D & D
02/20/2010, Zihuataneajo

We had planned to take off early this am, but - a change of plans. We were in town, I decided to treat myself to a pedicure and meet Margo, an American who's lived here for many years also getting a pedicure. Thinking of 6 degrees of separation - she had breakfast this moring with our friends from Sandpoint, Dave and Nancy Lewis who own a condo here. We have been trying to find their phone number all week by internet search, etc. but to no avail. Margo provided their phone number, I called and we all will meet on the beach for lunch. Amazing and pleasant surprise. We'll take off tomorrow.

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D & D
02/19/2010, Z-town

February 16 - 19 Tuesday through Friday
The picture is of a fisherman, tossing nets to catch bait right beside our boat.
This has been a very relaxing week here. We've done some cleaning of the boat on the inside and hired a gentleman, Arturo, to clean the bottom of the boat of sea weed and barnacles. He swims up to the the boat, has a Styrofoam block with a clear plastic sack attached carrying some clothes, his water bottle, scrubbing items, and lunch. He knocks on our hull and gives us a laminated sheet, explaining his duties, with cost (approximately $35.00). We hired him; he did a great job. Then, Hilda delivered our diesel and a couple of bottles of water (since Donna forgot to turn off the faucet in the bathroom and drained the tank dry!) OK, in my defense, this is not a typical situation, as at home. Here on the boat, we have been switching the water pressure on and off since we had the hoses came apart at Isla Isabella and drain the tank. So picture this! one goes to wash her hands, turn on the faucet, no water, walks to the electrical panel and switches on the pump , then goes to the nearest faucet and turns on the water; I wash my hands and then decide to wash the dishes, so I leave the pump on. Except - that I forgot to close the faucet in the bathroom. Augh! The shower fills up and the tank is emptied! Such is my life! Thank goodness I have a patient captain! Night-times are filled with dinghy visits to friends' boats, reading and cards. All is well. We'll do last provisioning today and take off tomorrow at 3 AM for points north. We are anxious to get back to the Sea of Cortez and the whales, though we are very glad we came south! It has been truly a wonderful experience. Where does the time go? We are almost at the half-way point. "Over" - as we say on VHF.

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D & D
02/16/2010, Zihuataneajo

Picture of Zihuataneajo

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D & D
02/16/2010, Zihuataneajo

Sunday February 14 and Valentine's Day and Monday 15
The picture is actually from Caleta de Campos, of 3 boys and a dog fishing on the edge of breakwater.
Nice to wake up with your best friend beside you! It's a joy! So we "lazed" around and enjoyed the morning with coffee, deliciously made omelets and the last of our fresh bread! Around noon, we motored over to "Zihua (Zihuatanejo)" and found a great anchorage in the bay there. There are maybe 10 other sailboats here, along with power boats. Zihua is the old cultural city, whereas Ixtapa is the new tourist modern city with high rise condos and hotels. Zihua is what we prefer along with most of the other cruisers. Ixtapa seems to be where the internaltional tourist stay. We left the dinghy on the beach. Now this is a new experience. As we drive up, we approach the area where other dinghies are parked, a Spanish gentleman wades out in the water with his 7 year old son and they pull us up onto the beach, the boy grabs the bag of garbage and takes it off about ½ block to the basura (garbage can) and they also launch us over the waves when we leave. Our boat is safe, though security is not a problem here. We pay him 85 cents (100 pesos) and the day is ours. We walk around, finding hardware store and fishing store and stop on the beach for a cool drink. Children are just getting out of school and flood the streets in their little white sailor outfits - very cute! It was amazing, It is a lovely town, clean as can be, proud, friendly and happy natives. This city is truly what we think of as old culturally rich Mexico. The cruisers last week raised approximately $45,000 for a new school for the children here. This has been going on for the last 8 years by cruisers and the mutual "love" is there. Nice, nice place to be. We are joining folks for a 5 PM gathering Tuesday afternoon. We've caught up with other cruiser friends, a nice visit with Pamela on "Precious Metal" who is about to tackle the Galapagos islands and then on to winter in Peru. Our friends from "Last Resort" are arriving here today, Tuesday. Weather is beautiful. Now, a word about Hilda and her boys. They have a big Panga and they are the answer to a good life! Every Morning except Sat. and Sun, they travel around to each boat, providing what ever you need. Monday they picked up an enormous bag of dirty clothes, sheets and towels. Tuesday morning, they came by and dropped it off. The price is very reasonable and it's clean and folded! Hooray! They also take boat parts that are broken and get them fixed, provide drinks, water (again, very reasonable - 5 gallons for $1.10), diesel, etc. Mama Hilda is definitely in charge and commands three young skinny but strong young men who are doing her bidding. Quite a cultural experience. We have a bunch of chores todo today before the beach party, so never a dull moment.
One note: so far we've traveled 608 miles and made our first destination of Zihuatanejo! Imagine traveling in your car, 30 and no more than 40 miles a day at 4-5 miles speed and stopping at a town for an overnight each evening. That's our life, friends. We are glad we've done it but all ready planning our next direction. Think we'll head up the coast and over to La Paz as we don't want to miss the whales birthing period.

