We were off the coast of Sinaloa running south at night. The state of Sinaloa doesn't have the best reputation. They move a lot of drugs around. And they kill a lot of people there.

Tracey called in from the cockpit. "There is a boat approaching. Fast!" And sure enough there was a little white light closing in on us fast. Three guys in a panga came alongside.

No point in digging out the machete or the fire axe. Might as well see what they want. Tracey shifted to neutral.

Our Spanish skills are excellent. Tracey said, "Hola, Buenos noches." They said hello and hollered out "linea!" "linea!" and pointed their flashlights somewhere below the waterline. I turned on the deck light and shined our big spotlight down at the waterline as well. The underwater lights helped illuminate the area around the propellors.

They circled the boat in their panga. I circled the boat on deck shining the light down. No sign of any "linea". All was good.

We said "gracias." Not sure what for exactly but it is a happy Spanish word we know. They said "gracias." And they sped off into the night. They didn't bother to kill us.

We had felt a vibration a few minutes earlier. Checking the engines showed nothing abnormal, but we must have hit their long lines.

Yesterday, we arrived in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. We didn't really intend to, but we broke into the office of the Capitania de Puerto.

It's a time thing. We arrived there mid afternoon. The sign on the door says the office closes at 2:30. Tracey's iPhone said it was 3:23. But I'm very sharp. I knew the state of Nayarit is an hour behind Jalisco. We were in Nayarit, easily 5 miles out of Jalisco where it was 3:23. We still had seven minutes to check in.

I gave the door a little tug. It didn't open. So I gave it a larger tug. Mas fuerte! There was a loud noise and the double doors swung open. The bolt that secured the double doors together had popped out. The port captain's keys swung ominously from the lock on the inside. Whoops.

I wanted to turn around and go the other way. Fearless Tracey stuck her head in and said, "Hola. Buenos tardes!" The port captain appeared. In uniform. With his badge. Looking at the door that I had ripped open. He explained that his office is closed and normally closes at 3. "Should we come back tomorrow?", Tracey asked.

No. No. It is no problem he explained. He would check us in as he pulled his keys out of the door. Tracey did paperwork while I messed around on my iPhone checking world time zones trying to figure out why Nayarit is not in the dimension I thought it was in. I showed him my phone and asked if the local time was 2:30 or 3:30. 3:30 he explained. Very gracious. A nice man.

Everyone we meet in Mexico is nice. This is a beautiful country with wonderful people.

We are Spanish school dropouts, but most tolerate us. We were riding in a taxi with some friends the other night in Mazatlan. From the back seat they were asking if Mazatlan had been affected by hurricanes this year. The driver, Jose Luis, said sorry, but he doesn't understand English. I whipped out Google Translate and asked him in Spanish if any hurricanes had come to Mazatlan this year. I think he explained that Mazatlan was missed but Sergio had gone and whacked Culican to the north.

We drove along in silence for a while. I fired up Google Translate again and asked him, "Tuviste una gran dame blanca montando un burro esta ano en Mazatlan?" He looked at me funny and gestured for my phone. Clearly a translation error. But no, sure enough, in plain text I was asking if Mazatlan had been visited by a large white woman on a donkey this year.

Jose Luis saw me smiling and couldn't stop laughing. "Amigo. Amigo," he said.

It doesn't take that many words to be kind and offer friendship. Even when somebody runs over your fishing line or breaks open your door, they probably mean no malice. It is the season.

I see a panga anchored off our stern tonight with three guys fishing, just as they were last night. I think tomorrow we'll go over and offer them some home made Nanaimo bars. Because why not?

Wasn't Jesus a fisherman?

Oh yes and Nayarit is an hour behind Jalisco. Except for the bits around Puerto Vallarta. They recently aligned the time zones so tourists wouldn't get confused and do stupid stuff like miss their flights and break into the Port Captains' offices.

Feliz Navidad!