Today we officially check out of Mexico.

The projects are completed, the food is bought and stowed, SCOOTS' tanks are filled with water and diesel and propane, our pesos are almost all spent, the goodbyes have been said. We've had a great time exploring Mexico: trying new things, seeing all sorts of new wildlife, meeting new friends, and amassing new experiences. Now we're ready to explore the South Pacific.



Since leaving San Francisco in September 2014, we've met SO many wonderful people, most of them cruisers like us. During the past few months, once we knew that we'd be heading across the Pacific, we've crossed paths with many members of this extended cruising family and had the opportunity to spend a little more time together and wish each other "fair winds." While we were all cruising Mexico, it was fun to bump into each other here and there, now and then. But now that Eric and I are leaving Mexico, we don't know when or where we may meet up with members of our "Mexican cruising family," whose adventures are taking them in different directions than ours.

Hellos and goodbyes are both a part of the cruising life. For the past few days, friends have stopped by SCOOTS to wish us well, and it's been really nice. Before we left La Cruz this morning, our friends Pat and Melodie from s/v Starshine came over with homemade goodies to take along. And our friends Brad, Aline and Jake from s/v Grinn II surprised us as we were leaving Marina Nuevo Vallarta after clearing out with customs, hollering and waving and taking photos from the pier as we exited the breakwater. Such great friends we've made along the way.



Tomorrow, we set sail for Polynesia.

After clearing with customs this morning, we'll anchor somewhere in the area, doing the last bit of stowing, gathering our wits, catching our breath, and beginning to ease ourselves back into self-sufficiency, before starting out across the Pacific. Besides, today is a Friday, and sailors believe that it's bad luck to begin a voyage on a Friday. They also believe that having women and bananas on a boat is bad luck, but we're ignoring that. We're not overly superstitious – but we're not taking any chances.

You can follow our journey on this blog. I'll be sending in text updates while we're underway, through the magic of single sideband radio and we'll be updating our position daily as well (click on the "Where we are right now" link on the sidebar).

The photos in this blog entry are the signal flags that we've raised on SCOOTS. They spell out a message. See if you can figure out what it is...

If you need a little help, you can check out "International maritime signal flags" at Wikipedia. Be sure to also scroll down to the "Substitute flags," which are used if you repeat a letter.

See you later...