The little bay where we are anchored is part of a larger system called Bahias De Huatulco. This particular one has two names - Bahia San Augustin (which I like and feel comfortable with) and Bahia Sacrificio (which I do not like and do not feel comfortable with). One of the little beaches is lined with palapa restaurants. We ate at one of them last night - it was delicious. I had shrimp cooked in garlic and butter.
Today we made water and discovered we used very little over the course of the voyage. Both of us showered (TMI, I know) and both of us had plenty of water to drink. We did wash dishes, and I even did a tiny load of laundry. So we were really pleased with the results. It bodes well for long passages across oceans to have easy access to that much water with such good quality. I really need to write a nice letter to the guy who makes and sells them so he could have a testimonial to show people.
Mike and a friend of ours looked the frig over and tinkered with it for several hours today, and finally pronounced it dead. We cleaned it out too - I had been sort of dreading dealing with it, but it wasn't that big of a deal after all. It smelled bad when I opened it - not that there was anything rotten in it, I had been keeping things pretty well cleaned out, but it had been closed up, and just wasn't very fresh. So we emptied it, cleaned it out, rinsed it with bleach, and now it is clean and fresh and ready for a new life as an icebox. It was a good excuse to get rid of all the condiments that were almost empty, things we bought and tried but didn't really like but never threw away, stuff like that. Now we can start over again. It is liberating in a strange sort of way. But then I always did like throwing everything out and starting over.
I think while underway we managed to join a very exclusive club - the number of people who have seen sea turtles mate in the wild. It was pretty amazing. I simply can[t believe how many turtles we saw this trip, and how many jellies as well. Not to mention the sea snake.
Mike and I felt pretty good about this trip, for all my whining about going so slowly. When we checked all the hours and did all the math, we discovered the trip took 123 hours and we used the engine for 12.3 of them! The symmetry of that blew me away, but then I love stuff like that. So we only motored 10% of the time. Mike is really invested in sailing as much as possible, and I am not opposed to it, but there are times I am going to want to get where we are going and might insist on some motoring. He has promised not to be at all stingy about using the motor to cross the infamous Gulf of Tehuanapec.
We will be in this area here for about a month, and at some point will likely go into the marina to get ready for the push to El Salvador. We also want to take a trip to the city of Oaxaca, and maybe some other land exploration as well. Plus we need to see about getting our mail, and things can be easily DHL'd care of the marina.
Tomorrow we are heading into town for cash and a few provisions. Our friends are here, and perhaps they will tag along with us. We found a girl selling jewelry made from the pearl-type things produced by abalone. They were absolutely beautiful and I want to buy some, so we need cash - having forgot to get any before we left Zihuatanejo. Bad mistake, we can't do that again, even after we leave Mexico. You never know when you will end up somewhere with no ATM or one that is hard to get to. From now on we will not be so careless!
"The sea is as near as we come to another world." Anne Stevenson
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment