Birthday time and even Google remembered to wish Bill a Happy Birthday, it doesn’t get much better than that, well actually it did, Google even posted a birthday cake on it’s website for Bill as well.   To make it even better (that is two better now), the town of Melaque, Jalisco, Mexico has thrown an all week party complete with fireworks, a burning, missile throwing, 60 foot high whirly-gig tower and a bull that shoots flaming torches into the crowd.  Could it be better..yes.  Just as Lisa was making breakfast for Bill, the French Baker came by the boat and offered up fresh French baguettes for Bill weekly French toast.   Not enough yet, it is a NASCAR weekend and the favorite driver of the good ship Beyond Reason has taken the pole position (that’s four better).   All this and it is not even noon here in Mexico.

We wanted to share some of this goodness with others so while the French Baker was at our boat we purchased another $6 in credit from him and asked him to go out to local fisherman who plies the waters of the lagoon each morning with his row boat while casting nets out to catch bait fish for the larger boats.  The credit we purchased was so the fisherman could share a croissant or pie to celebrate Bill’s birthday as well (Nothing better than that, huh).

Life has been very relaxed here in Barra de Navidad for the last week as we catch up on small projects that were delayed while in the ports of Zihuatanejo and Santiago.   One of the bigger projects was taking care of our visas and getting on the good side of questionable legality with Mexican Immigration.   We are pretty sure we have been legal the whole time for the last two months but have been living off an exit zarpe without any visa’s what so ever.   Following a three hour interrogation  we still do not have visa’s but we do have an official looking letter from the Mexican Government saying we have 30 days to exit the country for a couple of hours before being allowed back in.  Lisa will be the first to go, good luck Lisa.

Other projects included cleaning our fuel tanks, cleaning the water maker, cleaning the boat interior, cleaning the dinghy and doing laundry.   It’s not that we haven’t done any of those in the last two months but things get awfully dirty when you are living in a very active shipping zone and commercial center (Manzanillo).

So tonight as we continue to make this a better and better day, we will finish up with Bills birthday and hopefully be able to provide some video of the fire and destruction that goes on during the celebration of Bill’s birthday (That’s a seven times better birthday if your keeping track) in Melaque but just in case you can’t wait, or more likely we can’t get the video we are going to leave this link.   It is not ours but Lisa felt it was a good representation of the celebration.

Tomorrow is Monday, enjoy your day before the big commute.

This afternoon we went into Manzanillo to complete our business.   Actually the business day (picking up Bill’s eye glasses) turned into a Gringo calibration of sorts.   To start the story off correctly though we have to look back at Friday when we were visited by our new friends Diego and Joshua.   At the time they looked like two guys that just swam about a ¼ mile off shore (they did).   This afternoon we ran into Joshua and his father and brother at the local 7 eleven or OXXO (the hugs and kisses store).   Joshua wanted to thank us again for “saving his life”.   We explained that we just thought he was tired but he insisted he was ready to die.   Again we told him no trouble and that we really enjoyed the visit.    The next thing we know his father is asking us to jump into the family Conestoga and off we are whisked to the local grocery store (our intended destination).   We figure that was a good use of Karma.

Following the successful retrieval of Bills glasses we needed to go to Starbucks for some coffee and internet.  Of course we failed to get all the updates in as “somebody” failed to load all of them on to the thumb drive we took to shore.   Frustrated but caffeinated  we decided to visit the local Wal-Mart for some small cleaning items then while we were in the area and the new Home Depot had just opened up we walked down the street to visit it as well.   We made the big purchase of some plumbers putty and a roll of masking tape then figured while we were doing the “travel American Style thing” we should just put the crown on it and visit Burger King as well.

Completing our Trans fat ingestion and still feeling the caffeine, supplemented by more caffeine from the Pepsi’s consumer at the King of Burgers, we wallowed home to get some rest.   The beach departure was successful but the surf was pretty big and the chances of making it our without soaking everything was looking slim at first.   Once home we hardly had time to put our clothes on the line (yes, we got a little wet), when Bill yelled down to Lisa that perhaps she should put a stitch more clothing on as we once again had guest swimming to the boat.   This is the part that we believe we have been Geo cache scammed.   We’re not sure if that is even possible but three days in a row we have had people swim out to our boat and casually say hello.   Today it was Ivan and Marico from the cities of Colima and Guadalajara.