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D & D
02/13/2010, Isla Ixtapa

Friday 2/12 Picture is from Isla Ixtapa - at anchor
We awoke to a beautiful morning with our friendly neighborhood rooster, calling us all to get out of bed. There are just two of us sailboats in this lovely anchorage, along with a bunch of Pangas (boats) the local fishermen use. A couple of them buzz on over and offer us some lobsters (alive and moving) that they caught last night. We negotiate a good price ($6 each) and decide this is our valentine's "lunch." We keep them cool in a bucket of saltwater and take the dinghy into town to check it out; yes, another wet experience landing the dinghy this time. Caleta de Campos is a lovely place, beautiful long beach with only a very few people on it. We visit with folks along the way and have conversations in our broken Spanish with a young boy and a fisherman named Raphael. He used to live in Colorado but came back to live in the village he grew up in. He politely suggested that we launch the dinghy on the "other side of the rocks" and, while my faithful companion showed some reluctance in deviating from the "plan", I convinced him that odds were against us if we did the dinghy beach launch the same old way! And. . . we did it; we were off and through the surf without a problem, though we still drew a croud, wondering if we'd make it.. We came back, Darryl prepared the lobster, I fixed a salad with mango, cashews, avocado, and some beautiful lettuce and we sat outside for our gourmet lunch! It was wonderful. Shortly after, Sharon, from "Last Resort" sailboat, swam over. I jumped into my suit and we swam around between the boats just talking and enjoying the water. Reading, cards, sunset pictures, and we are ready for bed, because we've decided to get up at 3 AM and take off for Ixtapa - you see, it is either an all nighter, or do it this way - leave at 3 and we'll get there with decent winds, around 6 at night.
Saturday AM (yes, we made it up at 3 am
It was scary for me to sail out of the harbor when it was pitch dark outside, but Darryl coached me through it, he was watching radar, depth and GPS and we did just fine. I was very glad when we were in open water. This has been a lovely day, at times just our 3 sails up and moving at 6 -7 knots, while other times, we add a bit of motor to keep us moving above 5 knots when the wind dies down (in order to make our destination before dark). This was a turtle day ! We saw so many turtles float by and these guys were not fearful of us as the earlier ones were; they stayed on the surface and we got some great views of them. Then, around 4 o'clock, 2 groups of about 10 dolphins each entertained us by swimming off our bow for several minutes. We are getting close to Isla Ixtapa where we will anchor tonight and then go on into Z-town, as the Gringos call it, sometime on Sunday.

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D & D
02/12/2010, Caleta De Campos

The picture below is taken by the cruising couple we've shared the seas with, Dick and Sharon Drechsler while the 4 of us took a dinghy ride a couple of days ago.
Dick shared his book with us, Manning up in Alaska, http://manningupinalaska.com/ which we highly recommend. We are reading it together and it should be interesting even to those who aren't "cruisers." Dick is a cancer survivor and we admire his zest for life! He also surprised us with pictures of us sailing (above) which he took while he sailed past us yesterday. (Yes, they have a 47' Catalina and sail faster than we do.)

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