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Eleytheria Journal: February - March 2005

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February 7 - 12, 2005: The Trip from Puerto Vallarta to Zihuatanejo, 17°40'02" N, 101°36'58" W

I've been procrastinating. A lot. And not sure why. But I can't seem to get into the swing of things to get the boat ready to go on the trip south to Zihuatanejo. I'm sure some of it has to do with living the comfortable and safe life at the marina again. It's hard to get away from it, even though we really look forward to being at anchorage and away from the umbilical cord that is the power cord. We checked out of the port of Puerto Vallarta as of Sunday afternoon. The check out papers are good for 48 hours and had been filed on Friday. Come Monday morning, we still weren't ready to head into the ocean, but didn't want to re-file the check out. So we pulled off the dock and headed to Yelapa for a day's preparation. After being at the dock for so long, and living off the boat at the time share, a lot needed to be put away properly so as not to go flying during a passage. For those of you following, the position of Yelapa is 20°29'50" N, 105°26'51" W. We planned to stay only one night, but it ended up being two. See how I can procrastinate? It was a bit of a rolly anchorage, but we were able to get everything put away and relax a bit. It's really nice to be back out on the water, away from a marina.

Abe here. We must have upset Neptune by leaving Puerto Vallarta! On the way to Yelapa I felt an insect crawling on my neck, so I did what most of us would do, I quickly swatted at it thinking it might be a stowaway cockroach trying to get a free ride on Eleytheria. It turned out to be a bee and it was angry to be handled so roughly, and it let me know by introducing its stinger to my finger. Fortunately I am not allergic to bee stings so other that a slightly swollen middle finger I won the fight with that bee. A one-round fight, and I had won, but I also had a swollen finger for a few days as proof that a bee goes down fighting.

The second fight was much rougher. This time I went a full fifteen rounds with the anchor! As we were raising anchor in Yelapa, the rode locker below deck kept jamming the windlass. I thought I could pull up the chain by hand, put it on the deck and, later, feed it below deck. In the process the chain came off the windlass and started to go back into the water. Whoa! I was not going to let the anchor pull the chain back into the water. All my hard work was not going to be wasted. I grabbed the chain and initially got jerked forward. Thank goodness I was wearing sailing gloves, otherwise I would have torn the skin off my hands. As it was, my fingers were sore and already achy from the fight. Round One: Abe! Did I learn anything from this? Well, not quite. I started to pull the chain up on the deck, again. This time I had about fifty feet out of the water on the deck. The windlass let the chain loose, again. I was able to catch it much earlier this time. Round Two: Abe! My braun got the better of me and now I was determined not to let this happen again. So I used my foot to hold the chain onto the windlass. For the next few rounds neither had much of an advantage. Pretty much an even fight, maybe Abe getting more punches in. Then came Round Thirteen. I had let my guard down thinking that the anchor had lost its fighting spirit. I was so lulled into thinking that the fight was over. Alas, the chain performed a perfect "Battle of the Bulge," or a Vietcong's "Tet Offensive." The chain came off the windlass again, but this time it had already pulled about twenty five feet of chain and had gained speed before I had a chance to react. The chain was moving so fast my hands could not get a good grip. When I was able to get a solid grip the chain performed a perfect offensive move that caught me flat footed, sleeping on the job, snoozing, it had so much inertia that when I got a solid grip, it took my hands, my arms, my shoulders, my neck, and my face forward. I saw what the chain was trying to do. It had hoped that by implanting my eye into the jib furler it could knock me down for the count. I saw it coming with just enough time to turn my head enough to take the furler just below the left eye. I almost let the chain go, but I am an Airborne Ranger and was not going to loose this fight! I held on - barely - and put the chain on the furler. Round Thirteen: Anchor. For the last two rounds, I decided that I had enough rounds won and if I could just make the last two rounds even and stay away from the anchor's big punch I would win the fight. I went down below and rearranged the chain to make room for the chain still left on the deck. The last two rounds were uneventful, I don't even know who won the last two rounds, but I never gave the anchor another chance to connect another big punch. I had won the fight, but I also knew that I had gone fifteen tough rounds with the anchor. I would have sore hands and a huge shiner to prove it. That was more than a month ago and my hands are still sore, my eye still has a small bump. What a fight, and I WON!

