sailing with woodduck: March 2005

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

03/30/2005 - Hello from Huatulco, Mexico

Hello Everybody, we are alive and well here in Huatulco, Mexico. We have been here for 3 weeks and are preparing to leave for El Salvador this weekend. As I have said before and I will say again, it gets tougher and tougher to leave each and every place we have visited in Mexico. The hospitality and friendliness of both the locals and the other cruisers is endless and just keeps getting better and better. We already feel like Marina Chahue is our new home and we will be sad the day we leave as we will have to say good bye to all the good friends we met here.

After 5 months of being in Mexico, we not only caught our first fish, Jake caught three fish (they were bonita, a type of tuna) in one day!!! Finally! We filleted it up and had tuna steaks fresh off the grill.

At the marina, we are checking projects off the list. One project we are very proud of is the making of stanchions/lifelines for the boat. We had the stanchions custom made out of stainless steel at a metal shop here in Huatulco. The metal shop delivered the stanchions to the boat and Jake had hand wove the netting for the stanchions. Final picture is of the finished product.

Jake dropped a few pesos in Zihuatanejo on a new tattoo (his artwork, rotating art) now adorns his right shoulder.

Marina Chahue in Huatulco, Mexico is a beautiful marina and under construction. It's actually for sale and being developed by the company Fonatur to help with the tourist industry here in Mexico.

We took a day off to go diving and snorkeling at Isla Cacaluta.

Some of the characters we have met here at Marina Chahue...

Violet is 14 months old and onboard Summertime Dream. Isn't she a cutey?!

Loco Joe is heading north, thanks for all the software and for the many laughs we shared!

Enrique Laclette is the harbormaster at Marina Chahue. We like to call him grande jefe (the big boss). He is a master at finding anything you want in Huatulco. He helped us out on more than just one project and he is the most generous person we have met in all of Mexico! He is as genuine as they come.

Captain Chuck Silver and Admiral Ann Silvers onboard Mirage, thanks for being the best dock neighbors we could ever ask for.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

03/09/2005 - Huatulco, Mexico

We left Zihuatanejo on Sunday and arrived here in Huatulco on Tuesday afternoon. The trip was great, the weather was beautiful, average 10 knots of wind, the boat held up well, only one item needs to be repaired, nothing major, all part of breaking the boat in. Jake caught three fish!! The first night we had a fish barbecue. I´ll post pictures soon. It took us 53 hours and we traveled 340 nautical miles. We plan on staying here a week or two, just long enough to finish some projects on the boat, re-fuel and prepare for the next leg of the trip. The next leg will be 500 miles long and will take us out of Mexico. We will land at Marina San Barillas in El Salvador. The marina we are currently at is Marina Chahué in Huatulco. We will wait here for the next weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec. More later. Take care everybody!

Thursday, March 03, 2005

03/03/2005 - A visit from Pelo Verde (green hair), Zihuatanejo, Mexico

Hello friends and family. Our momentum is gaining speed for our trek south after a nice long stay in Zihuatanejo. We have just a few more supplies to get before we head out of Mexico. Our last visitor was Ian who on a whim of an idea come down for some R&R. We sailed up to an island just north of here called "Ilsa Grande". The rest of the time we just hung out in town and shopped at the local mercado (the open market place for almost anything you need).

The photographer on site