Points south...finally!

  In January, after 2 years, we finally made it south out of the bay again as far as Barra de Navidad.  I had made a spur of the moment, surprise trip home for a week over the Christmas holidays and returned the afternoon of December 31st.  Since Rob had to fly out on the 24th of February to go home for a week of work and this was the longest stretch of time we would have this winter between his trips home, we decided to make the most of it.  We forewent the parties and fireworks, and rang in the new year by leaving the dock at 4am on January 1st.

  For those of us slow boats who travel 7-1/2 to 8 knots, Nuevo to Barra is a 17-20 hour trip.  In the past we've done overnight passages but this year decided to travel during the day, which put us in Chameyla, our first anchorage on the way south, at about 5pm that afternoon.  The water was great our whole trip south-long slow swells, very little wind...but we pushed the current the whole way of this first leg.  The coastline is beautiful and from 3-5 miles out we were able to enjoy all of the sights we remembered from earlier trips.  Everyone who has travelled this part of the coast will recognize these two landmark homes....

 

     






  We dropped the anchor in Chameyla, had a quick swim and finished off the first of the new year with a bottle of champagne on the back deck and a hot-tub under the stars....  Normally, we love to spend a couple of days in Chameyla snorkelling off of the near-by islands, but this year the jellyfish in the water drove us away.  We didn't notice them at first, but once we'd been stung we took a second look and realized the water was full of them.  By Wednesday we had given up, and did the 5 hour trip to Tenacatita.

  We had bets on as to how many boats would be in the anchorage when we arrived as there seemed to be far less in Chameyla and enroute than we were used to seeing.  When we got in there were 15 other boats there, only 2 of them power.  The anchorage was as calm as we've ever experienced there, totally flat-so no need for the long, involved process of deploying the flopper-stoppers (which is also often an entertaining gong-show for everyone around...).  We had our own personal aquarium next to the boat every time we anchored, but surprisingly we didn't see the usual resident dolphins this year.  We spent 3 nights at anchor there and had fabulous swimming, did our first kayak beach-landings and saw my first American Oystercatchers on shore...but alas, no camera. 

   It's always entertaining sitting in the one beach-side restaurant and watching dinghies and pangas doing beach landings or trying to get over the shoal into the river.  To be honest, we've provided some of the entertainment ourselves over the years.  This year was no different...at low tide, this panga tried to get into the river and managed to get well and truly grounded.  First the two burly young men tried to help the driver get it loose, then Mom and Dad joined in (Mom none too happy about the whole situation).  When we left to kayak back to the boat they were all sitting in the restaurant waiting for the tide to come in.

Oh, and as a point of interest...there were 12 boats at anchor when we left, 6 of which were actually showing anchor lights.  Some people enjoy living on the edge....

  We arrived at the Grand Bay Hotel marina in Barra on January 7th, and spent a week revisiting all of our  favorite places....the Sunset Bar, Alcatraz, Ambar's and Mexico Lindo's restaurants.  The ocean side of the town took a hit from the hurricane in November and lost much of its beach along with parts of some buildings, but they're working hard at getting things rebuilt and the experience is very much the same...charming.  

view over Grand Bay Hotel, marina, and Barra de Navidad

...and the moon setting over the hotel

the sun rising over the marina ... 

  We spent a couple of enjoyable evenings listening to our friends from Saltspring, Trish and Gord, who entertain in the lounge of the hotel, played some fun tennis and made a trip to one of our favorite places, Secret Beach.  It's secret because only the dedicated will climb all of those stairs to get to the other side....

Not sure if a film clip can do it justice, but this place is majestic......

  I celebrated a landmark birthday in Barra on the 12th (if you have to ask....) and can't think of a nicer way to spend one.  Rob had pre-ordered breakfast pastries from the French Baker who delivers to the marina, then we went to town where we browsed the weekly market, I had a fantastic massage, and we had a great lunch at Besame.  In the evening we had dinner at the Thai restaurant in the hotel, where I was personally serenaded by a wonderful young man who had been to the beach with us, then went to the lounge and had the whole "happy birthday" thing again with Trish and Gord.  All in all a great day, even if it meant I had to turn 40 again....

