February 4, 2019
Cannons awoke me at 6:00 on Monday. In Mexico, they set off cannons to frighten
away evil spirits on holidays. Monday
was Constitution Day in Mexico, which commemorates the signing of the
constitution that returned the land to the peasants (and created endless land
title squabbles for the next century plus.)
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| Water Hazard at Dawn |
I got up to get in a last run before we left Barra. I ran four miles through the golf course
before dawn. Bill and Susan were up by
the time I got back, since they needed to leave by 8:45 to catch their flight
back to L.A. We all drank coffee and
they stayed long enough to receive one last visit from the French baker. I passed, having made another batch of hard
boiled eggs.
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| Early Morning Colimilla |
I finally found hot water at the shower in the hotel
spa. I took advantage of that to wash
and re-braid my hair. As my braid was
then over two feet long, I required conditioner to be able to comb it out and
that required hot water to rinse out of my hair. On long passages with no showers, I wrapped
it in a bandana to keep it from getting shaggy.
We spent the day doing last minute chores. The laundry was closed for the holiday, so I
did a load of washing in buckets while Greg used the internet in the hotel
lobby to take care of business. We made
tacos from chilorio and leftover bean dip for dinner.
So many cruisers had departed after the Superbowl that the
WiFi, which hadn’t worked since we arrived, suddenly began to operate perfectly
well. We spent the evening with our
noses buried in our devices.
February 5, 2019
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| Morning in the Barra Marina |
The cannons woke me, again, at 6:00. I got up early, but it wasn’t a running day
so I merely sat in the cockpit, drinking bouillon, and enjoyed the internet
connection. We were leaving that morning
and had chores to do but there was no hurry.
It was only a few hours to Tenacatita.
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| Rounding the Point Between Barra and Tenacatita |
We checked out and left the marina just before 11:00. Leaving the bay, we motored straight into the
wind but, after we rounded the point, we were able to fall off just enough to
sail the rest of the way. We had a
leisurely sail across Tenacatita Bay and dropped anchor just in time for
lunch. It was quite breezy and, by the
time I had made quesadillas for lunch, I found it too cool to want to
swim. We relaxed and enjoyed the
scenery. I practiced the guitar and read
while Greg took a nap.
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| Sunset in Tenacatita |
The sunset was gorgeous enough that I paused my dinner
preparations long enough to watch it. I
made Tuscan sauteed chicken breast fillets for dinner with fried plantains and
salad. The data connection was
surprisingly good in Tenacatita Bay and we managed to sit in the cockpit and
watch Trump’s State of the Union address on my phone via YouTube. In 2016, I couldn’t even get a voice signal
there. Technology was improving rapidly
in Mexico.
February 6, 2019
With no cannons to wake me, I slept until nearly 7:00 but
still managed to rise in time to wrap myself in a blanket and watch the dawn
from the cockpit. It was quite chilly
(probably 67 degrees) before the sun rose and I needed long pants and a fleece.
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| Sunrise from the Cockpit of Scout |
Greg got up in time for the net and I made banana pancakes
after that. Greg started up the
generator to charge the batteries and make water and I sat down to write while
there was power for the computer.
We were too lazy to bother putting the dinghy in the water,
so spent the day on the boat. I swam six
laps around the boat, forgetting, once again, to wear my goggles. The water was quite pleasant, especially near
the surface where it was probably 80 degrees.
Whales and dolphins were playing in the bay and people would get on the
radio and alert everyone when they saw a whale.
The anchorage was a lively place with lots of people swimming. One woman reported being circled by dolphins
as she swam. Unfortunately, I had no
such company as I circled the boat.
We enjoyed a colorful sunset and then prepared dinner. We waited until after sunset so that we
wouldn’t be ready for bed at 20:00. I
made steak, salad, and smashed potatoes (potatoes cooked in the microwave,
flattened, and fried in butter) for dinner.
We were out of red wine but shared a bottle of pinot grigio. Lazy days at anchor were quite enjoyable if
one didn’t get stuck out there for long stretches.
February 7, 2019
I got up early to watch the dawn. If I hadn’t being seeing pictures of snow in
the San Francisco Bay Area, I’d have been tempted to say it was downright
cold. I wrapped myself in a blanket and
watched the dew drip off the bimini.
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| Motoring out of Tenacatita Bay |
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| Passing Dragon's Toy |
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| Dragon's Toy at Anchor in Chamela |
While I had been to the beach on a couple of other
occasions, I had never realized there was a town there. We took the dinghy up the estuary to where
the pangas tied up. It was low tide and
we bottomed out. We had to get out of
the dinghy and walk the last twenty-five yards.
We had forgotten the oars and were out of luck once the water got too
shallow for the motor. Fortunately, the
water was less than a foot deep.
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| The Plaza in Punta Perula |
We walked through a beachfront restaurant and a couple of blocks up to the main road through Perula. It was a sleepy place. There were a few restaurants along the highway, but most were closed at that hour. There were some good grocery stores and a couple of farmacias, but no touristy shops, which was refreshing. We walked as far as the main square before we got hot and decided it was time for a cold one and headed back to the beach.
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| The Beach at Perula |
We strolled along the beach to a restaurant near where we
had left the dinghy and ordered an early dinner. I was in the mood for a breaded
fish fillet but the others ate shrimp.
In Jalisco and Nayarit, it was easy to get sick of shrimp. I always got enough to last me through the
months spent in the USA.
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| Tom, Cary, and Greg in a Palapa in Perula |
We returned to the boat before sunset and sat in the cockpit
reading and surfing the internet. The
connection was surprisingly good considering the only cell tower I had seen was
in the main square. There wasn’t much of a sunset to watch and I actually dozed
until after it got dark. The night was
uncommonly warm and dry and we stayed in the cockpit until it was time to
retire. I was tempted to sleep out
there, but the soft mattress finally lured me below decks.
