Nov. & Dec. 2005 La Cruz & PV

After leaving Mazatlan, we did a lot of provisioning (since we were now heading for Central America) and we headed for Banderas Bay. We anchored in La Cruz, which is a little village outside of Puerto Vallarta. Here, we met up with our friends, Bill and Nancy Brown, who were in Bucerias (another village close by) having a two-week vacation. With Freezing Rain (Marie and Don) we buddied over to Tres Mariettas Islas. They had Effie, Endeavour, and Kathy Taylor on board.

This is Don, captain of Freezing Rain...also a Bluewater boat.

Our great friends, Nancy and Bill Brown were down for a 2 week holiday in Bucerias. They came along as crew on Fortuitous. Bill looks pretty good here, but he was a bit green by the end of the trip…not crew material, although he tries hard! Note new haircut, mine not Bill's! Tired of all the stray hairs on the boat…and oh so much cooler!

We went for a dinghy ride, while there, and this is a view out from one of the caves we cruised into. The other boat all went snorkeling, but we settled for a dinghy ride and lunch.

Visiting another boat, in Marina Vallarta, we spotted this giant Iguana sunning himself next door.

He was incredibly big, but agile.

Took a little day trip out to Bucerias and had a drink and lunch on the beach.

Ralph keeps trying for the perfect Corona Ad...this one's pretty good!

La Cruz has changed so much since we were last here. They are building a large marina and have piled sand against all the existing waterfront properties, and are going to build condos in front of them...no more waterfront for those people. How can they get away with that?

Anna Banana’s is a café that has an open mike session every Sunday afternoon. This was one of the gatherings we attended. Mostly cruisers here, but there are some land-lubbers who show up too. By this time, our cruising buddies Endeavour, have left to go south. We were supposed to meet up but, because we found out about the job in Tennessee shortly after this shot was taken, we never did meet up with them again. They’re in Zihuatenejo now. This was the beginning (and ending) of my short lived singing career.

It was Christmas and we loved this decorated palm.

This is to prove, to all you disbelievers, that I really did get up and sing in front of all those people. The fellow standing beside me is the root of all this evil. Alan (SV Effie) and his wife Mac kept encouraging me to do this. So, Alan and I worked on one song, and the rest is history.

By the end, they’d created this monster who wouldn’t sit down. I was doing 4 songs, in three different venues by the time we left to return home. What a hoot!! I really enjoyed it!!!!! You can see, even darkness didn't discourage us!

This is my fan club! After all that singing, what better reward than ‘Tacos in the Street’. Some of the best we’d had were here in La Cruz. We’ve never gotten sick once, in Mexico. Either we have wrought iron stomachs, or the tales we heard weren’t true. Most of these stands don’t serve beer, but you can get it (or they will) from the store next door. From left, going counter clockwise—Alan & Mac (Effie), Me, Donna & Jerry (Scott Free II leaving shortly for the S. Pacific), Ralph, Don & Marie (Freezing Rain). Good friends, good food, what more could you want?

To prove to you I didn’t always sing, this is a bunch of us doing the hand-jive. Oh, we have some good times! I’m not sure why this is a girl’s thing. Participants are Kay (Semonship), Me, Mac (Effie), and Marilyn (Tortuga). As you can see, I’m watching Mac for guidance…all a bit confusing! Maybe it’s cause I’m left handed??

Here I am, back at it again…you see, no keeping me down. This is at the Britannia Pub. I’m reminded of the story my mother tells me about being 5, or so, and singing a duet at church. Apparently, I kept telling the other little girl to sit down and finished the song myself…I guess it was meant to be!

This is Leon, our favourite entertainer in La Cruz! He has such a ball, and is so good, you have to laugh right along with him.

He plays in Filo's bar.

This is the group off to La Cruz by Bus.

Another BURP, with Wandering Star, Freezing Rain and others.

There was a great Christmas party in La Cruz. It was held in the home of Senior Fox, centre with wife Sylvia, (a fellow who looks like President Fox, but is a Canadian who has opened a little coffee shop here). It was a pot luck and a great meal!

