With the advance of the seasons the sun is getting higher. It is getting hot in the afternoon as the sun beats on the land and the mountains behind it. As the temperature difference is getting greater the daily sea breeze is getting stronger. Western Grace is ripping on her anchor as the seas build to sometimes 2- 3' before easing off late afternoon. At night it is usually calm unless we have a ocean swell left over from a storm somewhere down the coast.

 

Our crew is boarding on Tuesday and for Monday we have a big shopping expedition planned. Warren on the vessel Faraway from Secret Cove has offered to drive us with his car so we should have it easy. Normally we take a cab but that sometime becomes a bit hectic as when we come out of the store a mob of taxi drivers and kids who want to make a buck grabbing your supplies and packing it in the cab without any consideration for fragile items.

 

Most of the whales are gone now all but a few stragglers. The tourist numbers are down this year especially from the US. It looks like the Canadians are still coming although it may be down a bit. The locals, unless they are directly involved in the tourist trade do still all right as the building of large hotels and resorts is still going on big time. We heard that the occupy rate of some of the resorts is around 20% and yet many more want a piece of the action. This is going to be interesting. Look for good deals in the sun  

 

Several boats are underway to French Polynesia and Hawaii and are finding light winds as far out to 120W. It looks very light the next few days and no wind good sailing breeze is expected till Thursday or Friday east of W120W. It is been light now for a long time it is about time it picks up. The trades are to be found at N16 W125.

Today started like any day but this afternoon it got windy. Nothing much about 20 KTS from the SW but enough to cause 3 boats to drag anchor. This happens a lot as we find many new cruisers think to easy and if a little wind comes along things go amiss.

 

We have seen this enough so we can spot a dragging anchor easy.  Normally a boat swings back and fort at anchor but if they stay sideways to the wind this is usually indicating the boat is dragging. So got the dinghy out and with the help of Merl on Kanta Ana from Sidney(BC) helped them get organized. It is always the same who see this happen and are ready to take action. Reason is that most cruiser have no clue about what is happening or are worried about possible liabilities. We are not worried about that as it is better to save a boat from going on the beach that to sit back and watch.

 

The excitement is always a thrill and this is a welcome break from our daily routine right now.

 

It is overcast and captain Ron living in the mountains came on the radio tonight warning it would rain tonight. We can't wait as the rain cleans the boat better than we ever can in the Marina. the rain water is nice and soft and the water around here is so hard it is almost unsuitable to clean with.

 

We got a lot of varnishing done the last few weeks and get a real boost out of having the wood work  looking immaculate.

Live goes on onboard and today we first went to town to get the dive tank filled and to exchange some cash. A bus ride and a walk with a tank on your back is hard especially under the hot sun. It is getting longer light and the sun is getting higher. Matter of fact march is the month we gain the most sun angle and increase the most daylight.

 

Several boats left last week but most of them had a hard time getting away from the shore as there was a large area of light winds. Tomorrow another wave of boats is slated to depart and things look better wind wise. Usually things get better after march 15 for departures as the North pacific high is getting more intense and cause more wind close to shore. This makes it easy to get away and reach the trades.

 

Scraped the hull last week and we had a great harvest of barnacles, shrimp and other slimy creatures. As you scrape them off they attached themselves to whatever and coming up after a dive normally your whole body is covered. Getting out of the water makes things worse as the all start itching and try to bury in your skin. Not a nice feeling but after a few minutes on the transom shower most have been removed.

 

We are due for a haul out soon as we return to Canada. Had two year out of the bottom paint but the second year the performance of the paint is not satisfactory.

 

The bay is calm as a mill pond the last few days other then a few wind waves in the afternoon.

 

tomorrow engine room bilge painting

We have been now for a long time in La Cruz. Spending much of our time  painting and maintenance. The weather has been nice and actually getting warmer. Yesterday the water temp around the boat reached 27 C.

 

 We have been in the marina for 15 days a couple weeks ago and did some painting on the decks. This is been the longest we been in one stretch against the dock in years and probably ever for Western Grace. The marina let us do some work and normally it is hard to find a place to make a mess so we took advantage of it.

 

Normally we are not that busy in Mexico but this year it is exceptional slow. The US economy is really making everybody  careful. Despite all that we are still maintaining a normal work schedule and this may be the time we get all our work list done. March 31 we are setting sail for Hilo and we are looking for a good sail. As it is a slight La Nina year we have enhanced trade winds expectations.

 

The first boats are leaving this week to French Polynesia. One power boat left a few days ago but several sailboats are awaiting a weather window to get to the trades. At the moment there is very little wind and the prospect of burning a large amount of fuel early on in the trip does not make any sense.

 

The whales are still very active around the bay. A few weeks back a whale came through the anchorage and got hooked to a flopper stopper (this is a plate hanging in the water on a cable from the rigging to reduce the rolling of a vessel). it bent some of the rigging but the whale got off without any injury we believe. A week before that we had a sailboat sailing into a whale and trying to get out of the way the whale hit the boat and bend the pulpit and damaging the roller furling. There are many conflicts between boats and wildlife. The big ships and the cruise ships especially are know to hit wildlife (whales and turtles) and most of the time they do not survive. Collisions between smaller boats and whales  are a lot more equal and the boats often ends up to be damaged or sunk.

 

Today we went into Bucerias to get a new footrest for our captains chairs. found a little welding shop but they did not have any material. So we ended up finding a piece of pipe a few doors over but we had to buy the whole 22' length. Then back to the welding shop to find out that the guy in there had no clue how to get this done. So ended up taking charge after another amigo (who looked like to be the boss) came in briefly and said he had no time but I was welcome to help myself. So did some old fashion steel work with the Amigo and it was great fun. Two hours later  the job done and all under the steel dust but we got a better than new footrest.

 

 

On the way back the sky turned overcast and right now we have a rare overcast sky. The humidity is very high and we felt a few tiny drops. Rain? That would be nice as we did not get any real rain since last October.