Punta Belcher to Puerto Magdalena - Wednesday 03-12-08 - Mag Bay

Up to another beautiful sunrise - courtesy of my Dad who passed away two years ago on this day~~~Thanks Dad!

Watched the panga traffic and one whale head out.
Very calm in the bay!





Motored up to Puerto Magdelana "Man-o-War Cove", where there is a small village.As soon as we were anchored Gregorio, the port captain came out to greet us in his panga. He checked our paperwork, gave us some tips on going up the mangrove channels and told us he had fuel for us, so we fed him breakfast!






He also suggested we go check out a small mangrove estuary within dinghy distance.
But first we had to save a big squid!This guy had beached himself (probably after mating) and was being pecked by seagulls. He was still flopping around, squirming and changing colors so the guys dragged him back into the water. This probably completely confused him, but he swam away anyway!









Another deposit into the karma bank...

Over to the estuary next.The beach area and entrance was beautiful!
We weren't sure of the depth up the canal, so we parked the dinghy alongside the dunes and went exploring. It really was a beautiful, untouched place!

The wind had come up, so we got a little wet on the dinghy ride back toward the boat.

To town to check out the tiny (and I mean tiny) tienda (store). They had a few canned goods, some "Bimbo" bread, tostada shells and bottled salsa. Fresh flour tortillas though!

We walked the town so the locals had something to look out.
Lots of whale bones in town!Checked out the church and got a kick out of it's re-bar Jesus.











The town has grown some since the last time I had been here, which was 10 years ago.

They now have a restaurant!We enjoyed some excellent scallops
quesadillas,
beans and
Tecates!








Bought a few cases of Tecate from the restaurant and some items from the tienda, and back to the boat to meet up with Gregorio for fueling.



Shared a Tecate with Gregorio, but he didn't really want his picture taken with a beer...

All still full from lunch, so had some pretzles and wine and played a game of Mexican train dominos!

Also enjoyed a really different looking sunset, with the mangrove fog... P.S. Happy Birthday Korina!

Tuesday 03-11-08 - Santa Maria to Punta Belcher, Magdalena Bay!

Bahia Santa Maria had HUGE swells rolling in, so there was no beach landing there!
So "Let's go to Mag Bay!"
We saw more whales as we left Santa Maria, and the guys saw a 6 to 12' hammerhead shark (the length of the shark will vary depending on who you hear the story from, and by now it will probably be a 25' hammerhead shark...)

We went through a wall of fog!We had dolphins swim with the bow in the calm water.Then we had the best whale show ever as we entered Mag Bay!

















We anchored on the South side of Punta Belcher with only one other boat nearby.
We celebrated our Mag Bay arrival with some champagne complete with mermaid decorations!








Pinky and the Meerkats even celebrated with us!We had not been off the boat / on land in over a week, so time to go to the beach!Punta Belcher used to be a whaling station back in the old days. We found some really cool "ocean things" on the beach.
Dried crabs, shark parts, shells, big squid and whale bones!
We decorated our hats with what we found.
We explored the beach and small dunes.Back to the boat for a few projects and dinner of shish-k-bobs and rice. Had some Kenwood Cabernet (courtesy of Mike & Bibiana - thank you!), some melted Trader Joe's peanut butter cups and off to bed!

Saturday 03-08-08 - Asuncion to Abreojos, Sunday 03-09-08 Abreojos to San Juanico, Monday 03-10-08 San Juanico to Santa Maria

Up, nets, coffee (starting to see a pattern here...)
I think we did this every day...

These three days kind of blend together.
They are similar anchorages after long day trips.

Abreojos was windy and not a place I would "need" to go back to.
San Juanico was beautiful and I would have loved to spend more time there!
But weather was telling us what to do, when to do it and where to go.

Jim had a nice whale watching spot...





We took turns napping (me in the nets until the wind came up).

We drank & ate well...








Stuffed avocados for lunch!

We fished.We watched beautiful sunrises and sunsets.We saw more whales.
We read.
We had two surfers paddle out to us to check out our boat in San Juanico.
We had fog all around us between San Juanico and Santa Maria.
We took showers and the guys shaved.
Jim showered and shaved before Stan & Tim...We bumped into
the frog picture and
knocked it off the
wall on a regular basis.









We got more familiar with each other and often strange things were said or overheard.
For example:
Stan to himself when he couldn't find something: "The reason you can't find it, is because you don't know where you left it."
Stan to Jim: "Being naked doesn't bother me. I was born that way."
Jim to Tim: "I'm one shave ahead of you."

We anchored in beautiful places and enjoyed it all!

Friday 03-07-08 Quebrada to Turtle Bay to Bahia Asuncion

Up to a beautiful sunrise and the Amigo net.We picked up the anchor and headed to Turtle Bay for fuel.

We must have killed a zillion kelp flies on the way... with the zapper, our hands, towels, anyway we could!











Saw more whales and other sea life on the way.Had about 25 knots of wind right on the nose going into Turtle Bay. They have a cool set up now - they have moorings they will allow you to use to fuel, so we grabbed the mucky line on our first try, tied off and waited for the fuel barge. No more med-mooring to the rickety pier! This is way easier than the old days, and at $2.49 a gallon - a deal!Too much wind in here to enjoy, so time to go! Cleared the mooring and headed out of the bay under headsail.

On our passages we eat (had leftover flank steak sandwiches after my half hour search for where the hell did I put the other mayonnaise - and here I thought I was so organized...) read and do Sudoku. Here is an example of our Sudoku books - first mine (Heather) with the "Light and Easy", then Stan with "Medium" (see how he scratches it out if he makes a mistake?) and Pam who has graduated to the "Over the Edge" or "Sudoku from Hell":We passed Bahia San Cristobal, San Pablo and San Roque and headed around Isla Asuncion.We saw more whales here and had a decent breeze. We anchored outside of a couple other boats and had sun showers! Not quite enough sun for Jim's shower... he waited too long and it was kind of dark and kind of cold...

After dinner of jumbalaya we watched a seal swim under and around the boat chasing the little fish using us protection. I think the seal ate as well as we did that night!