Chamela anchorage: 19°35.029' N, 105° 07.923'W

Happy New Year everyone!

We arrived at Bahia Chamela and were anchored just off the beach in the calm waters behind Punta Perula by 1500 hrs. This was a 53 nm run from Ipala. This was a nice "motor sail" down. There was sometimes enough wind to sail effectively but we needed to make water, therefore run the engine. We are now fully caught up on our tanks and batteries, which is good. We were visited by a pod of spotted dolphins on the trip down. I always love to watch the dolphin play in our bow wake and had taken the camera for a few photos. I was looking directly down through the view finder when a rather large turtle passed through the viewer and clunked off the starboard side of the hull. I didn't get a shot of him, and I don't think he was damaged.

There is a small fishing and local tourist beach resort community named Perula here. I should say the anchorage is calm in that there is little northerly effect, but the local pangas run through the anchorage with disregard to their wakes effect on the anchored boats, but no flopper stopper was needed. It seems commercial boatmen and fishermen universally have little regard for us "recreational boaters."Marisa came to life later in the afternoon and we took the dinghy to shore to accompany the crew of So Inclined. We walked the beach, had a beer at one of the little palapa cantinas and interestingly met a Mexican family at the table next to us who were visiting from Riverside, Ca. (my home town) and Chicago! Small world. That evening both crews got together aboard So Inclined for dinner and to celebrate New Years Eve and Bill's birthday. Marisa conducted class on how to make an authentic Mexican margarita and salsa fresca, as learned in our "Salsa y Salsa" class in Mazatlan (see Marks post of 12/3/10 from Mazatlan). We had a great dinner aboard So Inclined, thanks to Bill for sharing his fresh red snapper with us.

There was no television to watch the ball drop in Time Square, but we actually stayed up to bring in the New Year with a toast of champagne before heading back to Pacifico on our dew damp dinghy. Again, we shouldn't complain here. Our weather continues to be very pleasant, mid to upper 70s day time to upper 50s-low 60s at night. New Years Day we stayed aboard Pacifico to get caught up on email and internet and some boat projects while the crew of So Inclined moved a mile or two to relocate between the islands of Isla Pajarera and Isla Cocinas and get in some snorkeling. We had agreed to leave for Tenacatita Sunday morning at 0600 hrs to again travel that approximately 30 nm distance together, both crews wanting to get south to warmer weather and waters as soon as possible.

I checked out distances and location relative to places of interest in the US. We are as the crow flies 1030 nm from our slip in Oceanside and almost directly below Denver, Colorado, so hi to all the grandsons there! This area is on Central Standard time and we are one hour ahead of Denver and two from the West Coast, that means it is dark until almost 0700 and light until about 1830 hrs or 6:30 PM, maybe a little later so when we leave at 0600 hrs it is completely dark.