We are having too much fun to blog

There you have it...we are having too much fun here which leaves little time to blog. I am suffering from writers block anyhow. So I promise to get pictures and words up soon, but for now just use your imagination. If you lack imagination go here:

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2009-02-25&dayid=236

and here

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2009-02-27&dayid=237#Story2

We are off to the Caribbean!

To all that didn't know...now you do. We are flying to St. Barts to visit Richard and Doña on Ti Profligate. We will arrive before the St. Barts Carnival which we are told it is like a high school production, but really fun. I am positive we will have a blast.

It was great to see all our pals form the MPYC. Thanks for making us feel loved, even if we suck because we are having so much fun while most of you work ha, ha. Ann and Paul made a special trip down to see us. Thanks you two. See you in Mexico soon!

More to come with pictures and blogs when we get to the Caribbean.

Pacific Puddle Jumpers

There was a cool going away party for the Jumpers atop the La Cruz Yacht Club at the Sky bar. Philo and his band showed up and Banjo Andy got in the mix. It was great fun even though it got cloudy and chilly. But with a little dancing and some munchies we all got warmed up quickly.

I (along with many others) was surprised to see how many people with kids are doing the jump. Some families had three youngsters none over nine. There was even a family with two boys aged maybe twelve or thirteen going along with two adult boxer dogs! That is a lot of mouths to feed. Crazies.

Hopefully soon we will head in that same direction. We know a few people going this year and people like Capricorn Cat and possibly Snowgoose that plan to make the jump next year. Mexico might just be a little lonelier without those familiar faces, but I am sure we can up our game to make up for the lost mischief.

Hooray for Canadians!

We met some cool friends last year up in the Sea of Cortez named Wayne and Susan. They have a cool 50 foot aluminum boat named Daydream. We hit it off well and thought we'd run into each other again someday. We did.

The reunion took place in La Cruz and it lasted about a week. There were many, many, many tacos, late nights and laughs. It was great to have so many friends from such different walks of life, places, ages and types all gathered in a tiny Mexican town. Our Valentines Day was not spent at some romantic dinner place, but at Tacos on the Street before moving to Philo's with Cap Cat and Daydream. That is my kind of V-day celebration.

They are now going to go off into the South Pacific...lucky bums, eh? Anyways they will have a blast and someday we will catch up with them again...nobody is safe ha, ha.

That's something that I love about the cruising community, the fact that you will find friends no matter where you go. They might be new friends or previously known, but there will be good people.

Quimixto

We hoisted the sails and took off across the bay in search of new scenery. The last time we were
on the south side of Banderas Bay we visited Las Animas. David and I suffered through mariachi music from dusk until dawn. I shudder when remembering the horror. We hoped that this would not prove to be the same situation. The sailing was excellent. We were on a close reach for the whole trip and there was no tacking involved so the crew got a bit of a rest. We made our destination around 3:00pm. We dropped the anchor and enjoyed the lush, tropical goodness of Quimixto. David made the error to feed one gull and soon every gull in the neighborhood was at our boat. They came in a blizzard of white feathers and squawking. Maui wasn't sure what to think...dinner or run for cover? It turned out to be an educational feeding though. They were a different type of gull than we had seen before. With three pieces of bread and two bird field guides we were able to find out they were Laughing Gulls.

The pangas were constantly speeding by in every direction shuttling people to and from the little bay. All of the commotion made it a bit choppy. After setting a stern anchor, a delicious dinner and a movie we called it a night.

In the morning we kayaked to the little beach so we could have a look around town. While we
walked along the water we saw the adorable black-necked stilts, snowy egrets, gulls, terns,
pelicans and even a little blue heron. Lilac crowned parrots chattered while flying overhead and
landed in trees perfectly matched to their shade of green. This was a birders paradise, but we
were here for more than birds. We walked down the main drag, the only street, to find two cars and stands
selling coconuts, chips and Mexican M&Ms. We walked on until we reached the end of the road and saw horses. Lost of horses. More horses than people in the town. They rent the horses out to the tourists that come over in what we refer to as "Cattle Cats". Basically your standard booze
cruise on big motoring catamarans a.k.a. motormarans. We ended up renting a couple horses,
accompanied with a guard dog, and made our way back to the waterfall. David's horse was very well behaved. It didn't even try to scrape him off using a low branch like David's previous riding
experiences. My horse didn't seem so happy. She had her ears back the whole time which made me slightly nervous that she might get feisty with me, but they got us to the waterfall with minimal
problems.

The waterfall was beautiful. Though a more beautiful sight was the palapa selling cold beers
right by the waterfall. We settled in the palapa for an overpriced cold one with, as David said
so perfectly, "surely service". We hopped back on our horses and made our way back to the
starting point. It really was a touristy thing to do, but I am really glad we did it. That was
our first journey inshore in two years of cruising.

We decided to get moving back to La Cruz a.k.a. internet withdrawls. While lifting the anchor I
saw that we had caught ourselves a little octopus. It was tiny, but an exact replica of its much
larger relatives. I was going to catch it, but it made a leap for water. Too bad because and
octopus pet would have been cool. Once we got the anchor lashed to the deck and the sails up we
had another pleasant day of sailing.

To Punta Mita and back...again

We set off in search of a barless existence for a few days. We headed back to Punta Mita. It was a hot and sunny day with minimal breeze for a while. David took that time to make some dough and I got to take the helm. The whales were out and about so we turned up the tunes as to alert them to our whereabouts. The noontime wind picked up and we got to Punta Mita by lunchtime. We saw our friends on Capricorn Cat hanging out so we made our rounds to say hello and got offered to go aboard for lunch. We anchored, hung up the laundry to dry and got dressed for the occasion. Wayne picked us up and took us to one of our familiar home feeling boats. We dined like kings! Turkey, salami, cheeses, salsa, chicken curry, tortillas, chips and some other yummy things. As we exchanged stories and settled in from a food coma, Carol spotted a whale breaching. Gary, Lynn, Wayne, Carol, David and I all watched for the spouting and other activity. Wayne took us back to our boat and made a couple phone calls before deciding to hang around for the night. We planned a morning get-together of either a swim or a trip to the islands. It was great to be back hanging out with out pals!

The following morning I felt like poop warmed over. I hadn't slept much and when I did it wasn't well. Like the good crew I am, I made coffee before going back to sleep. And sleep we did. We slept on and off all day. By the time we were coherent and rested up it was 4:30pm and Cap Cat was leaving. Amazingly enough we were both still tired and hopped in bed at a reasonable hour. Must have been a little bug...that or still recovering from seeing our friend Eric.

After two days of hanging out at Punta Mita for a couple nights we were ready to come back to La Cruz. We are running low on beer and cheese and we are out of tomatoes. I am sure it has nothing to do with it being a "Philo's night" tomorrow. It was a beautiful day to sail so we put the chute up and avoided hitting whales as we sailed silently. The whales seemed to be breach happy today. We saw two breaching at the same time within a few feet of each other. The thundering noise of their breaches could be heard a mile away. That is some serious heft getting tossed around! As we got by La Cruz we were surprised to see a thirty foot humpback breach about fifty yards off our port side. On the second breach it came completely out of the water, tail and all, before doing a corkscrew in mid air. It was so amazing. David dropped the chute and we planned to go back and watch since it continued breaching though it moved off to a safer distance. But simultaneously the wind died and a loud annoying whale watch boat showed up. So we made our way to La Cruz instead. We made it in just as Cap Cat was coming in. Normally we would hangout and enjoy dinner and drink though tonight I think we are both resting up for tomorrows fun filled night at Philo's.