.
After I got back to the boat Barry and I decided we should take a look at a waterfall that was in a town about 20 miles away. Two buses later we asked around and found the path to the waterfall. The path was a bit tricky for Barry but he had found a stick and was able to maneuver himself around some of the awkward spots. The waterfall was very nice, not too much different from the one at the end of McLeod Bay, only a lot warmer. We dove in and enjoyed swimming around in the fresh water.
We left Bahia Ballena the next day and headed to Isla Tortugas. It is quite the destination spot and there were quite a lot of tourists there when we arrived just after noon. Almost all of the boats departed about 4:00 P.M. and we had the place to ourselves. I went snorkeling the next morning and it was a wonderful spot. The water clarity was terrific and the variety of fish was very good. I saw a few types that I had never seen before, a great spot, too bad we didn’t get there Trish.
We are just meandering around the Gulf of Nicoya at the moment. We change anchorages every day, there are only 4 to 5 miles between them. We don’t even pull the dinghy up and what a treat just to be able to jump in it and take off, without unwrapping, untying, lowering it and putting on the motor, plus dragging out from down below all the stuff that has to go in it; paddles, wheels, pump, seat and gas can. We will be in this Gulf for another week, in a couple of days we will head to the mainland side of the Gulf, get water and fuel and then head down to Drakes Bay. I sat down the other day and worked backward from the day we plan on being in the Galapagos and figured out a timeline for the rest of Feb. It is only about 2 weeks until we head across to the islands. Keep in touch, what is happening to all of you in Canada??? .

We managed to hook up with Trish, Graeme and Quinn 2 days ago. Everyone was sick Trish had been sick for the past three days, Quinn was sick and Graeme was getting it. Quinn was a real trooper he didn't whine and cry too much but he was not happy unless he was with his Mom. He didn't want too much to do with Grandma or Grandpa holding him. He checked Barry's beard out very carefully, he wasn't too sure about it.

They are camping down at the beach and much to Graeme's disgust the surf is not up, it was decidedly yukky and he didn't even go out one day.

It took us an hour and a half on the bus to get to where they were, so we decided to stay the night. We got a lovely cabana with a nice pool and everyone just hung out in the room in the afternoon to get away from the heat and let poor little Quinn have some relief when he was sick.

Trish and I got a chance to try surfing in the morning yesterday. I didn't even try to get up on Trish's board, it is small and tricky even to sit on. I got to tummy slide in on 2 waves which was very much fun. We will have to head out there again to try it another day.

Talk about a real BEACH BUM!!

Trish was going to give Quinn another day to recuperate and then try and come on the bus to see us tomorrow. It will be nice to have them onboard. I think Graeme may come, but only if the surf still sucks.

Position: 09 36.9 N 085 17. 9 W on the west coast of Costa Rica.
Well, I got my wish, a lovely calm sail. We are on our way south to an anchorage near where Trish and Graeme are surfing. We think they are in the country now. We will head to a spot called Ballena Bay in the Gulf of Nicoya. We think they are on the Pacific side about 20 miles up the coast from the tip, if you look at a map, at a spot called Malpais.
Earlier today we set out to just head 15 miles around the corner from Playa De Coco. We thought we would just take our time. Then the wind came up and Barry said let’s keep going, there was no reason not too, we had food and water and a moveable shelter, so onward. It was wonderful, bright sun, a breeze, and I was uploading some new music on to my IPOD, so I was dancing to the Moma’s’ and the Papa’s down below while Barry was at the helm. Life doesn’t get too much better than that.

Barry and the gang doing the Red Tape Waltz in Cocos

Now it is 0400 and I am grooving to the Moma’s and the Papa’s again as we glide along towards the Southern Cross. There is no moon yet, I am expecting it to rise any minute, maybe the sun will beat it up today!! Lazy Moon. I have been sitting here wishing on the shooting stars, a gentle breeze in my face.
I had a good shot of Diet Coke when I came on shift at 0245, 45 minutes late, unforgivable. I woke up at 0200 and just shut my eyes for one more minute and 45 minutes later I woke up. Barry was 2 minutes late waking up at 2200 and you think I let him sleep, NO, but he never wakes me up when I sleep in, what a guy, not really fair, I wish he would wake me, but that is his choice.
We have been having problems with the dinghy the last couple of weeks. It has developed a slow leak. We have thought of everything we could think of to find it. Barry put soap on it and then watched for bubbles, he couldn’t see anything. Then he tried to fill it with water and see if that worked no luck. We have been traveling around with the pump in the dinghy, ready to add air anywhere anytime. Today we hauled the dinghy aboard and I heard it leaking. I ran down below and got the soap and spread some on the area that I thought I heard the sound from and ZOWIE, there it was. Hopefully we should be able to get it fixed shortly. Not only would it deflate while we were riding around in it but also on the deck. So, we would tie it down beautifully, pulling the ropes as hard as we could to keep it in place and then it would deflate and the ropes would get loose and it would move around on the deck, getting all crooked and weird looking. It will be nice to have it fixed.