On our last night in PV, we had a big going away party for ourselves. We were staying in the Embarcadero, while putting Fortuitous up on the hard. It was great to get together, but a sad day for us.

Once we found out about going to Tennessee, Dec. 22nd, we had to work flat out to get Fortuitous on the hard, cleaned up and prepped for a 6 month stint. Much to Ralph’s surprise, it took much longer that the 2 days he predicted. We were still working, until 1pm, on the 27th…we had to be at the airport at 2pm. Ralph had to be in Tennessee before Jan. 3rd.

In spite of attending great Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day dinners, and hosting our own great Going-away get together, we got everything done except covering her with the tarps. We hired a yard worker to do this and headed home to Vancouver. We’ve had friends check Fortuitous, and re-arrange the tarps, so all is well there. We had a short, but busy time in Vancouver. We managed to sneak in New Years, with friends, and short visits with family and a few of our friends, while finding our winter clothes for Tennessee.

Nov. 2005 Mazatlan & San Carlos

This is Icarian (Marilyn and Brian), Endeavour, (Kim and Linda) and us at one of our favourite hangouts in La Paz, El Callejón, a little sidewalk café in La Paz. We’ve had some great times here, but now we’re all getting set to head off back to the mainland. We are all planning to continue our cruising, but we are all going in different directions eventually. Endeavour is heading to the South Pacific, Icarian is heading to Central America, and we (unbeknownst to us at this time) are heading to Tennessee.

As we are leaving La Paz, we cruised by the Dockwise ship. We have friends shipping boats back to the Northwest, and their boats are on board. And no, I don't think it's sinking...I don't know what happened with the photographer in this one??

Another view...as they say, "No shame in shipping". I could see us doing this through the Red Sea, should we get that far.

My #39th birthday party…what do you mean “OH, Yah!!”??? That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. As you can see, you really have to be a serious eater and drinker to stick it.

A serenade, uncomfortable but nice!

Ralph never seems to have any birthdays...no wonder I'm aging faster than him! Another round of eyebrows being burned off!

Where should I begin?

We had a fabulous time and I scooped some great jewellery from the guests…all given as gifts, I might add.

Here’s the same crew as in the first shot on this page, along with a few other friends...only this time we’re all in Mazatlan, across the Sea of Cortez from La Paz. This type of gathering is called a “BURP” or Bluewater Unofficial Rendezvous Point/Party. All people here are from Vancouver, and Bluewater Cruising Association. We all left Vancouver the same year, more or less. Pictured, along with the same group as before are Scott Free II (Donna and Gerry), Right Galah (Charles and Sandra) and Airborne (Hal and Kathy).

From Mazatlan, we took a 4 day car trip up to San Carlos to visit Rob and Fiona (My brother and his partner). We all went to a pearl factory.

We learned a lot, but didn't make any purchase...very expensive.

It was quite a beautiful area, much prettier than we had supposed.

Me, brother Rob, and Fiona on a beach stroll.

The area had some terrific scenery, as you can see. Boy, I’d give anything to be on that beach right now!

While we walked down that beach, in San Carlos, Ralph spotted movement in the sand. What did we find but this little sea turtle trying to make it’s way to the sea. We didn’t find a nest, so we’re not sure where he came from.

We took him/her closer to the water and let him go. They must spend some time walking on the sand and into the water because that is the only way the females know where to come back to to lay their eggs. The males never return to land.

A viewpoint outside of San Carlos.

Fiona and I are debating what kind of carving to buy. In the end, she got a small turtle and we bought a large pelican (which they will take in their car back to Vancouver for us). There are a lot of these carvers, here in Mexico, but I must say he was the best we’d ever seen

Leaving Mazatlan. Those are friends Gerry and Donna, from Scot Free II. We thought this might be the last we'll saw of them, as they are heading to the South Pacific.

