Word Pictures

We visited Bara De Navidad and actually took a whole day walking around the town. The town is divided into three distinct areas, or so it seems to me, a day pass visitor. First, it is GREEN. Yikes is it green. I practically went bonkers just looking at all the trees plants and flowers. The distinct areas are the tourist area (not my favorite, the actual working part of the small town with little tiendas (stores of all kinds) and the residential district. Traded some of our "been read" books for "new to us" books at Beer Bob's take one leave one. Found a fantastic one by Linda Lay Shuler. She is the author of "She who Remembers". This book, Voice of the Eagle, is a continuation of the story with the same characters. I am almost done with it, sigh.

Ok. Why the title "word pictures"? On the day prior to our walking around town day I did not have the camera. Wished I had and found myself thinking back to the photos I would have taken. Here are the descriptions.

First: A young mother holding a little (a girl somewhere in the walking but very small range) and grandmother are standing under a flowering tree's gentle shade talking and whistling to a large green and red parrot. The parrot chimes in every few notes with an imitation of the sounds and the little laughs and claps her hands. Her mother and grandmother share a smile and continue with the parrot serenade.

Second: A young father comes around the corner of the block riding a bicycle, holding a very small little - no larger than 6 months old, with one arm, guiding the bike confidently with his other. Both are smiling as the father proudly cycles the little, making a small breeze to cool them both as the bicycle passes us along the street.

Third: A young man and woman (late teens?) pass us on a motor scooter. She is riding pillion behind the man, holding onto his waist with casual companionship. She is very pretty, dressed in tight slacks and top with her mid drift showing. A second young man walks out of a store and turns to watch as she passes with a look of ? in his eyes. Humm. I could make up so many stories for this word picture.

So the day in Bara De Navidad was ever so enjoyable. I did go back and get some actual photos and will post them when we arrive in Zihuatanejo and have access to an internet cafe again. Actually, there was a rumor that Zihua harbor might actually have a wireless internet connection? I'll know tomorrow. We are well into the second day of the journey between Manzanillo and Zihua and will arrive sometime tomorrow (Sat) afternoon. It has been a restful and quiet passage. Could wish for a bit more wind so we could turn off the engine. No wind above 6 knots. Did sail makeing 2 and 3 knots of speed for a while yesterday but it is a lot of work to keep forward momentum at that rate. One very interesting occurrence, however. About an hour ago I was in the cockpit keeping watch and reading while Rich wrote emails below. I suddenly felt liquid spray of some sort on my arm and jumped up to find out what was going on. We are motor sailing with flat calm seas so it couldn't be waves splashing. Hummm. Next thought was birds and their kindly offerings from the sky. Checked for that in the cockpit and saw nothing so I started up towards the bow for further investigation. Just as I reached the bow a LARGE whale surfaced just off the front of Ceilidh and blew again. I jumped and yelled and had to wait for a more reasonable heart beat before calling Rich to come and see. That is indeed the closest encounter I have ever had with a whale. It was a small (for a fin back) whale - probably just a bit longer than Ceilidh at 40+ feet. It stayed around us for another 15 min or so, diving under the sea and surfacing again and again, but never as close as the first time. Rich did get to see it, for which I am happy.

I'll sign off for now with more stories later. Love to all from the yin side

A word from the 'yang-side' (1)

Greetings from Rich, the 'yang-side' of this cruising adventure. In true male fashion, some technical advice on how to follow our passage.

We are currently anchored in the lagoon behind Barra de Navidad. Our latitude and longitude coordinates (to obscene detail) are:

19.190433N, 104.673367W

If you (1) copy those coordinates, (2) go to maps.google.com, (3) click on the 'satellite' tab, (4) paste the coordinates into to address box, (5) click 'go' or 'locate' or whatever, and then (6) move the zoom slider bar back up a bit (because no one has high-resolution photos of the places we plan to go and so google displays an error message initially on the screen I just sent you to), you will then see a pin stuck in the spot where we are anchored. You can then fool with the zoom bar more to get a little bit closer in or a lot farther out.