We are in Costa Rica and spent the afternoon doing the red tape waltz. I would have said tango but that would be far to energetic a description of the exercise. Go to the Port Captain, get sent away to make copies, return, get sent to Immigration, and wait, while the clerk gets angry at the customer before us and demands to know why all the crew isn´t there, why not indeed. Then go with some one about 30 miles to the airport to the Customs people and wait and wait and wait. Finally after 45 minutes get a STAMPED piece of paper back and head back to the Port Captain that we had to tip $25.00 to stay open for us and VOILA, we are legal. WHEW, glad we don´t have to do that every day.

We are headed out of here tomorrow and will try and hook up with Patricia further south. We know what town she will be in, just not sure exactly where in the town she will be, hopefuly she will e-mail us and let us know by the time we get to the next anchorage.

We had an interesting sail from El Salvador. There are winds down here called papaguyos and I think we were royally Papaguyoed yesterday. We had wind on the nose, bashing into the waves all day and night. It wasn´t as bad as the Tehuanepec but I think we can claim to having been well and truly Papaguyoed. Hopefully we will have a lovely spinnaker run tomorrow, something not too exciting.

EL JEFE - PANCHO

Yesterday we took a stroll through the El Salvadoran jungle to see the howler monkey's. This family of monkeys was saved by an El Salvadoran family. During the fighting 20 years ago, this family was caught between the rebels and the government forces. These fighters would live in the jungle off the land and to survive they would eat the monkeys. This family agreed to feed both sides if they would let the monkeys live, so there is a thriving community of monkeys for us to see. The monkey clan is presided over by the macho monkey by the name of Pancho. The head of the human family yelled out Pancho, Pancho and a few minutes later the clan arrived. Pancho is the only adult male, all the females are part of his harem and he has fathered all the babies. We were able to feed them bananas by hand and observe them at close hand as long as we wanted, what a treat. They seemed to be better fed than the dogs that were on hand.

Today we drove into town. The road we were on was just a dirt road, not even gravel and the houses along the way were an example of some of the poorest we have encountered. This was rural El Salvador, men with machetes, fields of sugar cane being cut by hand and the fields burnt. Most of the people we saw on the dirt road were on bicycles, pedalling away in the heat. I imagine a bicycle is a prized possesion in these parts. Then we turned onto a highway and went into town. We were the only gringos that we saw in town and we received a lot of stares, we had kids coming up to us and saying hello, just to see if we were real, I think. The town had some startling contrasts. There were lovely new buildings that housed a Wendy's and a Pizza Hut, then there was the bustling open air market. You could hardly move in the market it was so stuffed with vendors. They would shout at you to come and buy their produce, a large part of which were tomatoes, onions and potatoes and very loud latin music was broadcast throughout the area. We bought several new fruits that we have not seen before, they should be an interesting taste sensation. We did learn the names but I forget, several we were able to taste before we bought them, the purply one seemed to be some kind of a plum.

We arrived back at the marina, put all the groceries away and headed to the pool, for some more R and R. We are leaving bound for Costa Rica tomorrow, so must complete our formalities today, checking out of the country and paying up our bill, which we have just signed for all week, that includes our laundry, our food and bar bill, our internet usage as well as our mooring fees. It should take us about 2 days to reach Costa Rica but I am not sure about internet access in our first port so you may not hear from us for 3 or 4 days. Trish, Graeme and Quinn are coming for a surfing vacation to Costa Rica so it is just super that we will be able to meet up with them for about a week. Hopefully we will be able to find them, but amazingly so far we have been able to connect with any visitors that have tried to hook up with us.

