Prairie SeaShell Blog

Back in Calgary

prairie_seashell@yahoo.ca — Sun, 06 May 2012 01:12:00 GMT

Our first week back in Calgary was a busy one. First task was to get the income tax done which went fairly well. Went out to the storage yard near Innisfailto pick our van and had a quick visit with Shannon. We spent a beautiful sunny day with Evelynn & Amelia and had a great home made dinner with Pam & family.


Evelynn likes to play with a snake	Amelia likes to play in boxes

We found time to take a walk up on Nose Hill to see the spring crocus in bloom, went for a bike ride around the neighbourhood, and I even got back into shorts & T-shirt to work on my tan.

However, the next week...not go good. Hope this is the last snow we see for a long while.

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Category: Calgary

Earthquake!

prairie_seashell@yahoo.ca — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:10:00 GMT

We were awaken from a sound sleep just after midnight last night by a lot of rumbling and shaking. Don thought it was a really strong blast of wind, but I was ready to leave the boat and head to the office. It only lasted about a minute or so, but it really had my heart pounding...especially since we are in the yard, on jack stands, about 12 feet up in the air. Apparently an earthquake struck about 120 miles northwest of us in the Sea of Cortez, according to news reports this morning it was about a 6.9 on the scale. Maybe if we were Californians we would have slept thru it, but this was certainly another new experience for us. Hurricanes, tropical storms, tsunami and now earthquake...what's next ? Thankfully, all is well, we didn't fall over, and we continue to prepare Prairie SeaShell for her long summer sleep. We will be back in Calgary next week.

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Category: Mexico

Underway again

prairie_seashell@yahoo.ca — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:51:00 GMT

Our patience in waiting for the weather has paid off. When we left Mazatlan, we had a bit of west wind and were able to maintain 6 knots and had very minimal swell. Early Saturday morning as were passing Altata, the engine alarm goes off. I wake Don up, but he can’t find a problem. Seems the alarm sensor must be faulty, so after listening to it buzz for an hour or more, he took the panel apart and disconnected it. We had a little wind again this afternoon to help us out, and we arrived close to the entrance of Topolobampo around 10PM. Although we have been in there before, don’t really want to tackle the channel in the dark, so since it was nice and calm, we dropped anchor a little south of the entrance in about a 35 feet of water.

The sea lions woke us up at about 5:30 in the morning and we should have pulled up anchor right away, but since we were in no hurry, we made coffee and started breakfast. But, as the sun came up, so did the north wind. Glad we weren’t far from the entrance, because by the time we did the 4 mile stretch, we had 6ft seas and about 15 knots of wind on the nose.


We passed a tug and tow	While entering the channel

As soon as we started into the channel, the sand bank calmed the swells and we had no problem maneuvering the channel even as we past a tug and tow leaving the harbour.
When we arrived at Marina Palmira, Eduardo was on the dock to take our lines and within a few minutes Barbara from Pacific High came to say hello and welcome us back. Washed the boat down, then went to the office to check in with Rafeal.


The pelicans liked the new docks at Marina Palmira	This is where there was going to be a Singlar Marina

Following day was a holiday, so no sense going to town as everything would probably be closed. Don did a little trouble shooting on the alarm and will have to leave it disconnected until he can get a new heat sensor. He also discovered while he was down there that the air filter is plugged.

Next day, we headed into Los Mochis to see if we could find a new one. Stopped at a Bridgestone Tire store to ask if they knew where we could get an air filter. The manager made a few phone calls for us, and gave us directions to the filter store…his directions were exactly right, and the filter store almost had the perfect filter, just a little too big to fit in the space we have. We wandered about town a bit, past several of the many markets, one of which was selling every type of herb, leaves and tree bark you could imagine. Seems herbal medicine is a very big thing here. We stopped for lunch then headed back.

I had made some cookies, so took some over to Pacific High and had tea with them while Don borrowed Ralph’s vacum to blow out the air filter.


