Well, the water's warm and clean; the wind was gentle, almost too much so; and the only audience was Lois, Denny, and Steff who had taken her turn falling off the board, so I had a lot of fun trying. I almost got it going a couple of times. It's relatively easy to stand on the board grasping the rope, and not hard pulling the sail out of the water. You just lean back keeping a steady pull and the water gradually empties out of the sail and it comes up. The tough part is when you get the mast almost upright. Now the steady resistance which was lending you stability is gone, replaced by varying pressure from the wind in the sail. At that point I found that standing for more than a few seconds was the real challenge. Part of the problem might have been that the wind was almost too gentle, but Denny didn't seem to have much trouble. He said he'd only been on a board once before, but only fell off when he'd try to reverse direction. Steffany was more in my class. It was fun trying anyway. If we get a chance to buy a board, I might do it.
That's about all the excitement today. We did go over to look at the ELYSIUM and meet its owner, Frank. It's a beautiful yacht, brand new with all of the goodies. They are on their way to the east coast, planning on transiting the canal next summer. In the afternoon another boat arrived, the HORIZONS from Canada. We've yet to meet that crew.
We spent the day on the boat printing out all of our Christmas letters and getting them ready for mailing. I sure hope we can find an accomodating gringo to take them north. When we mailed from Mexico two years ago several people never received them.
The folks from BROOM-HILDA, Bob and Cindy, are the friends of Denny and Steffany had been waiting for. The four of them were planning on going to the beach for dinner about 4:00 and invited us to come along but, when they didn't get going until after 5:00, we decided that mosquitoes on the beach weren't our style and declined but invited them to come by for a drink on the way in. Well, one drink led to another and by then it was dark and the mosquitoes were out in force; so, Lois took the left over chili we'd planned on eating and made a super feast for six out of it. She always works best when she has little to work with and on the spur of the moment.
After my lesson, we went in and paid our respects to the old Port Captain, Nacho, taking him a bottle of Ronpope, the rum and vanilla liquour which he'd given us a taste of two years ago. He's still the same happy old guy, not much interested in paperwork but just liking to talk to people. He said he had skippered ships to Canada and Alaska in the days when he was in the merchant marine. From there we went to Restauante Doris where Taña fixed us a big plate of fish fillets with garlic, pescado de ojo, a treat we haven't had for a while. It was from there we watched our young man struggling with the windsurfer. Sitting sipping your beer, it looks like it should be easy.
Two boats left today, ELYSIUM & RITE OF PASSAGE, but two more came in to take their places, EGRET & PASSAGE, both from California; so we're still six in the anchorage. It's so pretty I wonder that there aren't a dozen. We later heard on the radio that ELYSIUM had run aground in a bay south of here called Jaltemba. It was at low tide so in an hour or so thay were off but I think they learned a lesson.
I forgot that this is Nan's day off and tried to call her on the High Seas radio. I did find that our new radio call sign and telephone account got properly recorded with AT&T. The call went through with no problems. I'll try again tomorrow. The water looked really clear this evening so I an the watermaker for a couple of hours. The danged thing leaked hardly a drop. Guess I won't complain.
After breakfast we went ashore and walked up the road toward the highway, somewhere eight or ten kilometers over the hills. There was a thin overcast today which made walking very pleasant, so we probably went a couple of miles before Lois' toe started complaining. She kicked the upper deck ladder with her bare foot a couple of weeks ago and it's still giving her trouble. The fields along the road are pretty much like they were two years ago, which you'd expect since we are at the same time of year, bananas on the trees but not quite ready for harvest, beans just getting going in the long rows planted among young mango trees. Lots of butterflies but not many flowers, quite a contrast to Guatemala where the whole jungle seemed in bloom. On the way back we stopped at Taña's for a couple of beers which she served with some of her good tortillas, bean dip, and salsa. That filled the day up to siesta time.
Tried again to call Nancy but she still wasn't at the store. Propagation wasn't as good today and the operator misunderstood me when I said I'd talk to John. By the time we got that straighted out the line was busy. Oh well, try again tomorrow. Communication does get to be a problem. The folks on BROOM-HILDA loaned us four movies and we watched a fun fantasy called "Field of Dreams" last night, one of the few modern movies I've enjoyed. Gotta be a sure sign of getting old.