We made it, we are across TDTP (The Dreaded TehaunePec). It threw a punch at us but it wasn't roundhouse knockout punch, just a jab to the jaw. We had 24 hours of uncomfortable sailing, getting bashed about with a triple reef in the main and the staysail, thank heavens for the hanked on staysail. Sometimes even that was too much for the boat and we had to wrestle the wheel to get back on track. After 24 hours of that it settled down and we had some great sailing. This was our longest passage ever at 5 days and we did pretty well in the rest department. At night we would do one 4 hour shift and one 3 hour shift, and then 2 hours during the day when it was really hot. The 0100 t0 0500 shift was the killer, I think after 0200 I was looking at my watch every 15 minutes, makes for a long night. I think I identified the Southern Cross so it was great to see it (I think).

We are in Barillas Marina in El Salvador. They have an excellent system for checking in, all the officials came to our boat, 2 police men, one custom's officer and an immigration guy plus best of all a lovely English speaking senorita!! We were through and checked in, only $20.00 lighter in a half an hour, record time.

Barillas is a gated spot, almost like an all inclusive resort. There is a pool and a bar, the office arranges for internet and you can charge all you want. The resort has a bus into town 2 times a week, from there you can go to San Salvador, etc. We have decided to press on to Costa Rico. There is only so much time and there are great spots to stop in Costa Rico. I think we may leave from there to go to the Galapagos. Apparently the angle and winds are better that way. We are going to bypass Panama, but I guess we will see it on the way back, from east to west if Barry gets his work fix every once in awhile.

We are in Hualtulco, MX. It is the jumping off point for cruisers for Central America. We have been here for 2 days and we are leaving this afternoon for El Salvador. We are going to skip Guatemala all together, because it is expensive to get into the country and the one marina that there is, is supposedly very expensive. There apparently are not any nice anchorages there either so we decided to give it a miss, beside we do not have it`s flag.

It is about 500 miles to El Salvador and we have to cross the last big sailing hurdle on this coast, the DREADED TUHAUNAPEC, ( I am not sure of the spelling). Anyway the Gulf of Tuhaunapec, is a very dangerous stretch of water. It is dangerous because all of the weather from the Gulf of Mexico, on the Atlantic side of Mexico comes funnelling through this narrow opening. The mountains stop and there is a low land crossing that the wind just finds and comes humming through. You really have to keep an eye on the weather in Texas to figure out whether or not you are going to be safe crossing this body of water.

Fortunately there is a fellow who is the dockmaster at the marina where we are staying who is a master of the T-Pec. He has crossed it over 200 times and he has numerous weather web sites that he will call up and look at. He won`t let boats leave unless he thinks there is a good safe weather window. Apparently we are looking forward to 15-25 knots of wind on the beam and very little wave action. You cross the T-Pec hugging the shore, one foot on the beach as it were, so that the wind, if there is some, does not have any room to make big waves. Good stratedgy. We are leaving about supper time so that we will cross the worst part during the day tomorrow and then it will be smooth sailing after that.

Haultulco is a lovely spot, it is a planned tourist community so there is not much of the natural Mexican charm here, but there are great grassy boulevards with coconuts palms everywhere for shade. The hotels are not garish and the beaches look lovely and pristine. We did anchor one night out in the bay and it was very rolly and after the wind switched at three in the morning we did not get much sleep. We went our for our last dinner in Mexico last night and had a lovely time with Bruce and Marion from Galivant. Apparently Central American cooking is quite bland and boring compared to Mexican cuisine. We shall see.

The next blog you will be getting will be from El Salvador and we will be well on our way in the next stage of our adventure. There are only about five weeks left until we are to leave for the Galapagos and we have several countries to explore before then. Keep in touch, we love hearing from all of you.

We are in Port Escondido almost 150 miles south of Acapulco. We did not stop in Acapulco this time, we sailed 48 hours to get here. It is apparently a good surfing stop, but not a great anchorage. The town has some lovely Spanish, or Mediterranean architecture and is very clean and pretty. We are going to head further south to Haultuco tomorrow and then wait for a weather window to cross the dreaded Gulf of Tehaunapek ( not spelled properly).

We are working on trying to get our Ham radio up and running again, we have talked to the fellow that installed it and have some more tricks to try to see if we can´t get it going. Wish us luck.

