Barra De Navidad

If Disney would make a Mexican City Barra would be it. It is clean with small narrow streets , and friendly English speaking people. We are anchored in the Barra Lagoon, a large and very shallow body of water that is surrounded by a resort on the south side and Barra on the north. We are anchored in 11 ft of water with 120 ft of chain out. Every boat has the same amount out, and boats drag every time the wind gets above 25knts. The bottom is really bad holding with gooey mud about 2 ft thick. Bruce and CQR's seem to have the most problem. The town does make up for the pain it is to get into the anchorage. There are taco stands and tourist shops on every corner. Unlike PV and Mazatlan the prices are more like what we had hoped for in Mexico. The daily temperature has been in the high 80's every day; our tans are getting great. The French Baker makes his rounds every morning using a panga to deliver his goods. True French pastries and french bread are the way to start the morning.
Today we had to say goodbye to Hiatus and Moody Blues. They are both heading south and we are going north. It was a little hard as we have been cruising with Hiatus since the end of September. We look forward to meeting up again, but it might a year till we see both again. It has been great having been able to cruise such a long time with special friends. The memories will last a life time. Go dingy surfing!!!! Thanks to you all.

Carrizal Bay

After Leaving Santiago Bay. We spent one night in a little cove called Carrizal. Of course it is not really on any charts but it is recommended in the cruising guide. Moody Blues, Hiatus, and us were the only boats. There was a 4 to 5 foot swell running into the bay but it wasn't too rolly at first. Later that night when we went sideways to the swell it was very uncomfortable. We had diner of smoked pork chops and drinks on our boat with Kent, Heather, Gene, and Susea. The surroundings reminded us of the northwest. Because of the swell and lack of sleep we left for Barra the next morning, but not until I started cinnamon rolls which we would have once we arrived at Barra.

Santiago Bay

We left Santiago Bay about a week ago. We had a great time being part of the local cruising community. It was the first time we felt like we really did belong. Santiago is just a few miles away from Manzanillo but a world away from the hustle bustle of the city life. The pollution from the power plant was much less, but in the end it was one of the reasons we left. The community of Mirimar, which is the anchorage part of Santiago Bay, is very upscale, but smaller beach front homes. We were still able to go to Manzanillo for final provisioning on a 5 peso bus. What a deal! We also went to two local semi pro soccer games with about 30 other cruisers. We did this two Sundays in a row. On the second trip we actually commandeered a bus which we actually filled to take us to the game. It was great interacting with the local crowd. The silly string was flying. Drums and noise makers were all around us. It was a blast.

On Feb 28th the cruisers took over a local outdoor bar to celebrate Kent and Linda from another boat joint birthdays. We stayed till dark when the bugs drove us back on the boat to finish the celebration.