After another successful but tiring overnight passage, it was great to tie up to the dock at Marina Ixtapa, ready for lunch and a nap.
We saw lots of marine life on our way down, including an amazing degree of phosphorescence in the water. That’s when tiny microorganisms populate the water, and glow brightly when that water is disturbed. Like, say, from a fish swimming through it. It looks just like the fish itself is brightly lit, and is really magical. Especially when it’s just you out there, miles offshore in the dark, the only human audience to a phenomenal underwater ballet.
And during the day, we saw vast numbers of sea turtles for some reason.
At around 3 AM, Stan went off watch and stepped below to get some sleep while I took over at the helm for the next three-hour segment. Anxious to fall into bed, he opened a port in our stateroom for some breeze since seas were flat-calm… but neglected to put the screen in place. He awoke to find an adventurous but expired squid about a foot from his head.
The evening didn’t go anything like the squid had envisioned I’m sure, but the sight brought Stan rapidly alert for his turn in the pilot house.
Sunset 20 miles offshore. Air and water a comfortable 80 degrees.
Before we had even gotten a chance for our nap in the marina, the local greeter came to pay a call right next to our boat…
Meet Pancho, ten feet long and looking for luuuuuuuvv. Or at least a small dog or two around lunchtime. We’ve spotted him countless times since, prowling around the marina with that creepy grin on his face. Well all right, for all we know it’s a different crocodile every time. But if that’s the case, I’m quite sure they’re ALL named Pancho, so it hardly matters, does it? The important thing is, check carefully before you take that long step over the water between the dock and our boat’s cockpit. Stan calls Pancho a ‘crotch-o-dile.’
Karen, an associate veterinarian at The Cat Doctor while I owned the practice, came to visit with her boyfriend Jason. How wonderful to be able to catch up with her, and spend a few days with them enjoying the neighboring anchorages at Isla Grande and Zihuatanejo Bay.
Taking the dinghy ashore, Isla Grande
Snorkeling at Isla Grande. Parrotfish, courtesy of Stan’s new waterproof camera case.
That’s Karen floating on the lower right, tethered to our boat. And the lump in the upper left is a tiny bit of a very big humpback whale, inside the anchorage. A pair of them hung around us there in the shallow water for about half an hour. Never saw THAT before!
A visit to the mercado (town market) is always fun. A huge collection of independently operated stalls, it’s always crowded, colorful and chaotic. You can buy anything from hammers to cabbages to DVD’s. And look out, you don’t want to trip over that cow’s head in the bucket on the floor!
Jason tries some coconut water from a vendor in a pickup truck.
We love to show our friends around our new lifestyle and around these wonderful cruising grounds. We hope the visit gave Karen and Jason a welcome change of pace for a few days!
We spent Christmas Eve in Z-town, as Zihuatanejo is sometimes called, and doing some overdue boat work.
Cruisers enjoying Happy Hour together on Christmas Eve, in the former Rick’s Bar (now known as Rafa’s.)
Then Christmas day, and time to welcome Kristy and Josh aboard for a week of more good times.
Swimming, drinking beers, snorkeling, drinking margaritas…
Ambling around Zihuatanejo, gorging on fish tacos, drinking more margaritas…
And of course, visiting the mercado
We bought our tortillas literally hot off the press. This is SOP down here, like the French with their warm baguettes at any hour of the day.
Poor Josh… the whole experience left him a bit overwhelmed, I’m afraid.
One day, all the cruisers took our dinghies to a beach across the bay and ‘rafted up’: tied them together and anchored. We called it ‘geezers on spring break.’ But how great is that, to while away a tropical afternoon?
These floating ‘chairs,’ which we tether on a long line to Pax Nautica or one of her anchored dinghies, are some of our favorite water toys.
Happy New Year, and it’s a wistful wave goodbye to Kristy and Josh, until the next time they can break away from the daily grind to come join us.
On our own again, we headed back the marina to complete our boat maintenance and repairs. Also to reconnect with some of our cruising ‘buddies,’ with whom we’ll be making the passages to and through Central America.
From left, Warren and Nancy will be sailing north, I’m sorry to say. But Rita and Antoon of s/v Royal Albatross, and Larry and Lisa of s/v Lisa Kay will be headed south with us. We’ve already begun plotting strategies, and discussing various enticing land excursions we can do along our way.
The friends we are making have truly been the jewel in the crown of our cruising life.
Happy New Year to all of those near and dear to us, on land or on the water. You know who you are!
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