At the moment we are travelling with the couple from New Mexico that we went to Patzcuaro with. They have their son with them so it is nice to get a young person´s views on what we are doing. I must go more later.

We are back in Zihua making arrangements to leave tomorrow. We will be starting on our Central American leg of our adventure. Zihua has so much to offer, it would be very easy to just stay here, there is so much to do and so many great people here. I can see why people come back year after year.

We had a lot of fun in Patzcuaro. We saw some great indegenous dancing, some non tourist authentic Mexican musicians just making music, had a great if excruciating slow transit on gravel roads around a lake, got to know a set of cruisers better, experienced the Mexican mountains. It was on my list of things to do so it was fun.

The real deal. We saw this family on the back of beyond, they even had a goat tied to the back of the wagon.

We met some friends from last year at Rick´s on Friday night and they said that they were taking an inland trip on Sat. morning. That sounded like such a good idea I jumped on it and asked if they would mind if we joined them, so off we went.

We are in Patzcuaro up in the mountains about 7,000 feet, about 200 miles inland, I think. We took one bus that was a 3 and a half hour trip to Uruapan and then another 30 minute trip here. We are staying in the main square in a lovely old building that is very clean and has wonderful furniture in the lobby. I froze up one computer trying to load my pictures so won´t bother again. It is a colonial town with a very different feel from the coast. We saw some traditional dancing last night and then went for dinner.

At dinner there was some live music and our friends have their 22 year old son with them. He is a muscian so he started chatting with the folks and it resulted in an invitation to a house party. After many fits and trys we found the place, the cabby had to ask several people before he found it. It was lots of fun with dancing and live music, bongos, keyboard and guitar. One girl there was very good at the Salsa. What an adventure. We are headed out shortly to explore the lake where the area is based around. Apparently in the 1500 century the bishop in the area made each village around the lake into an centre where one craft was practised and perfected in each place. One village is know for it´s copper work, one for pottery, one for weaving, etc. It should be fun to see what we can discover today. I think we will head back to Zihua tomorrow.

Just thought I would let you know what we are up to. Trish and Jen have both posted great family pics from Christmas, thank you guys, it means a lot to me.

Well, I finally did it.

15 years ago I took Scuba lessons, passed the course and took my open water dives and then said to Barry okay it's your turn. I was thinking we could take holidays in warm water and we could go diving together. Barry instead chose to take sailing lessons, three boats later and 15 years have passed and I finally took a dive, in fact I have now taken 4. Wow! What a blast. Today we saw a sea horse, an octopus (which I spotted), 3 moray eels and hundreds of fish. It was awesome. Barry didn't want to try because he was worried about his sinuses so I finally figured out, if I was going to do I had to do it by myself, so away I went. I am so glad. I am actually spending my bonus from Coldwell Banker on this perk so thanks guys. I have 2 more days of diving left so life it good.

Mungo showed up here yesterday and two other boats from last year are here so it is great to see old friends. We are once again really enjoying Zihua. If you have a chance it is a great holiday destination.

Some poor bugger was 60 miles out and his chain plate gave way. This is what happened to his mast. What a shame.

Barry was out getting his diesel fix yesterday and he came across this pile of tangerines and pineapple. The tangerines are really tasty.

When we got up the other day this sight greated us. It looked pretty horrific from the boat. There were two distinct flaming structures, so I imagine that two Mexican families lost their homes. Hopefully no one lost their lives.

Well we made to Zihua. We stopped off in two anchorages, Maruata and Caleta De Campos. We went ashore in Caleta and toured the town. It was our first dinghy landing in surf, for this season so it was a bit scary. We put everything in waterproof bags, but I guess we learned a few lessons last year and we managed to time the waves perfectly and landed very dry. The town was interesting and we even managed to find a Lange shortcut back down to the beach, scrambling down and very narrow, windy, treacherous trail. We actually sailed quite a bit on the trip down, there wasn´t much wind but we would coast along at 3 to 3 and a half knots. It was great to be on our own time schedule not having to hurry to get somewhere, just sailed when we wanted to and who cared how fast we were going.

