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.....  

another round of weather????

So.....water spouts, hurricane force winds, and now....a tsunami warning???  We're thinking about everyone in Chile who's living through the aftermath of the earthquake and about all of our friends on the Pacific Coast of anywhere.  We're especially thinking of those of you living in Hawaii and will be waiting to hear from you once this isall over.  We hope everyone stays safe and that all of the worry is for nothing.  Could happen, right?

We're waiting to see how the reports come in during the morning before we decide what to do ourselves.  There's some debate aboard our boat as to whether it's best to head out to sea (although at 8 knots we won't get too far out!!) or desert the boat and head inland in the car.  At least it's happening today while we're here instead of next week while we're back home.  What a winter!

Be safe, love to you all!

An update on climate change....

So, here's the rest of the story.....To those skeptics amongst us who questioned 75k winds "in PV???? in the marina???? in the winter????" and suggested I may have been drinking heavily (you know who you are!) I'd like to let you know that Chiron, a yacht-fisher down the dock from us, recorded 82 knots (90 mph) sustained over 3 minutes. It was definitely a blow of hurricane force and by all accounts travelled all the way to Barra (over 100 miles) within about an hour.

We were lucky to escape with nothing more than a missing pilothouse window cover and a tattered Canadian flag, although we did have a fair bit of water get forced in in various places.  As the day goes by a bit more info trickles in-amazingly, most of the boats we know of suffered relatively minor damage-mostly torn off biminy tops and missing canvases.  We've heard of a few with more damage though, one being Fintastic who had some hatches open that got torn off and cracked.  We've heard sketchy details of how the boats at anchor in the bay fared-mostly alright as far as we know, but have heard there was one that ended up on the rocks in La Cruz.  There was also a waterspout that hit land in Bucerias but don't know what if any damage resulted from that.  (This shot was taken by someone else of one of the three waterspouts that were in Banderas Bay on January 15th)

The locals have said that was the worst storm they have had here....ever, winter or summer.  We're trying to be more ready for round 2 which could be coming up, although right now it's blissfully calm.  The unsettled system in the area is said to be bringing more rain, lightening and possibly water spouts this afternoon and/or evening, but hopefully minus the extreme winds.  I hear the weather in the Pacific Northwest has been better than this-sad!!!

So, enough of the weather for now.  Tomorrow I will try to produce the long-promised novella about what's been going on in our lives besides rain! 

wow

Had to blog this.....we are in the midst of something wild.  We went to bed at 10:00 and woke up at 10:30 to the sound of howling winds.  We have had our first real squall-75 knot winds with driving rain, thunder and lightening...nothing like it ever here before.  May have lost a canvas or two, but have survived Round 1.  The winds have settled now but we're waiting for the latest update on what's to come.  Who says you can't have an adventure at the dock?