I just uploaded new photos to our photo gallery.
We're planning to leave the boat here in Barra for the summer hurricane season. We'll fly home in July and return in mid October, to continue our voyage south come November 1 when the hurricane season officially ends.
Meanwhile life aboard Calou here in Barra is very enjoyable, so we don't mind staying here for a while.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
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Comments [4]
balbrant.com
We're staying through then end of June and into July, so we'll certainly see the change of seasons (from winter/dry season to summer/rainy season). I'm looking forward to it.
Bizzzzzzz !
Along with some friends, we took a water taxi from the marina into Barra de Navidad, to hear some music at Piper's Cruiser Lounge, an open-air palapa bar on the beach in Barra. I don't know the name of the band, but the guitar player sounded like Jimi Hendrix, and looked like the Geico Cave Man.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
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Video of our sail from Barra de Navidad south to Manzanillo, where we enjoyed excellent blackberry margaritas.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
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You know what the water is like on the coast of Oregon.
But it is never warm like that down there!
Wonderful video.
We enjoyed delicious margaritas made with fresh blackberries at the "Paradise" restaurant in Las Hadas. The owner there raises his own blackberries. They also make a coconut shrimp that is out of this world.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
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Here's a photo of Calou taken from shore at Las Hadas, Manzanillo.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
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We finally decided to spend the rest of the summer season in Mexico. We'll head to Panama after the hurricane season ends in November.
Not wanting to just sit around in the marina, we decided to sail south to Manzanillo. We had a beautiful sail with about 6 knots of breeze on a beam reach, we were able to do about 5 knots of boat speed.
In this photo Pascale and Antoine are enjoying being at sea again.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
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www.seven-cs.net
Thanks
We have been getting ready to depart Barra in fits and starts over the last week. It is really hard to get motivated to leave such a wonderful place.
There have been some projects. One would be that we had to test the windlass since I upgraded the power supply leading to it. We took the boat out into the bay today to test the anchor windlass, dropping anchor in 40 ft of water and raising it again. Success! It works like a charm!
I'm replacing the starting battery, because it's 6 years old and was starting to show some sluggishness.
We unloaded the anchor chain onto the dock today to paint new stripes on the chain every 20 feet. This way, we can know how much chain we have let out.
We got a book of charts for the entire Pacific coast between San Diego and Panama, to help us navigate in case our instruments get fried by lightning, for example. We ordered this in the US, and had it Fedex'ed to the wife of a fellow cruiser, who was flying down the next day. That's the best way to get anything into or out of Mexico.
Pascale and I have been feeling our oats about leaving. It's so nice and comfortable here. Cruising can be scary and a lot of hard work. It's so tempting to just stay here forever and enjoy the cushy resort life. They call it 'the velvet rut'.
But no, I think we'll test the waters and head south to Manzanillo, then to Zihuatanejo. After Zihuat we really have to make a commitment because it entails a new and very expensive insurance policy that will cover us all the way to Panama and into the Caribbean.
I'm leaving open the back door, that is, we can always bail out and reverse course back to Barra and spend the summer here. It would be so easy to do. Barra is so nice!
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
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Pascale and I enjoyed a great Thai dinner on the outdoor terrace on the 5th floor of this fabulous hotel, the Grand Bay, in Barra de Navidad. This is the view from the table, towards the hotel.
| Mexico Sailing Trip 2008-2011 |
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