  Left Barra on the 13th thinking we would spend a night in Tenacatita then head for home.  As it turned out, shortly after we dropped anchor we saw friends on Di's Dream pulling in so had to kayak over to say hi and ended up spending a great evening  and dinner aboard with them and their friends.  Turns out their friends, like many sailboat owners, saw us in the anchorage as they were coming in and told Roger and Di they didn't want to anchor next to any powerboat with a loud generator.  To which Roger replied, "it's okay, we know them....and they have an ice-maker!"  We ended up spending one more night there too because, well, we also have satellite TV-and there was a 49'ers game on.  In the midst of the game, the Mexican navy dropped anchor and we all waited with baited breath to see what would happen.  Sure enough, we got boarded.  Five guys with machine guns strapped to their sides climbed into the cockpit-I actually had the audacity to ask one of them if he was old enough to carry one and if he really knew how to use it....he laughed while Rob cringed.  They were very polite while they looked over all of our paperwork but declined to have their picture taken with me (damn!)  We asked if they were boarding everyone in the anchorage, but they said only the power boats.  At that point, Roger piped up "well, you guys are the ones who carry the drugs"!  (There was a heavy silence while I quietly kicked him and reminded him of the things you DON'T joke about a) when going through US airport security or b) while being boarded by kids holding machine guns).  Good fun had by all....!

  Hauled anchor at 4am on the 15th and bashed our way north-the usual pounding waves on the nose up to 6 feet most of the way.  At Cabo Corrientes, we said "well, are we going into the marina at dark or dropping anchor in La Cruz at dark and going to the Black Forest for dinner?".  The Black Forest won-we had the anchor set, the dingy in the water and were sitting at a table within an hour.  A fitting end to a great trip...and a few random closing pictures....

Arriving in Banderas Bay...

a very cool fish...

a Mexican squirrel...

oohhh, and what not to wear....anywhere!!!!

another season....

...and another year almost gone. Where does the time go?

  I know I've frustrated some of you with my lack of 'blogging' on our blog. After all, it's been almost a whole year now... Fact is, when I started this I had visions of us cruising with Solemates to a variety of destinations and having all sorts of adventures to regale our friends with. Reality, however, is settling in. Life gets in the way with plans sometimes, and our cruising days have yet to materialize. For a multitude of reasons, we've continued to be glued to Paradise Village (although to be honest it's a great place to be "stuck"!). Until the actual cruising begins, we will try to use the blog more frequently simply as a means of staying in touch-whether at home in Mexico or Crofton.

  Many of you will have received our Christmas emailing with all the news of what happened in the last year, so I won't rehash the whole things. Suffice to say there were two notable highlights: MacKenzie graduated her nursing program in the spring, and Cody gave birth to our grandson Lucas on May 17th. I was lucky enough to be present for both big events, and we're enjoying the spinoffs of both as well!

  MacKenzie is employed at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria and has her own neat little apartment right across the street. She bought herself a new car, is paying her own bills, and is doing well being an independent grown-up. Because she works shift work she has a few days off in a row, so she comes home to visit every week or so.





















  And of course, we've had many hours of fun with Lucas... He and Cody are living 1-1/2 hours away in Port Alberni so they spend the weekend with us every couple of weeks when we're at home. Being Grandpa and Gammy is even more fun than we imagined, and Cody is really enjoying the motherhood role as well. She is also involved with Search and Rescue, so is keeping busy.

