Just catching up here:

Back in Chacala, sitting in our hammocks at sunset, we saw our first green flash of the trip. It was very bright green and distinct. Hopefully the first of many more now that we’re firmly in tropical latitudes.

In Jaltemba, we were anchored right off the beach in just 12 feet of water for our last night there when we had the dubious experience of a thunderstorm about midnight.

Everything looked calm and nice when we went to sleep, but a strong gust through the cabin around 2300 announced that all that had changed. I was just starting to wonder what had woke me up when I saw the first flash of lightning. I got up fast and looked out. Ah oh! Our previously safe anchorage had turned into a lee shore and wind and waves were building. We got into our life jackets and prepared for the worst, lashing down what we could and checking to make sure no lines were in the water to foul in the prop should we have to quickly depart. I also set a waypoint on the radar (the GPS is way off here) that would get us out safely past a small island that’s about a mile away, in case visibility dropped from rain squalls. Now it started raining pretty hard and we could see lightning bolts hitting the water just to the Northwest. But we sat tight and fortunately this storm passes mostly north of us, heading Eastward in over the land. I stayed up until about 0300 just to make sure it was over and past, then went back to bed.

A tropical storm. Another reminder that we are in the tropics. This one was a good reminder that we should (and have) put together a checklist for when a storm hits at anchor to make sure that when in a sleepy haze, we don’t forget something important.

We left Chacala today and motored the six or so miles to Jaltemba. We were out of water and given the cloudy weather today, needed the engine to run the watermaker.

Charisma anchored right off the beach

We shared our anchorage the first night when we were out at the island a mile offshore with these guys. The fish most of the night and then are back in the morning.

Ann says to make sure to tell everyone that we pulled a sea horse up on the stern anchor as we were leaving Chacala. He looked a little peeved so I dropped him over the side before putting the anchor back up on Charisma.

We got to Jaltemba in the early afternoon and anchored right off the beach. We dinghied in after a late lunch and walked around town a bit to get some supplies. The anchorage was rough and very exposed, so once back, we pulled anchor and headed a mile or so out to Isla La Pena where we could tuck into the lee of the island and get some relief from the wind and swell.

The most notable part of the day was obtaining an amazing dinner that we brought back to Charisma and enjoyed while anchored by ourselves off this beautiful island. Isla La Pena is home to frigates, pelicans and some kind of eagle or maybe very large hawk that I’ll have to identify more specifically tomorrow-the fading light this evening didn’t let me get a good enough look.

So, the amazing dinner cost a whopping $4.80 (that would be 60 pesos) for the two of us and was delicious. We found a street vendor who was BBQing half and whole chickens. We ordered a half chicken and didn’t pay attention while it was taken off the BBQ and packed in a bag. Turned out our $4.80 paid for the half chicken (perfectly cooked), ¼ kilo of fresh, warm tortillas, salad for two, and salsa and rice for two. Amazing!

Jaltemba a block off the beach.

So, Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. We’re enjoying ours anchored in our own cove a mile or so offshore.

Ann’s sister Joan, who has been here in Jacamba says there’s a great farmers market on Wednesdays, so we’re hoping for good enough weather tomorrow to move back to the beach so we can dinghy into the beach. If the weather doesn’t cooperate… oh well, it’s pretty nice out here-we’ll fish instead since we did manage to find a nice head of broccoli at the market today.

Such is our life on the coast of Mexico. In another day or so, we’ll head the next 40 or so miles to Puerto Vallarta where we’ll put in the La Cruz and hope to catch up with a bunch of friends we haven’t seen for a month or so, then fly back to California for a week (starting on March 4th) before getting ready for the next stage of our adventure. The jump to the South Seas.

The shrimp guy. One of the specialties in Jaltemba is BBQ shrimp on the skewer sold on the beach by these vendors. Yum!

"Me, me, me, me, no...me first" The Mexicans take good care of their Pelicans. Even the fisherman are very kind to them.

(From Ann) Yesterday Chacala was embraced by a storm passing through and so we were pretty much boat bound listening to rain on the cabin top. But we used the time wisely and I made bread and replenished our cookie dough supply and Bob installed two new fans in the main cabin.

All of the other boats in the anchorage moved on but we stayed put because we knew Chacala had more to offer (especially because my sister Joan, who just moved from Maine, and her family actually have been here!!!).