Sept. & Oct. 2005 Costa Baja & Trips

In order to get away from the heat and boredom of the marina, we rented a car for a day and went to the other side of the Baja to Todos Santos. It is a lovely little town but is also very hot. The car was air conditioned so we enjoyed that. This is a typical little store in that town…a perfect one for me to paint!

The cacti all seem to bloom at different times. This one was in Todos Santos and was just beautiful. Some have very large flowers, for their size, and all are colourful and beautiful.

From the photo, this looks large. But, in reality, it was just a tiny plant.

Most of the Baja is so brown, but if you look hard you can find some of the most vibrant colours in nature.

We went out on a little hike to the beach. All the waterfront seemed to be private, or at least block off most of the access.

After scrambling over the rocks, we did manage to get there.

While in Costa Baja, John Semon was in touch with Endeavour and us. He said he was going to have a Tequila party, at his home in San Luis Obispo, and invited us all to come. Well, I'm sure he never really expected us to do that!!!

But, several weeks after Todos Santos, we were fed up with being in this hot marina. So, after several Margaritas (stay away from those things!!), and in a moment of weakness, we (along with Kim and Linda on Endeavour) decided to say yes to the offer. John and Kay Semon own Semonship is the boat we towed a few months back. They offered to put us all up so who were we to refuse such an offer? After all, they needed some real experienced drinkers…er Tequila tasters! We had a great visit and toured SLO as well as drinking Tequila. This is the group (Kim, Kay, Linda, John, Cheryl, Ralph) at a winery…see we did do other things beside drink tequila!

This is Kay and Linda in Gumball Alley. It sounds much nicer than it really is!! It is just this walk-through were someone (in their wisdom) stuck up some gum and it caught on…so to speak!! Now, both walls are entirely covered with chewed gum of various sizes and colours. Some just stuck, some “creative endeavours”, some just words…all of it quite disgusting!!

Another shot…imagine having someone write, “Mike loves Bonnie” in wads of gum. Must have used a ladder to get up that high too!

In SL Obispo they have sidewalk drawing on a regular basis. We could not believe how beautiful many of them were. All that work only to be washed off in a couple of days.

So, since we weren’t already spending enough cash just going to SLO, and since we had to land and take off from LA, we decided to head for Disneyland for a day. As always, we had a great time…although it doesn’t look like I am in this picture. It was Linda’s first visit of Disneyland. Amazingly, it poured for some of the time. We were not prepared for rain at all. We all bought Mickey capes…handy for the boat anyway, I guess.

This is Ralph and I and some old Lego Man (Ralph is on the left)…Ha, ha…he’ll kill me for that one! Amazing what you can make from $6,000,000 worth of Lego!

Linda found a new date as well!

At the end of the day, we headed for the Disney parade…just a wonderful show. Unfortunately, none of the exhibits in the parade would hold still enough for a photo…but you get the picture!

Back at Costa Baja, we had some excitement this week. It was the official inauguration of the marina complex. The president of Mexico, Vicente Fox came to open it officially. These are some of our cruising buddies. They clean up well, don't they?

The entertainment, food, and drinks were all supplied! What more could you ask for?

This is as close as we thought we’d get to the President. As you can see, Ralph has not shrunk from all the time spent in the water here in Mexico!

This is the best shot we have of him, there in the centre of the pack.

That is President Fox in the center of the group. It gives you a better idea how close we actually got. However, we got even closer than that! That’s me and my fellow cruisers, Joanie and Marilyn, waiting to shake hands and say a few words to the President.

This shot…smiling faces, is after we’d had our day in the sun! We got to shake hands with President Fox and have a short chat. Just amazing, to us, coming from the land of security. People were all around him…every bodyguard’s nightmare, I would think! It was really quite an experience!

This is a group shot of all the Bluewater Cruisers who were present in the Marina at that time. It’s not often we are this dressed up…or even this dressed, for that matter!

With boredom setting in, Shelly Ward (Eros) kindly had a birthday so that we could plan a surprise party.

And, she really was surprised! Here she is with husband Jodie.

She was quite a wild pinata smacker!! Got Ralph a couple of times, I believe.