The bus to Los Mochis	On our way to Guaymas

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Category: Mexico

Adios Mazatlan

prairie_seashell@yahoo.ca — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:33:00 GMT

Our plan is to cross over the Sea of Cortez to do a little diving and spend some time in LaPaz. The weather however seems to have other ideas, so while we wait for a weather window, went to the International Craft Market and the ferreterias with Marta from Reunion, walked the malecon with Scrimshaw & Oso Negro, and went to dinner at Christy’s with Willow. We also had a few nice visits with Brian & Juliet s/v SeaWings, a young couple heading to Australia as soon as their boat repairs are completed. And another return visit with Vicki and Brad from JoJo who we had spent most of last season with in Guaymas.

We visited with Steve & Sheila from s/v Guiding Light who took their boat back home last year and have purchased a condo right on the beach…Wow, what a view! They hosted a pot luck dinner complete with a live band.

Went to Parque Bonafil one day with Willow to see about getting them some fabric tarps similar to what we have to cover the boat when we leave her on the hard in San Carlos. We found a shop that will sell the fabric to custom sizes, finished with grommets. BJ returned there with his measurements and got a nice shade cloth made.

We spent an evening at the Angela Perraulta Theater with Stewart & Sallyanne of s/v Jekamanzi, s/v Mopion, and s/v Sonrisa. We watched a salsa dancing performance that was a cross between a spanish Salsa Dance and a Celtic River Dance. Have a look !

We also had an impromptu dock party the night before s/v Gallavanter left for a month or so. They had to clean out their freezer, so the snacks were with their compliments.

Still waiting for the right weather, we spent a day or two sewing up the tarps and went over to SeaWings to see if Don could get their Winlink airmail working. On the day we finally did check out, when we came out of the office…another surprise. John & Elaine, Chinook Boatbuilder members, formerly of Goolka were visiting in Mazatlan and had brought us a few pictures from 2007. They took their boat home and have finally sold it.

And that wraps up another visit to Mazatlan…next stop Topolobampo, then Guaymas and lastly San Carlos.

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Category: Mexico

Carnaval

prairie_seashell@yahoo.ca — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:06:00 GMT

Once again the Salvation Army Orphanage kick off the Carnaval with their dance performance. Not as many children as in other years, but still an excellent show for us and a great fund raiser for them.

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Salvation Army Kids, Mazatlan, 2012

Saturday we headed downtown with Willow and Doug & Lynne s/v Miramar to watch the Combate Naval (fireworks show) from the top of the Freeman Hotel. We had supper at the Cava de Leon, then sat on the Malecon and did a little people watching until it was time for the show. It’s quite amazing to watch the girls stroll along the very uneven streets and sidewalks in their stiletto shoes. We watched the show from the 12^th floor of the hotel, a very impressive show, right over our heads, but unfortunately it was a very cold and windy night, and we were glad to get off the roof and back to the boat to warm up.

On Sunday,we had bought tickets to watch the parade from bleacher seats set up in front of the Aquamarina Hotel. The ticket price included a scrumptious buffet dinner and we could have gone for a dip in the pool, but again it was too cold. We had front row seats, and both the major of Mazatlan and the Govenor of the State were kissing baby’s and shaking hands right in front of us. When we returned from the fireworks the previous night, we had no problem getting a taxi…tonight, we were’nt so lucky. There were 10 of us, Prairie Seashell, Willow, Jekamanzi and company and WindToy, so we needed a camionetta. We tried for over an hour for a truck or a few taxi’s, but no luck, traffic was so congested that even the busses couldn’t get through. We returned to the Hotel for drinks, and an hour or so later there was no problem, we even had our waiter escort us to the best corner to catch a cab.

