Hola family and friends.
Around 2 o'clock this afternoon I was standing in a square (one of many) in the old town of Mazatlan, ear to the phone, adding minutes to my calling card when something fell from the sky, grazed the edge of my glasses and dribbled down the front of my T-shirt. I knew without looking closely - a bird had graced my presence. But. . . . this is so atypical of the last several months, it stands out in it's singularity.

Looking back in my files, it's been since just before new years that I've sent an "update" of what's been happening - so here it is (at least part one).

The stereo is playing some soft jazz (Jimmy Smith) and I'm finishing day number 12 at anchor in the harbor at Mazatlan. The cruise ships come and go here - Thursday is the day for "Elation" and Tuesday is "Rhapsody of the Seas". I arrived here in time to enjoy the last half of Carnival week and can truly say I've never seen so many people lined up for a parade - 12-15 deep and stretching for at least 4-5 miles along the malecon. We arrived at 1500 hrs, the parade started at 1730 hrs and ended at my viewpoint at 1930 hrs !! The parties went through the night - I could hear music and dancing until 3 a.m. each night.

The city is back to normal now and I'm preparing to leave within a day or two - checked out with Migracion, the Port Authority, and the Capitania del Puerto today, so I am free to sail to Baja and La Paz as the weather permits in the next few days. Daughter Christen, her husband Christian & mi nieta Sydney will be there to greet me at Cabo Pulmo, where I hope we can spend a week together, before I head on up to La Paz and stay several weeks getting the boat in order and provisioned for the 3 1/2 week passage to Hawaii for daughter Hollice and her beau Troy's wedding on Kauai June 23. This is soooooo hectic - when do I get the chance to relax ??

In the past few months I've heard from most of you and several want to know of "My Favorite Place" on the Mexican west coast. Well, here it is - the 6-8 mile stretch including Barra de Navidad and Tenacatita !!! This slice of paradise lays about 125 miles S of Banderas Bay and Puerto Vallarta. How do I qualify this ?? It's the one area where I would wake up in the morning, the day would pass most beautifully and I would go to sleep at night. What else is there ?? Leisurely breakfast, do a little computer time (e-mails, etc), jump in the water (80 F), snorkel around the rocks and shore, have a light lunch, siesta, go ashore to the one palapa restaurant for a couple of 8 peso cervesas and maybe, once in awhile, a fish or shrimp dinner (40 pesos) and then back to the boat to enjoy a quiet evening and in the bunk by 9 p.m. Now that was Tenacatita-aaahhh.

Barra had a little more action, with numerous restaurants and night life, but the cost was low and the anchorage quiet - an enclosed laguna a mile inward from the sea with no memory of the rolling swell and a sunrise through the haze at 0700 that would make you happy to be up and at 'em so early each day. The days - Oh, the days - never above 90 F and rarely below 75 F. Nights in the 60's. What else is there??

There were numerous other anchorages - S/V "Secret O' Life" has not been tied to a dock since the first week of October in San Diego - and they are many: Chamela, crystal clear diving; Las Hadas, memories of Dudley Moore and Bo Derek; Chacala, my second favorite place; Santiago Bay, quiet water and few other boats; San Blas, where the jejenes (no see-ums) try to distract from the ambiance, but lose - - and all the others, where the water is warm and the sun sets red every night.

A number of you want to know how I manage the e-mail in Mexico. It hasn't been difficult - well, except for finding the time to compose these messages. AOL has a number of connections here and I simply find a place to plug in the laptop and do a "flash session" which takes 2-3 minutes. During that time all the messages I've composed are sent out and any waiting to be delivered are downloaded. Then I unplug and go someplace quiet - usually including a meal or drink - to read the mail. These places to plug in vary from a hotel lobby to an Internet cafe to a marina office, or the most memorable, the Larga Distancia Caseta in the village of La Manzanilla on the eastern shore of Bahia de Tenacatita. With the laptop firmly sealed in the waterproof 'Pelican' case, I make the 20 minute crossing of the bay and brave the small surf break in the dinghy, then walk into the village to find, along the narrow dirt street, sandwiched between the liquor store and a small hotel, the one place with a public phone.

This is someone's home, and as you enter through the door you'll see a small office-like setting with a desk, atop which sits a couple of phones and a FAX machine, and two phone booths on the opposite wall. Through an arched opening you can view the living area - a couch and perhaps the TV is on - with several residents taking care of their daily chores, while the public files in and out of the business portion of the 'casa' making and receiving the important phone calls of the day. To place a long distance call here, you give the number to the person at the desk and when the connection is made you're directed to cabina uno or cabina dos.

As I walk in, a young woman - 23 years old I learn later - is sitting behind the desk with a year-old nino at her breast, and I open the attache' to reveal the computer. She motions for a wire or plug and I hand her the phone cord that's attached to the modem input while she leans over behind the desk and plugs it in. She says "OK", I hit a few keys, the dial tone comes up and I'm connected to AOL through a server in Puerto Vallarta and the entire session is over in 2 minutes. For this I'm charged 8 to 12 pesos (about $1 US) and I'm set for another week or so !!

As I dig in my wallet for the coins, I show her pictures of my hija's, hijo and nieta. She calls out and immediately three more women are looking at the pictures and laying multitudes of compliments on me in a language that I can only hope to comprehend. Her plump child has a wide grin between his rosy cheeks and now several of her customers and the lady from the liquor store next door are leaning in to have a look at my kids. I put the computer away, rescue my wallet and back out the door to return to the boat and read the latest from the "world to the North".

Since New Years - which I spent at Tenacatita, in a dinghy raft-up with 20 others at midnight while we shot off dozens of expired flares - until today, St. Patricks here in Mazatlan - I've traveled several hundred miles of this coast, as far south as Manzanillo, and it's all beautiful. The winds, unfortunately are light, which means we all burn a little more fuel. But that keeps the batteries charged and the lights burning at night.

Even though I know I have to move north and/or west to avoid hurricane season here, I feel like I've barely brushed the surface of the Mexican coast and look forward to a return here next fall. In the next few weeks, I'll put together more detail of the past few months and send it off. Until then, I hope everyone is looking forward to the transition from winter to spring - I'm having trouble remembering what that's like.

Hasta luego from Mazatlan

Terry, aboard S/V "Secret O' Life"