Southbound and Down, Loaded up and Sailin'!

We have been a little out of internet range, so sorry the blogging has been scarce. Much has happened since we last filled you in, but we will try to remember it all in order.

We had our friend Todd visit with a crew of 14 on top of our 5 (we actually were not sure if we would all fit, but Seaparents floated on ). Todd please delete all the photos you took of Brady’s BUM. To Joel and Jodi Green, we are so glad that we got to see you and are sorry we could not spend more time. We had a wonderful cruiser Thanksgiving with new friends, lots of food, and great live music, and thanks to Mark from Younger Girl, we had lots of laughs as wellJ). Family was definitely missed, but this was very memorable for us all.

It was all a whirlwind as we left PV for good (I think around the 3^rd of Dec.). Time has lost its importance, so I wish I could give you an actual date, but we have totally lost track of the date and the days of the week. To all of our new found friends, and we don’t say this lightly, thank you all for everything. Hasta Luego Roberto & Mabel, Aloha Maluhia, and farewell for now to Younger girl. For our departure, we decided to join a regatta across the bay. If the point of a race is to make all the other boats look really fast, well then we did awesome! At the end of the day, it was so much fun and a wonderful way to start the beginning of our trip. We only went to La Cruz and spent the night for free in the new marina. The following afternoon, we left with the regatta to Punta de Mita, which is the northernmost point of Banderas Bay. We brought up the rear again, but the margin was clearly decreasing J (also, our auto pilot compass stopped working-SWEET!) After a few beers at El Dorado, we were ready to go the following day. Fortunately, the compass issue was a loose wire and we left as planned. The 39 mile trip south outside the bay to Ipala was uneventful except the waves were bigger and the wind was a bit stronger. We hit 9.5 knots (a personal best). Ipala was small but secure and we stayed for two days to work on home school. We decided to head for Chamela, which was 50ish miles South (This with no handheld GPS. Our new Garmin shot craps) I still had the boat GPS, but it showed us sailing over land, which I was pretty sure that we were not doing. We motored the first two hours until the wind came, but we averaged only 3+ knots for two hours. I soon realized that we would not make Chamela before dark if we did not motor the rest of the way. I also did not realize that we would not make it either way if the wind picked up to 27 knots on the nose and the seas built to 5-8 feet. The kids slept through it all and Brady assumed the fetal position on the outside bench as I motored for 10 hours in the dark with no good GPS position. I am convinced that Google may one day rule the world since I used the coordinates from the GPS combined with Google Earth to enter Chamela in the dark. Not the best plan, but we did not want to stay out overnight in less than stellar conditions. All in all, we made it to our anchorage safely and resolved to make no more night entrances.

After meeting new friends from Sapphire and Rockstar, we left for Careyes (12 miles South) a few days later. The guidebook said that it was a tight anchorage, but I did not know that it meant our dinghy would fit well. We passed on Careyes and headed South (15 more miles) to Tenacatita Bay. The winds built to 20 knots and we sailed along at 7.5 almost right to the anchorage.

Tenacatita is beautiful and today was a wonderful day from start to finish. We started out on a self guided jungle river tour in the dinghy. Our friends from Rockstar and Sapphire, lead the way through the mangroves. The mangroves were filled with beautiful snowy egrets, herons, and bright red crabs. The sky disappeared behind the canopy of trees. The roots of the mangroves stretched up all around us. At the exit of the river we made our way to a beach palapa restaurant for lunch. After hot cakes, fresh fruit and chilaquiles, we snorkeled in a beautiful aqua cove that is known as the aquarium. The dingy ride back was uneventful, but just as majestic. At the end of the trip we relaxed under a palapa with a nice cold cerveza. Really, this day was an educational field trip for the girls, but who said you can’t have fun in school. A dinghy from another boat, whose name I can’t remember right now, showed up this afternoon as I was cleaning the bottom of the boat. They were towing their kids around the bay on a boogie board. After our kids all took a turn on the board, it was time to sit and finally write a blog entry. We are headed across the bay tomorrow for our first grocery trip since leaving the security of Wal-Mart. We are going to stick around here to catch the kids up on school and then head South again.

P.S. I can't get the photos to load, but we will get them posted...*&%!

Ta-Ta for now,

The Medina Clan