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Category: Mexico

Guanajuato Road Trip

prairie_seashell@yahoo.ca — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:04:00 GMT

Every year, we like to do some inland traveling. This year, in the company of Merry & BJ, we headed for Guanajuato. Vic from s/v Charisma drove us to the bus station bright and early on a Monday morning. Our first stop was in Tonola, a suburb of Guadalajara where there is a huge artisan market. We checked in at the Hacienda del Sol, a hotel that I’d found on the net offering rooms for 340 pesos per night (about $30)It didn't look much like a hotel, you had to walk thru the Tequilla Factory to get to the front desk, then walk thru the garage to get to the rooms, but once there, the small rooms were very nice, clean and newly renovated and decorated with the local art.

The entrance to the hotel
	Our bedroom

Although it wasn’t market day, there were many little shops and stalls set up displaying their wares…pottery, copper wall hangings, furniture, vases etc, many of the artisans working on site creating new works of art.


Lots of ceramic wear	Browsing the outdoor market

After breakfast, we took another bus to Leon….the Leather Capital. Many hotels around the bus station and market. The first one we came to was Hotel Italy, only $300 per night. We had a look and decided to stay the night. Headed out on our shopping trip to the building that we thought was the Mercado de Piel (Leather Market) Turned out to be just a fancy shopping center with Americano prices. Went the other direction and found all the stalls and tiendas with much better pricing. Bought a couple of purses, belts, shoes & boots.


Interesting cowboy boots	Lots and lots of lady's purses

The City of Guanajuato, founded in the mid 1500’s ,is an old silver and gold mining town that is now a Usesco World Heritage site . Brightly painted homes, colonial buildings and landscaped plazas are all crammed onto the slopes of the ravine.

We were met at the bus station by one of the local tour guides who arranged a hotel for us, $570 per night which included a Mexican style breakfast. He also arranged a city tour for us, but it wasn’t so great…no English speaking guides, and they just wouldn’t speak slowly enough for me to understand. The tour was very scripted, no time for questions etc, and they took us to some very phoney or Disney type museums and a candy store where we got to sample some local candy and flavoured liquors. We did however get to drive thru the maze of tunnels under the city. The first of the underground tunnels was along the dried up Rio Guanajuato riverbed. The river was diverted when it flooded in 1905 and now eight additional roadway tunnels have been constructed and most of the vehicular traffic uses the route.We did our own walking tour of Guanajuato. We started by taking the Funicular (incline railway) up to the El Pipila monument which overlooks the city. I felt like we were looking down on a Legoland City with all the colored block houses tucked neatly into the mountain side. We also noticed an absence of grafitti, billboards and signage in general in this immaculately painted and maintained city.Our plan was to continue on to San Miguel de Allende to tour the botanical gardens there, but the weather has turned cold and rainy, so it wouldn’t be a very enjoyable tour of the garden. So, we decided to return to Guadalajara where we checked into the Posada Regis Hotel where we have stayed a few years ago. The price had gone up considerably, I guess due to some renovations they have done, but I don’t think they are finished yet, we still got rained on while sitting on the toilet ! Following day, it was still too wet to walk about town, so took a taxi to Telaquepaque to try to find the Tequilla del Senor Distillery. Guess my guide book must be out of date, as no one, including the taxi drivers seemed to . know where it was. So, back on the bus to return to Mazatlan, the Tequilla factory and San Miguel will have to wait until another year.

Category: Mexico

Back in Mazatlan

prairie_seashell@yahoo.ca — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:08:00 GMT

We washed down the boat and had a relaxing morning. In the afternoon went into town for Dawn to do a little souvenir/birthday shopping. Her granddaughter Maggie’s 16^th birthday was coming up and she found her a beautiful silver dolphin pendant with blue opal . Off to Fat Fish for supper, their speciality, 2 huge plates of ribs with salad, baked potato, garlic toast etc only $160 pesos, less than $15.00 for the two meals. And 2 for 1 strawberry margaritas as well. The place is packed…mostly Canadians…we know a good deal when we see one…Tony Romas stand aside!