Later we went ashore and took some of the brownies to Capitan Nacho and also to Taña. Both seemed very pleased. You don't see much chocolate around here, I'm not sure why. We got to talking to Taña about the road up the hill and found that there is a Combi van which goes into a town every morning about 8:30 and returns about 2:00. She says that Thursday is market day. We may just try that tomorrow.
Walter and Anna from the PASSAGE called and wanted to talk about points south, so we had them over for cocktail hour. They are on the standard west to east coast program, not decided yet whether to go east to Cartajena or north to Honduras from the San Blas. We couldn't give them much help on that but talked for quite a while on Costa Rica and Panama. In return they gave us the story of some of their experiences in Copper Canyon. They spent more time there than anyone else we've known. Sounds like it might be worth the trip.
The ride to town didn't take as long as we'd been told to expect. The road, rough and bumpy with big holes in places, winds through what is mostly farm country. We passed lots of mango and papaya orchards, several pineapple fields, and some with crops I didn't recognize. As we neared the main highway there was a large low area dotted with ponds which looked semi-cultivated. At the highway there was a sign with an arrow pointing down the road we'd come with the distance indicated as nine kilometers. The town, which we later learned is called Las Varas, is only about a mile to the north. We were there by 9:15.
We'd either misunderstood Taña, or gotten screwed up somehow, because when we asked our driver, Jesus, when he would be returning he said he wouldn't. After a bit of haggling, he told us that he had arranged for another driver to pick us up at 2:00, so we relaxed and headed off to see the town. Las Varas is a pretty good sized place. The business section covers an area four or five blocks wide and eight to ten long. It's very Mexican. We didn't see another gringo all day long, except for those on the bus to Tepic which stops here at a clean and well kept depot. We split up and wandered the streets exploring. I found a tire and tube for my bike, we had a dish of very good ice cream at an Hiledos shop, and found a BANCOMER bank. I decided we might as well get a cash advance while it was handy which turned out to be a mistake. I spent the next hour waiting in one line after another before I got my money, and at that, the exchange rate they gave was a bit less than that which we got at the BANCOMER in PV. Oh well, chance you take.
We had a nice walk around town, had lunch at one of the places that broils chickens by the dozen on rotating spits in front of a gas burner, and got a bunch of very fresh fruit and vegetables before going back to the taxi stand to find our ride. He never showed up. We waited until about a quarter after two before giving in to the bandito drivers at the stand who kept telling us that, not only wouldn't he be there, but that they wouldn't let him take us if he did show up --- we had to take the next two taxis in line, standard sedans which only held five people. The fare was still cheap as compared to PV, only about $1.75 per person as compared to the buck it cost in the van, but I was a little put out at having no alternative. We were back at the boat by 3:00, took a siesta, then went over to PASSAGE to talk charts with the southbound crew. Had a nice evening reviewing anchorages in Costa Rica and Panama.
My other fun job for the day was to try to find out why Gennie's shutdown solenoid hasn't been pulling in after she's started. It has been taking several seconds for it to lock in. I thought it might be the centrifugal switch which is supposed to close the circuit when the engine reaches 900 RPM, so I started to pull it off for inspection. Like a dummy, I didn't disconnect the battery first and thought I'd really done some damage when I smelled something burning. Fortunately, a breaker tripped in time to save me. I adjusted the points on the switch but it didn't seem to help the problem. I suspect that the coil on the shutdown solenoid is going bad again. I've replaced the dumb thing twice --- another one of the pieces of trash that ONAN charges a ridiculous price for.
Other than for the maintenance tasks it was just another day in paradise. PASSAGE pulled out about noon, headed for Bandera Bay and PV. We finished taping a couple of movies and took the bunch back to BROOM-HILDA where Bob & Cindy treated us to cocktails and picked our brains again on points south. I think we'll bail out in the morning and run back to Nuevo Vallarta. We know the ropes there and it's lots quieter than Marina Vallarta.
08:00 Heading straight for Punta de Mita, 32 MN away, on glassy gently rolling seas. I throw in the fish lines and almost immediately have a big male dorado on the starboard line. He made a few wild jumps then dove and just hung there, stretching the bungee out to it's limit. I could already taste him in the frying pan as I waited for him to give up so I could pull him in. For a minute or more he hung there, not seeming to even be struggling, then the line went slack and there was a flash of bright yellow-green as he raced forward, jumped once more, and was gone. We fished the rest of the way but caught only two bonito. What a disappointment!
