Semana Santa in Loreto

Mike and I anchored in Candeleros last night and decided to enjoy Easter brunch at Villa del Palmar.  We even had a mini Easter egg hunt! 

Mike is off on a hike while I finish up some work.

Happy Easter!

First Mate Kate

A Month in La Ventana: Part 1

Bringing in the New Year with Annie

Annie came down to Puerto Vallarta to stay with us for a week over Christmas and New Year's.  We had such a blast with her.  There was a humpback mama and baby right outside our boat when she arrived (video to come) and we spent days watching the mama bring the baby up for air, teach her how to fin slap and breach and dive.  I couldn't believe we were getting this kind of show.  It was a true miracle.

Annie and I paddled in the anchorage and watched the mama/baby while sitting on our paddle boards.  That was super cool to be in the water with them.  Then we paddled to shore.

It was hot enough that we wanted to spend most of our time in the water or on the boards.  A cool beer always help cool down the core. :-)

Thanks, Annie, for coming to visit us!  Happy New Year!

Mike and Annie at Mango having a fun New Year's Eve

First Mate Kate

Dulce

A little street dog sort of adopted us this week and stole our heart. 

The first day we saw her while we were walking around the shipyard.  She picked up and just followed us into town.  The next day she followed us back to our hotel at night (Mike and I are staying at the lovely Villla Amor del Mar in La Cruz while our boat is in the yard on the hard).  That night she played on the beach and in the surf with me.  She seemed a little unsure of the water.  We didn't really want her to come up to the hotel as no pets are allowed, but she did.  When we closed the door she cried. We saw her walking around the property and then must have gone back to the marina.    "How sweet", I thought.  Dulce....sweet.  So, it was her new name.

The next day we saw her near the yard and around town.  There was a party for Blanca from the marina office at the deli and Dulce followed us there.

After getting tacos with a few fellow sailors we headed back to the marina and Dulce was there to escort us home.  This time she slept on the back steps and was there in the morning when we got up.  

We decided that we would take her to the vet and try to fin.  So, we walked to the vet with Dulce in tow.  At one point I called her name and motioned for her to come.  She stopped, turned back towards us and howled the cutest little high pitch "Aooooo!"

The vet examined her, told us she had an eye infection and injury (probably was hit by a rock), had a skin irritation from sleeping on concrete, was likely in heat for the first time and needed a good meal. We started her eye drops and gave her food and water and some treats.

When we returned our hosts at the hotel talked to us about 'our dog' and we explained the situation. They were kind and understanding and the grounds keeper, Juan Carlos, seemed interested in adopting her.

That night she followed us to town for tacos but stayed in town while we went to a movie at the marina.  (The latest Mission Impossible).  On our way home we walked back to the taco place and there she was! She seemed happy to see us and joined us for our walk home.  That night she was allowed to sleep on our terrace.

The next day she was scheduled to be spayed.  I had a women's event so Mike took her to the vet's.

Cindy and Chris (hosts) offered us their car to go pick her up and gave us old towels for her to be more comfortable sleeping.  Very nice!

Dulce did very well and seemed ok to walk around the next morning.  She even chased Cindy's cat, much to everyone's chagrin.  

Juan Carlos planned to take her home in the afternoon so we took her back to the vet (with the help of our friends Ken and Cari on Bula) do she could get another shot for pain.

When we returned to the hotel, Juan Carlos was waiting for us with his wife to take Dulce home.

Here we are with Dulce and her new family:

First Mate Kate

What a drag!

It is Al's last day with us.  It has been such a fun trip together.  So many firsts, so many beautful sightings of marine life, good laughs, a bucket list item complete.  I feel like we are at the end of camp and I don't want it to end.

Al's old business partner Chuck and his wife JoAnn happen to be at their condo in PV, and we decided to meet them for dinner.  We took a taxi to Home Depot to check out some chairs for Chuck and then made our way to Old Town.  Chuck and JoAnn are so nice and their condo is lovely.

We walked down to the malecon and ate at one of Chuck's favorite shrimp places. We had a nice, early dinner and then walked down to another place for live music.  As we were walking, a storm came up and we could see it was dark down by the anchorage.  Mike and I were worried but we had decided to move Pangaea before we left so we were not too close to anyone anymore.  That and we just purchased a new Rocna anchor, supposedly the best holding anchor. 

One margarita in, I thought I felt my phone vibrate.  It had.  It was an incoming message from Kathryn saying that a boat that sounded like Pangaea was dragging in the anchorage.  Were we on it?