We arrived back in Mexico on November 5th. Solemates survived another summer season well and we're pretty much done with all the million little things that need doing after you get back. Well, Roberto the engineer is making good progress at any rate. The Chief Stew (that's me) still has a lot of catching up to do, as does the deck hand (me again). Luckily, Roberto the chef jumped right back into his duties and whips us up amazing dinners a few times a week-as well as his signature margueritas.  Of course, you always take a risk when you feed your hairdresser a marguerita before she cuts your hair!

Rob's new hairstyle....a #6 blade!!

Oh, and check out my basil tree....  I had a few plants in this pot when went home in April, and just left them on the dock for whoever to enjoy until they died.  I had no idea that there was such a thing as perennial basil bushes-apparently the dock guys kept it watered over the summer and this is what I came back to.  Too cool!

  Anyways, now I've made a start and will try to continue with being a bit more diligent about staying in touch (think I've said that before??).  It's a bit tricky, as for some reason our internet on the boat can't handle blogging so need to go buy ice-cream at the mall and use their internet (sounds tough, I know).
Til then.....

Back on board....

  Wow-got some catching up to do here!  I started writing a blog from home, but of course never got around to posting it.....and now here we are back at our "other home" already-where did the summer go?

  We got back home to Crofton in late April, in time to find the yard starting to bloom (and the weeds taking over).  Spring on the island is so beautiful, it's my favorite time of year-even if it does rain most of the time.  I loved it even more this year as it wasn't me trying to keep up with 2 acres of grass cutting-hooray!!  we finally found a reliable yard maintenance guy!!!

We added another member to our family shortly after we got home this summer-one of Major's puppies, who we named Zoey.  We'd decided to resist the temptation but once we saw her we were done for.  She added a lot of fun to our lives-and some tasteful "antiquing" to our wooden furniture and porch stairs!  I'd forgotten just how much puppies chew....and grow!  She quickly went from a cute little 35 pound puppy to a cute BIG 95 pound puppy in about 5 months-good thing Major doesn't mind only having 1/2 of a bed.

Like all proud parents, we always thought she was special, but when her breeder took her to her first show in October she proved she really is-pretty exciting for all of us!

Had a quick trip to New York with our friends the Galloways in July-never been before, but we loved it.  We cajoled Rob into going to a Broadway musical- "American Idiot", based on songs by Green Day- and even he agreed it was fantastic.  Went to Dangerfield's for comedy one night, and that has to be the entertainment deal of the city-a $15 cover gets you about 2 hours of excellent comedians.  All together a fun trip, but waaayyy too far to travel for a 4 day weekend.

Unfortunately, the day after we got back home I blew my back out again doing a whole bunch of nothing-obviously wasn't as healed from last winter as I thought it was-so was back in the frustrating position of being a princess-in-training, and watching all the projects I had planned for the summer get added to the "someday" list.  Luckily, Rob is still enjoying his 'pre-teen Swedish boy' health....He got into some serious mountain biking with a friend and was riding 3 or 4 times a week and getting fit while I sat around eating bonbons and taking pictures of birds from the porch.  Since we lost both of our cats last winter, I decided to start feeding the birds and it's like an avian airport around there now-noisy, busy and always fun to watch.

It's made for some great photo opportunities, but we avoid discussing how much we spend on bird seed.  I discovered that the favorite food for finches is Nyger seed, and that it costs almost as much as fresh halibut!

And now we're back.....We arrived back in Paradise on Nov. 6th, and found Solemates pretty much as we left her, minus all of the wax that disappeared over the summer!   Amazingly,  and for the first time ever, everything started up and worked just like it was supposed to.  No niggling leftover mildew problems inside,  no electrical issues for the engineer to tackle right off the rattle, and no water leaks.  We had wondered last spring if we would have to toss our tender overboard this year as the motor seemed to be on it's last legs and keeping air in the tubes was a constant problem but hallelujah!  All of Rob's multiple patches are still holding air and the motor is running better than ever-go figure!  We're still waiting for our 12 (count 'em-12!!) batteries to get here from San Diego so that we can get them installed and get off the dock for awhile, but so far no joy (remember, this is Mexico).  In the meantime, Rob's been getting caught up on maintenance jobs like transferring /cleaning fuel and changing the impeller in the small generator so that we're ready to cut the dock lines as soon as the batteries are in.

