The Taco Traveler

I realize I've left a lot of gaps in my itinerary over the last couple of weeks, so hopefully this will rectify that. After Barra de Navidad I headed farther south towards Bahia Santiago, which is one of the sub-bays of the larger Manzanillo Bay area. Before getting there, however, I joined Shiloh and Sailfisher for a night at an amazing place called Ensenada Carrizal. I think I've mentioned it elsewhere. Anyway, after some snorkeling the next morning, everyone left for Bahia Santiago. Lou and Lydia (Shiloh) had rented a house on the beach because their kids and some neighbors from home (Steamboat Springs, Colorado) were coming into town for a visit and to help celebrate Lou's 60th birthday.

The house turned out to be the social center of the universe for the next week, as Lou's birthday on the 11th was followed two days later by Al and Yvette's wedding ceremony on the 13th. Lou's party was great, and there were plenty of great people to talk to. Lou and Lydia each had kids before they got married. Lou's son Dusty is an engineer at Boeing. He lives in Lynnwood and works in Everett. Lou's daughter Kari is engaged to Spencer, and they live in New Orleans where he's a chef in one of the most competitive chefing places in the world, I imagine. Lydia's daughter Cara and her husband Lee live in Steamboat Springs, too. Lee's a diver, and we had a good adventure taking my dinghy down the beach closer to a dive shop where I could get a fill and he could rent a couple of tanks for the week. We landed and then launched from that beach in 4-5 foot surf. The landing was as good as it gets, riding the shoulder of a breaker right to the beach where we jumped off in unison and dragged the dinghy up, barely getting wet. Launching was just as fun, and we got good air and nearly vertical on a 5-footer that was almost ready to break.

Everyone went to Carrizal again on the 12th. I shuttled Sterling and Parker (the neighbors) on Chemistry, and Shiloh took everyone else, and we spent a long day diving and lounging around on our boats. I'd thought about staying that night in Carrizal, diving at night and trying to get some lobsters for the wedding, but ended up deciding I needed to work, so I headed back to Santiago where there was a good open wifi connection accessible to me on the bay.

I spent most of the 13th shopping in downtown Santiago with my bike and backpack (again, sober this time and carrying fewer cans of corn than the San Diego drunk over-loaded bike crash). After I returned to the boat I had only a bit of time to get ready for the wedding, which was very informal, but still... I stunk.

The wedding was great, with tons of great food prepared by the housekeeper, and tons of tequila for sampling and taste-testing. The ceremony was very simple, with an officiant who kept it short. I had a few words to say that I'd written after Lou's birthday party after a good conversation with Yvette. And the vows were sincere and excellent and generated some tears, though Al hid his behind his sunglasses. I even had a date, sort of. Yvette had been talking about her friend, Trish, who she really wanted me to meet. And she was great, and I'm sure we would have had a good time talking, getting to know each other... if she hadn't brought a date - a date who was staying with her at the hotel, no less. :-/

So the 14th was recovery day, with a fuel stop at Las Hadas resort (where they filmed the movie "10") and then over to Carrizal again. After I said goodbye (again) to Lou & Lydia and they and their clan motored back to Santiago, I stayed and had the greatest dive of my life. Amazing visibility and sea-life in 30 feet of water, with pinnacles rising 20 feet from the sea floor. It was about an hour-long dive, and I'd only worn the top of my 7mm semi-dry suit, and by the end I was absolutely freezing (the water is exceptionally cold this year - La Nina, they're saying). I took about a 15-gallon shower to warm up. Had a good night alone in the anchorage, and then left yesterday late-morning for here, Melaque.

There, all caught up, I think.

 

We're at anchor on the SE part of Isla Isabela, behind a couple of huge rock spires called Las Monas (The Mannequins). The island is very cool, remote, natural. On shore there are lots of everything: hermit crabs, dead things (a porpoise carcass, 2 dead sea turtles), and of course plenty of birds. Birds everywhere. The boobies nest on the ground underneath the 10' trees where the frigates nest. The whole island is covered and encircled all day and night by frigates. I haven't seen a whole lot of boobies flying, I don't think. In any case, they don't just soar and ride the currents like the frigates do.

Last night Denali prepared some tuna from the second one we caught. This one's meat was much redder (bloodier) and more flavorful than the yellowtail in a turkey dark meat to white meat sort of way. At first we thought it was another yellowtail (I assumed since it was about the same size and looked the same, generally), but there were indications that it wasn't a yellowtail (harder skull, much darker flesh, smellier, when I killed it I couldn't find the spinal column for the Tanaguchi Method, etc...). Anyway, his preparation of it was good. Broiled with lots of spices.

Yesterday after we got here we dropped the anchor but I wasn't quite comfortable with it, so we tried again on a bigger patch of sand. The anchorage is pretty tricky, with sand interspersed with rock and coral. You have to hit the sand to have really good holding. So we went forward towards Las Monas a bit more, dropped it and bit just a little, then I dove down to check on the placement of it before we really backed down on it to dig it in. As I was out there in the water two boats came into the anchorage, the first one ripping past Chemistry and dropping the hook in a certain spot near Las Monas in a manner that indicated that they'd done it numerous times before in that spot. The second boat had a little more trouble finding the right spot, but he eventually got settled. On our way to the beach to explore, we rowed over and invited them to cocktail hour.

< After the exploration ashore, I put on my scuba gear and went down to replace my zincs. After that chore was done, I dove around near the boat to check my anchor and Al's anchor. I saw a puffer fish which made me laugh because since I'm such a horrible fish filleter I couldn't imagine how quickly death would ensue if I tried to fillet some fugu. I also saw a big leopard sorta flatfish (like a ray, but also like a halibut - I'm not sure, I didn't mess with it). And there were several other types of fish down there, but mostly small reef fish - nothing worth spearing.

As for our neighbors, Al and Yvette are on Sailfisher, which is a Cal 46 sloop that was once a ketch, and Lou and Lydia are on Shiloh, a Cabo Rico 38. Very nice people, and we had a good time chatting in Chemistry's cockpit for a couple hours before everyone got hungry and went back to their own boats for dinner. They convinced me to stop by San Blas on our way to Chacala and Puerto Vallarta. Apparently because it's harder to get to (up a river estuary a mile or so), it's not as well-traveled by tourists, so it's a much more traditional Mexican coastal town. I need to be in Puerto Vallarta by the 14th, however, to make sure I can get the boat (and Denali and Malavika) settled before I fly out to visit the boys in Florida.

On today's agenda is more work. Mainly, I need to remove the bow pulpit and re-run the bow light wire through it. The bow light has been non-functional since before Cabo, with corroded wires. You'd think I could pull that wire through with the pulpit in place, but there's a tight squeeze somewhere. Yesterday I took the autopilot apart and am now prepared to get it rebuilt in PV. There's a part that's *really* worn down which was the source of all the racket. Meanwhile, the backup autopilot is doing fine.
TT