09:20 Dolphins join us for a few minutes, the first we've seen for a long time. These were the spotted variety and seemed to love loafing along, letting the stem of the boat almost run them down before scooting away. The water is so clear I could see them fifty feet down when they would sound.
11:30 We turn the corner at Punta de Mita after taking two mid-sized bonito on board. I'm getting more comfortable with the reef here after having gone over it with the fish finder on a few times. We've yet to see less than fifteen fathoms, and I've never been able to spot the "dangerous breaking shoal" that the sailing directions describe. I don't seem to have trouble staying away from it.
13:30 (14:30 PV time) I hear Peter (EAGLE'S SONG) on the radio and contact him. He tells us to dock at the wall, he'll come get us in his ding, and we'll move the CULZEAN, a boat he's been taking care of, so we can have our end tie back. That's nice --- we liked our spot.
14:45 Over the bar with Charley hollaring, "Five! Five!" That's about a foot under the keel, 8 1/2 to 9 feet in the channel. According to the tables we are about fifteen minutes after a high tide of 2.7 ft.
As we were coming in Peter had been out checking the dock and found that someone had taken all the breakers from the electrical boxes on the dock, even disconnecting the one on the boat he was caring for. He went to another dock and removed a couple of unused ones before coming to pick us up. We moved the CULZEAN, ran SEA RAVEN over and got her tied up, then spent a half hour getting power back to both boats. It looked like someone in an official capacity had removed the breakers because the padlock on the main power panel had been opened with a key, and some of the bare wires in some of the dock boxes had been taped. We suspect that that it may be the typically Mexican way of maintaining the system. In any case, by 4:30 we were back in home configuration with all systems operating.
The rest of the day was spent doing almost nothing. We walked down to the other dock to take the mail to San --- we hadn't seen her and Harry since Mazatlan two years ago ---, went by the little grocery for a few vegetables & munchies, had a good dinner of Lois' superstew, and watched a dumb who-killed-John Kennedy movie called Flashpoint.
The rest of the day was little-job day. Lois did a wash. I put up the awning --- we hadn't needed it yesterday because there'd been cloud cover all day, washed down the Metz and repaired a seat support that was coming loose. In the evening we watched a Christmas special which we'd recorded in Panama last year. It brought back memories to see the "Condition Echo - Movement Prohibited" notices moving along the bottom of the screen.
The rest of the morning was spent getting it installed, the toughest part of which was getting the old battery out of the boat. When filled the danged things must weigh about 150 pounds and are just about all that Lois and I can handle, even with careful planning. The fact that the old battery was filled with acid made it even harder to handle. By using our plastic pails as supports we managed to get the battery out and to the bottom of the stairway, then I held the lower end while Lois boosted it up a stair at a time. Once on the deck we put it in the cart and were able to roll it and lift with the cart handles to get it off the boat. Getting the new one in was considerably easier --- it had no acid in it and was lighter, plus we didn't have to worry about protecting the carpet and furniture. We got it filled with acid with only one minor incident when I managed to tip over one of the plastic containers while cutting off the pouring spout. Only an ounce or so of acid was spilled but I may have ruined one sock which got a good shot of it. We got the spill washed down with soda and had no further trouble, but by the time it was hooked up and the tools put away we were ready for a rest.
In the afternoon I went over to EAGLE'S SONG and spent a couple of hours with Peter working on their computer. They have an ancient DEC machine which uses nine inch floppy disks but which has an early version of MS-DOS and Wordstar. When I went over to help Diane with a problem the other day I found that they were using only one of their disk drives because they didn't know how to use the other; so today I reorganized their files, cleaning up the program disks and setting up all of the data files to be used on the B drive. That should solve her problem of running out of disk space. She now has as many files on one disk as she formerly had on four. It was interesting to work with the old DOS system -- it's similar in basic capability to mine but much more limited, and slower. The commands are different and it takes a long time to move files around. Took a while to figure it out, even with Peter's help. He doesn't use it enough to stay familiar with the operating system.
