Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones that you did do. So, throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
-Mark Twain-
Finally, the next update in the world travels of the Medina clan. Our last entry found us in the sunny climes of Acapulco. A haven for the rich and famous of the 30‘s, John Wayne owned a hotel here back in the day. This entry finds us...still here three weeks later. I assure you that this is not for lack of trying to leave. The care package from my mom that I spoke of in the last entry, is still not here. Brady had to order some supplies and my mom threw in some books, candy, tea, and such for our travels south. After shipping delays to my mom of more than a week, the stuff was on its way. Then, customs grabbed our box in Mexico City and after throwing away the candy and tea (sorry mom), charging us $125 dollars in duties and being just a normal Mexico pain in the rear, the package should arrive tomorrow (Tuesday Ferbruary something) after another week of delay. I will have to take a very loud, colorful and kidney damaging bus with a crazy bus driver (which incidentally, kind of reminds me of riding with Andy on the rig :) across town to pick it up. Acapulco has actually grown on us. The people are friendly, the food good and cheap and the weather balmy. The warm water has required me to clean the bottom every week and our anchor chain is officially growing barnacles. I was able to snorkel near the boat with a giant school? of manta rays, which was very cool. Yesterday, we took the dinghy over to watch the famed cliff divers. With any luck, we will be on the move tomorrow. We will have to hurry a bit now, since we need to be in Costa Rica in early April, for storm season and guests. I hope to be in El Salvador by the third week in February. We still have all of the same intermediate stops planned and I will let you know how each pans out.
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.
Being on the boat is such an adventure. Some of the dolphins that we see in the dark flash with little speckles of light because there are tiny plankton that give off light when they are disturbed. Every time we see dolphins in the front when it is not dark my mom tries to hang off the front and touch them. My mom goes crazy every time we see dolphins. We all do. Except for dad. Since we are on a boat we see so many different things than we did at home. I say that because one time I got up in the morning and a few minutes later the dolphins greeted me. We have met so many people on boats that we might not see again. That is a bummer but we meet new people every where we go. Today my dad thought he saw a baby turtle, turned out it was a coconut shell. Even I mistake a bird from a dolphin fin. I miss every one but would not trade it.
Emily-
I saw a raccoon on a leash in Mexico that was cool. I learned how to roll my r’s. I love Mexico. We went to Dairy Queen in Manzanillo and Wal-Mart. Right now we are in Papanoa. We have been to a lot of places in Mexico. We haven’t been to any other places besides Mexico. Our sail attracts dolphins. We go sailing a lot. I like sailing. Everywhere we go is very interesting. I like a lot of places. The boat is the best and I love the boat.
Ashley-
I like what I do in Mexico. I like all the dolphins. We are in Popanoa right now. We go everywhere. We go to town a lot. I like to go to town. We meet lots of people. We met people on boats called Ohana, Sapphire and Rockstar. They were cool people on boats. I like swimming by the boat. Zihuatanejo’s water was very dirty. I like the palapas everywhere in Mexico.
Brady-
How do I follow the girls with stories of racoons, dolphins and rockstars???? They have really summed up our traveling life well. Everyday is different from the next, no monotony what so ever. We have started doing overnight sailing which is still a challenge for me, since up till now I have pretty much let Troy sail the boat. OPPS! I guess I should have been paying a little more attention. So, now I just wake Troy for every little change in the night. “ Troy, the boat is rocking and the sail is flogging!!! WHAT DO I DO!” as I shake his leg. You get the point and Troy misses out on the sleep. I have to say my last overnight went much better, but that could be because we motored the whole night with no wind. So, tonight is the next overnight and I will try to keep you posted on the improvement of my skills, since they can only get better from here.
We hope everyone had a Happy Holidays and finds everyone well. We are currently in Zihuatanejo. The trip was very uneventful. After Barra de Navidad, we were off to Manzanillo, which was only a day trip. We anchored outside of beautiful Marina Las Hadas and cleared into Mexico officially as Seaparents. We stayed for several days while I searched for a generator to no avail. We finally left because of the 8 or so ski boats and jet skis that were playing a game called let's see how close we can come to hitting the catamaran. We prepared ourselves for our first overnight sail and hoped to be in Marina Ixtapa in 36 hours or so. The first night went well with Brady and I alternating 4 hour watches. The bad part was the lack of wind. We motored for about 8 hours the first day/night. The following day, we also made no progress and around 2 A.M. I opted to tuck into the nearest anchorage (Maruata cove) for some rest. We left the following morning under power again and motored most of the way to another anchorage (Caleta de Campos). We were going to stick around to check out the town, but the wind came up to around 15 knots and we were off. We sailed at 6 knots for most of the day, but again we found ourselves floating on a vast lake. Motoring again through the night we made Ixtapa on the morning of the fourth day. Hoping to get a hot shower and a marina slip proved to be not possible as they could not accommodate the width of our boat, so off to Zihuatanejo, which was an hours motor to the South. We thought we could park it for awhile, but for all you would be vacationers, pass on Z-watt. The water in the bay is green and raw sewage flows in from the river. I was still hoping for a generator, but after filling up on diesel, water, gasoline and food, we will be off to Acapulco with two intermediate stops along the way beginning tomorrow or the next day. The weather is balmy, the family is doing great and we still are waiting to hear from many of you via text message, e-mail or skype regarding the latest updates and rumors from home. Glen, thanks for the text, keep em' coming. To Jimmy Leo, sorry to ruin it for you, but the hair policy out here is way better than back home. Ha! Hasta Luego for now,
As I sit and reflect on our wonderful stay in Tenacatita I am greeted by a mother and baby humpback whale. What a fitting departure from our amazing time in this quite beautiful bay. The last few days we had heard the whales song as we swam, not knowing they were only miles away. Tenacatita was not only a pretty setting with whales, it was new friendships, soccer/volleyball games on the beach, great snorkeling with the kids, long nights of watching stars, and of course homeschool. We even had a sleep over for the kids with Mackenzie from Ohana. It was hard to leave the new friends behind. Everywhere we go I want to take everyone with us. “Come on, don’t you want to go to Costa Rica. It looks so amazing,” I cry in hopes that all will follow. (AKA Ohana:) But, it was time to head south to make sure we are out of the hurricane zone before the next season begins. I was told that Tenacatita was an incredible, but I could not imagine how great it would be until I spent two weeks there. Thank you everyone that we got to know. We will miss you lots. OK on a less serious side. This boat life ROCKS!!!!! I am so glad that all of you non- boaters do not know how freakin’ cool this life is because then the anchorages will be packed. Selfish I know, but I don’t think that this would be as fun with thousands of people at every beach. Minute by minute up date- We are now motor sailing into Barra de Navidad. I say motor sailing, but I should restate that with MOTORING. Anyway, the water as we enter is filled with jelly fish and snakes. Fun, I can’t wait to go swimming. I have heard Barra is not somewhere we are going to want to stay long unless we spring for the $150 a night slip at the dock. Other than that I was told lots of bugs, a nasty lagoon and now the snakes and jelly fish. Good times. We are going to try out the anchorage outside the lagoon at Melaque, so we will keep you posted. I am going to use Troy as the test dummy for jelly fish and snake since he thinks they don’t look that bad. According to Troy jelly fish are only bad if they are BIG. Your crazy adventurer friend, Brady
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 3rd 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...*&%!