The anchorage was a bit deeper than we like, and we ended up with all 300' of chain out to give us proper holding. When we went to pull it in on Wednesday morning (the 9th), we had a bit of an issue. It kept piling, as chain is apt to do, making a volcano of sorts inside the anchor locker. Abe would pull in (with the benefit of our electric windlass) 30' - 50' of chain, run downstairs, rearrange the chain, go back to the forepeak to pull in more rode. It was a long process. He came back in the cockpit after it was all said and done, looking tired. After a couple of minutes, he said to me, "I wish you'd stop hitting and beating me." Now, my husband can come up with some strange things out of the blue at times, but this one had me perplexed. Then he turned his head to me, and I could see a nice huge bump under his eye. He'd gone fifteen rounds with the anchor, winning in the end, but getting a nice shiner in the process. We documented with pictures the entire red to black to purple to yellow, but not many of them do the shiner justice. The chain had jumped off the windlass at some point and he'd done a face plant into the roller furler.

The rest of the sail down was mostly nice. There was still a lot of motoring. We're finding that Mexico "normal" weather doesn't include much consistent wind. Even going offshore 10 - 15 miles doesn't always help. We pulled out of the anchorage on Wednesday the 9th, and motored for a day. By the morning of Day Two we were a little south of Manzanillo. The wind was getting stronger, hitting us directly on the nose. Normally, we've been able to motor directly into the wind. We get a bit impatient with wind on the nose and like to motor directly there rather than trying to sail 40° off the wind. But the wind and waves were too strong to motor, so we sailed. But what was worse was that the wind waves and current were against us by this point, too. So instead of steering the 150° that we wanted, we were sailing and getting pushed to a course of 90° on one tack and 210° on the other. The 9 hours were a lovely sail, though. Just frustrating because we were making no progress towards our destination. We'd made good toward our destination less than 2 miles in the last 9 hours.

At 4 or 5 PM the winds changed, and our spirits soared. We were doing only about 3 knots, but happy because we were headed almost directly where we wanted to go, and we were sailing. What a concept! The wind died a bit later in the evening and we motor-sailed at 8 knots through the night. Since we'd spent 9 hours going nowhere, I thought we'd be getting into Ixtapa around sunset on Day Three. With the 8 knot ride we made great time and pulled into the marina at 10:30 on Saturday morning. Just under a 72 hour run. I never guess the arrival time even close!

Part of this trip (for me, at least) is about learning patience. It's so very frustrating to be moving, but not anywhere close to the right direction. We were so off course, the GPS couldn't even calculate how long before we arrived. Instead of the miles to go getting smaller it was getting bigger on one of the tacks. But we had to get away from land, and therefore had to take the tack. You know intellectually that the current conditions will change (a fact that I try to ignore when there's weather that we like!), and it will get better. But thoughts creep in such as, "how do people do this for 30 days? How do you sit here in this mess and go so far off course?!" The answer is that you just do. There's no option when you're out there. You just keep moving. Or if you're not moving, you know that the conditions will change. Fortunately, too, the wind is more consistent once you get off shore. For out Puddle Jump, the possibility exists that we could be becalmed for 24 hours or more. It's happened. And when you're carrying only 115 gallons of fuel, that translates to 2 hours of engine time a day over the estimated (with a fudge factor for safety) 30 days. If you're becalmed, you have to wait it out to a certain extent.

There is very much a swing of emotions that we go through. A range of extreme highs and extreme lows is how one author described cruising life. I'm finding that to be so true. Thankfully, there have been so many more highs than lows. It's times like this yucky sailing day, though, that it seems the low will go on forever. Is it patience that is needed? Or more a relaxing into the moment knowing that there is absolutely nothing we can do to change the weather? As the speed continues to drop, below 5, then below 4, and 3 and 2, and yes, even below 1 knot, our spirits sink too. Sometimes the engine can be utilized, but not always. When the speed does start to pick up, or you can turn to the correct course because the wind changed directions, the spirits rise quickly. During the lows, I have frustration, anger at myself because I just can't let it be, fear, all sorts of emotions. During the highs nothing can touch you. It would be quite interesting to watch if I weren't right in the middle of it! Since you can't have the highs without the corresponding lows,though, I wouldn't change any part of it. The highs are wonderful and amazing.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife this trip. A new one for us are floating turtles. We came within 30' of the first one. I was on watch and didn't catch sight of him immediately. I wasn't sure what it was until we were almost on top of him. I originally thought he might have been dead since he didn't lift a head or an eye when we motored past. But then we saw 8 more along the way, all the same. So I'm guessing that they were sleeping. Do turtles sleep on the surface? Anyone know? We also were visited by dolphins again. This time we saw many that were jumping and spinning through the air. We had our own private Sea World show. The first show happened about 20 yards from us. The second show was much further away, but still fun to watch. They looked like they were having so much fun!