Our movie tonight was Gorilla in the Mist, a movie version of the book, Woman in the Mist, the story of Dian Fossey's work with the mountain gorillas in Africa. The photography was superb and they did a good job of portraying Fossey. How they got the gorilla pictures I just can't imagine. A ten on my movie rating scale.
Diane and Peter dropped by about cocktail time. Lois already had a meatloaf in the oven so they stayed for dinner. They'd been up to Sayulita, a small town about 35 miles north of here making final arrangements to rent a house. They have had an offer on their boat and needed to find a place to live until they can get themselves sorted out --- said the house outside of Sayulita is a real beauty, with a half mile of beach and lots of room. They'll be taking the boat to San Diego as soon as they can get moved. That will be quite a change for them after five years on the boat here in Nuevo Vallarta.
Peter & Diane came over this afternoon and asked if I'd like to help take EAGLE'S SONG to San diego. I told them we'd have to think it over. It would be fun to make the run in a different kind of boat, especially one as well equipped and in as good condition as Peter's; but the problem is that they aren't planning on doing it until late in January. I've just about had my belly full of life on the dock. To complicate matters, we got a call through to Bob & Kris and found that Bob won't have to have chemotherapy after all, just radiation treatments, and they are still planning on coming down sometime in January. That means we ought to be either here or north of La Paz --- there's not much good cruising around Mazatlan. We were on the High Seas radio so couldn't do much chatting. I think we'll just hang loose for a while.
We also tried all day to get a call through to Dick --- it's his birthday --- with no success. "That number does not answer."
Dennis had said on the morning net that he had a floppy disk with the tides for Puerto Vallarta if someone wanted to print them out. After the swap meet he came down and I copied his disks. It's a really neat program which not only gives the time and height of the highs and lows but also gives you a graph showing hourly levels for every station in the western hemisphere. Unfortunately, the data disk only covers 1990. The program is put out by an outfit called Micronautics in Rockport, ME (207)-236-0610. Maybe I can get somebody to call and find out how to get 1991 data.
Peter and Diane were going into town late this afternoon so we decided to bum a ride to dinner. We ate at the Islas Marias, stuffing ourselves with their good ribs and enjoying their again excellent service. It's nice to find a place where you can count on both. From there we took a bus to the Marina Plaza, bought a few things at Club de Precios and Mexicana, then tried to get a call through to Dick. No luck again. The new, U.S.A. Direct Phones are going the way of all things in Mexico. Of the five phones at the entrance to the Plaza, three are completely out of order without even a dial tone. The other two seem to work some of the time for local calls but we were only able to raise the AT&T operator on one of them. On it, the operator would answer and get the number for us; but, about the time we'd get the ring signal we'd be cut off at this end. After about a dozen tries we gave up. We might have better luck at the airport or downtown.
I spent the morning on a neat little project --- I discovered that I could take the battery pack for our hand held VHF radio apart, and that the rechargable cells were size AA of which I happened to have a few. Three out of the eight cells were dead, so I cut the pack apart, soldered in three good cells, put it back together, charged it, and it seems to work. I'd asked Nancy to pick up a new battery pack for us, but maybe now it won't be necessary. I suspect they are pretty expensive.
Getting back to the music, the Mexicans in one of the condos were having a party, and what's a party without music? They had a big amplifier which they got going about 1:00 o'clock and blasted the whole marina for about 8 hours. Some of it wasn't too bad and, of course, it was all for free --- whether we wanted it or not.
The real trauma of the day came when Harry didn't show up for dinner. Lois was fit to be tied! Don't know where the communications broke down, but when he didn't show up we ate our steaks then took the pie over to EAGLE'S SONG and shared it with Peter and Diane. While we were there the couple from LONG TALL SALLY came bringing a balloon decorated bottle of wine as a thank you gift for Peter's help in pulling them off the sand bar, so they had a piece of the pie too. Harry missed a good thing.
We went over to EAGLE'S SONG and watched Monday night football with a bunch of other cruisers tonight. That's the first football we've seen this season. Last year in Panama we had lots of it while waiting for the canal to open. Can't say as I've missed it. Last night the game was so boring that I gave up in the middle of the third quarter and went home to bed. Lois stayed for a while but nobody stayed to see the end.