Sunday found us at the Juarez Market, a 12 square block street market where you can find fresh produce, tools, household goods, clothes, food and just about anything you can imagine.

In the afternoon Dawn’s sister Cathy and company who were vacationing at the El Cid Resort close by, came down to the marina to see the boat, and to look at pictures of our trip to Isabella. Then we all took a camioneta (little red truck with seats in the back) to Playa Bruja. Had an excellent supper, good music and dancing and a free sample of their own Coffee Tequila.

A laid back day for Dawn & Frank’s last day here. Walked over to the Isla and checked out some of the real estate…most of it abandonded then stopped at the palapa for a juice. Went out for supper with Merry & BJ from Willow to La Traymoya right at the top of our dock. The following morning, Dawn & Frank caught a taxi to the airport, and by afternoon the wind really howled and the temperature dropped, but nothing like what they would experience on their return to Calgary.

We spend the next two weeks doing boat chores…installed a battery charger switch and scraped off some of the peeling paint on the side decks. By the time we got the new paint on, we realized it was all for naught….the dew rolled in about 5pm that evening, and before we could get it covered with plastic, we could already see the paint washing off. This is the second time in the six years that we have been here that we have tried to do a paint touch up…without much success. Will have to try some other kind of paint next time.

We’ve had a couple of swap meets since we have been here, and we’ve been quite successful in lightening our load. Sold off some extra scuba equipment and tanks that we had on board for Shannon, and a Android tablet that Don could not get to run our navigation program. Had hoped to find a new anchor, but so far no luck.

We have been successful though in finding new glasses for both Don and I, and I made a quick trip to a Dermatologist to cure a case of exzema that seems to have appeared on my head. So easy to see a doctor here, went in to the office one afternoon, doctor met us at the door, unfortunately she was just on her way to the hospital. She gave me an appointment for first thing the following morning, and not only diagnosed the problem, gave me the prescription and had the special shampoo on hand for me to take with me. Problem solved….quick and easy !

In between our chores and shopping etc, we have biked to Bruja Beach several times for Sunday morning brunch, celebrated a birthday for Rita on s/v Overheated, had dinner on Willow with John & Barb some other Calgarians who live in the Mission district. Stewart & Sallyanne, also from Calgary (Edgemont) invited us over to their boat in El Cid Marina where we enjoyed a dip in the pool and a delicious dinner on board their beautiful s/v Jekamanzi

We have also attended two cooking classes this year held by an association called Sonrisa. The cost of the classes are all put towards offering scholarships and schooling for some the families that Sonrisa sponsors.

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Category: Mexico

Isla Isabella

prairie_seashell@yahoo.ca — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:51:00 GMT

We departed Marina Mazatlan around 9:30 am when the dredge shuts down for a while to let the tour boats depart. By ll:30 we had the sails up and by early afternoon we had seen 8.2 kn of speed….better than hull speed. Yahoo !! we are really sailing now ! Our first wildlife sighting was a turtle, then rays, then a school of spotted dolphins played under our bow while Dawn & I were sitting out forward.

We continued to sail at break neck speeds, so just before dark, we reefed the main to slow us down some so that we wouldn’t arrive at Isabella in the dark. By 3:00AM, we even dropped the jib. Because we had so much wind all day, it had been an exhausting trip, but at least we did have a full moon. We arrived at Isla Isabella around 6:30 am and were greeted by our first whale sighting. A mom and calf, really close !!