Our "rescue bird" Grady blossomed over the summer as well under Carolina's expert care.  He's put on weight and is healthy and happy, and Carolina even has him performing in the bird show twice a week-although she does say he's a little lazy!  Here he is doing his thing....in this trick Carolina's taught him to be the resident idiot!  There's gotta be  one in every bunch, right?  

The marina is noticeably quieter this year, with a complete lac of mega-yachts at the end of our dock.  The only one to make an appearance so far is the newly launched Delta, Silver Shalis, which is temporarily tied out on A dock.  Not sure if it's a sign of the still struggling economy or the bad press that Mexico has gotten lately, but it's definitely different around here.

As it turns out, we might not make it out until the new year.  We're heading back home for Christmas, me from the 11th-Jan. 1st, Rob from the 18th-28th (notice the discrepancy?).  We're hoping that early in the new year we can head south towards Barra and possibly Zijuatanejo.

So, there you have the somewhat abridged version of our doings...I'll quit for now in the interests of actually getting a post, well, posted...  Happy holidays to all,

Rob, Shannon, Pollo and Grady

April already!

Long time, no news.....could be falling into a rut here.  Grab your coffee-we've got some catching up to do!

There wasn't a lot of excitement around here for us in the early part of the year.  I injured my back severely in early December,  so spent almost 10 weeks stuck on the boat.  Hard to produce any interesting news or pictures for the blog from the settee in our salon.  Wasn't a lot of fun for Rob during that time either, as he had to fulfill all of our social obligations alone and didn't have me available to beat up on at the tennis court every day.  He convinced me to give acupuncture a go in late April since things just weren't getting any better.  To our surprise, it really did seem to help and by the end of the month I was getting around again....carefully!   Still not back on the courts, though, but I have started with a personal trainer to try to help strengthen things up again.


 
Blew through our boat maintenance budget this year in a big way, surprise!  We had some areas on our aluminum doors and crane where the paint was blistering, so hired a local guy, Andres, to scrape and sand them down and repaint.  Once that job was finished, we had him open up an area on our deck behind the portuguese bridge that had what we hoped was a very long surface crack.  No such luck, so another huge job for him opening the cracks up wider to remove all the rotten balsa core, refill the gaps, refibreglass it all, repair the non-skid and repaint the whole she-bang.   By the end of week 6 we were thinking we were going to have to adopt him, but it finally got finished and he did a beautiful job of all of it.  If you have lots of time and patience, it's possible to get great work done here at a fraction of what it would cost at home.  The key word is patience!


Alfonso and Andres

   We flew home on Feb. 28th so that Rob could (wait for it...) work for 3 weeks while Lisa got a break to go skiing. The first week home the weather was gorgeous-sunny skies and blossoming fruit trees. Of course, the day after we got home I came down with the nastiest cold, so missed that beautiful week of working in the yard and instead spent the next week outside in the rain, cold, and believe it or not, snow...twice! Decided to desert Rob and head back to warmer weather in Mexico with my girlfriend Linda. Okay, well we had pre-planned that, but I would have left at that point anyways!

Linda and I had a great week exploring the area-she had never been to Mexico before so it was a ton of fun seeing things through the eyes of a babe, so to speak. We put lots of hours on our "Mexican Mercedes" (the smaller-than-a-micro Atos) so she got a real taste of driving in Mexico. She deserves kudos, though-she really only grabbed for safety once or twice.... Although likely the first time she was a passenger in a car with no brake-lights or insurance! We made the drive to the Botanical Gardens (definitely worth visiting, and check the size of that fiddle-head!) and did 3 tours with Vallarta Adventures-a trip to San Sebastian, the Rhythms of the Night and their outdoor adventure.....all great times.