We went to town today with Peter & Diane, buzzed around all day without really doing much except getting a few groceries and some pinatas for the kids of the families in Jarratadara for whom we're collecting goodies. We stopped at Gillermo's house on the way back and found out from his wife how many kids there are in the two families we've "adopted" for Christmas ---- sixteen in all, ranging in age from chacito to thirteen. No wonder the families are poor!
The other big event of the day was getting our mail, the first since early November. Courtney, the Halferty's daughter, arrived right on schedule at 7:00 PM this evening, so we'll get an update on things up north.
Courtney and her boyfriend, Matt, came over this morning to borrow the Boogie Boards. Peter and Diane are taking them up to see the house they've rented in Sayolita. Both seem like really nice kids. Matt is in the Navy Seals and was interested in our videos of Panama.
Went over and helped our German friend, Norbert, hook up his electric power. He gave me the address of Rudi and Ilse Grigoleit of DONNA ROSE, a couple we were quite friendly with in the San Blas but had lost track of. They live in Alameda -- Phone (415)522-3878.
The flood of goodies for the Mexican families continued all day and by afternoon when Lois, Diane, and another lady got it sorted out there were four huge boxes of clothes and food for them. We'll take it over to the two families tomorrow afternoon, together with pinatas filled with sweets and toys for the kids.
Poor Lupi looked a little dejected --- he had really stocked up in anticipation of good business this Christmas week; the ice machine was stuffed with bags, the liquor shelves full, and lot of cerveza frio filled the refrigerators. The yachties are going to miss the laundry most -- it was the best we've seen in Mexico, with big commercial washers and driers for the use of which they charged the very reasonable price of 1,000 pesos. We can only speculate as the reason for this Scrooge-like action on the eve of Christmas Eve.
We joined the Halferties in delivering the goodies to the families in Jarrataderas, the village about two miles away. We went first to Gillermo's house where he and his wife joined us and led us to the families which they felt were the most in need and deserving. The chosen families were expecting us and all were in their best which, considering the size and condition of the houses in which they lived, was pretty presentable. Lois took along her Polaroid camera which made a real hit with the kids as we presented them with pictures of themselves with the piñada s and gifts on the spot. It left me with mixed feelings --- the two lucky families chosen by Gillermo made out pretty well, each with a piñada and two big boxes of clothes and food; but for the dozens of other children and adults who stood by watching there was nothing. It's like throwing a bag of sugar in the ocean to sweeten it. A vasectomy for the man in each family would be a much more effective gift.
After the festivities we went to a little restaurant (I've forgotten the name of the place) in a town about ten miles north called Bucerias and had some very good burritos for dinner.
The potluck turned out to be a good one. Behind the condo buildings there is a big gazebo with a brick patio, hedges, and cast iron benches all around. The organizers, Sharon from KINGSTON EAGLE and another lady, set up the food tables in the gazebo and people ate out on the patio. There was a really good turnout -- I'd guess there were at least a hundred people there but it didn't seem crowded or rowdy. And the food was again amazingly good for a potluck. We met lots of folks heading south for Costa Rica and I volunteered to meet with them on Wednesday morning to answer questions and mark charts.
| We cast off the lines and headed out. EAGLE'S SONG has a big flying bridge and, as soon as we got the fenders in I joined him up in that tower. From there you can get a really good look at the world, almost startling to me who am used to my lower steering station. I had the video camera and got some nice shots of the boat-filled marina as we ran out. |
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We ran along the shoreline on the way to Yalapa, something we'd never done before. Half the fifteen miles or so where the highway runs along the shore is well developed. At Mismaloya and Topolan there are big high-rise condos and several settlements line the south shore of the bay. Yapala itself has no road access so has none of the big buildings, but never-the-less has been well developed by the standards of such out of the way places. One three story structure with thirty-plus units is a small hotel and there are many concrete buildings in the village, surprising considering that all the materials must be brought in by boat. The east side of the bay is lined with palapa restaurants, at the head of the bay a steep sand bar divides the surf from a lazy and brackish lake behind, and on the west shore is the village and many fine gringo jungle homes, one of which we visited when we were here two years ago. The bay is very deep and steep --- we dropped the hook in over 100 feet of water then backed almost to the surfline before dropping the stern hook. Open to the northwest, the bay always has a swell running but today it was long and slow with no wind behind it. With the bows into the sea the boat was steady.
