A boring cruisers existance!
08 February 2015 | Santiago/Manzanillo
Gabriellas Gpa
Oh where do I start? I left Punta Mita on the best weather window there was without waiting for another or two weeks. Rounded Cabo Corrientes in good weather and motorsailed most of the way doing an overnighter to Barra De Navidad. Pulled into the laguna and found my favorite anchoring spot is being homesteaded by a couple of non-movers and two other boats that aren't occupied. It looks like the liveaboard community I left back in San Diego. So I went to my other favorite spot back behind the shallows and away from all the other boats. The sad thing about being out in the boondocks is that the water taxi won't go over there to pick me up, so I have to dinghy everywhere I go. That turned out to be kinda crappy the night of the Super Bowl. I took my dinghy over to the beach at Restaurant Mary's and then the taxi into town to watch the Super Bowl. I thought if was going to rain it would be just a drizzle....boy was I wrong. About halftime it started to pour and at thend of the game it was still pouring. So I took the water taxi back to Mary's and walked down the beach to a dinghy full of water and pulled the plug to drain it. Then launched it in the pouring rain and zipped across the lagoon in the dark to Mannasea. I was soaking wet and I crawled into a leaky boat to find a dry spot. I met up with Yoana (my translator) and gave her long awaited goody bag from her sister who lives in Modesto. I also gave Maria, Yoana's mom the clothes, shoes, and stuffed animals that Gabriella so graciously let go. Yoana's mom has the pulse of the all the surrounding towns because she sells new clothes out of her van. So last year and this year she gave the donated stuff to the people she thinks are the most needy and she really enjoys doing so. She tells me of the recipients and asks my opinion and then lets me know the response. I have a waitress come up to me and shows me a picture of her child with one of the stuffed animals. I have other people in the community yell out to me " muchas gracias por la ropa, Felipe". Needless to say, it melts my heart. So Thank You Gabriella for your gracious giving. You put a lot of smiles on some kids faces. I had a Skype session between the kids in the 7th grade here in the Secunderia Escuela and Gabriella's class in Rancho Cordova. This is the first time that they were all the same age/grade. I thought I lost my banda ancha modem (wifi usb modem) at the school. So I sailed down to Santiago for a few days and pick up a new modem at the Telcel office in Manzanillo. After I signed up and bought another sim card I went back to the boat and was unloading my backpack...and there was two modens in there.....so I bought one I didn't need but will use the gigabytes purchased. When I have these Skype sessions, I have to take a load of stuff like my 24" tv, HDMI cable, power cable, remote control, laptop, power supply, external antenna, banda ancha, and of course the cookies I baked that morning so they can have cookies and milk for putting up with me. On top of that, I have beach the dinghy with all that stuff and walk up three steep blocks to the school. No mas. So all I do is go into town and take buses to neighboring towns to people watch, have delicious almond croissants from the French baker, eat delicious dorado dinners, have ice cream cones often, watch sailboats run aground in the lagoon, and go help said sailboats get off the sand bars. I know all this sounds boring, but who of you would volunteer to do it?