Using this tool, Hope can include the name and coordinates of where her messages are originating from and you can get a feel for where we are geographically. As well as how it feels from her commentary.

I hope the pin is always in water, because right now according to the official government charts, our GPS position puts us on land. You see, the official government charts for most of Mexico were made by a US warship back in the 1870's and their clock was off so all their measurements of latitude and longitude were off as well. GPS gives you an exact and correct location, but the charts are wrong. Makes for fun passage planning.

Enjoy! yang-side signing off for now

Interesting anchorage this Bahia De Tenacatita

On many counts. First, there are usually MANY other boats here - anywhere from 10 on the low side to 50 on the yikes side. When we first arrived two days ago there were 2 other boats. They have since left and we are now the ONLY boat in the entire anchorage. Goes to show you that the early bird does sometimes fly alone. Today the wind is off the cove bank at a goodly breeze and it is the first day in weeks that the air temp exceeds the humidity. Yahoo! Strange. Looking out across the bay we have seen nada - haze and more haze. Our solar panels were not cutting it. Had to start up the engine to recharge and make water. This morning after the only other boat left we upped the anchor and moved, tucking further into the corner of the bay near the "party beach" to get out of the swell. Just as we got the anchor down 4 large dolphins came to visit. They found great fun in using our anchor chain as a loofa - scrapping their bodies along the chain over and over - sometimes swimming between the snubber loop and chain. I so wanted to get in the water and swim with them but I am just at the ucky chest stage of a nasty cold. That is why we are still here in Tenacatitia. Rich says we are staying until I am well and can't say as that is such a bad idea. Also today we saw 50 or more large butterflies flitting around Ceilidh. All colours, shapes and sizes. Fantastic!

That covers some of the interesting nature adventures - all without leaving Ceilidh! On to the human/boat interactions and points of interest. Pontoon boat dragging anchor on 2 different days and floating out to the middle of the bay before retrieval. No damage done and no close calls. Whew. On our 2nd morning here I was out wiping the dew off Ceilidh when I looked up and saw the other boat in the anchorage reversing rapidly towards the rocks pulling their anchor in front of them. What? The must have accidentally knocked the boat into reverse and the anchor did not hold. We tried to call them on the VHF. No answer and they were getting within 3 boat lengths of the rocks. Next Rich used our load hailer to broadcast a warning. No answer and they were within 2 boat lengths of the rocks. Rich started YELLING. Someone popped up the hatch and ran to put the gear in forward - they were just about on the rocks. YIKES. That was a very scary experience. We have not inflated the dingy so we were basically unable to do any more that we did. So happy we were not helping in a salvage situation and that they could just motor away looking very shook up. As the littles may remember, you never know what you'll see on the way down Mulberry Street (he he).

So we'll be here another day or so. Tomorrow if I'm feeling better we'll inflate our new 2 person KAYAK! Thanks to Laurie and Jay of Strange Bird I finally got my wish. We'll test it out by paddling around the edge of the bay and do a beach walk. Tonight I think I'll try my luck fishing off Ceilidh and see if the dolphins left any fish for us. We're not sure of our next stop. Might be Bara De Navadad, Mazanillo, or straight on to Zihuatanejo. Ahh the choices we are faced with.

Love to all from the yin side

Friends – La Cruz anchorage, Banderas Bay, Mexico

This has been fun and insightful. Our friends Laurie and Jay arrived at the anchorage in their sailboat Strange Bird the day after we pulled in. They spent the summer season in Paradise Village Marina (about an hour east of here). Laurie and I toured the downtown and did a grocery run in their car while the boys stayed and did projects on the boats. So enjoyable to see both Laurie and Jay and hear of their summer adventures and developments.
This visit to the Puerto Vallarta area is the 3rd since entering Mexico 2 years ago. It is amazing how rapidly the area is developing. New condos, homes and shopping areas are popping up everywhere. Jay and Laurie purchased a lovely condo near Paradise Village Marina and plan to sell Strange Bird and do a land based chapter. They found a community they enjoy and broad spectrum of fun and volunteer work to keep them busy for years to come. And, of course, they have the option to come and sail with us on Ceilidh when they feel the urge to get out on the sea once again.