After a session of water skiing with Ricardo and Matt, Diane and Lois brought on the Christmas feast. Diane had made her very special chicken and broccoli casserole (Even you would like it, Dad) and a Papaya conglomeration of some sort, Suzanne had brought a fine fruit salad, Rodrigo a Waldorf one, and, of course, there were Lois' pies. With Cortney and Matt leading the way, everybody ate 'till they were stuffed. After a short siesta, Matt, the navy seal, couldn't wait to get back in the water so I joined him for a swim to the beach, or rather I swam to the beach and back while he frolicked in the waves, making about three trips to my one. Then he, Courtney, and some of the more energetic of the crew took off up the trail to the waterfall about a mile up the mountain while I stayed and chatted with Peter.
When the kids got back about four o'clock we hauled anchor and headed back, entertained on the way by some of Matt's tales of training in the Navy special forces. He's one of a fourteen man team trained to penetrate enemy forces via the underwater route. Very proud of his job and his unit, so far he's never been in combat but some of his training stories sound almost as dangerous. Back at the dock we finished off the rest of Lois' pies (Three pies were just right for the twelve of us, Mom) and went home full and happy after a nice day.
Bill from SEA POD came to my seminar bringing a translation of our letter from Cecilia, one of our friends in Costa Rica, which he and his wife, Norma, had done for us. I had been working on it without success using the Spanish word substitution program which Paul gave me last summer. Bill is a former Peace Corps worker in Honduras and his wife a native Honduran and a former school teacher there. He said their biggest problem with the letter was interpreting the childish scrawl, spelling, and grammer of what we guess are Cecilia's words dictated to one of the children -- things that had completely stumped me and my computer program. It was a nice letter but it had some bad news -- Javier and Cecilia are both well, but Yens, their oldest, has come down with rhuematic fever and will need treatment until he is 21. They don't know how they are going to pay for that.
We accompanied Diane and Peter in taking Courtney and Matt to the airport where we got the kids checked in then went across the street for another of Las Marias' super spare-rib dinners. Then, after bidding them goodby, came home to watch a movie that Courtney had given to her parents for Christmas, MUSIC BOX, a better-than-most tale about a lady lawyer who defends her father.
While waiting I worked on my answer to Cecilia's letter. Paul's computer program is clumsy to use but it seems to work. You first write the English version of what you want to say, then let the program substitute Spanish words for the English, presenting you with choices if there is ambiguity. All articles are male and only the infinitive form of verbs is substituted so you then have to go through again making those corrections as best you can. That done, and the freezer finally thawed, cleaned, and the meat put away, I took my letter down to SEA POD for a critique. Surprisingly, Bill and Norma had few corrections to make the letter understandable. Most of the errors were in spelling caused by the fact that Paul's program uses accented letters which my printer didn't recognize as such. By now it was becoming a challenge and I figured I ought to be able to work that problem, so I went back, studied the printer manual, and found that if I changed a "DIP" switch I could get it to print out all the accented letters. Unfortunately, I don't think I can leave it in that mode because I have yet to figure out how to produce the proper codes with the keyboard. Anyway, it was a fun project and I have a letter which I think she'll be able to understand even if it isn't grammatically correct.
Lois didn't get home until about six o'clock, coming then by water limousine driven by Peter and carrying a nice piece of dorado --- she'd gone home with Anna to PASSAGE where Peter was visiting with Walt and he'd given her the ride. Anna and Walt had been given the fish and couldn't eat all of it so they gave us half, our lucky day. It wasn't quite as good as when we take it from the aft deck directly to the frying pan but still delicious.
Bill & Norma from SEA POD came over for drinks with us and later Billy, their son, showed up. A really nice boy, he's just finishing his fifth grade schooling with Mom as his tutor. They've been cruising for about a year and say they are really enjoying it. They have another boy about 19 who is going to college in San Diego. It was fun talking with them about how they met in Honduras in the late sixties. After they left we went over to EAGLE'S SONG to say goodby again to Peter & Diane. This will be the third time we've done that -- we just can't seem to get off the dock. We had a late dinner of quesadillas, one of my favorites and easy for Lois to fix after a long day.