As usual we invited them aboard.  Gave them towels (our laundry bill this week is going to be high), and beverage service then sat down with them to find out what they were thinking when they swam out to the boat.   We ended up going through the better part of a twelve pack of beer before they said they too had friends on the beach that were waiting for them.   To get them safely ashore we offered the dinghy for transit and it was gratefully accepted.   The funny part of all this is when we dropped them off we were sure their friends had been detained by the local police and were being held against the wall of a million dollar home on the beach.   Perhaps it was mistaken identity, but that is our story.

You should now be able to see the update that failed to post yesterday on the Dude View.   Happy commuting, we are having a blast again.   P.S., if our boat is a Geo Cache destination we hope somebody will let us know so we can offer a better prize when these folks finally find us.

We made it to Santiago.  We had to stop here because we still have some unfinished business with the town of Manzanillo.   The weather has been great with temperatures in the high 70’s all week.   Actually it has been cold enough at night to have a full set of sheets on and a small blanket on our feet.  Curious about night time temps?   71 degree’s.

Over the last week we have met so many new people.   First was Daniel Vasquez.   Daniel is a young man that together with his friend rents a canoe a couple of times a week to come out to the Zihuatanejo Bay area and clean bottoms on visiting yachts.   Typically we do not subscribe to this type of service as Bill loves cleaning the bottom and then letting Lisa pick the small shrimp or crabs off his body like a chimpanzee.   Just before we left Z-town we did hire Daniel and he did a fine job of cleaning the prop and rudder which helped to speed us up the coast.   Daniel is available by phone for cleaning jobs at 755-130-1052

Michael and Lilly dropped  by two days ago.   We were up on deck drinking sundowners when we notice a couple swimming out to the boat.   A couple swimming is pretty normal in Santiago Bay but we are anchored a good ¼ mile from the beach.   Surprisingly they both made it out to the boat and when they said Beyond Reason was a good looking ship we just had to invite them aboard.   We offered them towels and a cold beer which they gratefully accepted and then they told us they were medical students from Berkeley CA.   Apparently they had told their parents they were down here to do good for the community but really they were just goofing off mostly.   Lilly is a pre-med student and Michael actually is doing some ecological training for the kids in the local schools.   When they completed their beers they both jumped in the water and swam out of our lives.

Michael and Lilly were fun but yesterday we had Diego and Josue come by.   Once again we noticed a couple of people swimming towards our boat.   We figured that Michael and Lilly could not get enough of our company but really it turned out to be two young Mexican college (well very mature high school) students who noticed the name of the boat.   When we asked Diego why they swam out he said, “We saw the name of the boat and figured it was Beyond Reason to swim out to it” so they did.   Josue had cramped up pretty good on the way out so when they came aboard we offered they typical nourishment you find on board our boat but all they would accept was water.   10 minutes after their arrival some of their friends on Jet Ski’s dropped by and picked them up.   Not quite as dramatic as our med school acquaintances but fun just the same.

Both the Dudes and the Chicks area have been updated.  It might be worth a minute to check out those sections if you haven’t already.

“Remind me when we need your wallet that I stuffed it into the dirty blue sock in the hamper”. It was finally happening. We appeared to be under attack just 10 miles north of Lazaro Cardenez. Boats in this area had been broadcasting that they had been boarded during the night by armed banditos and we were 50 miles into our 190 mile trip from Zihuatanejo to Manzanillo.

We departed Zihuatanejo around 10 AM on Tuesday. Following the diagnosis of our dive tanks as “trash” we paid our $80 bill with the dive shop and prepared to leave for points north and better diving. Our friends were concerned that we were transiting the lonely coast of the northern Mexican Riviera by ourselves but as always we were not concerned as we have never had any trouble with “bandits” since we left the US. As we were passing the industrial city of Lazaro Cardenez we noticed that we had picked up an unlit target on our radar. An unlit target is something we can see on radar but can’t identify when we go outside and look for lights.

