An UFO, a pet, free diving and the joy of snorkeling

“It looks like we are followed by an UFO”, I say to Tod, during my evening watch. It started as a small white light behind our stern, and it seems far away, so I don’t bother to check on the radar (which would tell me if any object is closer than 24 miles away). Then 15 minutes later, it’s not small anymore, there are lights everywhere, and if I believed in UFOs, I can imagine it looks like that. Our AIS responder tells me that it’s a cruise ship, 1000 ft long, on it’s way North to Mazatlan. You don’t want to be in their way, and I decided to hail them on channel 16 on the radio to make sure they see us. A very polite British accent answers my call. “Yes, we see you on our radar and by vision, we will hold this course, will you please do so too?” Sure, I have no interest in getting any closer to this giant, 26 times bigger than us. With it’s speed of 20 knots, the whole UFO story is over in 20 minutes, they pass us on port side and disappear into the night. Tod enjoyed a great meteor shower later that night.

We decided to take a trip to Bahia Chamela, 95 miles south of Banderas Bay,  about a 20 hrs trip. We anchored, had fun snorkeling, swimming around the boat, and jumping in the waves.  Although Southerly winds were predicted for our trek back North, it didn’t work out that way. We pounded against the waves, and had a rough overnight passage. For the first time in her life, Tessa was affected by it too, in contrast to a very rough passage a few years ago where she yelled “big waves, yeah” (you can read about that here). Off course, there was a bit mishap too, our sailing life wouldn’t be normal if there wasn’t any. Tod forgot to tie a proper knot on our flopper stoppers (line of cones with an anchor weight attached at the bottom, hanging over the sides, which suppose to diminish any rolling in anchorage), and oeps, there they went overboard.  Fortunately we only anchored in 16 feet of water, and I learned that Tod is a pretty good free diver! And Tessa, who has been asking about a pet forever, got to keep a hermit crab aboard for a night, and returned it to the beach next day. 

back in La Cruz, where we saw Rage, the sailboat that went on the rocks
2 years ago when we were here

leaving some of her toys for other kids at the town square