(Note: Since I am writing this blog many weeks after our visit, I have added a link to whale rescue off Isla Isabella, that we believe could well be the same mom and calf that we saw on our arrival) http://inoneday.ca/?p=1965#more-1965
and another whale rescue also at Isla Isabella
http://www.logofdelviento.blogspot.com/2012/01/heartbreaking-decision-part-i-by.html

There were four boats at anchor at Las Monas, so we went around the corner and there was no one there, so we were able to anchor very close to where the fisherman had lead us in 4 years ago. We made some breakfast, then rowed the dingy to shore . Two young ladies greeted us as we arrived and asked us to register. Assuming they were part of the university student camp, we asked them if they were studying the frigates or the boobys on the island. They replied “Neither, we are studying the tourists” I’m hoping that they are just thinking of charging a fee to visit the island, not that they will ban visitors. This really is a spectacular place to visit, one of natures many wonders.

First part of the trail on this side has a few stairs built from cement, but the other part is a little steep. Both Frank & Dawn took a little tumble. Glad it wasn’t on the hike yesterday, as it was much steeper. Had a picnic lunch with a booby family. The mum and dad were both feeding a new little one. One of the students told us that it was about a month old. The next researcher we met spoke perfect English and told us lots more about the boobys. The University Autonimo de Mexico, DF has been studying the booby on Isla Isabella since the mid 90’s, and they have one booby that they believe to be about 27 years old, but the average age is 15 or 16 years.

He told us that the boobys mate for life and both Mom and Dad sit the nest are care for the young. When they mate, they generally nest within 20 meters of where they were born. The couple lay from 1-3 eggs, each about 4 or 5 days apart. Often the younger ones are tormented by the older ones, and there is only about a 50% chance of them all surviving.

Their mating rituals are a site to behold. The boobys are very proud of their pretty blue feet, and pick them up and show them off to a prospective mate.
It’s hard to tell the male blue footed booby’s from the female, in any case, they also pick up twigs and give them back and forth to each other. Guess they are deciding who should begin the nest building… which generally happens to be smack in the middle of the trail. Getting around them is a little tricky, cause they are not going to move for you. The males will hiss as you go by, but it’s the females that really squak !!!

We returned to PSS, and Don and I went for a swim and checked on our anchor. No big rocks to get tangled up on, but lots of rock all over the bottom, and lots of anchors too! Isla Isabella is reported to be an anchor biting location although we have never had a problem on this side of the anchorage. However, since we want to leave in the middle of the night, thought it best we move over to the “sandy” anchorage at Las Monas where it will be easier to get out in the dark.

It was still quite deep (40ft) where the first boats was anchored, so we continued in a little further. It shallowed quickly and we dropped anchor in about 16 feet. Seemed to set OK, we had a light supper so we could have an early night. Unfortunately, about 7:30,the wind died completely and we swung a little and the chain rattled big time over the rocks. Not possible to sleep with all the racket, so we tried to pick up anchor and move back a little. No Way ! Anchor is stick solid…quess we won’t be leaving at 2AM. After listening to the rattling for an hour or so, Don had an idea to let out all the chain down to the rode (rope) and that got rid of the noise. We stayed out in the cock pit for a while to make sure we weren’t too close to our neighbour. Beautiful warm night under the stars, but still no sleep as we stewed about how to retrieve the anchor.

In the morning, a bowl of hot oatmeal before Don makes a cold dip in the water. The good news was that when we checked the water temp, it was a “balmy” 26degrees. Both the air temp and the water temp were considerably warmer here than in Mazatlan, even though we were only 100 miles away.

Don used the stern anchor over the side to hold us in place, then he dove on the anchor and had it freed in about 3 or 4 breaths. Free diving to 20 feet…amazing !!!

Finally on our way, warm, sunny, and no wind…yet! We put up the reefed main for some stability, but had to motor into the swells, and they just kept getting bigger and bigger as the day wore on and the wind picked up as well…from the wrong direction. By night fall, we were barely able to maintain 2-3 knots. It was a long trip home, but by daybreak at least we did have a few more whale sightings.

The seas only settled down when we were in the shadow of Wolf Island…almost home ! We Radioed to anyone at El Cid to see if the dredge war working…it’s not, so we can got right on in. Saw a few more dolphins , then arrived at Marina Maz about ll:30am and the guards were on the dock to takes our lines.