When we arrived at the marina, we washed the boat to clean off the salt and dirt. As we were rinsing it off I heard a very soft ttttthhhpppppfffffttt. "Abe, that sounds like parachutes opening." Sure enough, up in the sky were parachutes. Not the parasails that you see in most of these tourist towns, but real, true skydivers. Wow. Talk about a small world. We left our parachutes in Tennessee. The salt air would just be too hard on them for what little we might be able to do. But we didn't expect to see any here! We'll have to check it out and see if there's anyone we know. Back to the top.

 

February 15 - 22, 2005: Our First Guests in Mexico and Christmas in February

Brian and Shelly of SV Moonglow were our friends and neighbors from San Francisco. They seemed to be one of the few couples that actually believed us when we said we were leaving for this trip in September of 2004. They were so supportive and helpful in getting us on our way, so it was only natural that they were the first visitors we had in Mexico. They were so kind to offer to bring whatever we might need from West Marine or grocery stores. Shelly was laughing because I kept sending messages like, "One more thing, if you have room..." That made their arrival quite humorous. They were visiting for one week and carried bags enough for two years. Okay, not quite, but close. They were going to stay on the boat for the first half of the visit, then move to a hotel as a Valentine's present to themselves.

By the way, look how good they're being lathering up with sunscreen!

Shelly knows how to plan. She'd researched all sorts of things and places to do and see while in Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo. She was so prepared. We had a long list of things to do while they were here. I think we got it all done!

Day One had us busing it into Zihuat to check out the sights. We saw the anchorage, checked out the Mercado (the food court was much cleaner than the one in Guadalajara), had ice cream (of course!), had wonderful fish tacos (of course!), and walked all over town.

Day Two had us on bikes. Yikes! How long has it been since I've been on a bike? Forever it seems. There's a beautiful bike path that runs from Playa Linda to Zihuat. It was a lovely, easy ride out to the beach, where we ate ceviche (of course!), drank margaritas (hey, they're on vacation, it's required!), and drank from coconuts. I've never been much on coconuts, but they've never tasted like this. A small stand at the beach had coconuts for sale. They opened the top so that you could drink the milk. It's clear. I never knew. Very yummy, rich and sweet. After you drank the innards the man with the machete would whack it open and cut out the meat. Mexican style has you eating it with Valentine sauce (a very delicious sauce), with lime juice and salt. It was so good. I'm now hooked on coconuts.

The marina and surrounding area has brackish water. And in this case, that means crocodiles. No diver will dive the bottom of any boat in the marina for fear of being eaten. We hoped to see crocs on this bike ride, and we weren't disappointed. There were big ones and small ones. You can see why people thought they'd make cute pets. So tiny.

The ride home became known as the Death Ride. Shelly is known amongst those she takes to Disneyland for her Death Marches. We've never been a part of a Death March (she went easy on us when we went to Disneyland), but some of her friends complain that she makes them walk too fast and too far. Abe thought he'd found a "short cut" back to the marina on bikes. Shorter in this case meant more and bigger hills. It became Abe's Death Ride. We had a great view of the ocean on the way, so it was kind of worth it. At one point, I was in the lead, and Abe riding behind me. All of a sudden I hear an, "Oh my gosh!" from Shelly and Abe. An 18" iguana had darted between my bike and Abe's across the path. Fast! It was a blur, but he was big enough for Abe and Shelly to see him scoot.

All in all, a good day for seeing wildlife! Our bottoms were sore from riding on the seats, but other than that we were able to walk the next day. I had been scared after those hills that my legs wouldn't work.