Well we were not disappointed! We were awakened by rain at 6:45 this morning and then the skies cleared! Bob quickly tried his luck fishing from the boat and instead of catching dinner (we are having pasta) he ended up conversing with a Czechoslovakian named “George” who swam out to Charisma to say “hi”. He is camping through Mexico with his wife in their Volkswagon camper. We meet the most interesting people. George was fascinated by Charisma so swam out to check us out. Later in the day when we went ashore George babysat our dinghy for us at the panga dock. George had just gotten two free fish from the local fisherman and was thrilled. When Bob said he was fishing for dinner George told him he was going to fish later on and since he had some free fish, if he caught any he would bring it out to us. Love it. Unfortunately neither Bob nor George caught a fish today (although the pasta with pancetta, green beans and garlic wasn’t bad).

We launched a kayak and I enjoyed kayaking all over the anchorage while Bob tried trolling for fish. When I got back I jumped in with a scrub brush and finished cleaning the growth off of the water line of Charisma. Tough job to keep yourself up against the boat while scrubbing – which pushes you away. Great exercise.

This afternoon after a pleasant walk on the beach and stopping for ice cream (hand made by a Mexican man who used to live in Los Gatos and teach art in SF) we returned to our babysat dinghy and returned to Charisma.

And because we could….we then got in swim suits and jumped overboard and swam ashore!!! And back. The water temperature was perfect. And the sun shower was ready when we got back. Hot showers followed by “hammock time” (Bob rigged both hammocks!) and Charismas at sunset…life is good!

Just catching up now that we’re in Chacala and have some wi-fi

We went up on the hill to the old church ruins and the fort the Spanish used during their occupation

View of the town from up at the Fort

On the way down from the fort, we found this. It's a restaurant who is making tripe in this big bucket. Just lots of intestines in it boiling away-not very appetizing to look at.

The Social Club (where we used their wi-fi for the price of buying a beer)

The indian woman from whom we bought a beautiful embroidered wall hanging for Charisma

Convenient weather down here for drying laundry

Bikes everywhere, sometimes with more than one person (as in this case)

More bikes. Not so easy to ride either as a lot of the streets are paved out of stone. Very bumpy.

I love the colors down here...

(First off: Happy Birthday to Ann’s sister, Carolyn and also to our dear friend, Chuckie, both celebrating birthdays on Friday, February 10th) We were cruising along somewhere between San Blas and Bahia Chacala (where we are now), Ann was sitting up on the foredeck and I was watching the wind vane making sure our course was correct. I’d been watching whales jumping right and left, but none were really close, so no problem. However, one finally surfaced fifty yards of so off the port side and my intuition said that he didn’t know we were near him. We were after all, sailing and therefore hardly making a sound. So, I called out to Ann: “Stomp your feet”. She didn’t realize that I was trying to signal to the whale, so I heard; “tap, tap, tap” as she lightly touched the deck in response to my request. Seconds later, Mr Whale (Emily, we think it was a Grey Whale) surfaced right next to Charisma and startled both of us by how close he came. He seemed to have heard the “tap, tap” and headed over only to find a sailboat, therefore he circled around and passed us by about 15 feet. Problem was we were towing two fishing lines. Not 10 seconds later, the fishing pole started screaming and the line was ripping out at an amazing pace. In fact, it was coming off the reel about the speed at which a whale swims. Not much question what the problem, so what’s the solution? Well, I can tell you trying to pull him in didn’t work. My instinct tried that for about two seconds before almost being launched off the afterdeck. In the meantime, Ann knew that the only solution would be to cut the line so she reached down into the companionway hatch and grabbed the first metal gripped item she could find and handed me….a flashlight! “What the hell! We have a whale on the line and you’re handing me a flashlight!!??” While she reached back for the knife, I came to my senses, grabbed the knife in my pocket and cut the line. Instant quiet. We just stared at each other. “Did that really happen? Did we almost catch a whale?” Well, almost is a relative term. We hooked a whale, let’s just leave it at that and he now owns my $35 squid lure. Oh well. When we got into Chacala an hour or so later and told Dave and Steve from “Free Spirit” who got in a couple hours ahead of us, about how we almost caught a whale. Steve, ever the gourmand, got on the radio and asked with feigned innocence; “…and how were you going to prepare it?” My only answer: “Very carefully”.

So, tomorrow, we’ll explore a new (very small) town.

So here we are at Chacala and we had chicken for dinner. It’s a small cove, fairly open to the West through South. We have a stern anchor out to keep us pointed into the waves. Four of the five other boats in the cove did not do that and now they are sitting sideways to the waves and rolling from rail to rail. It will be a very uncomfortable night for them. We, however, will point into the waves all night and be comfortable. Yay us!

