Christi was up before dawn yesterday. Don’t be too impressed”¦ the sun doesn’t rise until 0800 here. The pre-dawn silence was suddenly shattered by two people talking. One, who sounded like an adolescent boy with a changing voice, said “I like that boat Kosmos”. The other, a deeper adult male voice, said “Yours is much safer than that one. See the poles there? Those are stabilizers. That boat is so unstable that if you don’t put the poles down, then the boat could flip over.” Christi opened the back door to Continue reading
Category Archives: Food
Hanging Out in Bahia Navidad
After we had found out the price of the marina, we had resolved to only spend one night and then move to the anchorage in the morning. But after talking to the cruising couple later in the afternoon, we had started to reconsider moving. The anchorage is naturally flat calm, but can get rocky from all the speed boats zipping around. The bottom is soft mud with poor holding, which means you have to put out a lot of chain. Bringing in a lot of very muddy chain didn’t sound good. That would make our anchor locker a gross mess. And, the water is shallow, so sometimes mud laden waves splash onto the sides of the boat, sometimes getting over the walls and on the decks, and getting mud everywhere. And mosquitoes can be a problem, though with the wind so strong probably won’t be. When we had gone to bed that night, we still hadn’t decided for sure whether we were moving or not.
That night was a restless one for Christi. She woke up often to blow her nose. In the morning, she felt absolutely miserable, too weak and tired to do much of anything. Christi waking up sick sort of made the decision about moving for us. We were staying. Life in a marina is Continue reading
The Water Park and Going Back Out to Sea
Yesterday morning we got up early and had breakfast with Bruce. This time we went to a different restaurant in the marina complex, which was more expensive and not quite as good. Man, we should have gone back to the first place. Right after we were done eating, Bruce caught a cab to the airport. We were sad it was a short visit. Gone Native also left, too. The weather window was still excellent and they wanted to make the most of it. They had really only stopped for fuel.
Even though we Continue reading
Welcome to Ixtapa, Guerrero, Mexico
On Bruce’s watch, in the wee hours of the morning, there was suddenly a loud banging sound. Bruce woke Eric up. Eric went outside to investigate and saw that the base of the VHF antenna had come unscrewed. What the heck? That is something we have not been checking too often. Eric screwed the antenna back in and went back to bed.
Much to our surprise, at around 0500, the seas laid back down. We couldn’t believe it. We just assumed it would be rough all the way in. We didn’t get to enjoy the calm seas for long, though, because we pulled into Ixtapa Bay at about 0830 local time. Even from the distance, we could see Ixtapa was incredibly built up. There were several high rises along the beaches and expensive looking homes built in close proximity to one another along the cliffs.
Again, our electronic charts were definitely off, and again, we entered the channel using a combination of electronic charts, the cruising guide charts, and a print out of a satellite photo of the area. But the hazards in this bay were definitely easier to see, as was the channel entrance. The channel entrance is also significantly bigger and no one was swimming in it. Entering the short channel was a piece of cake. The first picture is looking right from the channel entrance, the second is looking left.
We were directed to a slip and told to pull in forward. As soon as we were halfway into the slip, we knew it was too small. Déjà vu. This time we Continue reading
Fueling Up and Heading to Ixtapa
Eric had not intended to buy fuel here in Huatulco. He had read about the fuel dock in Santa Cruz Bay and decided it wasn’t the right place for us to get fuel. It was shallow and there were often surges that caused the boats being filled to bang into the sea wall. Gone Native had gotten fuel there the day they arrived and had confirmed our suspicions that it was not a fun experience.
When we checked in, the marina had told Eric that a fuel truck could deliver fuel to us here in the marina, which was a big surprise to us. He debated about it for about a day, and decided to get the fuel for a couple of reasons. One, we had been planning to Continue reading