Harmonica
N 23 14 W 108 55 1200hrs 22 Jan 01

Hello from Harmonica,

Dave & Jan are at sea again after an eventful month. We enjoyed seeing many of you in Alberta over christmas, and had a smooth trip back to La Paz with one night in a little back-street hotel in San Jose del Cabo.

The next 3 paragraphs were written before Christmas in the Sea of Cortez:

In Santispac, we anchored off the stern of a double-ender called "Old Manatee", and soon met her crew of Bob, Deborah, and their 8 year old twins strolling along the beach. They turned out to be a wonderful family with whom we spent much of the next 2 weeks. We took the children on a beach explore one afternoon, leaving the parents to enjoy some peace. Living on a ?35ft boat with two young children is not easy. The children enjoyed Harmonica's game drawer using our travel monopoly for the first time. They claimed poor fishing skills, but bait their hooks with peso bills and fish from the pangas which return to the beach each evening. Whatever their technique they lived off the land better than most. On the beach at Punta Chivato, they collected squid which apparently mate and die in some manner similar to salmon. These were 2 to 3 ft long and they learnt how to carve them into calamari steaks for frying. We tried them & they gave us an excellent meal.

After a week at Santispac, we headed south. Pulling into Punta Pulpito, we found "Old Manatee" and "La Paloma". This time there was a beach fire ready and home-brew and cake were past around in fire light. Several shrimp boats were moored, but headed out after sunset. The next day, Bob hailed a panga, and negotiated for a pair of Grouper, which were filleted in a communal fish-cleaning party on the beach. These were cooked in the various galleys and then eaten that evening on Harmonica. It felt nice to be the gathering point for once and have 8 people sitting in our cockpit for supper.

Next mornimg, when Jan & I were starting to think about heading out, Bob suggested a visit to one of the shrimp boats. Bob's spanish was more fluent than mine. We exchanged greetings, and negotiated a fair price for 3 kg. of shrimp for the 3 cruising boats. By this time we were on board and exchanging stories. The crew of 5 returned to land once a month for just a few days. The one told us he had 5 children and that his wife was expecting again. They asked which countries we were from and whether we had big houses, and I told them that the boat was our house for 2 years. We asked how much they wanted for the red snapper which had come up in their nets. They wanted to give them to us! Well they loaded us with as much fish as our freezers would hold, and before the second filleting party on the beach, we returned with some gifts of soft drinks and tinned soups.

In La Paz, both the main marinas were full so we left Harmonica out of the water in the Astilleros yard. She was dusty but fine when we returned on 10th Jan. The brakes had failed on the haul-out vehicle just earlier, giving one boat owner an exciting return to the water! We took advantage of the resulting delay to paint and replace some damp fibreglass core in the deck. This showed what a patient person Jan is. We lived for a week in our small home with all the starboard cupboards emptied into the V-berth, and dust & resin everywhere. The result looks sound, and we fitted a new stereo CD player while the space was accessible. By the time we left, the Astilleros yard was introducing its 3rd manager since our arrival, but the staff have been there for years and became friends with us. One of our favourites was deaf and dumb. At the first meeting, Dave thought his spanish must be lacking to get the miming and grunting in reply! We hired some of them to paint our bottom in their own time and felt as if we left some friends when we sailed away.

Well that left 3 days to tidy up, refuel, provision and say goodbye to several cruising friends we had made in Canada & Mexico. This is where the west coast boats split with the Pacific-bound sailors waiting for March to cross the Equator (the puddle jumpers), the Caribbean & Atlantic boats use the winter to head SE, and many others will stay in Mexico. Good, safe cruising is not supposed to be done to deadlines, but yesterday was our big leaving, and today, we are motoring on a calm flat sea heading for Tenacatita (about 4 days away between Puerto Vallarta & Manzanillo). Our plan is to go through the Panama Canal in early March, which leaves 2,000 miles in only 6 or 7 weeks. Once across the notoriously windy Gulf of Tehuanapec, we hope to stop in El Salvador, and have just sent off an email to ask about the extent of the earthquake damage.

Best wishes (its good to be sailing again)

Dave Jan & Harmonica