TENACATITA LAZINESS

I'm still in almost deserted Bahia Tenacatita where there are now only six sailboats and three powerboats.  But the beach and the small campground amongst the palm trees is full of tents, campers, and pavilions.  Today is the birthday of Benito Juarez, the "George Washington of Mexico."  This is a national holiday and is a  three day weekend so the campground filled up Thursday afternoon. 

The good news for me is that there are now lots of very good volleyball players hanging around the semi-permanent beach court that we cruisers set up last month.  I play about two to three hours each afternoon, beginning around 3 PM when the sand starts to cool enough to play in bare feet. 

Volleyball games here are much different that what you would find in the States.  The six-person teams usually have a couple kids on them and often a young women or two along with two to four young men who are very good players.  The good players serve hard and hit hard, showing no mercy for the weaker players.  The kids and women are usually pretty good themselves and seem to expect the men to treat them as equals.   Almost every Mexican I have seen on the beach is a fairly good volleyball player with good fundamental skills.

The game moves very quickly since a point is scored every time the ball hits the ground and teams change at 15 points.  The teams don't stay the same from game to game and, I guess because I am usually the only gringo, I am asked to play in almost every game.  Or, maybe it is because I bring the good leather volleyball and they want to keep me happy.

The big difference from Stateside games is that everyone laughs and has a good time.  There are never disputes about in/out or net balls and no one gets mad, shouts, or screams.   The general attitude of all the players is "let's have fun and the score is not very important."  All the players not playing in the current game and many of the players  families stand around the court as the games are played so there are probably 40 or 50 spectators for each game. 

Some afternoons, if the tide goes out far enough, we walk about 100 yards up the small stream that empties into the bay and play six on six soccer, "football" down here, on the large flat hard packed sand that dries out on low tide.  This is another game where 8 year old kids, their 45 year old grandmothers, and a bunch of real good 20 something guys play fast and loose.  There is water behind each goal and all along one side of the field since the stream makes a big "U" bend around the sand flat.  No one kicks the ball very hard but the ball still ends up in the cold, deep, and fast flowing water every five minutes or so. 

I am a decent soccer player but it is embarrassing playing against a 12 year old who can dribble circles around me.  Not to mention the teenage girls who have played 10 times as much soccer as I.  I am still faster and quicker than a lot of the locals and can pass and kick fairly well so they seem to enjoy having me in the game.  Again, the good players don't slow down for the less skilled, or slower players and everyone laughs and kids about the mistakes and errors we all make. 

It is sure a lot more fun to play both soccer and volleyball with these highly skilled but casual players than with the hyper-aggressive and way too serious players I remember from the states.  Up north I was one of those deadly serious players but down here it would be embarrassing to take the game too serious.

The following picture was taken by Ron on Shea La Vie just before I decided to move Mirador out of the surf zone.

The weather the last five days has been interesting and a little unusual here.  The night time temperatures are dropping below 60° and the daytime temps are staying in the low 80s° range.  The water temp has dropped from the low 80s to about 61° and is now way too cool to swim without a wet suit.

 There has also been a lot of wind blowing from the N to NW.  On Monday and Tuesday we had 15 to 21 knots out of the NNW.  Over in the Barra de Navidad lagoon, about eight miles from here, the wind was steady in the mid-30s with gusts into the mid-40 knot range.  That makes the lagoon pretty exciting because there were 40 boats in an area less than a 1/2 mile long and about 500 yards wide.  Several of the boats were dragging their anchors and scared the others.

The strongest winds blew on St. Patrick's day, just when everyone wanted to go over to Melaque for the big party and parade.  Few of the cruisers were willing to leave their boats in those conditions.  Both because of the potential dragging, and because the chop was so bad that everyone would have been soaked by the time they got ashore.  Tuesday afternoon was supposed to be a afternoon beach party and big potluck at the Sands Hotel but again the wind was way too strong.

Just to make life interesting, a 50' boat trying to enter the Barra lagoon in 35 knots from dead astern found they couldn't get their engine started and then discovered they couldn't completely furl their head sail.  They then wanted to sail about 2 miles NW into the Melaque anchorage, rather than trying to negotiate the tight and twisting entrance to the the Barra lagoon, but found that the swell was too big over there to drop anchor.  Eventually, four of the cruisers in Barra who had bigger dinghies came out and helped the sailboat into the Barra marina.

Our trip to La Manzanilla earlier this week was a complete success.  We used the great internet site, found some nice produce, a fresh meat stand, and ate a very good and inexpensive lunch at a beach palapa.  Burritos, Sopraitos, and Tacos were all 40 cents a piece and beer was 90 cents a bottle.  We had a table on the edge of the beach under the thatched roof.

This is a picture of Chris and Marge from the SV Moca.  I wrote about them in my December 27, 2002 WEB page.  They are from Grand Prairie,  Alberta which is about 250 miles north of Edmonton.  They built Moca  from steel using plans they got from Ted Brewer. 

Even close up to Mocha it is hard to tell she is steel boat because the hull is so round and fair.  The interior is a beautiful light maple that Chris did himself.  The woodwork is as fine as I've seen on a boat.

Just a reminder - Chris had NO woodworking or steel welding experience when he started on Moca.

Here is a picture of me working on the WEB page.

Today's project (Saturday March 22) is to run over to La Manzanilla and file our 2002 Federal Tax return via internet.  I also have to pick up a bunch of baked goods from Milora's Bakery for the other boats in Tenacatita.  I suppose I'll also have to have a latte and chocolate brownie while I am there.

The Portabote is doing fine with the bigger 9.8 HP outboard on it, but the transom is really starting to delaminate due to the extra weight and torque.  At least I can do the 2 miles to La Manzanilla at 20 knots since the wind and seas are both calm today.

And finally here I am sitting in the palapa restaurant in La Manzanilla: