A Normal Day in Tenacatita

Sunrise Saturday morning at Tenacatita

Yesterday, Saturday, at Tenacatita was such a normal day that it was truly different.
I was up at 7, as I wanted to photograph the sunrise. I was not disappointed. I plan to put 1 of those photos on this post so I am hoping that as you read this, you will be sharing yesterday’s sunrise with me.
About 9 am after a leisurely hour of drinking coffee in the cockpit we headed for shore. That went quite well. A small beach walk was followed by an excellent breakfast that
was only marred by the arrival of the cup of hot water and the instant coffee. That was the norm only 5 years ago but now most places make coffee. This place serves excellent food but don’t ask for coffee.
After breakfast we took a dinghy tour through the boats and found the people who had been our boat neighbours for a month in Mazatlan. They informed us that there was a beach party starting at about 2 pm. They came by on their way in to make sure that we were coming. Our arrival on the beach was one of our better ones and we did our landing in front of a large audience. The volleyball had started so Bob played for a while and I went to the restaurant to sit with a man and his daughter that we had met in Chamela. It was very hot on the beach so the volleyball only lasted about an hour. After that the restaurant filled and we sat there, chatted, ate and drank beer of course. I had a million questions about things that would make my life easier on the boat and most of those questions were answered.
The young woman that was sailing with her father fascinated me. She is only 20 and has sailed the Atlantic, been to the Galapagos by sailboat, and has her captains license for boats up to 200 tons. She attends college in Oregon and this college gave her credits for some of her sailing. During the summer she works for Game and Fisheries in Alaska (they live in Alaska). She must have impressed them as they have given her scholarship money. She is pretty, in great physical shape and carries on a conversation with adults as easily as someone 10 years older. She has such a sparkle to her.
These festivities ended more or less at 4 pm but some of us stayed on. Bob and I were waiting for our friends who were staying at the Blue Bay resort. We have known them for about 10 years. They are from San Miguel and had a campground there. We stayed in the campground and eventually I built a website for the campground. Jacob and Sibyl emigrated to Mexico 65 years ago from Holland. He is now 91 and she is about 84. What a role model they are for the way to age gracefully. Last summer they were back to Holland. He still goes to his beach house in Acapulco 4 times a year. Jacob is writing his memoirs that I would love to read but he says he is doing it for his grandchildren and not for publication.
At that the end of this day we still had to take the dinghy back to the boat. The surf was bigger and the big waves more frequent. Here is the plan. We push out the dinghy. I throw Patches into the dinghy and not planned he tried to jump as he sees a big wave coming. The big wave passes and I jump in. Bob pushes us out and he jumps in, starts the motor and it looks good for 10 seconds. Then we see a big one coming. I did not panic. I held onto the dog and up we went. At some strategic moment Bob gunned the motor and we climbed over the wave with just a little splash of water. A week ago I would have had a fit, but this exhilarated me. It was fun. Or perhaps it was a little hysteria on my part?
In the middle of the night Patches started barking. The dolphins come around the boat and rub on the anchor chain. They really do rattle our chain. Patches knows their scent now and he does not like them. The other night when this happened I thought we were dragging the anchor but now we know it is the dolphins. Patches is quite the little watchdog.
Tomorrow we are going to laze around and on Monday we will head for Manzanillo. There we will see if we can buy a bilge pump and get the autopilot fixed.
But right now I have nothing to do but enjoy the beauty of this place.