Cental America
And Back
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We have a ton of work to do on Ashika, so being in California for the hurricane season, via the RV, is a lot like a vacation. We get to see my grandsons, Sawyer and Stryder and the weather is truly great here! I never appreciated it as much as I do now, after my year and a half in toasty Central America.
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Celebrating Ashika's ArrivalGuaymas started celebrating almost immediately upon our arrival. I'm convinced that they saw us coming and threw the master switch on the town's celebratory fireworks. Good on them. We deserved a hearty round of applause for making a 4000 mile round trip to Panama without strangling eachother or losing any dogs overboard. Topolabambo is so Fun to SayWe had two glorious days of sailing on our way to Guaymas from Topolabambo. 10 or 15 knots from the south, blue skies, cool breezes, magnificent. I bet you think that since we are travelling around in a sailboat that we sail all the time. Wrong. There are sailors who are more persistant about sailing than we are and they will wallow around happy to wait for wind or just not go anywhere until there is wind. They are thrifty and will probably be cruising for a long time. That's because there is precious little wind out there, and when it does blow it's usually to much from the pointy end of the boat. But purists will take all wind in stride and chant "sail sail sail, at all costs". We have a 3 knot rule: when the wind can't blow us to our destination (or close to it) turn on the engine. Our chant is more like "little or no wind, turn on the engine" or maybe it's "we can't get to our anchorage before dark, turn on the engine" or "get me the frack out of this storm, turn on the engine".
U-Turns and Flashlight WarsTopolabambo, it must be a great place to have such a great name. It just rolls around on your tongue and tumbles over the lips. But it would be a quite a journey to Topo from Maz land. Dois's Aunt Katie used to say “it ain't an adventure until you've made a couple of U-turns”. Under that definition, we have had a great adventure.
Monkey BusinessAfter setting Ashika's anchor in Mazatlan's old harbor, the wind changed to a more westerly direction. It was coming through a low lying bit of land between the light-house hill and the city. There are two things wrong with that wind direction; 1. Major sandblasting work is going on fishing boat hulls blowing vile and probably poisonous dust from old copper bottom paint right into Ashika's open hatches. And 2. and maybe more vile; there is a raw sewage treatment plant just beyond the sandblasting work spewing fumes from giant steel vats. Prime ocean front property... what were they thinking when they decided to put the sewage plants there?
My eyes and nose had started to drip like a leaky faucets. Now I understood why we were the only boat in the anchorage. Chickens in the MizzenForecasters should all have to sail around in their own forecasts. Dois and I spent the last two weeks checking all the forecasts for a good weather window to continue our journey north up into the Sea of Cortez. So why is Dois sitting in the cockpit dripping wet trying to get Hal, our autopilot to behave? And why is the boat pitching steeply to and fro, leaving me walking on the walls? And why is the cabin illuminated like paparazzi have found Lindsey Lohan in our boat? Because my friends, the weather men have forsaken us and we are smack dab in the middle of a nasty storm. Off with their heads. A bolt strikes the water oh so close to and brings me out of my fantasy be-headings. I discovered recently that I am an astraphobic. So is Ginger. We both suffer from the fear of lightening. Giant zippers of electricity are running along the clouds and brightening the sea around us like high noon. The occasional prayer-evoking bolt feels like it stops my heart. What was I thinking? The radar screen shows us in the middle of a giant red blob of nastiness. Should I Stay or Should I Go
I open one eye to the light streaming into our cabin from the starboard portlight. I am ambivalent about getting up. I want to go and want to stay.
We've been in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle in Bahia de Banderas for about two weeks, longer than we intended but not long enough, never long enough. Over the last couple of years we have come to love our time in La Cruz; for it's charming village, for it's large and beautiful trees and tree dwelling iguana's, for it's friendly and inviting locals and it's never ending savory surprises. The list is much longer, but you get the picture. Chicks on the Road
I love Barra de Navidad for it's full Mexican persona, the friendliness of it's people, the wonderful food and endless beaches. Although Hurricane Amanda has left foul weather behind, there is the smell of wet earth in the air and everywhere you look there is new life. There are fist sized land crabs in major abundance, running along with their tiny claws raised ready to fight if they can't run fast enough. They are quite brazen for crabs and Ginger has gained a healthy respect for them and passes on chasing them in favor of the multitude of accommodating lizards that zip across her path.
We have had a lot of dolphin visitors, some that show off their jumping, some that streak through florescent waters at night and some that jump up and look at the brown dog barking like crazy on deck. But never have I had a visit like I had on our way to Alcapulco.
The voyage had been uneventful, just the way I like them. Calm seas, sailable winds, cool temperatures, what more could I ask for? Dolphin? My watch was late, starting at about 2 am. Dois had gone down with the exhausted dolphin hunter, Ginger, for a well deserved nap. It was a very dark night, again with no moon to see by. I was reading on the iPad, a common time-passer, when I heard a huge splash just a few feet from the bow. All I could see was a florescent footprint left by the splasher. Then a large and beautiful dolphin, not 6 feet from where I sat, came shooting straight up out of the water, turned to show me his glimmering underside and flopped onto the water, splashing me with the effort. Again, he left a glowing, sparkling universe where he had splashed down. Then another dolphin and another were all performing for me, each seemingly trying to get the highest, largest splash. I could see some of them zoom by and past Ashika with bio-luminescent trails like fairy dust in their wake. There were bio-luminescent glowing spots for miles around me, each one indicating there was another dolphin. I kept expecting Dois or Ginger to come out in response to all the noisy activity, but they were in their dreamland. Mine was a dream come true. Dolphin gathered around our boat, playing and splashing, with me as their only witness. Completely breathtaking. We live in a world of wonder. We arrived in Alcapulco Mexico on May 3rd, 2014. Ashika and crew are safe and sound waiting out a tropical storm before moving on. Peaced We had our first hurricane scare. The weather models had a rather nasty looking critter pointed right at this coast. But one day we look like we are going to be annihilated and the next day is clear sailing. That's the thing about forecasts, the 5 or 7 day forecast can be quite flimsy, so it can be difficult to make timely decisions. But as long as we don't rely too heavily on them, no more than 3 days out, we do okay. |
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