In case you are wondering if we
have been lazy on the beach, eating helados and street taco’s and drinking
mageritas since we arrived a week ago….let me put that vacation idea to rest !
The Bliss crew has been working
non stop to get the boat launched in the water, getting all her boat systems
ready to go, taking daily bus rides to provision, finding stuff that is hard to
get in Guaymas, spending a morning to
get our Mexican phone working etc etc etc.
No complaints though: I feel
alive, and we are all pretty happy to be back here. Mexican people are always very
friendly, and adore kids. Tessa is getting used to being patted on her head wherever
she goes. She is also reconnecting with
her boat life again, and was happy to find some of her old toys and plenty of
books (even some Dutch ones from my childhood, thanks to my sister!). She is having a blast keeping
a school journal and is just being her social self, inviting herself over to
other boats. And here’s the joy of the sailing community: it doesn’t matter if
you don’t speak each other language (our dock neighbors in Guaymas were from
Brazil), or if you haven’t seen each other for a while, or just meet for the
first time, the connections come easily.
We just finished our first overnight,
180 nautical miles and 34 hrs passage (yes, we are going at a walking pace) from Guaymas to Topolabambo, another
coastal, non tourist working town. Long hours, not enough sleep for the 2 captains aboard, but beautiful sunset, star gazing, seeing
dolphins playing around our boat makes it all worth it. The “road” is less
sailed here, and our chart of the port entrance was off, so we even run aground
twice on our first passage (which we have only done once before here in Mexico)! Fortunately just mud. And the saying "cruising is
fixing boats in exotic locations" proves to be true for us too…..we have a fresh
water leak, and it’s on the to do list for our short stint here.
 |
| Bliss being launched on Tuesday evening |
 |
Tessa and I ended up watching an Independence Holiday parade during one of
groceries run in downtown Guaymas |
 |
| Marina Fonatur in Guaymas where we did our prep in the water |
 |
| street taco's for thanksgiving dinner |
 |
| Bliss in the front, with Tod installing the radar on the mast |
 |
| Leaving Guaymas at sunrise, many panga's and shrimp boats out |
 |
| Raising the Mexican courtesy flag |
 |
| everyone doing their own work during passage |
 |
Our route for the 1st passage, starting at the boat sign to the red marker
on the left. The chart orientation is North, but we are sailing South |
 |
calm seas makes for motor sailing and hanging out, still tethered in though
Dinghy is tied down on the foredeck |
 |
The yellow bag is our ditch bag for when we need to abandon ship.
As with our life raft, we never hope to use both items |
 |
| stretching our legs in Topo, another coastal working town |
