D & D
01/24/2011, Manzanillo

1/21 Nice day; we are still into exercise program. . . furthest boat out, and we get teased about our rowing by some of the other cruisers, but it feels good! We took own the beach about a mile to catch a bus into town. We walked around to a bunch of stores, looking for a special water filter which we eventually found. We caught lunch downtown, which was mediocre at best, though the setting was lovely. Bus rides are always interesting. . . never know what you will see, who you will talk to. We were the only gringos, lots of workers on their way home. Two young boys, maybe 9, clean and dressed nicely hopped on the bus and sang their hearts out all the way to our bus stop. They wanted a pesos or two, which our crowd was not into, but they were cute and polite. We also passed a truck with a guy standing in the bed of it with a hose, spraying down the road behind him. As we walked back a mile or so to our dinghy, we passed a house on the beach were 5 guys were playing jazzy music, one with a sousaphone (or trombone, as I call it); the music was great at they were having a great time. A dinghy ride back and we called it a day.
1/22 Today, we fixed an oil leak, cleaned up the boat, and took off to shore. Our row in was uneventful except for sore muscles; we then walked along the beach for an hour and a half, and what fun to watch the children making sand castles, playing ball, surfing the waves. Down here, folks rent a table and umbrella on this 6 miles of uninterrupted beach and bring their extended family and friends down for the day, along with huge picnic lunches. It's great to see and their very friendly to us. After the good walk, and a row back, it was time for a swim which we enjoyed. We had some 3 young kayakers with their girlfriends stop and see if we had any beer, but our refrig was vacant of beer. They were funny; I think they thought all Americans drank beer!
1/23 Monday We are getting ready to pull out of here and head for Zihuatanejo on Tuesday morning, so we have some chores to do today and hope to do some snorkeling, also. While we are traveling down the coast, not sure what our internet connection will be, so we may be out of touch for a few days. All is well, enjoying ourselves.

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D & D
01/21/2011, On way to Santiago Bay, Manzanillo

Well, we had a first time experience for both of usl managed to figure out the cruising spinnaker and hoist it up. what a treat that was. We sailed at 5-6 knots, off our Starbird quarter and it is such a lovely thing! A bit different to hoist, but working together, we did it! Arrived in Santiago Bay around 5:30 PM.

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Donna
01/21/2011, Pacific Ocean

Picture is of our bay this morning, off the town of Melaque; our boat is furthest one on right.
1/17 Our morning is spent puttering around, doing on jobs on the boat and then we are ready to take off. Our exercise plan is working quite nicely with me rowing ½ the time to shore and back and Darryl the other half. While it's a bit of effort, combined with a walk on the beach, it seems to work for us. We check on the turtle cage and find a couple of them have been walked to the sea by volunteers. It's a hard journey for these little fellows, so there are volunteers that make certain that they at least make it into the ocean. After that, they're on their own. We meet a lovely couple from a year ago, Janet and Bob on SV Katy Hill. They are blue grass musicians and we enjoyed their music last year. They sail with a small dachshund and a large Labrador. We find lots to chat about on the beach and decide we have to visit more, so they come over that evening and we enjoy the sunset and some interesting conversations from our new friends. They also have a Pearson (our sailboat's brand) so we have a love fest about Pearson sailboats! We also watch a whale and it's babe out about 200' from our transom, slapping the water with his large flipper, then, a baby flipper comes out and hits the water. Quite a wonderful display and it went on for 5-7 minutes.
1/18 and we are itching to move. We wave good by to the folks in the anchorage and pull up our anchor. Again, we have dolphins visiting us. We shut down the motor and just enjoy them swimming with us (sails are up) and frolicking around the boat. We also watch manta rays.
Wiinds come up and we roar into a little place called "the secret anchorage" because few people stay there. However, we have poor internet there, and we want to get information on our friend in Calgary who had surgery today, so we pull up anchor and move to the large bay by Barra Navidad, but elect to stay off the little town of Melaque, which we haven't done previously. We have great phone coverage and no problem with a phone call to Calgary and are greatly relieved to find out that all is well.
1/19 Our exercise plan demands that we row into Melaque and so we do, but kind of lesson the exercise impact when we enjoy a wonderful lunch of nachos and enchiladas. Oh, well, we have a good walk and get a good picture of the bay we are in and our boat. We then walk into town, pick up a few fruits and veggies and row back, not without incident (think Donna and Darryl WET!).
The night is quite, the moon is full, and we are just so happy all comfy cozy on the boat.
1/20 and we'll move on to Santiago bay, today, before we leave for points further south. My coffee is delicious, but Darryl doesn't have his perpetual grin going, as his first cup of coffee with cream and sugar resulted in a small problem. The Azucar (sugar) I bought yesterday and filled the sugar container with, actually was mislabeled and he had a big sip of coffee with salt, instead of sugar in his coffee. Hmm, no brownie points for Donna.