It is great to be back in Zihua. We went to the doctor we saw last year and renewed our prescriptions and it felt great to know the ropes, where the doctor was, which pharmacy would be able to fill our needs for a year and where the bank was so we could pay to the prescriptions. We had a lovely time at Rick´s Bar on Saturday night with live music and dancing.
We are planning on staying here about a week and then heading further south. We managed to buy a cruisers guide for Panama today, for a very decent price from another cruiser. I have a line on some flags so things are looking good. We are going to attempt to repair our ham radio antenna this afternoon. It would be great if we could get that figured out. I want to stop by a dive shop later and try and do some diving while we are here. Barry is worried about the effect of the depth on his ears so is not interested. I took my dive training in 1993 and 15 years later I would like to see what is out there under the sea.

Me and my neice Karen and my grand neice Chantal on New Years Eve

We hope everyone had a Happy New Year. Barry and I danced in the New Year out under the stars with the sound of the surf crashing on the beach. It was a lovely time and all the better because we could share it with Bruce, Marg., Karen, Monty and Chantal. We have spent the last week lazing about on the beach, using the unlimited water and shower facilities in Bruce and Marg s room, and chowing down at the all you can eat buffet almost everynight. I can understand now how people put on weight on cruises and all inclusive resorts. It has been a lovely holiday from being on the boat.

The Br. Lange family is headed home today and we are headed further south. We would probably take the day to rest up from the festivities last night but a great wind is predicted tonight and they don{t come along that often here, so off we go. We will take 4 or 5 days to get to Ziahua and then renew our acquaintances there. I am looking forward to doing that. We spent 6 weeks there last year and really enjoyed ourselves.

I am on a really old computer at Las Hadas resort so I am not going to attempt to put any pictures on. Hope all is well with everyone and don{t forget to keep in touch.

Merry Christmas to everyone

I am not sure what you were doing Christmas Eve, perhaps you were doing some last minute shopping, making sure you had all the fixing for Christmas Dinner, driving to get to some of your relatives homes, shoveling snow. Well, I spent the morning taking a surfing lesson!! We rode in the back of a truck to a beach about 1/2 hour away and got a surfing lesson. I never could manage to stand up on the board, but I did get aboard and squat on long enough to get a couple of nice rides. WHAT A RUSH, when you catch a good wave. The board just floats along for ever and ever. It just makes you want to try over and over again to experience that sensation. It was so much fun and I am really glad I had a chance to try.

We had a couple over for breakfast on Christmas morning, we had a wonderful fruit salad with all sorts of really fresh fruit in it. Then we pulled anchor and sailed to Manzanillo and managed to find Barry brother and his family. We arrived in time to have Christmas dinner at the all inclusive resort's buffet. It was very tasty although there was not any turkey in sight!!

Since then, we have spent every day with them at their resort. Hanging out suntanning and swimming at the beach. His grandchildren are having a great time playiing in the surf and this afternoon they are heading out on an ATV excursion. We are planning a trip into town tomorrow, we will go to one of the local markets and then head downtown to the old harbour.

It really feel like we are having a holiday away from the boat. Everyday we have to hike for 20 minutes in order to get to their hotel. 20 minutes isn't a bad walk except that for the first 10 minutes of the walk we have to walk up a 10 % grade then as soon as we get to the top we head down. The walk back to the boat is easier than the trip to the hotel so that is a good thing. Every morning I have to get my body in gear for the 10 minute climb. Bruce and Marg will be here for New Years and will head home on Jan. 1. We will probably head south again once they leave.

Apparently there is supposed to be a hockey game on the beach in a few minutes, Mexicans against Canadians, Mexican rules. This I've got to see, a Mexican rules hockey game.

Barry and I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season and hope that everyone experiences the joys and happiness of the season along with family and friends.