Home at last…27 hours to go less than 100 miles!!

Category: Mexico

Preparing for company

prairie_seashell@yahoo.ca — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:53:00 GMT

Before our company from Calgary arrive, there are a few minor details we would like to attend to. After mopping up all the water in the bilge from the exhaust hose, we discovered the first time we turned on the washing maching that we had another leak. Sploosh ! Some of the “stainless steel” hose clamps leading to the washing machine gave way, so now we have more water in the bilge. We used up our supply of hose clamps fixing that problem, so before attempting to fix the taps in the galley, we headed over to Home Depot to replenish our stock of hose clamps, and possibly even invest in a new tap. No joy on new taps, nothing that would fit properly, so some new clamps and back to PSS to trouble shoot the problem with the taps…haven’t been getting enough water pressure to make the hot water tank engage. Problem seemed to be with the spray nozzle, that I never use as it takes too much water, so Don disconnected it, and pressure returned. Of course, now that we’ve got pressure, we’ve also got some more hose clamps leaking, so have to replace them before they explode into the bilge as well. And our last chore for a while is to find a water filter system for dock water. To date, we have been borrowing BJ’s, so since we intend to be here in Mazatlan for most of the season, think it’s time we got our own. A trip to the water store in Gran Plaza mall was successful, and the girl in the store even understood my Spanish. She had the right filters, but no connections, so another trip to Home Depot. It took some time, jumping the plumbing dept and the garden center, but we finally got the right fittings in the right sizes, and we now have filtered dock water to use.

Dawn & Frank, who have their boat at Thetis Island at the West Coast, arrived the first week of January for a little visit. For many years now, we have been returning to Calgary with pictures and stories of our visits here in Mexico and told them that they should think about coming to visit us aboard Prairie SeaShell. They only found out about their trip to Mazatlan on Christmas Day, a surprise Christmas gift from their kids who had been corresponding with us to organize times and dates etc.

It was great to have company, now we can quit with the boat chores for a while and relax and do some touristy stuff ! They arrived on a Wednesday afternoon, and after getting them settled aboard, Frank took us out for dinner at Gus Gus Restaurant, it’s right at the top of the dock, excellent Mexican cuisine, and live music…with no cover charge !

Our first outing was a trip into town to the Mercado, the Cathedral, (where the Christmas decorations were still set up) and a long walk along the malecon where we came across a fisherman trying to sell us a manta ray.

Next day was a little more relaxing, after a breakfast of fruit waffles and media crema, we took a dingy tour up the canals where the egrets, herons, buzzards and iguanas were all out to greet us. And after lunch, a long walk on the beach to end the day.

Saturday, we headed up the dock for a swap meet. These are like garage sales for boaters, minus the garage. A great place to find something you just have to have, exchange books, and sell off stuff you haven’t used in years. It’s also a great social event, and Frank bumped into Lyn & Debbie from s/v Dolphin Tails, another BCA member that he knew from one of the rendezvous they had attended.

After the swap meet, we gathered a few cruisers together and headed out to the beach at Stone Island. It is possible to sail to Stone Island and anchor out there, but it’s much quicker to take the bus and the local panga across the channel, which is exactly what we did.

The next day, Dawn and I did a little provisioning while Don & Frank hanked on some sails and got the dingy on board. We are heading for Isla Isabella tomorrow….weather permitting !

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Category: Mexico

Mazatlan

prairie_seashell@yahoo.ca — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:52:00 GMT

We had one of the nicest trips to Mazatlan. It’s about a 400 mile trip and generally we have done it without any stops…meaning about three night passages, which I really don’t like. This year because of all the stops we made, it didn’t seem far at all.