The grounds of Paradise Village are very lush with vegetation. There are large swimming pools, genuine (he he) imitation Aztec statues and pyramids, complete upscale shopping mall and so many gringos you might think you were back in the US. The best part for me are the tigers. Yes, tigers. Don’t ask me why but they maintain a small zoo. I saw tigers, a panther, cougar mother/father and 3 cubs, pair of strange badger like creatures, deer, monkeys, bob cat and birds. Ostrich and peacocks strut around the area as well.

Laurie and Jay will be leaving this morning – returning to the marina for a bit before heading Strange Bird north for the US and the sales dock in Alameda. We plan to leave as well after a visit to the internet café to post this and catch up on land based emal. Another 24hour sail south east – around Cabo Corrientes and on to Chemela. Chemela has a very nice anchorage and some islands to explore if the weather is calm. Think we’ll wait for some happy north wind to continue the journey further south to Zihuatanejo. There are many other anchorages between and we have no set schedueles. How wonderful! We’ll take our time, go when the wind blows and enjoy the Mexican Riviera.

All for now. Look forward to hearing from you all via our Sailmail email. I’ll continue to post to the blog as we work our way down the Mexican coast.

From the yin side

Back in the Pacific again

and it is calm and rolly. 2 and 3 foot swells rolling us around as we motor from La Paz, Baja to Banderas Bay, La Cruz on the Mexican mainland. 2nd day of travel and the most wind seen has been 9 knots. Rich and I are both thinking of future travel plans that entail long stretches where we'll need to conserve fuel and use whatever wind there is rather than fire up the engine. Sitting in this rocky rolly sea without any headway would be a rather washing machine like experience.

Last night the sea was calm like melted chocolate with ripples as Ceilidh slid through on our journey. Directly overhead the sky was clear and stars studded the velvet sky. In the distance to the west was a glow from Cabo San Lucas and to the east a dimmer glow from Mazatlan. This early afternoon on Nov 4th 2005 finds us 100+ nautical miles south east of Cabo, Baja and 50 miles west of mainland Mexico. Out here in the pacific with the turtles. So many sea turtles that you might think they were buoys set to direct you into harbor. Fishing report: 0 Dolphin report: 0 whale report? 0. Have seen a remarkable number of flying fish and a few excited fish boils. Today Rich and I will work on putting together the new fishing lures I purchased while in the US in Oct (some assembly required). In the meantime I will catch up on individual emails that are way over due and post this via sailmail to the blog.

Onward and south east bound...

Last night in La Paz?

Kind of hope so. The sunset was spectacular with more colours and patterns than my eyes could see in one glance. Stopped cooking and ran for the camera the photo is showing only the last rays. La Paz sunsets are amazing. Don't know why that is so.

If the weather (wind/waves) have calmed down a bit this will be the last internet posting for a while. I'll send in posts via email and save the photos to add in when we get hooked in again.

Off to sleep or tomorrow will come WAY to early. 

Peach! This one is for you

strange fruit in La Paz Central. Not as much fun without you there to share the experience. We'll need to check out the offerings in Ecuador and compare them with Egypt and Mexico. What say? We were out early walking the streets and found an equal amount of people munching on fruit while others choose shrimp and fish tacos. Watching the town wake up was a new experience. 

Outside the best ice cream shop in La Paz

I know. There is no ice cream in the photo. I do, however, have a large smile on my face. Love the limon ice on a stick. Yummmm. This shop is so well know here in La Paz that it is frequently used at a gathering point. Everyone can find the pokadot tree. It is rather hard to miss. Just across the street is the public warf. There was a US flagged tall ship tied up today. We tried to read the name but could not quite make it out. Something Roberts. It must have been 100 feet and who knows how broad. Two masts and huge sails all lashed to various parts of mast/booms and other bits I haven't a clue on what they are called.