It has been over a month since my last post. Much of that time has been focused on preparation for leaving for the South Pacific (AKA ‘The Pacific Puddle Jump’ or the PPJ) in early April. But we have had time for some fun as well.
There has been more Wednesday afternoon Beer Can Racing.
In the above pic, four boats arrived at the upwind mark at the same time. In the kerfufl, one got a bit close to the mark and snagged it on their rudder. They ended up dragging it all the way back to the marina!
We also took a couple days to sail across the bay to Yelapa with our friends Erica and Paul. They had come to Mexico in the ‘Nada HaHa’ with us but sold their boat and bought a home in Bucerias, the town next to La Cruz. We took a mooring ball because the anchorage is deep and rocky and a bit tight for the number of boats they get.
The town is really nice and has a couple of waterfalls. One is about an hour walk each way, up a river.
The next day we dropped anchor 3 miles east at Quimixto. Another very nice town with more good hiking to an even better waterfall!
We enjoyed a nice lunch watching guys diving about 40 ft off the cliffs into the pool.
We also took a day trip to San Sebastian using a car loaned to us by Carla & Ed on TimeWarp (thanks!) On the way, we stopped at a very nice bakery for coffee and pastries.
San Sebastian is a nice small Mexican town. Initially it was a mining town but that all closed about 100 years ago and now they exist on coffee growing / roasting, tequila distilling and tourism.
On the way out of town we stopped at a local family owned tequila distillery. We had a tour just for us by Rafael, one of the sons.
The agave core or pina (on floor on right) is roasted an oven. The pina is then shredded, the juice (mosto) extracted, fermented, distilled and aged in oak barrels.
We enjoyed the tasting at the end and bought a couple bottles to enjoy back on Calista.
Back in La Cruz, there are things happening all the time. One day there was a demonstration of deploying a liferaft and anyone interested could jump in and see how hard it is to get in. A couple adults went for it, along with many kids.
We still have a few projects to finish, but things are looking good for leaving on the PPJ. Wish us luck!