Troy's blogging

Ahhh...where did I leave off? I think my last entry found us in Zihuatanejo. I was trying to find a Honda generator for the boat and I was lamenting the sewer smell in the bay. I decided that I should clean the bottom of the boat again before we left for Acapulco. This is a rather tedious process that entails me holding my breath with a snorkel while I scrape all manner of growth (barnacles, algae, mussels, etc...) from the bottom. I use a plastic paint scraper and a green scrubby pad. Every square inch of the bottom will usually need at least a wipe if not a scrape. With a little luck, I can do the whole boat in about two hours. This time was no different other than a thick coat of algae at the water line. Two hours later I was done with my task and other than a quick shower, we were good to go-or so I thought...As I climbed up the ladder to the transom shower, I noticed lots of small shrimp like creatures all over me. In addition to these, there were 20-30 clear, pea sized crabs climbing around. They were everywhere-my hair, my body, under my swim trunks! You can imagine the giggling “you’ve got crabs!” coming from Brady’s corner. After a long shower and careful inspection, I was crab free. Oops, I spoke too soon. As I shook the last bit of water from my ears, I could hear movement from within my right ear and OUCH it bit too. Great...A quick call to our friends on Sapphire over the VHF yielded a few more giggles, but a solution to the “how do I remove a small crab from my ear canal” question. A capful of hydrogen peroxide in the ear and a quick shake and voila! The final trespasser was removed. I was definitely ready to leave for Acapulco. We toasted the evening with friends Luke, Megan, Jeff, Amber and little Carden, who would be heading North to the Sea of Cortez. Craig and Bruce from Gato Go also gave us a send off. Thanks everyone! The following morning, we were all set and Luke brought over his laptop to give us the weather report from passage weather. He informed us that the wind would not arrive until Friday (it was Wednesday), but we had the itch to leave. We were only headed South 6 miles to a marginal anchorage at Potosi. If the wind or swell picked up from North-ish, we would have to pass on this one and head 33 miles further to the South to a breakwater protected anchorage called Papanoa. First, to you Luke, pitch the passage weather:) After motoring toward Potosi, the wind built steadily to 30 knots from the North-ish (directly behind us). We decided that we would have to head to Papanoa, but we needed to get some sails up. In this wind, I opted for a double reef in the main and a few turns shy of the full genoa just in case. We had to nose into the wind for this and the waves seemed much more exciting this way. Anyway, back downwind and we were moving right along at up to 11.6 knots (a new record)! As the wind slowed, we shook out the reefs and managed to make it to Papanoa by sundown. Papanoa was a three block long peninsula town with a nice beach. We had 25 knots of wind through the anchorage the second night, so I put out another anchor just in case. The following morning, we decided to head for Acapulco, which would probably require an overnight. We motored the first four hours to charge the batteries and top off the water tanks. The wind came around and we sailed well until the start of Brady’s watch at 2000. The wind promptly died and Brady had to rouse me to help take down the sails. We fired up the engine and I went back to bed. At 2230, I came up to check on Brady and ended up taking over so she could get some rest. We pulled into Acapulco Bay around 0300 and I was ready for some sleep. There is an Island called Isla Roqueta on the way into the bay, but we were hoping for a spot near the Marina. As we entered, the trash could be seen floating in the water and the smell wasn’t great either. I was not about to do that again, so back to Isla Roqueta. We anchored in 50’ feet of water and got some much needed sleep. Since then, we have procured the generator I wanted, visited a lighthouse, seen petroglyphs from ages past, toured a colonial spanish fort from the 1600’s, seen the city, and have basically taken it all in. Acapulco is a city of 1 million+ and is probably the last big city we will see in awhile. We are waiting for a care package from my mom and hope to head South again soon, with stops planned in Punta Galera, Puerto Escondido, Puerto Angel, Huatulco, and Puerto Madero. I will update when I can and hope everyone is well.

Ta-Ta for now,

Troy