We are safe and sound in Barra De Navidad which is just north of Manzanillo. We are located at 19.11 N and 104.40 W. We had a quiet mostly windless passage from Mazatlan. We did 2 overnighters, one from Mazatlan to a spot halfway. There we went ashore and had a nice dinner with 2 other couples that we had never met before and then slept the night away. I truly felt like we were cruising as we sat on the beach about 30 feet from the shore listening to the crashing waves, watching the sunset and drinking Margaritas. We left early next morning and motor sailed for 31 hours to get to Barra. It is hot and humid here and we are both sweating freely and working on our tans, it is too hot to wear anything besides a bathing suit.
Barra is a lagoon, the water is unswimmable and a dirty brown in colour, also it is very shallow. There is a very narrow entry that is about 500 meters long, if you get either side of the channel you hit bottom. Last year when we came in, we followed line of sight directions, lining up some palm trees and a roof top. This year we followed very explicit GPS way points and we went aground twice while entering the channel. We had entered at a very low tide and once we got into the mooring field the depth finder was reading 2.1 and 1.7 feet below the keel, scary. Then we anchored and figured we were too close to someone so pulled up the anchor and dropped it a little further back and we ran aground again. We moved to an open spot and ran aground for the 4th time in one day. Enough was enough, so we managed to find a slightly deeper spot and dropped anchor and stayed put. Each time we ran aground we had been going so slowly we were able to gun the motor and get the keel out of the mud and move in a different direction. Thank goodness, what a fiasco, 4 times.
Mungo is here, their daughter Katherine arrives on a plane today. Shared Dreams, another Bluewater boat with Frank and Gisela and their daughter Janine is here as well. We had dinner aboard Mungo last night, it was great to meet up with them again and exchange stories about what has happened to us since we left San Carlos. We plan to stay here until Christmas Day and then we will go to Manzanillo. Hopefully, Mungo and Shared Dreams will be able to have a Christmas breakfast with us. Bruce and Marg and their family will arrive in the late afternoon in Manzanillo so we will go and spend some time with them.

What have we been up to lately. Okay, since we have got here I was hauled up the mast to get the stuck spinnaker halyard that we lost, repaired the drain that was dripping on my bunk (this involved, re caulking it, cutting it and refastening it) climbed up behind the radar arch to try and figure out what is happening with the ham radio, undoing and reattaching the antenna, put another coat of varnish on pull of the hatchway, fix the auto-pilot, polished the stainless steel on deck, scrubbed the deck down with fresh water, laundry, grocery shopping, washed the floors and cleaned the bathroom, put anti-chafing on the life lines, hauled up the spinnaker to sort out the sock so it won't get stuck again, folded and stowed the stay sail and today we re insulated the refrigerator.

We called a refrigeration guy to come and look at the fridge. Barry wanted to replace it, the guy basically said that we needed a new box for the fridge with better insulation and the unit was fine. He suggested rather than ripping the whole unit out and having it rebuilt that we try and upgrade the insulation . He gave us a ride to the wonderful Home Depot here and we bought supplies. Back at the boat we cut Styrofoam to fit on one side of the box and then sealed it with aluminum tape. Then we put a vapour barrier of plastic on top of that. I had to beg the guy to get the plastic. At Home Depot we found some plastic that they put on the ground to keep out weeds but they didn't have a price so wouldn't sell us any. There was some old used plastic sitting around and I convinced the young fellow to just give it to us since it was just garbage and not for sale. It was hard doing it in Spanish, I beg much better in English!!

I guess the old saying that cruising is just repairing your boat in exotic places is really quite true!!

Note: Dancing with Carole's red hat on

We did manage to go out to dinner twice while we were her and the margaritas were REALLY GOOD at the last place we visited. There was a musician from Saltspring Island playing, and Barry must have been feeling no pain because we danced a couple of dances, fun, fun. I bought my good friend Carole,, on Espiritu, a red hat so we could be twins and promptly had it blown off when we taxied home in the back of a little red truck. Yes, they actually let you sit in the back of a truck, and you pay them good money to do it.

Note: In the little red truck, NO RED HAT!

We are headed further south tomorrow, making our way to Manzanillo where we will meet Bruce, Marg and family. Mungo with Steve, Sandi and their daughter Katherine will be at an anchorage just north of there so we are hoping to stay a few days with them before Christmas. The time is just flying by, I had not idea that it is only a week until Christmas tomorrow. YIKES, we had better get sailing.

Southward Bound

We set off the next day heading south. We stopped at Bahia Conception a spot we wanted to visit on the way north. It said the the guide book there were hot springs so in we hopped in the dinghy and headed ashore. Once we arrived at the sandy beach, which had no surf we found people wandering around in the water with plastics tubs in their hands. What were they up to, turns out they were claming. The one fellow would just drag his feet through the sand under water and find the clams and pretty soon he had dinner. HMMM.

We found the hot springs and soaked for a few minutes, they did not rival the ones in Tungsten, I tell you. There were murky once you walked in them, but nice and warm. Then we headed back to the dinghy and tried out hand a claming. We got enough for a nice appetizer.