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| The Anchorage and Islands in Chamela Bay |
February 8, 2019
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| Dragon's Toy Leaving at Dawn |
Once again, I got up to sit in the cockpit and watch the
dawn. Dragon’s Toy was motoring out of the bay as I came on deck. They
were headed for Ipala to get a head start on rounding Cabo Corrientes on
Saturday morning. With a faster boat, we
planned to remain in Chamela’s superior anchorage until midnight and then head for
Cabo Corrientes, hoping to round the cape about dawn.
Dawn was very pink and much warmer than the day before. We lounged in the cockpit through coffee and
breakfast and then I did eight laps around the boat. I finally remembered to wear my goggles,
which allowed me to swim the crawl without getting salt in my eyes, although I
still got plenty in my mouth. I figured
I ought to practice swimming the crawl, but it was by far my least favorite
stroke.
I swam when at anchor but swimming would never be my
preferred form of exercise. The only
part I really liked about it was looking across the water from that low angle
when it was calm and the surface glassy.
With my goggles on, I could see that the water was very clear and a
beautiful shade of blue green. The
morning sun was just warm enough to dry me when I got out, but not hot enough
to burn. Scout had a hot, freshwater shower on the swim step which was the
ultimate luxury. I was getting very
spoiled.
I spent the early afternoon writing and then Greg made
lunch. It seemed like we had so much
time to kill and then, suddenly, it was almost time to leave. I made a quick dinner of chili and grilled
cheese sandwiches and we pulled out of the anchorage just after sunset, hoping
to reach Cabo Corrientes at dawn when calm conditions were forecast.
The weather report was predicting calm conditions all night,
but there was a large swell running and a steady wind on the nose. I stayed up to stand on the bow and keep a
look out for the reef as we exited the bay.
Once we were clear of the reef and headed north, I went below to catch a
few winks on the settee as we bashed along.
I slept for the first hour or so but then it got rougher and awakened
me. Greg came below to rouse me for a
change of watch just after midnight.
February 9, 2019
Rather than set a watch schedule, we had agreed to just
request relief whenever we grew tired.
It was only a one-night passage, so we didn’t need to worry too much about
getting enough sleep. It was chilly and
very dark when I came up at 00:30. There was only a sliver of a moon and it was
very damp. The wind and swell had not abated. I had all my clothes on and was considering
putting on socks. Scout’s engine didn’t heat the floor of the cockpit like Comet’s did.
We pushed on through the night, followed by Pura Vida several miles behind us. Dragon’s
Toy had left the previous morning and was spending the night in Ipala. I had intended to stick it out until 4:00,
but Greg couldn’t sleep and came back on deck at 3:30. Shortly after I went down, I felt water on my
face. I got up and closed the porthole
over my head, thinking that would solve the problem. I didn’t realize that all the hatches aft of
the mast were open. The next big wave gushed
through the three hatches in the main salon, drenching Greg’s (fortunately
closed) computer, the settee and the galley.
I had to get up and mop up the water before returning to my nap.
The wind and seas grew rougher with the daylight and we saw
nearly 20 knots of wind coming around Cabo Corrientes. It always seemed like we were home once we
rounded Cabo Corrientes, but it took us another five hours of damp and windy
motoring to reach La Cruz. Dragon’s Toy had left Ipala at dawn and
were two hours behind us.
I stayed up until 9:30 and then went back down to take a
nap. That far into the bay, it was calmer
and I slept well until Greg slowed the motor, which woke me just in time to
prepare to land in the La Cruz marina. I
piloted the boat while Greg prepared the lines and fenders. He got things organized just in time to take
the helm and make the last two turns into the slip. I really didn’t want to take responsibility
for parking Scout on a windy
day. Even Greg had a tough time backing
into our slip near the seawall on Dock 3.
It was windy enough that the wind overcame the bow thrusters and we
needed help from line handlers on the dock to get the boat secured.
We were hungry and tired when we arrived. Showers were the first order of business and
then we went in search of breakfast.
Unfortunately, we had missed breakfast, so had to settle for shrimp and
arrachera tacos at the Ballena Blanca. Then
we went back to the boat for a nap. I
really meant to go home and do laundry but ended up lounging around the boat
until it was time for a cocktail and a lasagna dinner at Falconi’s with Tom and
Cary from Dragon’s Toy.
February 10, 2019
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| Dawn in Marina La Cruz |
I got up early on Sunday morning and sat in the cockpit,
using the internet before everyone else in the marina overwhelmed the system. I munched a leftover corn muffin, made some
coffee, and waited for Greg to ready himself to visit the Sunday market. We bought churros at the food court near the
marina entrance, which tided us over until we had worked our way through the
throngs of people to the food court at the other end. I bought a baguette and some raspberries on
the way but my true destination was the Italian meat vendor out on the end of
the breakwater who sold porchetta. I
bought a double portion and we went back to the boat and made porchetta sandwiches
for lunch.
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| Dancer at the Market |
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| Figures at the Market |
I took a shower and spent the afternoon doing laundry and
trying, unsuccessfully, to nap. Every
time I started to doze off, someone came home or it was time to change the
laundry. The last of my clothes got dry
just in time to catch a ride to the marina on the back of Cherie’s scooter. All our food was on the boat and I went back
there to make chicken in green mole from the chicken we had thawed and never
eaten the night we left Chamela.
I meant to go listen to the Cuban band at the Green Tomate
on Sunday night but they started late and, by then, I was too tired to walk the
three blocks, much less dance. We sat in
the cockpit and listened to the Cuban band compete with the music coming from
Oso’s. They sounded good and I would
have to get there some night when I had more energy.
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