09:30 Punta de Mita. Three sailboats in the anchorage and on the radio we hear more on the way in from Cabo San Lucas. As we round the point and head north we meet another coming along the coast. Lots of boat heading south this year. About a mile north of the point another, more unusual sight greeted us --- the huge splash of a breeching whale. As we got closer we could see the spouts, backs, and flukes of three humpies lazily crossing our path. After recently reading Moby Dick, I have a better appreciation for these mountainous animals. It's really hard to imagine approaching them in a small boat, let alone hunting them with a hand thown harpoon.
As we passed Sayulita we tried to figure out which house the Halfertys have rented, but too many fit the description. The shoreline is very pretty, with jungle and palm trees backing white sand beaches broken by outcroppings of rock. There are many beautiful houses scattered along the shore, as well as two or three communities. Peter said they have a half mile of beach. They should enjoy their stay.
14:00 Into Chacala after a very uneventful run. We were doing very close to my planned seven knots at 1150 RPM, so our prop and bottom must not be too awfully dirty. There was one sailboat in the bay, the ARRAKIS from Portland, and two more arrived shortly after, both Canadian; the CHIPPER, a small spic and span boat from Victoria, and the T'SOLO from Vancouver with a crew of four aboard a thirty-some foot boat -- looked a little crowded.
We dropped our hook, got the Metz in the water, put up the awning, then got out the stern hook. By this time we were laying crosswize to the swell, so we had to use the Metz to pull the boat around. It took a while but with little or no wind the little six horse managed to get SEA RAVEN pointed in the right direction. Then I mixed us a Bloody Mary and we sat down to survey our surroundings. Looks like things are picking up for the Chacala economy. In contrast to the empty beaches and restaurants of three weeks ago, the campgrounds seem to be full and lots of people are swarming over the beaches and grounds of the palapas. This week between Christmas and the New Year must be a favorite for the local beachgoers. We didn't go ashore, but stayed on the boat and watched the fun. Tomorrow we'll go in and pay our respects to Capitan Nacho and Taña.
After I got finished with that job and my junk put away we headed for the beach. We landed just as the folks from T'SOLO did and accompanied them on a visit to Capitan Nacho in his tiny office above the pier. He was his usual merry self, greeting us with a big grin like long lost friends. He seemed a little startled when the skipper of the T'SOLO drug out his papers, but he put on a serious face for a moment, studied the stamped and signed documents carefully, asked one question, then broke into a grin and handed back the papers saying, "Correcto." I think our friends on T'SOLO were as surprised as we were the first time that happened to us. We chatted for a while, then bid goodby. Capitan Nacho is going to his family's place in San Blas for the holiday so we may not see him again.
At Restaurante Doris Taña also greeted us as old friends. We all had a beer and, when she brought out a bunch of hot chips, frijolis, and a fish and clam dip, we of course had to have another. T'SOLO is from Canada, spent the summer in the Sea of Cortez, and is headed for the South Pacific. They plan on going as far south as Acapulco and doing their final provisioning there before turning west. They're on a limited time cruise and have to hurry. Too bad.
After that we walked to the end of the beach, getting some sunshine and people watching. There are even more tents in the campgrounds than we could see from the boat, they are almost full of campers, trailers, and tents. All of the restaurants are open and most seem to be doing a good business. There was even one guy selling the Mexican version of snow cones, shaving ice from a big block into a cup then pouring a dash of syrup from a row of bottles on his cart over it.
That was about our day. Back at the boat we took a nap, read for a while, then ate chicken for dinner while watching 2010. The hook seems to be stuck again -- I think we'll be spending New Years Eve right here.
| We decided to have an early dinner with Taña and found her place crowded with yachties. I'm not sure just why they tend to go there rather than to one of the other restaurants along the beach but hers if by far the most popular with the boaters. She does serve good food, and she's always so happy and helpful. She served us a super quesadilla which she called by another name I can't remember. It had ham, two or three kinds of cheese, onions, and who knows what else in it. Charged us 12,000 pesos for our dinner and beer --- big New Years Eve dinner for two, $4.00! | 
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Back at the boat, we watched a movie, hit the sack, then woke up when the noise of mid-night started. There were a few flares, a few rocket bombs, lots of music, shouting and laughing, but by 12:30 things were pretty much quiet again. Good place to welcome in the new year. More?