It was a great stay in Chamela. Seemed like 3 days, was actually 6! How time flies when you are not watching the clock or calendar. It is a new dynamic for me, not being in a hurry! Did lots of long hot walks on the beach, eating at palapas…delicious fresh seafood for a song…I mean, a big fat fresh shrimp burrito, salad and 2 beers for $13.50 USD? Oh, yeah, I’m all over that! Feet in the warm sand, looking out at the surf, little kids squealing with joy, cold beer in my hand….what’s not to like? I do love how the Hispanic community cherishes family time, always engaging with their kids….albeit there are those with their noses buried in their IPHONES….even down here there are millennials….kinda sad :(

I fill my time with daily walks, paddle boarding, swimming, working out, reading & generally just zoning out looking at the world going on around me…unnoticed by most….just embracing this great life I’m blessed to take part in.

Time to go. Ready for a new room with a view….Tenacatita is only 6. hours away….due to the lighter winds I decide to motorsail in order to top up my batteries as the wind and solar have a hard time keeping up with my power hungry ship….It’s an enjoyable sea, gently rolling my world as the coastline slips past…huge mansions built into the cliffs, majestic copper brown hills spattered with green-ish undergrowth and the occasional planted palm tree around homes….a shellacked, deep blue sea full of fish, in which none are interested in my Lures….except one spicy little skipjack who did his best to bite me as I let him go…”tell your big brothers to come back and punish my lures little boy!..I was nice to you”
evidently they didn’t get the memo…no more action.

As I sailed into the anchorage I counted 19 boats. The most I ever saw here in the past was 8 or 10….still not crowded my eyes focus outside of the mass of boats all anchored up close to the headlands for wind protection…no thanks…I will take my lumps out in the open for privacy, been in the same spot for days, endured tow blows in excess of 30 knots, easy peasy…more privacy for cockpit showers :).

It takes a couple days but I finally get decent conditions to launch NO_TOE (the dingy) and head to the beach. Basically abandoned, not a sole on it…great time for a walk!! Rinse, set, repeat…next few days it is my daily routine…coffee, water, read, rubber band workout, walk on beach, paddle board & swim….starting to get into the groove of taking better care of myself. The days, though should seem long and boring, fly by.

The Jungle Tour: An estuary that goes from the anchorage through a lush thick mangrove, 2.5 miles up to a lagoon. There…you land your dink, walk across the beach to the “Aquarium” where there are tons of palapas & places to eat. I picked up a couple hitch hikers on the beach after doing a textbook landing with my wheels down (serious! My dingy has fold down wheels!), jump out in one fluid motion, grab the handle and run up the beach dingy in tow to higher ground. Alex & Terri ask if they can come with me as their dingy is way too heavy to drag around to the other side of the sand bar…of course I accept the company, way more fun than going alone.

We saw MASSIVE Herons, Snowy Egrets, Red Rock Crabs, other loud birds which I don’t know what they were…and smelly gross water….brackish…not anything you would want to swim in :(. Lunch was ok at best…considering the great luck I have had with food lately I was ok with it. On return trip back they invite me over for dinner as a thank you, of course I accept as they are on a GORGEOUS Amel 54 like the boat “Delos” you youtube…we agree on 6:30.

Let’s just say we punished a bottle of vodka (me & my new swiss friend Alex…Terri was a good girl….) talked story and ate a delicious stir fry…end of a great day of adventure on the water!!

Now, I sit in the cockpit, writing to you fine folks the next day, it is 84 degrees, wind is howling…I’m watching a dude kite foiling, making me wish I figured out a way to cram my kite boarding stuff somewhere on this ever shrinking island I call home….bygones.

It’s a good life either way :)
Capt. Chillaxn’