Day 5 had us out on the boat. Brian is the fisherman amongst us. He'd specifically searched for just the right lure to take out to catch something. They're pretty spiffy looking. We snagged one fish, but it got away before we even had the chance to take the reel out of the holder. As we have yet to bring any fish on board, we're willing to throw most anything overboard to try. Alas, this trip was not the one to make it happen. But the highlight of the day, of the week perhaps, was that we were visited by whales. My heart actually leapt when we first heard the blowing of the blow holes. I'd never heard one before, but I immediately knew what it was. It seemed that there were 3 adults and one baby. They were close to the boat for a couple of blows, then moved farther out. We tried to follow them but weren't able to get as close as they had been at first. Brian got some great pictures. Of course, our camera was close by, but the batteries went dead after one shot. Rats! What is it with us and cameras?!

We anchored at Isla Grande for a couple of hours, and as is the case wherever Brian and Shelly go, they saw a Cal-46. This is the model boat that they own, and they see the same models everywhere. They are part of a Cal-46 association and know most of the Cal owners from the west coast. They knew both Tom and Nancy of Liberty as well as Eric and Katriana of Seayanika. It really is a very small world. We also snorkeled off the beach a bit, but the visibility wasn't great.

Day 6 had us crawling through trees. There is a zip-line course here in Ixtapa that is another example of some very kind business people. We arrived on Monday, by taxi. The first taxi that we asked to take us refused because the last 1/2 mile was a dirt road, and he didn't want to get his taxi dirty. The second one we asked had no issues taking us. When we arrived it looked like no one was around save a small girl about 5 years old. After a time, her mother appeared. They're closed on Mondays. During the weeks, they are expanding the course, working in the trees. When she learned that Brian and Shelly were leaving on Tuesday, she asked us to wait. She had a conference with her husband and when they came back, they had agreed to not only take us through the course, but to drive us back to town after we were through. Amazing.

It was a wonderful course, very well maintained, excellent equipment, very safe. The website that lead Shelly to this place didn't have any prices so we had no idea how much it would be. For 1 1/2 hours moving through the trees over various wire, ropes, zip lines (not including the training beforehand), it cost $200 pesos. Less than $20 USD. It was so worth it. It took the husband and wife and their employee to take us through the course. And they were so nice and gracious. We highly recommend them if you're ever in this neck of the woods. By the way, we didn't have to sign any liability forms. Never would have happened in the States.

When the husband (who is French, by the way) drove us back to town we tipped him since they opened up on their day off, drove us back to town, gave us refreshments after we'd finished, and in general were so very kind. He didn't want to take it at first, but when we insisted he was so gracious. Abe and I were finding it difficult in the States to not become very frustrated with people. You could hold a door open for someone, and they wouldn't say thank you. Driving down the road, you're given rude gestures because you're not driving fast enough/too fast/in the wrong lane/don't leave fast enough from a red light to green. Take your pick. Some of that was due to the size of San Francisco. Some of it seems to be due to the fact that we're forgetting how to be nice to each other. But we've been amazed time and again at the generosity of the people that we're meeting. It's been so very refreshing.

We filled the other days with a little of this and that. We toured the marina via dinghy to give Moonglow a good view of the boats. I can pick out Kelly Petersons (the same as we have) by sight but not much else. Abe is only a little better than I. But Brian knows most any sailboat make and size. It's impressive. We saw the carnival (not sure what they were celebrating, but it was fun!), and had all sorts of little snacks at different vendors. Shelly and I had a very nice back and neck massage at a beach stand. For 30 minutes we paid $150 pesos. Less than $15 dollars. Can't beat that. Abe and Brian waited for us at Carlos and Charlie's, a restaurant/bar with a pool! Rough life. This is the restaurant on the beach where the skydivers sign up and where they land. Abe and Brian had a nice show while we were getting kinks worked out of our muscles. Shelly and Brian moved to an impressive hotel. Very neat design, where every room as a grand view of every sunset. If ever you're in Ixtapa/Zihuat and need a place to stay, Las Brisas is the place.

It was a wonderful visit with them. We've already made plans to meet for Christmas of 2005. They want somewhere warm, we'll plan to be Mexico versus the States so it will work out well!