As quickly as we could hail a taxi, give Chuck and JoAnn hugs and some money, we were off to the anchorage.  We were trying to imagine how she could be dragging, and the only boat close to us was a big tug boat.  That wouldn't end well for Pangaea.  Panic was getting the best of our imaginations.  The weather forecasted potential weather coming in that night, but not until after midnight. We went for an early dinner thinking we were ok.  Normally we don't go that far away from Pangaea in an anchorage. Shit. Shit. Shit!

By the time we got to the anchorage, the storm was over.  The drama was over.  It was dark and we couldn't see anything except I was down one Lucy light.  We would have to wait until morning to find out what happened.

We awoke and saw our neighbor wave.  We jumped on our paddle boards in the light rain and paddled over for some answers.

Our nieghbor, Nancy and her husband Steven saw Pangaea start to drag as a squall came up suddenly.  Mike on Avatar and Steven boarded Pangaea and let out rode until her anchor grabbed again.  Apparently the wind had come up to 50-60 knots suddenly and whipped everyone in a different direction.  Our boat and another boat dragged.  Somehow, either as we were dragging or as they let rode out, Pangaea got hung up on another boat's anchor chain in a t-bone, our starboard side to their bow.  In that moment, our stainless rail and solar panel were bent/smashed.  In some miracle of miracles, the other boat had minimal scratches.  We offered to fix their scratches and they said they had some gel coat and would do it.  No problem. We gave them the best bottle of wine we had to apologize to them for the incident and thanked them for being so nice! 

We learned many lessons today.  One, we live in a community of lovely, generous people who came to our rescue selflessly.  We are so fortunate.  Two, we need to make it a rule to never be more than a short dinghy ride away when anchored anywhere. Three, even the best new anchor with 5:1 rode to depth ratio isn't fallable. Four, bad shit happens to good people.  Don't judge.

With my tail between my legs,

First Mate Kate

Chacala to La Cruz

We decided to sail alll the way back to La Cruz, as we found out it was Kathryn's birthday on Agave Azul.  We emailed her to say we are on our way and made a beeline for La Cruz.  It was a motorboat ride, so uneventful.

The anchorage was pretty full when we arrived and we ended up anchoring a liittle closer to one of our neighbors than we liked.  We tested our anchor, though, as she was holding.

We met Kathryn and Robin along with Jean and Jim on Kanga to celebrate Kathryn's birthday in style at Masala.  We were all in heaven.  

Happy Birthday, Kathryn!

First Mate Kate

Chacala Day 2

We dinghied into shore for breakfast and had yummy food once again at Las Brisas.  We all caught up a bit on wifi and tried to figure out our day.  It was a bit rolly in the anchorage, but we decided to stay anyway and thought setting our stern anchor would be a good idea.  That is when the fun began.

Al and I stayed in the cockpit while Mike took the stern anchor in the dinghy.  We let out rode as he set the anchor and then Al pulled up the slack.  That is, until the line went slack.  The big ol knot tied to the nylon part of the rode pulled out and our stern anchor was now sitting on the bottom of the anchorage dancing in the surf and attached to nothing.

Mike had a great idea of taking the remaining rode out in an arc to find the anchor within the radius of the chain.  I liked that idea, and offered to help.  Mike had Al get in the dinghy and hold onto the rode while he free dove for the anchor.  The surf was picking up and it was really murky in the water, so Mike had a hard time seeing.  Al damn near got pulled out of the boat holding onto the rode, as Pangaea was bucking in the surf. Turning on a video would have been a really good thing to do at this point.  Instead, I offered to spot Mike and be there on my paddleboard where he came up for air and give him a much needed rest.

After a while of unsuccessful dives, Mike decides to use the tank on the boat with a hooka hose so he can breathe underwater.  Kevin and crew apparently had been watching for some time from their rooftop deck and came for a closer look, with beers in hand.  They asked, "What the HELL are you guys doing?!"  I told them that we were teaching Mike how to scuba dive....trial by fire approach (Kevin is a retired fire chief). They laugh and dinghy off to a more interesting spot.

At this point I remind Mike of his brilliant "arc with the remaining rode" idea.  He took the end of the rode in his hand, dove, and it one attempt of his own design, found the stern anchor.

All that teamwork paid off, and we decided to celebrate the recovery and now successful setting of the stern anchor with beer and totopos on the beach.

Al and I got some great sunset shots and then we stayed for dinner.  I had the best coconut shrimp of my life (no lie) at Las Brisas for dinner.  They served them on skewers with a pineapple salsa/dipping sauce. Oh.My.God!!

Another big adventure day!

First Mate Kate (and her date)