A couple of days before Barry had caught a bonita when we were underway. We found out that you have to get the blood out of these fish in order to make them good eating. Barry cut the head off and we dragged it behind the boat for about an hour. We had two meals from the sea within a couple of day, bonita then clams. This is the life.

We kept heading further south and then on Wed. we were heading in the general direction of La Paz. It was blowing 20 t0 25 knots behind us so we decided not to go into this one channel that might have got pretty rough so we headed east. Once we were going that way Barry suggested that we just keep going and head for Mazatlan on the mainland, forget about La Paz, so away we went. 50 hours later we showed up in Maz. It was another great sail, wind on the quarter, making 6.5, 7 knots the whole way. It was a bit bumpy and my back and shoulders were aching from wresting with the equipment at those speeds. When you try and sleep and it is bumpy you are awakened as your body tries to not be thrown around the bed. You feel as if you are going to fall so you wake up all tensed up and realize that you are only going to go across the bed, not get thrown across the width of the boat, makes for very light sleeping.

Barry (this is true) suggested that we put up the spinnaker when the wind died slightly and all went well until we tried to get it down, SHIT (sorry Mom, but it was a mess)!! The sock would not come down and the sail was up there flailing around in the wind, with the lines that are attached to it whipping themselves into a frenzy, they hurt when they hip you. We finally unrolled some genoa and blanketed the spinnaker and were able to take it down. Barry swears it is never going to come out of the bag again. I will keep you posted.

While the shute was up I was just loving it. A group of porpoises showed up and we were charging along at 7 and 1/2 to 8 knots, throwing up quite a wave. I think those animals and I were one just powering through the waves, living life to the max and enjoying every second.

When we showed up in Mazatlan we had about 200 feet of fishing line trailing behind us. Thank goodness it didn't find our prop, we both agreed that we were very lucky. I pulled it in as we coasted down the channel and later Barry salvaged the hooks and leaders that were on the line.

We found a group of 2007 Bluewater sailers at our dock and 8 of us went out for dinner tonight. The ribs were delicious and the company was outstanding. We found out that Bruce (Barry's brother) and Marg and their family will be in Manzanillo between Christmas and New Years so we are planning to head south at a great rate in a few days. It will be nice to have some family close, we had no idea they were going to come.

MULEGE

We went to Mulege on the bus last week. We started the day off with breakfast at the hotel in Santa Rosalita that was built by the French in the late 1800's and is still furnished in that style, what a great way to set up a day.

Muelge was a wonderful spot. We bused through desert hills for miles and miles and then all of a sudden we were in an oasis of date palms, lush vegetation and a river. What a change in vegetation. We asked about a path we saw and we told that the old monastery was that way, where the lookout was, so off we went, Barry and I and the couple from Decade Dance, Betty Lou and Dave from Indianapolis. We walked across an old cement and stone damn and then up to the church. The church was built by the Franscian monks in 1776 and it is still standing. If there was a hurricane in this region I know I would want to head here, the walls were 3 feet thick.

After visiting the monastery we strolled on down the road and I saw a fellow sitting making a fire outside this ornate fence, and of course, I wondered, what is going on. Making the mistake I made almost a year ago I encouraged everyone to wonder over. The fellow was cooking clams on a fire. The home was one of the big landowners in the area and as I discovered a little further along, yup once again we had been trespassing. There were no signs and no harm done and we interacted with the populus. This fellow didn't ask us in to view the grounds, though, just went in the gate and shut the door. This time it helped though because Dave had been a peace corp volunteer in the 60's in El Salavador so his Spanish was pretty good and there were no awkward moments of minunderstanding.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around visiting the shops and restaurants in town. There was a tienda that sold wonderful gringo supplies, like brown sugar, Kraft dinner, sharp cheddar cheese and a big container of nuts (that we are keeping for guests). It was a great trip and I even managed to find a few Christmas presents. When we got back I quickly wrapped them up and Betty Lou said she would mail them once they got to Indianapolis, YIPPEE!

We are in Santa Rosalia, we sailed down from Bahia San Fransciquito yesterday. That sail rated as one of the all time top sails. We had 15 to 20 knots of wind off the stern and 6 foot following seas. Cat´s-Paw IV romped her way through the 75 miles averaging about 6 knots. We just had the genoa up in the morning and then about 1500 hours the wind dropped and Barry agreed with my suggestion to put up the spinnaker and away we went, just flying down the waves, hitting 7.5 knots with ease, FANTASTIC. We even managed to take the spinnaker down just after dark and with genoa alone again surged on to Santa Rosalia. We found the entrance in the dark and put the hook down without any problems.

