We have heard of this dance before and now we can say we are experienced in it's steps and moves. The La Paz Waltz is an expression used to describe the boats at anchor in what is called the Magote which is the body of water in front of the city of La Paz. It is protected by a spit of sand about a quarter mile wide (and I'm not sure if it's this spit or the water that is referred to as the Magote). The tides come in and out of La Paz bay via one small entrance point and because the bay is large and the channel not so much, the water flows past quite fast depending on the size and state of the tides. When you combine the flow of the water with the winds that seem to blow here fairly often, add in a bunch of anchored boats into the mix and you get the waltz happening. Because the current can sometimes overpower the wind you might end up sideways to the wind and the guy next to you could be in some other holding pattern and sitting closer to you then you might like. But give it 15 minutes and the whole thing changes as each boat reacts differently to this combination of wind and current. We have out about 125 feet of chain and normally because of the weight of the chain our boat moves around by maybe 20 or 30 feet in any direction, but here it feels like we move around on the entire 125 feet in various directions throughout the day! Disconcerting to say the least.
We will only be doing this dance for a few more days as on Thursday we move into the marina where we will be leaving the boat for the summer. We have decided to leave it in the water as opposed to hauling out and putting her in dry storage which is actually cheaper but in someways more work. Since we only plan on being gone 3 months at the most we decided the water was a better place to be. The boat stays cooler in the water and the bottom paint dosen't dry out. There are pro's and con's for in or out of the water but I won't go into that here.
So we figure on a week to get the boat ready for her summer here and that includes removing all the sails and anything else that could blow off in a hurricane. That is the scary part of leaving the boat here but the marina we have chosen is well protected from waves and surge but the wind does get in there. So we will do the best we can to make sure she sustains no damage.
We are kinda excited about going 'home' for a while to see friends and family and just for a change of pace. When you live in paradise all the time it too can become 'ordinary' so getting out and coming back to it will I'm sure be a good thing. And getting out of the hot hot summer here in Mexico won't be a bad thing either although I hear the weather in BC has been pretty miserable. We will do our best to bring some sunshine and warmth with us when we come.