Sunset in Tenacatita

February 20, 2016 - Tenacatita, Day Two

Today I am going to start with yesterday. It was a slow, easy start to the morning. After breakfast, Jay checked the dinghy wheels. Flat. A whole lot of swearing. He worked an hour and a half to fix them to no avail. No wheels for our landing on the beach.

I was hesitant to go to the beach anyway. Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). After my accident, I am still a bit fearful. Jay honored my feelings and offered to anchor. He said we could swim in. Around 1400 we took the dinghy over to Solar Flair and picked up Kathy. She wanted to go swimming. Jim still was a bit under the weather so he stayed aboard to rest.

Off we went, anchored the dinghy and swam into the beach where the cruisers were playing bocce ball. We took a walk toward the palapa and passed more cruisers playing volleyball. Too hot, they stopped playing and ran towards the water for a refreshing swim.

We continued on to the entrance of the river cruise. It was low tide so we could see all the rocks we would have to dodge should we come back through at high tide with our dinghy. The river is shallow, but can be maneuvered. It goes way back through the mangroves and ends at the the other Tenacatita anchorage known as The Aquarium. If all things are fixed, we are considering taking a tour up there Sunday.

We found our way back to the palapa where about twenty-five cruisers where now taking a much-deserved rest after their games. All were enjoying libations and some were ordering food. Kathy, Jay and I ordered a beer and joined them. We sat back and watched the children play along the beach. There are about 8 children on various boats here in Tenacatita. The parents home-school them in the morning and in the afternoon they go swimming, kayaking, snorkeling, or just run around on the beach.

It was so hot, the first beer went down rather quickly so we had a second. Soon it was time to head back to the boat to prepare for the "Mayor's Raft-Up." We swam back, got on the dinghy and weighed anchor. We took Kathy back before heading to Cadenza. We had twenty minutes to change, gather our food and drinks and go over to the next event. (Hey! I thought cruising meant no schedules!)

Thirty-eight dinghys with at least sixty people tied up in a circle. Each of us had our plates, forks and drinks ready along with a plate to share. The "mayor" stood up on his dinghy and welcomed us and told us to pass the food around. There were the usual appetizers like chips and dips and nuts, but there was homemade quiche and even brownies. Eating on the dinghys was a bit awkward but all good.

After everyone finished eating, the "mayor" (Robert, I think his name is) stood up and gave a little speech. He talked about how his self-appointed mayor position was almost overthrown by youngsters in years past. Not sure what that was about. Then he said he was considering throwing his name into the race for president and what did we think of that? He asked us to go around the circle, give our name and tell who we would vote for; one of the Republicans, one of the Democrats or him. If we didn't want to vote we could wax poetic about our boats. Confused? No more than we were. But we went along with the game, albeit a little strange. Once the introductions were finished (which was a bit uncomfortable, I admit) we made small talk with our neighbors. While this was going on, the children were climbing around the circle on the dinghys and one wee tiny boy was swimming in the middle of us with his life vest on.

You gotta love the cruising life.