In sitting down to write a quick note, I asked Ann; “what did we do today?” and she just shook her head; “Nothing honey, we were boat bound by the wind”. Some days are like that. A front is passing through. It’s been windy (and a little chilly) all day. There’s even been some rain this evening along with continued gusty wind. Good thing we’re tucked into a nice little bay with protection from the waves and a good sand bottom. The anchor holds pretty well as it digs nicely into the sand when the wind gusts. Other than just sitting around and reading our books (OK, I sat around-Ann did laundry), we did have a visit from our new friend Reno. He rowed over with a present. A conch shell that he had trimmed so it would blow as a horn (all these years I thought the Polynesians just blew them. Turns out you have to trim one end to make a mouthpiece). And it works! It’s got kind of a haunting but beautiful tone floating out over the water. Quite loud too. So this evening at sunset we blew our conch shell horn and Reno and his wife Cathy blew theirs in return. Fun! We could hear both horns echo from the cliffs. I’m now a conch shell musician. All those years of trombone lessons served me well. The conch shell they gave us is also a wonderful souvenir because they painted a yellow star on the inside face of the shell in a replica of their boat name; “Star”. Something to remember them by. Tomorrow, no matter the weather we’re going to sail South back to Partida. If it’s still blowing hardc, we’ll just unfurl a little bit of jib and take it easy, but it’s time to get moving toward Mazatlan. We’ll spend a day or two on Partida hiking and if the weather cooperates maybe get to do some diving as well. We’re also now officially out of fresh food, so we’ll set the fishing line in the hopes of catching something for dinner. After Partida, a two day sail over to Mazatlan and a whole different experience in mainland Mexico. Adios for now.

Blowing the Conch horn at sunset