For those curious ones out there, this is what we asked them to bring for us:

  • Space Saver bags those you vacuum out the air for smaller storage
  • Chocolate chips - they're expensive here!
  • Leave-in conditioner for hair - it's drying out a bit from all the sun. Thanks Shelly & Jenni for this gift!
  • CD RWs
  • DVD Rs
  • One pack rice mixes - I said a lot, she brought 40. Perfect! Don't need them much now, but want to prepare more for passages. Can't get them here.
  • Muffin mix where you just add water - again, I just said a lot. I got 25 or so of these
  • Marine lumber - we have a couple of projects to finish
  • Spare regulator for our batteries. So far, this is the only spare that we forgot to get in the States.
  • Unsweetened cocoa powder - this goes with the chocolate chips for chocolate chip bread pudding in the pressure cooker. Yum!
  • Windscoop - helps funnel the wind down your open hatches. We need it in this heat! We had one, but wanted a second.
  • Bronze screws - I can't remember which project these belong to, but you can't find bronze here. Only brass.

Back to the top.

 

March 1 - 8, 2005: Abe gets a visit from his in-laws

We spent the last week in February at the dock - again - doing boat projects that used electricity. It's easiest with guests to be at a dock to give them a little freedom to come and go (rather than being stuck on the boat in the middle of water). Plus with the extra power and water usage it makes sense to also be at the dock. So we stayed at the dock while Brian and Shelly were here. And then kept staying because we started getting some more projects done. The boat is in great condition, it's just that we had a list of things that we wanted to do to make it more comfortable or to change the current set up. We're still slowly moving through our list. And when that's done, we'll start all over again with a new list.

Mom and Dad arrived on Tuesday, March 1.

The original plan was that we would take two weeks to sail up to Puerto Vallarta with them. We were headed north anyway for the summer months in the Sea of Cortez, and there's loads to see along Mexico's Gold Coast. The weather was not cooperating at all, however. When the weather did break, the trip north would have been too quick to be any fun. It would have been a pounding, uncomfortable ride with no breaks. In the end we decided to just stick around Ixtapa/Zihuat. And because the flight reservations had to be changed to accommodate the new departure point, they only stayed for a week. Dad said something about giving Abe back his home before the in-laws began to stink (as in the old adage: fish and visitors start to smell after a week).

We did a lot of the same things with them as with Brian and Shelly. Visited the market, walked through the street-side stalls, walked along various beaches. We put Dad's woodworking experience into use, figuring how to frame up the three spots on board that need small doors. We have the wood, but without the correct tools, how do we do the job? We also had dinner with Pam and Scott since my folks had heard so much about them from us, and we wanted them all to meet. My dad has uncorrected vision in both eyes similar to what Scott has corrected in his one good eye. We visited Tournesol, and Dad stood in their cockpit without his glasses, checking out just what it means to look down the deck of a boat with limited vision. And the excitement for the trip, we were visited at the dock by a 10' crocodile. He swam right past the stern. And yes, we did have the camera out. But the digital card wasn't being seen by the camera so we didn't get a photo before I scared him off. There were witnesses, though!

Mom had been snorkeling once before, but without prescription goggles so it wasn't as much fun. Abe and I decided that we would have to find some good places to try with Mom since she'd found a solution. One of the ladies in their local dive shop suggested that she take the ear pieces off an old pair of glasses and put them in the goggles. It costs much less than prescription goggles, but worked just as well. She was ready to go. We motored the boat (NOW the wind comes from the south, just when we decide to sail south to Zihuat from the Ixtapa marina!) to the anchorage for a night's stay away from the dock. Dad stayed on the boat, keeping a look out (napping), while the three of us dinghied to shore. The tide was low so we had to lift the dinghy engine out of the water and row the last little part to shore. That's fine except the tide was rising bringing with it some nice breaking waves. We had to be quick to get the engine up and start rowing. We weren't quite quick enough, and the dinghy started to turn a little side-on to the waves. Our eyes all got very large when the wave lifted us up and soaked the boat. Abe was thinking it wouldn't be good to dump his mother-in-law into the water. Just not nice. We got to shore just fine, though, albeit a little wet.