After breakfast the next day, Don got in the water to check on the keel job…all looks good. He also pulled a small piece of fishing line off the rudder, confirming our suspicion that we had hit another long line somewhere along the way. Since this is Sunday, the marina is not answering the radio, but as we entered the marina there was a couple in their dingy cruising about. They picked a spot for us, but the security guards who showed up a few minutes asked us to move to the other side of the dock. So Ron & Beryl from Sea Bourne cast us off and we moved around to the smaller side. We noticed after we had been tied up for a bit, that while Dock 5 is a brand new dock, there are no dock boxes here, so, we’ll have to move again tomorrow, as we need to be able to store some stuff off the boat to make room for our company, Frank & Dawn, who will be arriving from Calgary after Christmas.

Next morning, we checked in with Elvira in the office and picked a spot on Dock 4 to move to. Also went and did a few groceries at the new Santa Fe grocery, within walking distance of the docks. After lunch, we took the starboard water tank out as the valve had been leaking a bit. Discovered that we had put the o-ring in backwards and that we hadn’t rinsed the tanks when we installed them. So now we have corrected two problems, hope we don’t encounter any more.

It was nice and calm the next morning, so fired up the engine to hop across to Dock 4. All was well, until I realized that the wet muffler had been disconnected yesterday to get the water tank out and had not been re-connected. Now we’ve got a bilge full of exhaust water to pump out !!!

As Christmas is almost upon us, the residents of Dock 4 decided to have an early Christmas dinner at Te Amo Lucys ( I Love Lucy…a restaurant complete with I Love Lucy memorabilia) Very tasty local cusine.

And that was just the first of our Christmas Dinners, next one was a pot luck dock party with Turkey, stuffing, cranberry and all the fixings. I made butter tarts, but since you can’t buy corn syrup here, I substituted a local caramel type syrup made with goats milk and white wine….think I like them even better than plain butter tarts, and I guess most everyone did as over two dozen of them disappeared in an instant.

Making butter tarts for Christmas

Dock 4 Xmas Pot Luck Dock Party

Our Christmas present to ourselves this year was a stereo for the boat. We brought the stereo and speakers with us, but it still required a few trips to town to find a bracket to mount the bracket and then a couple of days to run the wire etc, but I’m happy to report, it’s working well. As you can see, it’s not an easy job installing anything on a boat.

In addition, we treated ourselves to an internet stick as the free internet at the marina is not always reliable, and with the internet stick, we should be able to connect from various locations at anchor. We had brought our Telus stick with us in the hopes that we would be able to just purchase a new chip for it rather than buy a new stick. Dealing with the TelCel office reminds me the the process we used to have to do in the Licence Bureau. You get a number when you arrive, then you wait for the next available representative. There were only about six people in front of us, but we were in line for the better part of an hour. However, when it was our turn the fellow we dealt with spoke perfect English, and after taking our stick in the back office for about 10-15 minutes, he confirmed that he could install a new chip, but it would be expensive and we would still have to buy minutes. He said it would be a better deal for us to take advantage of their special, buy the stick for $399 pesos(about $35) and get 60 days usage. So we said go ahead, and after getting it all set up, he needed a passport before he could take our money. So, back to the boat we went, and returned about an hour later with passport in hand. Fortunately, this time, we didn’t have to wait in the line, and since this time we brought the laptop with us, he installed the software for us. Don’t know if this was just a Christmas special TelCel was offering, but I think half of the people in the marina had taken advantage of it.

My Christmas present to me this year was a pedicure. There is a local girl who comes to the marina and does hair cuts, manicures & pedicures. She brings all the equipment with her, and charges all of about $10 for a pedicure and $7 for a haircut.. What a treat !

And finally, we wrapped up Christmas activities with a Boxing Day Dinner aboard Prairie SeaShell with our friends Merry & BJ from s/v Willow. New Year’s Eve found us at Playa Bruja (Witches Beach)with Willow and Dick & Judy s/v Boundless to watch the sunset and then dinner complete with home made Coffee Tequilla.

Seasons Greetings to one and all!

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Category: Mexico