Our ham radio will still not send voice messages and we cannot receive or send e-mails. We are headed to La Paz and may be out of touch for 2 to 3 weeks, so please do not be concerned about where we are. Hopefully we will run into someone else that has e-mail access and I will be able to send off a message but who knows.

We are going to be here for a few days so if you want to send messages, send to my yahoo mail before Friday. Tomorrow we are planing a bus trip to a town about 1/2 hour away that has a lovely church. We are at a dock now and will charge up the batteries, which have been performing flawlessly, get water and load up on groceries before we head for La Paz.

We had fun in Bahia San Fransciquito. It was a great place to wait out the honking northerly, up to 40 knots. We climbed up a lighthouse that did not work and went exploring with our buddies from Decade Dance. There was an airstrip on an old lake bed and some palapas for tourists about 2 miles from where the boat was. On our expedition Barry put his hand down and got a quarter of his palm invested with cactus thorns. I had a go at getting them out 2 days ago and must have another go today. Some of them are quite deep and about a 1/4 inch long, so they are really in there.

Important update

Our ham radio is not transmitting. That means the scourge of the airwaves is SILENCED. We can hear stuff, ex. weather reports, net traffic, but we cannot send. We cannot send or recieve e-mail or let anyone know where we are until we get to a port where there is internet, so please don't worry if you don't hear from us, we are fine we just cannot let you know. VERY FRUSTRATING. We are attempting to fix the problem, racking our brains trying to figure out why. Once we have access to internet we will be able to contact some ham officianados that may be able to help us. At the moment we are still in Bahia San Fransciquito, I am e-mailing this from Decade Dance some people we just met who very kindly offered to send this message. There is a 40 knot northern blowing down the sea so we are just staying put in a wonderfully protected anchorage riding out the blow. Hope you all are well and we will send another message once we get to Santa Rosalia. Hasta Luego.

We are in Bahia San Franscisquito, on the west side of the Baha, about 75 miles north of Santa Rosalia. We made a safe, uneventful night passage from San Carlos. It was rather unusual in that it rained for a lot of the passage. Last year we had maybe 10 minutes of rain in 6 months and it rained continuously for 10 hours, very weird. Maybe not though, we were not in the Sea of Cortez at this time last year so perhaps this is par for the course.

We managed to sail for about 9 hours of the 22 hour passage so that was nice. We did 3 hour shifts so wec each slept for about 6 hours in total. The trick is to be able to go to sleep when your shift is over, just let go and fall asleep. Our radar is still inoperable, we have been unable to repair it after cutting the wires in preparation to taking down the mast. There is one wire that is just a hair's width, that Barry thinks is the one which the radar signal passes through which we think is not working. We may have to restring whole new cable which is not impossible but will be very tricky to try and attach to the electrical bus. Anyway the long and short of that thought was that we did not have radar on the way over and there was an island that we were in danger of hitting. Barry plotted it's position and at about 0300 said that we should pass 3 miles south of it. The wind vane was steering and I was reading by headlamp, when I decided to check to see if anything was around and there was the island, appearing out of the gloom. It was just the faintest of shadows in the dark against the horizon, it gave me a bit of a start, even though I knew it should be there. I had scary thoughts about how a person could easily just run into something like that in the middle of the night if they were not vigilant.
This morning after making some yummy eggs and coffee (with Baileys of course, I broke down and bought some more after that disaster with the bottle in our luggage)I took over the helm and as we approached the coast I saw water spouts. Two or three whales were feeding in the general area we had to pass by. They would surface and then go down to feed for about 5 -7 minutes so you would not have a clue where they were going to surface. They got quite close to the boat and I just thought, "Do you know how much money people pay to see this?" It was a little worrisome though, after hearing horror stories of whales bashing into boats and breaking them in two. These must have been boat broken whales ( kind of like house broken puppies), or friendly, or just plain hungry because they ignored us, crossed either under us or 30 feet in front and they were gone. Whew!!
We have anchored in a lovely little spot and there is supposed to be a couple of good blows in the next few days so we should get some exploring done. Hopefully the rain will stop and the sun will come out and we can go ashore.