We are back in Barra after an uneventful motor up from Manzanillo.
We've really settled into the Barra lifestyle. Typically we get up at 8am when Carden does and listen to the morning net, which is kind of like a VHF party line for the boats in the anchorage with a who's who, who's doing what, assistance and local info & events. Then at 9.30am the French Baker delivers breakfast, our standard is a fresh baguette, chocolate croissant, almond croissant and a ham and cheese croissant for Jeff.


Then we sit in the cockpit drinking coffee and tea and eating breakfast and watch Luke on Sapphire wash his deck and other boats come and go. (this morning we watched 2 boats run aground so it was mildly exciting).
I usually go into town to check emails and Jeff and Carden fill up water or fix stuff. Today we spent the day siting by the pool at the Sands Hotel, picking up laundry, swapping books and checking email.
We'll go back to the boat in a bit, have a shower and then we are going over to Sapphire for dinner (Meg's cooking pasta - Yum!)

Tuesday we had a big storm sweep through the area. The rain started in the morning so we had crazy cabin fever by the evening; at one point Carden was crawling around the boat naked except for socks on his hand and barking like a dog - TIme to get OFF the Boat!!! In the evening the winds picked up and boats started dragging; we had one boat drag its anchor right between us and another boat so it was about 10 feet away threatening to snag our anchor. Someone clocked the winds at 45-50 which is... really windy. The rain was pouring so hard we were on deck but couldnt see 10 feet in front of us, it was like a sheet of water. Needless to say all the sailors in the anchorage were on high alert all night.

People always say they wish they were here.... well, you can re-create this experience at home:
Get up at 1am, run outside in the pouring rain, naked except for a rainjacket. Run around your house and make sure it hasn't moved. Then check all your neighbours houses and make sure they haven't moved. If by chance one of your neighbours houses is careening down the street threatening to take out everything in its path get a big air horn ready to alert everyone else; and get on the radio frantically "Boat heading this way, boat heading this way... what are your intentions???" (At this point its traditional for the men to start yelling obscenities into the wind!) When its all over check every window and area of your house with a flashlight and move the towels and pots to catch the new leaks. Go back to bed. Repeat every hour.

Luckily its only rained about 4 or 5 days out of the 3 months we have been here so far.
Tomorrow there is a local chilli cookoff and kids carnival and sunday is the Superbowl so it looks like we may be here a while.

Meg and Luke took great video of the storm (we were busy catching leaks):