Kelley and Scott
12/17/2006, Barra Navidad, Colima, Mexico

We left Cabo on Thursday, December 7, crossing the Gulf of California toward Banderas Bay. This took us two days and two nights. This was our first passage in a while without Tracen J, and our friends Jack and Marcia. We will meet them again in January or February.

Underway, me and Dad saw the moon rise. It was completely red. There were many bioluminescents it the water. There are more the warmer the water gets. We are less than 1200 miles from the equator, When we started out in Seward, our latitude was 60 degrees. We saw 20 common dolphins on this passage. We talked to a boat called Fantasia making the crossing when we were. They had two kids on board also.

Our electronic charts were a little bit off on the mainland coast. Kelley noticed this first doing visual checks on our position realtive to the Tres Marietts Islands. We went into the La Cruz anchorage using radar and our depth sounder with our paper charts.

We spent four nights at La Cruz. It is a small town of 3000 people. We went to Ana Bananas, a crusier-friendly bar and restaurant. We saw another family from a boat and they turned out to be Fantasia. We chatted and later Kelley and Krista, who is 14 explored La Cruz.

We also met Helen, who moved to La Cruz from Portland, OR seven years ago. She welomed us to her beautiful home, showed us the sights and best street tacos in La Cruz, and helped us haul water, fuel and propane back to the dinghy landing in her Yamaha ATV, the "Beep".

Right across from her house was a real estate office where Sandra works. She came to Mexico from Toronto earlier this year. We went out ot some greta restaurants with her and she took us to Becerias for an art walk where several galleries were open one evening.

The local people were very friendly. Joe and Kelley played soccer with lots of kids.

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Scott
12/17/2006, Barra Navidad, Colima, Mexico

Ever wonder what happens to CO2 cartridge-equiped life jackets when you pull the little tab that says "JERK"? This picture, worth 1000 words, was made possible by el Capitano catching said little tab (yes, it really says "JERK") on the wheel when bouncing around the cockpit in lumpy seas.

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Joe
12/06/2006, Cabo San Lucas, B.C.S., Mexico

Since I have last written my family and I have traveled over 600 miles and experienced the real Mexico once, and ate thanksgiving dinner with an admiral. In Ensenada we were going to do to celebrate thanksgiving we starting to wonder what we were going to eat, We could not find a turkey, and we would have to have a small turkey to fit in our oven, I think a Cornish Game Hen would have to be Vaselined in order to fit, let alone a steroid injected turkey. In our supplies we had cranberry sauce, and instant mash. We were going to make the best of a situation that was a little strange. However, we did not end up dinning alone on the boat, in fact a three star admiral from the United States Navy invited us and Marsha and Jack (the people we are traveling with) to his boat for thanksgiving! Right now you are thinking holy turkeys, the Warrens ate on the USS Nimitz, we did not. The Pair A Dox is a slightly smaller boat at 45 feet, not 1000; the Pair A Dox did not even have one F/A 18 Super Hornet. Oh Well, we still got to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner with good company. The three boats were all to have certain cooking responsibilities, and two hours away from feast time Jackie told me to go and ask Pair A Dox if they needed any other help, so I did, and they said I could make mash for them, something I have never done. And that is odd because I love potatoes, so I brought they massive potatoes back to our boat and asked Jackie how to make them she explained, it is not all that difficult, but we don't have a masher, and it would have taken hours to boil these Herculean carb packed tubers. So I did the natural thing. I whipped out a box of instant mash and beat the hell out of the potato flakes. The best part of all is that no one even noticed the difference, thank you Idaho Supreme for making such realistic artificial potatoes. Now sorry if I seem long winded but I am going to recount 10 days of travel in this one entry. We were in Ensenada a long time, to long kinda like Paul Simon; we just not give up and leave. In the end ewe left we truly did, past the dead floating sea lions, past the super tankers, and past the dusty break water. It was two days and two nights until our next stop, were we anchored for 24 hours. Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay) is a fishing town, and an odd one. The town has two restaurants, a local eatery, and a Chinese take out. What was so weird is that this town was tiny, like Whittier in the winter. Needless to say we stayed on the boat and rest; and then left the next day. We took on fuel, that was ferried to us in a small boat, piloted by an obnoxious man, and coming from me that is saying something. We were fueling and he asked for vino (wine) so I went and got him a mug fuel which he slammed back with alarming swiftness. We kept fueling and then all of a sudden
it overflowed, as usual. So I pulled the plug from the electric pump that was moving the fuel from one boat to the other. That action got me a chastising from the fuel guy; "You Fool", looking back I can see his point it could have created spark and ignited the diesel. I real did not like that but I guess we can't all be smart fuel boat pilots, after all to be smart you have to be drunk and piloting a boat full of diesel jugs, and to be smart you have think that you are Michael Schumacher. From Turtle Bay we went to: Bahia Santa Maria, and that, my readers, was paradise, without palm trees, or hammocks, or car magazines. There hills that rose out of the water to a staggering 2000 feet (note my sarcasm here), what made Saint Maria Bay so amazing were the beaches. The Bay was shaped like a giant sickle, not unlike the one on the former Soviet Union's Flag. The land arced around narrowing were there was water on the other side, and this giant sickle was lined with sand. It would have taken days to walk to the other end of the beach. What was awesome about this beach was the lack of people; me and Jackie went ashore and did not see anyone else. We saw footprints of medium size which I determined had to be a teenage girl; I guess it was just wishful thinking. On the edge of the beach I stalk some fish with a weapon I made out of a stick, man it worked great
at breaking. To me this was my first "Mexico" experience, sand, waves, and sun. It was fantastic. I am glad that we stopped when we did because we missed 60 knot winds and nasty seas. On the final leg down to Cabo San Lucas we were met by confused seas and winds, more confused then Madonna, they did not know what they wanted to do, so are boat got tossed around like we were in a giant martini shakers for 6 hours. Then we made it to Cabo San Lucas, only to be disappointed by high prices, high heat, and an excess of beer. Cabo is a city of alcohol; the streets are literally packed with bars. It is funny to me that some one would spend a thousand dollars on airfare, a thousand dollars on hotel rooms, for what to get drunk. Why can't the tourists get drunk at home, it would be cheaper. But tourists flock here in droves to party with complete strangers, the world is a strange place. I am going to have to cut this short because the engine is warming up for our departure to a mooring ball. Next we will cross the Sea of Cortez and head toward La Cruz, near Puerto Vallarta . (Murray's, I will let you know what it is like). And then south along the mainland of Mexico. I am going to leave now. Pon-Pon?

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