Loreto Fest

5-1-14

Puerto Ballandra-Puerto Escondido

26 deg 01'5.09" N 111 deg 9' 8.70"W

25 deg 49' 37.2"N 111 deg 18'88.1"W

Sunny skies

Calm seas

Light breeze

9:15-3:30 pm

Engine hours-140.2-146.8

Happy May Day!  When I was little my mom used to take me and my brother and sister to Riverside Park in little Neenah, WI and pick a basket of mayflowers for my grandmother (Nana) for May Day.  We would hang the basket on her door, ring the doorbell and run.  I'm not sure why we would run away.  

Speaking of running away, we are leaving Puerto Ballandra today and heading to Puerto Escondido for Loreto Fest.

The winds went from furious to calm, but Mike really didn't want to start the engine.  All of a sudden, we heard a rumble that sounded like the earth was shaking.  I almost expected to see an island forming from an underwater volcano.

The dolphins played with us throughout our trip today.  That kept our spirits up when the winds failed to.

Anchoring turned into another exercise in patience and perseverance.  There is a huge section of the anchorage that is really hard mud and the anchor just bounces over.  We found that section two or three times.  We finally went into the far NW corner and successfully dropped her.  Cerveza time.

Festive and ready,

First Mate Kate

5-2-14

Day 2

We got up early to head in for the swap meet at Loreto Fest.  We scored a Charlie's Charts of Polynesia and a cruising guide for French Polynesia as well as some natural peanut butter and some cashews.  

Loreto Fest was pretty fun. Good food (Dave on Free Spirit made pizzas!) and informative seminars.  We bought t-shirts for our Loreto Fest souveniers.

We paddled over to Quetzal to visit John and Amy and they paddled back to visit Pangaea.  She and I have a similar passion for restorative exercise and pelvic floor conditioning.  :-). We shared our favorite resources with each other.

We opted for a quiet night on Pangaea with filet mignon on the dinner menu instead of dancing to live music.  We enjoyed it from our cockpit.

Grateful for today,

First Mate Kate

5-3-14

Day 3

We got up and paddled the anchorage this am.  It took us an hour and a half.  The water was really clear and we saw a pretty good variety of fish, rays, etc.

We headed into Loreto Fest for a Baja weather seminar and a diving seminar. We missed the pressure cooker seminar we wanted to see. Oh well.

We finally ran into Rob and J.D. on Shindig!  He had some boat issues and couldn't use his main, so he had to wait out the big blows.  We invited them to dinner with Terry and Heidi on Cetus.

I headed to the boat to make bread, salmon patties and brownies for dinner and prep for homemade pasta sauce.

I am still finding getting a constant temperature in the oven a challenge. Hence, I burned the top of the bread and the edges of the brownies.  :-(

We had a really nice evening with Shindig and Cetus.  Rob brought over a variety of sipping tequilas along with really cute shot glasses and shared with us how tequila is made and how to properly taste it.  Heidi brought over a yummy green salad.

Before we knew it, 5 hours and many shots of tequila had transpired.  We said goodbye to them both, as we will likely have to wait until the fall to see them again.

Grateful for great cruising friends,

First Mate Kate