Hola, some perspective from Mexico!

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