The snorkeling was a great success. Mom's goggles worked very well, and it was fun to watch how excited she got seeing all sorts of neat fish. I have no idea what I'm seeing, but we did see quite a variety. What I think were rock fish were plentiful as were some cool looking pencil-thin fish/eel-looking thingys. That, by the way, is their scientific name: cool looking pencil-thin fish/eel-looking thingys. The dinghy ride home wasn't near as much fun (not as wet), but we did have a chance to see most of the boats in the anchorage as well as a jumping fish. We had nice showers, and some of us had dinner while others of us (Mom) were so pooped that they (she) had to take a nap at 6 pm. Chicken tacos just like those served on our passages were served for dinner so that our guests got get the flavor of passage-making without the discomfort of the yucky weather.

The next morning we hopped back in the dinghy for a trip to shore for breakfast. Getting in and out of a dinghy from the boat never appears to be a graceful feat. It was fun to watch Mom and Dad look just as ungraceful as we do! And of course, on the motor back to the dock with Eleytheria , the wind was directly on our nose again. We did hear/see one blowing whale way in the distance. Nothing more than the spout, but it was a whale sighting nonetheless. Their last night here, one of my favorite thing to do with my folks, we watched Turner and Hooch. For whatever reason, this makes both my parents laugh so hard. I've seen it a couple of times with them, and can now anticipate what scenes will make them laugh. It makes me laugh just hearing them.

I am so very fortunate to have my folks as my parents. They support all three of their girls in whatever we do, and visit us in order to get the flavor of what we're into. It's so nice to have them share in what we do. Not only do they support us, they jump in to try it out for themselves to see what it's like. Amazing!

Mom and Dad also had their instructions to bring goodies from the States. I think I was worse with the last minute emails for them than we were with Moonglow. In one such e-mail, I told them that we were having West Marine send 2 pieces of teak wood that were 4' long. Dad was to cut them in half. Apparently my Mother thought that was hilarious. How in the heck do you fit THAT into luggage? It was only 3/8" thick and 2" wide, meant for our doors project. No problemo. She had images of 4' by 12" wide. Other things on their list were:

  • Orville Redenbacher buttery oil for pan-popped popcorn
  • Abe's birthday present 2 months late - compact MP3 player (I get to use it too on watches to listen to books!)
  • Small Mag light flashlight
  • A new watch for me - I've gone through two already since San Francisco. And the one Mom brought died the first time I took a shower with it. Maybe it's time to buy a different model/brand.
  • Notebooks for Abe where he likes to keep notes and reminders as well as drawings
  • Wood as previously mentioned - and it fit very well into the suitcases
  • Bop-It, large - these are a toy kind of like the old Simon Says. It tells you to pull, twist or Bop It, and you have to follow. We have a small one that our niece and nephew gave us, but we can't use it exclusively because it takes special batteries that are hard to find and expensive. The large Bop-It takes AAA so we can use our rechargeable ones. It's a hoot! I, by the way, am still the champion with 117 pulls, twists and Bops.

And, like Moonglow, Mom and Dad had things to take back with them. Hey, coming to visit us doesn't come without strings!! We loaded up Mom and Dad much more than we had Brian and Shelly, though. We gave my folks 2 more bags to take back than they came with. We don't have many pictures from when Mom and Dad were here. It's Mom's job, and her camera broke shortly into the trip. Most of the ones she took are in our Photo Album. Back to the top.

 

March 1 - 9: Where to go from here?

As the saying goes the best-laid cruising plans are written in Jello. We're finding that to be so true. Maybe even written in hot water just as the gelatin has been added. Our original plan was to head north into the Sea of Cortez for the hurricane season June through October, then south again enough to "Puddle Jump" to the South Pacific in March of 2006. But... We've decided after much, much deliberation and pulling hair out to head instead into Central America for the next year and to Puddle Jump from Ecuador next March. We'll see how much this plan plan changes by next year!

We've been hearing more and more things about Central America. When we first came up with the idea for this trip in 2000, we started dreaming where we would go. Central America was on the list, but as we looked at routing and timing, etc. it seemed like we would need to drop that off if we were to stay in Mexico for a year. Like all good cruisers, we have changed our minds. The decision was a combination of many factors:

  • We've learned more about putting the boat in San Carlos for even a short time (many people do leave it on the hard (out of the water) for months on end while going to the States to get away from the heat, but there can be many problems associated with that). It gets so hot in the Sea, that 99% of the folks there do leave their boats.
  • One original idea was to leave Sea of Cortez in mid-October to head south as far and as fast as we could to see even a glimpse of Central America. If we go now, we won't have to rush.
  • We don't have to bash north to get to the Sea of Cortez.
  • Instead of flying to the States on commercial flights from Mexico, we can take military hops for much cheaper from many different places in Central America.
  • Mexico is cheaper than San Francisco, but not as cheap as we expected. Part of that is because we've been stopping and staying in tourist towns (with tourists from US, Canada and Mexico) which are more expensive.
  • If we go south, we can spend time in Central America as well as Ecuador. From there we can travel inland to visit the Inca ruins of Machu Pichu. That is both on our life lists of things to do before we croak.

