Yesterday we decided to go to the beach. We haven't done it before - mainly because, well, there really is no good reason. Except spending time by this great pool right here. But we decided it would be fun to take a long walk down the beach and see how far we could go. Normally long walks on the beach are out because of Mike's bad knee - the uneven soft sand surface is really hard on it. But we decided to do it anyway.
To get to the beach from the marina, you take a water taxi across the entry to the marina. There is beach on our side, but you can't walk as far because of rocks covering the shoreline. And the other side is where the little restaurant that sells beer is. So we got there and started to walk. It was wonderful! There was one part where we had to scramble over some rocks, but it wasn't that hard, even in flip flops. Then we had this miles long expanse of golden sand beach. The waves were really big and breaking hard on the shore at first, so we thought we would not go swimming, even though we are both experienced ocean swimmers. But as it got later and the beach curved around a bit, the waves changed enough and we went in. The water was warm and lovely. I could see my feet even through the sands churned up by the waves. I remembered why I love swimming in the ocean. We walked about 12 miles round trip (Mike said it was that long, I don't think so but I am not a good judge of distance. It was a long way). By the time we got back, my ankles and feet were aching in a really good way, like I had accomplished something. Mike's knee did not seem too bad, but we will see how it is today after he gets up. I have no idea what we will do today - since the watermaker is in, Mike said we could take it easy for a few days and have some fun.
While Mike was working on the watermaker, I was going through out storage lockers, making a list of what we have and rearranging things so as to make it more "user friendly." The arrangements that seemed to work when I was figuring things out theoretically in San Diego are not as convenient and sensible as I thought. Plus I never wrote everything down, so we had stuff we had forgotten about and didn't have stuff I thought we had. So I have taken care of all but the vee berth area, which can now be dealt with since all the watermaker stuff that was stored there has been installed. There is also a tiny bit of reorganization left in the kitchen - oops - I meant galley. We used to have one locker in the vee berth that contained only luggage, but since we ruined our suitcase by loading it full of watermaker parts to get it across the border, we have more room back there. We also decided to remove some of the cleaning products that we rarely use from under the galley sink and put them with other cleaning stuff in the outside storage locker (the lazarette - everything on a boat has a special boat name) which means we can move all the pots and pans from the locker behind the starboard settee (right side storage bin located behind the couch). That then frees up space for more canned goods and other provisions. This is important, because we plan to cruise some islands in the Sea of Cortez for a month, and there will be no grocery stores or restaurants. It is no fun to run out of all the good food and be reduced to eating the same pot of beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Even though I make great bean dishes.
We are going to stay here until mid June for two reasons. Number one, that is when our nephew will be ready to come, and it is cheaper and easier to fly him here than it is to fly him to La Paz or Cabo. That would involve some marina time in La Paz or a trip to Cabo, and we don't want to do that. Number two - and most important - we discovered we had martins nesting in the mainsail under the sail cover. Now most sailors would never let this happen - the sail cover would have been removed the instant we even suspected there was nesting activity. But we have a soft spot for birds of all ilk, and the worst that will happen is there will be a small mess to clean once they are gone. We love hearing them chirp to each other while they are sitting on the jib sheets (all "ropes" become "lines" once they are taken aboard a boat. The lines hauling the sails up and down are called "halyards." The lines controlling sails once they are up are called "sheets." The lines used to secure one's dinghy are called "painters."). These are tiny little black and white birds - and they may not even be martins. I am still perusing the bird book to try and figure it out. Anyway, it is the closest thing I have these days to pets. I miss my dogs!
Speaking of bird books, I would add an index that would group birds by some outstanding characteristic, such as all birds with yellow stomachs, or all birds with black stripes on their wings. It might get a little long, but I think it would work. It would sure work for me. I had a wild flower book that indexed the flowers by color as well as by their names and classifications.
Another really good thing that happened was this: when we flew out of St. Louis to come back here, we started talking with the woman from US Air who checked us in. It turned out she and her husband were planning a trip to Mazatlan to look at property. We told them to look us up when they got here, and they did. We spent two fantastic evenings visiting over dinner before they had to leave. It was great fun and we all got along really well. Great food and great friends - a wonderful combination!
I will end today's post - and hope everyone has a wonderful day!
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