I thoroughly enjoyed Santiago. It is such a peaceful anchorage, even with the occasional jet ski and banana boat rides buzzing around the boat. I had one jet ski with 2 young ladies on it come to within 5 feet of the boat doing about 25mph. These ski rental people just don't know the danger of some of their actions. The jet skiers buzz all the sailboats at anchor as if we were the attraction in a side show...I don't know what the interest is in us gringos sitting at anchor in their watery playground. After watching my Chargers win an exciting playoff game on Sunday, I thought it was time to move south. Monday morning I manually pulled up my anchor and headed south for Zihua. I wanted to day hop to anchorages along the way but without an electric anchor windlass I decided to skip the dayhopping and do an overnighter to Zihua. It was a motorsail down the coast because the wind never got over 6 or 7 knots and my boat speed against a north moving current was a low 4 to 5 knots. Getting close to Zihua I realized it would be late at night when I would make landfall, so I diverted to Lazaro Cardenas, which is a commercial port with silos, wharehouses. and large smoke billowing stacks everywhere. I pulled into a nice little cove right off the main channel and anchored for the night. I called the port captain on the vhf radio and told him my dinghy was deflated and there were no docks for me to tie up to, so could I please check in over the radio. He asked my location and told to me stay put. A few minutes later an official looking rescue boat with the port captain aboard came alongside and asked for my papers. He wanted to knkow how long I was going to stay and what time I was leaving. I told him I wanted to pull out at 8am in the morning. So he took off with my paperwork and passport to do some copying and their official stamping. I wanted to jump in the shower and freshen up after an overnighter but did'nt want to be interrupted by the port captain coming back with the paperwork. He was a no-show and I was thinking he would keep my paperwork and I would have to motor towards town and try to retrieve it in the morning. Exactly at 8am as I was finishing my delicious strawberry flavored miniwheats the official looking rescue boat with blue and red lights flashing came alongside with my papers right on time....what service! So off I went to Zihuatanejo, a mere 25 miles across a long bay. Boy has this place grown in size and PRICES. I almost had a heart attack as I strolled down the malecon and look at the menus that were displayed with there astronomical prices. I have some serious exploring to do today. I will be settled in here for a week or two and then possibly move on down to Acapulco. I just want to say again how thrilled I was to get all those questions from Gabriellas kindergarten class. Just their comment post alone has made this blog worth it. Still having fun...........