There are a number of boats heading south from Zihuat so we have plenty of brains to pick now that we need to reschedule and plan and prepare differently. Mexico has been not too hard to find things. Central America won't be as easy so we'll need to finish up projects or provision for our to-do list before leaving. We think we'll leave Zihuat before the middle of April, but that's written in Jello. We need to be south of Mexico/Guatemala by the beginning of hurricane season June 1. More to follow as we figure it out! Back to the top.

 

March 12, 2005: Good-bye Tournesol : (

We knew this day would come, but it's still difficult: Tournesol sailed out of Ixtapa on Saturday, heading north. Our schedules for our circumnavigations are different and so our respective Puddle Jumps are taking place in different years. The Puddle Jump is the hop from Mexico or Central America to the South Pacific, and there's a 6 - 8 week optimal window from which to leave the coast. Pam and Scott are going jumping off from Puerto Vallarta sometime in mid-April. Eleytheria is not planning to Jump until next year. So the day of Good-byes was inevitable. They've been incredible friends, and loads of fun. And, for the record, the women beat the men in the more games of Spades, and therefore we Rule! We wish them fair winds, lots of dolphins (for good luck) and loads of great places to visit.

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March 17, 2005: New Olympic Event

A story to illustrate that Paradise isn't always what it's cracked up to be. I'd gotten cocky thinking I was safe in Mexico. I hadn't even been that careful since arriving. I didn't drink water from a tap, but I didn't make sure that the ice in my glass was purified. I figured the sooner I could get my body used to the little buggers here, the better off I'd be. I ate what I wanted, drank most anything, and have not had a problem. Until now. In the early hours of March 17th, I was hit with my first bout of Montezuma's revenge - 5 months after we arrived here. Although many other people in the anchorage over the past week have complained of similar symptoms; I think there is something going around, and not that I ate or drank anything particularly bad. We'd eaten at this particular e restaurant many times before, and the onset of symptoms were 10 hours after eating - really too long to be food-related. But it hit Eleytheria hard in the early morning of Thursday. I woke up with the gnawing feeling that it wasn't going to be pretty. Abe joined me an hour or two later. If you're easily offended, please don't read any further. Abe and I have a sick sense of humor.

A couple of observations:

  • Does just thinking about the possibility of bad things to come make it happen? If you didn't say to yourself, "Self, this is not going to be any fun. There are bad things to come," would that mean bad things wouldn't, uh, come up?
  • Just when you think that you're safe by just running to the bathroom with it only threatening to come out the, er, back end, does your body then laugh and say, "just wait until you see what else I have in store for you!"
  • If there are two people in one household, two bathrooms are a good idea. I'd tossed around the idea long ago about getting rid of our second bathroom to be used it for storage only. It's a good thing we didn't do that. We didn't actually need it because Abe and I were on different, ER, schedules, but it was comforting to know it was there if needed.
  • No one should ever be so intimately involved with the inside of a trash can.
  • It's really nice when your body cooperates and gives you time to sit, do your stuff, stand, turn around and do the other stuff. It's nice that it doesn't all happen at once.
  • How do They expect you to take oral medicine for vomiting and nausea when you're throwing it right back up? Does it work immediately upon impact in the stomach? I thought not. So how in the world, when you're praying at the porcelain throne, do they expect you to keep the very medicine down that is supposed to help you stop calling Ralph?

Abe and I were sick for just over 24 hours. I had a raging fever with my symptoms, Abe did not. We ate tentatively on Friday and did just fine. We did stay close to the boat, though, all day long, just in case. We were without energy for 2 full days, and didn't have normal appetites back for almost 10 days. But we're back to as normal as we can be. We thought it appropriate that this new Olympic marathon event should be termed The Hurl and Squirt. Back to the top.