By the way, for my friends in marketing who are reading this, here’s a unique way to market your services. Ann and I were sitting in the cockpit enjoying a cocktail and watching the sunset when we heard a voice, seemingly from nowhere, “Welcome to Chacala”. Huh? We looked down and there were two people, a man and woman who had swum out from the beach. After welcoming us to the cove, she added that they live in the; “Yellow house on the beach with the white cover on the room and I do massage therapy”. Ah, that’s exactly what we need, so I’m thinking her welcome was very effective target marketing. Now what to call this particular kind of media so we can scale it for broader use….?

2/7/12  (There are some new photos published today going back to the Whale of a Day)

We came into town again today to do some grocery shopping and hit the internet cafe (the local bar actually)

The friendlyness here is so great.  We left the dinghy on the beach and the owner of the restaurant there said he would be glad to watch it for us.  Then while waiting for a bus, “Marta” pulled up in her pickup and asked if we needed a ride.  Turned out she was going into San Blas, so she gave us a ride.  So nice.

We’re having Dave from Free Spirit and Steve who is crewing this leg South for him, over for dinner tonight.  They are bringing fish and wine and we bought some steaks and veggies in the Mercado.  In the spirit of shopping in the Mercado in San Blas, here are some pictures.

Gotta love the fish lady

A look around town...

More San Blas...

More town...

First off; Happy Birthday to my Dad, who is 81 today (Feb 6)!

OK, today Ann and I went on a jungle tour. Our friends John and Tiffany from the sailboat Michaela, who are anchored next to us in Bahia Matanchen came as well. (Pictures tomorrow when we’re in town with the wi-fi)

We rendezvoused at Charisma and in our two dinghies headed into the beach at Playa Elita where we landed through the surf and pulled the boats high up on the sand. After asking the folks at the beach restaurant (a thatched hut with chairs and tables in the sand) if they would watch our boats and promised in exchanged to have dinner there when we got back, we struck out on foot down the dirt road to the main (two lane) road into town.

At the crossroad are some vendors who sell delicious treats like home-made banana bread and the most amazing macaroons. We bought a few treats and headed a hundred meters or so to the entrance to the jungle tour. It’s Mexican style. Basically, you have pangas with bench seats that will hold about 15 people that take you up into the mangroves and jungle. It’s real, not Disney. The pangadero doesn’t speak English, but we have enough Spanish so we get by.

Our jungle tour driver

Sometimes you’re making breathtaking speed around blind corners in a swamp that is barely wide enough for two boats to pass and guess what? At the epicenter of the corner you meet another speeding panga and miss him by about a foot at a passing speed of about 30 miles/hour. But, they know what they are doing. Good boatmen these and when they are not doing tours they are fishing on the ocean.

So, we were about 5 minutes into the tour and the guide slows down. We look to the side and there, not 20 feet away laying on a tree root a little above the water is a crocodile with his mouth wide open. Was he just waiting for one of us to jump in?

Just sitting there catching flies

Another Croc just a bit upriver

Turtle. The crocs will eat them if they can.

Turns out, the open mouth is how they cool themselves. Fast forward an hour of swamp journey and a half dozen more crocs of different sizes from 4 feet to about 14 feet, we arrived at the croc zoo. I think it’s there so if you don’t see any crocs along the way you won’t feel slighted because you can get right up to a croc in this place. You are only separated from them by a cyclone fence. In fact, I was able to touch one croc’s leg who was lying right up against the fence. It was not what I expected from these touch, prehistoric characters. It felt like, ah, well…a purse. Yup, kind of soft and supple under the tough leathery surface. Then he twitched and turned his three inch long teeth toward me and I yelped, jumped about three feet and decided I’d had enough crocodile touching for the day.

Too close for comfort

In the zoo area, we also saw a jaguar. One of the most beautiful animals I have ever seen. Just stunning colors and pattern.

All in all, a very successful tour followed by taking the bus into San Blas to walk around a bit including down to the marina where we ran into some friends who were staying there but coming out to anchor in the bay with us manana.

The end of the day included sunshowers on the foredeck with the almost full moon rising behind us and a fantastic, flame-red sunset in from of us.

The sunset shower.

We like this area and are going to stay another two days before moving on.

It’s a bay 3 miles South of San Blas.  Got in yesterday afternoon.  We’re in town today just checking it out and found a bar with wi-fi.

Posted some pictures going back to “Leaving Mazatlan”, so check them out.  Boobies, Frigates, Iguanas and the sea cave Ann Kayaked through.

We’re planning a jungle tour tomorrow, hopefully to see crocodiles.  Then some more of San Blas before heading South some more.  This is an interesting town.  More old style Mexico and not very big.  We’ll post some pics in a couple days.