 

Filled our spare time with shopping, drinking wine and playing Scrabble - lots of Scrabble. Oh, and Linda got a great shot of a Blue-footed Booby right along the malecon in PV-first time I've ever seen one.

...my favorite  San Sebastian face

  Traded Rob for Linda at the airport on the 21st and enjoyed a few quiet days, then the fun started.  I had to have a tooth pulled here last year, so last week bit the bullet and had a post implanted in prep for a crown in the fall.  My first experience with dental surgery in Mexico, and must say it went really well-and less than half the cost of having it done at home.   Definitely the place to have dental work done!

  Two days later, we had the boat hauled at the La Cruz shipyard.  This is a brand-new yard that just opened last year, and we had heard mixed reviews last year from people who had work done.  This year everyone seemed really happy with them, so we decided to give it a go.  Again, a fantastic experience.  Solemates is 70 tons and has a complicated bottom, but the haul went flawlessly.  We needn't have worried about getting the straps in the right place as they sent a diver down to place them-definitely the way to go.  Spent 3 nights living it up in our friend's condo while the bottom got painted and various little jobs done, then splashed again on Thursday.   Would definitely recommend this yard-the quality of the work was great, they quoted (and charged!) half of what it would have cost at the other yard, and the manager Eduardo was very professional and helpful.

Then...the real excitement.  We added a new member to our bird family last week-a Moluccan Cockatoo named Grady.  He was abandoned by his american owners almost 2 years ago at the veterinary office of our friends Arturo and Lucila.  They have very limited time to spare as well as space in the office, so he was languishing in his cage in a back room at the clinic.  Arturo was anxious to find him a better situation, and I of course fell in love with him, so Rob came up with the idea of rescuing him and bringing him to Paradise Village (which apparently makes him Rob's bird!).  Don Graziano, the owner of the resort, graciously agreed to have him live here and be looked after by Carolina the resident bird trainer and care-giver, who is a wonderful lady.  So.....we bought Grady and moved him in here last week.  It was a big change for him living outside again and having all of the other birds around, but he's starting to settle in well.  He's definitely a star here, being the only resident non-Macaw, and is a real character with a very loving personality........

                  

......and a big voice!  Definitely not a condo bird.  This is one of his favorite ways to let off  steam-highly entertaining.  We're really enjoying spending time with him and it will be hard to say goodbye for the season when we go home.

  Speaking of going home, our plans have changed yet again this year.  For a variety of reasons both personal and not, we have decided to cut the season short and forgo our trip to the Sea and California.  We weren't sure we'd enjoy it as much with my back still being an issue as well as some knee trouble Rob has been having (ouch!  are we getting old????) and we have some stuff happenning at home that is calling us back.  As all boaters know, boating plans are written in sand and subject to change at any time-and change they have.  We'll try again next season, and hopefully our great friends Mike and Maureen will be able to join us next year as well.  At this point it looks like we'll be back on land April 25th.

  So, think that's the update, hope I haven't put anyone to sleep!
  Until next time.....

Well, looks like we got lucky here in Banderas Bay.......in the marina we apparently had a 3' drop in water level and subsequent big currents coming in and out but nothing to cause any real concern or any damage.  They say it will continue to do this over the next couple days.  We're thankful, and still watching the news to see how things play out for everyone else-hopefully the rest of you will fare as well.

Tomorrow we head  for home for a couple of weeks so looking forward to seeing everyone up in sunny BC.  Pollo is having a vacation here at the hotel while we're away-a lovely girl named Carolina who takes care of the parrots for the resort has agreed to babysit her...wonder if she'll learn any new words from the Macaws?  I'm hoping she won't just learn a new scream!

So, habla luego (will somebody please tell me if that's the right way to say 'talk to you later'???) Good luck, Hawaii.....