 

March 20 - 29, 2005: More Boat Projects
Central America is hot and it rains a lot in certain areas. I've been putting off making our awning for some time. It's such a huge project that I wasn't looking forward to tackling it. To get in the mood to sew (yeah, right) I started out with shades that will take the place of the dodger canvas that was up in San Francisco. I used mesh-like material that allows air in, allows us to see out, and keeps the direct sun out. They're easy enough to put up and take down, and we'll be able to use them at the dock as well as during passages. We had noticed how very little relief we have from the afternoon heat on passage. In addition to 5 panels to cover the open sides of the hard dodger, I made side covers for the dodger windows. The front windows don't require shades as we don't get direct sunlight on the seats from the front windows - there's enough space between the windows and the cockpit seats.

After I finished the shades, I didn't have any more excuses to put off the awning any longer. I tried, I just couldn't come up with any more. I don't enjoy sewing. I don't have the knack for it. Especially making something from scratch with no pattern. I'm amazed at those folks who can do it with no effort. It was with a heavy heart that I began.

We decided on using heavy cotton rather than Sunbrella for the awning. The cotton needs to be treated with stuff that we'll pick up in the States to prevent it from its tendency to mildew and rot. The cost was the deciding factor, though. The cotton was 49 pesos per meter versus Sunbrella at 265 pesos per meter. I'm not that confident in not royally messing it up to go with the expensive stuff. We'll go with the cheap stuff and see how it works! Since cotton is a natural fiber, it will swell when it gets wet to make it waterproof. Or so I've read. We'll see how it holds up.

After much cursing and swearing and frustration, I've finished only one panel, but it's the biggest and the most onerous. I had to join two lengths of 60" wide to begin, which meant that I was in effect working with 120 sq. ft of material for most of the sewing. Not fun. The learning curve was in practice. All things considered, I'm very pleased with the outcome. It will really cool off downstairs as the teak decks will be shaded. They get very hot and the heat transfers through the decks to the "ceilings" down below. With the awning, we should notice a 10% reduction in temperatures. The awning will also provide much shading from direct rain. We're fairly waterproof, but if we're in a downpour we do have leaks at some of the windows. With no awning up, we have to close all the windows when it rains. The awning will allow us to leave the port holes open for the continued airflow. I'll finish one other major panel before we set off. It will connect to the current panel, and cover from the mast back to the front part of the dodger. The rest can wait!

Amy frustrated (posing for the picture, but an accurate representation!), and one 60"wide piece of awning material. The majority of the project used twice this material.

Abe has been working, as usual, on about 3 different projects at once. Since we bought the boat, we've had two spots that really should have had doors. There is a third "hole" that was created when we removed the weather fax. Of course, none of the storage areas were "standard" sizes so Abe had to make the doors from scratch. We couldn't just buy a finished door. Abe had to make do with the limited tools and equipment that we have. It makes any project that much more difficult. But Dad, having worked with wood much of his life, gave Abe some ideas of how to drill the necessary holes in line to make the doors square, etc.

Abe sanding the slats.

He's also working on making frames for our mosquito netting for each porthole and hatch. Since we've been in Ixtapa, we've been getting a lot more bites. And I seem to be just the flavor that these bugs love. They leave lovely welts and in some cases bruises, albeit small ones. We saw a great idea for the porthole covers on another Kelly Peterson. Abe is constructing two plastic frames for each window, with the netting sandwiched in between. These covers will then be held against the outside of the porthole with a dowel pulled from the inside of the window. Easy to put up, easy to take down. We have the netting that is known as bridal veil - the smallest holes to keep out even no-see-ums. My calves and ankles will be forever grateful for no more bites!

The third project is the completion of replacing all our running rigging. Since Abe got such a good deal on line (rope) at West Marine, we changed out all our lines with new. He's had to splice eyelets and such in most of the lines. It's a fun job - I promise that's what he says! - but it is time consuming. But the last of the lines went in here at the dock. He'd saved the outhaul and the topping lift (both lines for the main sail) for last. They're all so clean and bright!

We've been putting in loads of hours on the projects; as soon as we get away from the dock, it will be time to play a bit. Just in time for Central America! There's not much else to report other than we did get a visit from the big crocodile again. This time the camera worked!

Other than that, no new excitement. Back to the top.

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