Yesterday we got all the fuel and provisions we will need to push further north. We were going to leave today, but the wind is really high and we felt like hanging around and taking it easy.
We are in a fabulous anchorage with a resort hotel on the shore. They really welcome cruisers - to the point we can use the pool and all their other facilities. They send someone out in a kayak each morning to deliver coffe and pastries to all of us out here anchored in sailboats. There are currently three of us out here. Not all beach resorts welcome cruisers - so we really appreciate this.
Last night we visited on another boat and had a wonderful time - it is great to meet people you really click with. We laughed and talked for the longest time.
The weather is still hot, but there is a strong wind and moving hot air is better than still hot air. And from what I hear, there is an incredibly amount of heat in the US right now, so I doubt we have it any worse than anyone there. At least we have an ocean to jump into!
Our friends from last night just stopped by in his dinghy to return the glasses Mike left on their boat (he cannot keep track of his glasses to save his life) and to see if we needed to have any garbage dropped off in the cans on the beach. This leads me to two different reflections.
First, the dinghy is your car. You use the dinghy to get off the boat to shore, and to motor around your anchorages. It is a lifeline and everyone treats them with great care. In a large, public area like Mazatlan Harbor, you have to be careful and put your outboard engine up on your boat every night and not leave it on the dinghy tied to your boat or it might get stolen. Here, there is no one around to steal it (and nowhere to take it if they did decide to steal it) so it can sit on the dinghy in the water all night. We have a real easy way to get it up and down, so when we are in an area where theft could occur, it is not a big deal to bring it up on deck. But there are other dinghy hazards to be aware of. The first night we were here we went up to the hotel for dinner, leaving the dinghy on the beach. The wind was blowing really hard. All of a sudden one of the employees came running up to tell us our dinghy had blown upside down! And it had! We righted it and luckily there were no problems starting it. The wind must have been even stronger than we thought as the dinghy and engine together weigh about 300 pounds.
Next, garbage is a big problem. There is often no place to get rid of it legitimately in most anchorages. I have seen bags dumped in these beautiful places and it makes me sick to see that. You know it is cruisers and not the locals because the anchorages are inaccessible except for by water, and by the amount of wine bottles. We just carry the bags on our deck until we find someplace with trash cans. Food scraps can be dumped in the water anywhere, and if you are far enough out you can dump paper and cans, because they degrade quickly. But no plastic, never, and it is sad to see how much plastic trash one boat can generate, even when you make a concerted effort to avoid things with plastic packaging. I have become so much more aware of waste management than I ever imagined I could be. Sometimes I feel like I risk becoming a miniture BP if I were not vigilant.
Here are some of the fish we see when snorkling - these were taken with the new underwater camera.
Another sunset.
So that is all for now.
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