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D & D
01/17/2011, Tenacatita

Picture is right off our bow, showing mom and babe dolphin.
1/15 We arrive in Barra Navidad and enter the long, winding passage to the lagoon (which has sandbars on either side, if you venture outside the narrow passage way) and secure an anchor with 2 feet under our keel at low tide. . . different place from most anchorages. We load up laundry and call the water taxi for a ride to Barra, as we both have huge bags of laundry, plus garbage. We visit our favorite laundry, flirt with the little 1 year old in mama's arms and agree to pick up the laundry at 6 PM. What a great day when we sleep in clean sheets. . . We've got time, so we grab a city bus and ride to the neighboring town, Melanque, and walk around, seeing the sites. The city bus is such a great way to see the town cheaply and get acquainted with the people of the area. We actually are starting to see that our Spanish lessons has helped abit, as we can make simple sentences in Spanish this year, and interact much more with folks who are patient with us. A little 6 month old la nina pats Darryl on the back and we turn to great a beautiful little baby and her mama; we use simple phrases and interact with the baby and she lets us take pictures. Sweet, sweet child. We return to Barra and grab some dinner at a favorite restaurant on the beach, talk to a lovely couple from -Pocatello, Idaho who have rented a little apartment for 500 pesos a month here. We have a lot to share, back and forth, and they are delighted to find out we are also Idahoans! The waitress, Mar-e is delightful, and has great music playing, which doesn't seem right not to dance to, so I join Mar-e as she's dancing across the floor and we laugh and step our way through a song. Soon, time to pick up the laundry and off we go back to the boat.
1/16 It's a lazy morning, with coffee and - a visit from the French Baker. . . He has a restaurant in town and he and his wife bake delicious baguettes, croissants, and quiches. . and best of all, he comes by at 9 every morning in a boat and sells to us cruisers, anchored in the lagoon. Ok, it's a bit costly and quite a luxury, but we don't do it very often - and my oh my, do we enjoy!
At 10 we pull up anchor and Donna steers us out of Barra; soon we are out on the ocean and we have quite a tempest going on. During what is typically a 10 mile trip to Tenecatita, we experience winds up to 23 knots, waves at 5-6 and then 8-10 toward late afternoon. Our little boat is rocking and rolling all the way, the water comes over our bow at times and we get drenched, but it's warm.
Donna is in cockpit alone and shouts "OMG" as she watches an 8" fish fly over the top of the water maybe 30 or 40' with a large flat green fish hot on persuit and this is all over the top of the water. What I will not do again: yell "OMG" when Darryl is down in the cabin, as he thought perhaps we were going to run into a ship, or a great white shark was attacking, or pirates were boarding our boat. So, we all have lessons to learn, even at our age. (We had a good laugh, eventually!)
The trip is uneventful, we settle into one of our favorite places, Tenecatita, and have a quiet night with cards, chicken enchiladas, and spinach salad.

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D & D
01/15/2011, Carrizol and on way to Barra Navidad

1/12 (continued) We have a couple drop by in their dinghy, Larry and Karen, SV Panta Rhei, and they come aboard and we share sailing stories, how we got here, where we are going next. They invite us over to their boat around 5, so we stop by and get a tour of their boat before appetizers. Larry is 6'5" so he's had the boat made especially for his height and it's a beauty, at 52' long and some other very nice features. They've lived on the boat in Seattle since 2000, when they sold everything. They did take their sailboat to Alaska before coming down here. So, we have a nice visit and we'll catch up with each other along the way.
1/13 Today, we snorkel the ship wreck. A 300' steel ship, San Luciano, went down in 1959 during a category 5 hurricane that hit Mexico. It is now a wonderful snorkeling site, with thousands of fish, of every color and size, calling it their home. We very much enjoy the time viewing the wreck and finding the water to be warm. When we get back to the boat, we stay in the water a bit longer before we get ready to leave and head back to what's become one of our favorite anchorages, Carrizol. We arrive and find only one trimaran in the bay. They are a young couple from San Francisco, and with the economy down, they discover that they can live more efficiently down here on their boat, so they loaded up last July and sailed on down. They'll head back to San Fran next July, but they are definitely having a good time. They came over, visited, and shared their story. Darryl and I fix dinner and decide we'll snorkel what we hear are beautiful reefs around the bay tomorrow.
1/14 It's a snorkel day - but first off we are concerned about telcell - does it work? So we pull up anchor, motor out into the Bay of Manzanillo and are relieved to find it works! So, back to the same place, drop anchor and then, decide we can use our boogey boards and swim to the snorkel sites along the cliff walls of the bay which we do. And - we are rewarded with some of the most beautiful colors of coral that we've ever seen. We didn't realize that there is a green coral, as green as our evergreens in North Idaho, along with every shade of pink, violet, beige and brown. We watch fish of different sizes swim around us; it is quite lovely. Our young couple come over and point out a small beach on the west side where they will be tonight with a little fire and some refreshments and ask us to join. Sounds like a good plan to us, so we read, Darryl naps and around 5, we head over. Wilma and Leonard, SV Winter Sun, are in their 40's and quite pleasant company for the evening. They don't seem to care that we're a bit (a whole heck of a lot, actually) older than them and we swap pieces of information on family, sailing adventures, and future plans, as we sit around their small fire - (yes, we brought Pico de gallo!). . . all in all, a very nice evening.
1/15 We are up and drinking coffee before sunrise, then start the engine and wave goodbye to our new friends and we're on our way to Barra Navidad. This is a morning where the camera becomes an extension of my hand. We are overwhelmed with the wild life, greeting us on the ocean. First, we see fish on the surface with boobie birds everywhere, swooping down and having "breakfast." There has to be a thousand birds, easily, seeking their replenishments. Then, manta rays, flipping for "joy" and a few turtles float by. The big show begins: whales, close in and personal; we slow down and just glide by them, delighting in their breaths, their beauty, their enormous size! The dolphins are not to be left out of the picture, and we have leaping, swimming in synch, dolphins all around the boat on every side. We are mesmerized and can't do anything but exclaim with ohhs and ahhhs!

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D and D
01/12/2011, Santiago Bay, Manzanillo

Lagoon behind Santiago Bay, where we are anchored. Suposedly lots of Crocodiles further in, so we decide not to take the trip in our dinghy. . . just a little walk.

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