At the time we noticed, the “target” was 4 miles directly off our stern. At first look it appeared to be a phantom “hit” on the radar but 10 minutes later when the same hit or “target” showed up behind us but closer we assumed it was a boat. Bill eventually started talking about spear guns, flare guns and machetes in a kidding manner but after the “target” closed in to within 2 miles off our stern, we both started planning out contingency plans if the target actually was pirates!

Lisa immediate started hiding everything of value. Computers were stowed under mattresses, cell phones were hid in the bathroom, wallets in the hamper even string beans and cans of tomato sauce where moved from their normal resting spots and hid in places were they won’t be found for months to come.

Bill took the practical approach and prepared the flare gun with its 12 gauge shells for action. As the “target” came within 1 mile and then ½ mile, we both strained to see the actual boat, but of course there were no lights shown. Bill started reading the directions on the flare gun when we still couldn’t identify the target as it approached to within ¼ mile and once he was educated stood up on deck with a loaded gun preparing for action.

Eventually one of us decided that turning on additional deck lights might help us see the “bandits” and when we flicked on the lights the target immediately moved to the starboard side of our boat and passed us without issues. We don’t know if it was Bill standing up top with his “Charlie’s Angel’s pose”, gun in hand and ready for action or if the boat was just a group of Pangarero’s out for a fishing trip but our adrenalin was high and our relief pleasant when they fell off our radar screen. Currently we are sailing into Manzanillo with just 17 miles to go. Arrival will be tonight around midnight.

10,000 hits.  For our friends in Winters, that means people have visited our website more than 10,000 times.   We know  it is kind of a ridiculous milestone but what else are we going to do while living in Paradise.  We thought we would put this into perspective for you.

10,000 hits on a blog is really nothing new but when you compare it to the Record of Baseball, 10,000 hits is quite a bit.   Pete Rose and Ty Cobb did not get 10,000 hits combined in 48 total years of playing the game (8445 hits actually).   Muhammad Ali who has won rounds of Boxing with just a single hit, threw perhaps 6,500 punches at best in his 61 total fights.   Even Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley combined could only come up with 64 top 10 hits in their careers. Perhaps we are not so bad after all.

With all the writing we have done and all the reading that you might have done we decided that perhaps you needed to be reminded that in our combined blogs we have strung together a little more than 214,000 words.   The Oxford dictionary is credited with 220,000 so we figure there is still more to be said and some words that we have not used yet.   Wondering what 214,000 words look like, well we can help.

The average American reader plods along at about 250 words per minute. This means if you tried to read the blog straight through you would have to do so on your boss’ dime for 2 full uninterrupted shifts or 14.2 hours.   Not bad for a waste of time.   If you need a little more exercise we write the blog in 15 point Verdana, if you assume that the average word is 6 letters (5 letters and a space) and lined them all up together, you come up with just short of 4.5 miles of words.   Now that is a little short of going around the world but it is a nice morning walk.   While we are talking about reading, the average book on the shelf is roughly 64,000 words, I doubt we could divide our blog and make 4 books out of it, but if you purchased those books on line for your Kindle at $0.00 per book you would certainly get your money’s worth.   We just purchased 4 books for the same price and we are sure to get every penny of enjoyment from them.

If you didn’t know, we have added a number of extra features to the blog over the last year.  Did you know that some posts if opened up contain a hidden map of where we are?   Have you viewed our videos from the site?  The right hand column contains a number of features to include videos.  Have you used the search feature at the top of the page?  It’s all there.  We are trying to keep the blog uncomplicated but sometimes we can’t help ourselves.  If you are on Facebook or any of the other social media we have even added icons to help you share with friends.

We could blather on about more of the blogs highlight but will leave you to your work.  We can tell you that although Lisa and Bill take most of the credit, Sparky himself has written almost 18,000 words and is the most requested writer when we meet up with people who have checked us out.

Enjoy your commute, 10,000 hits thanks to you.

It’s been a fairly quite week this week. We have been patiently waiting on our dive tanks to be sent to Mexico City and return, they haven’t yet. While in patient mode we did get a chance to check out the local surf break. With the waves being way up in the anchorage

This house sits atop a 40 foot cliff. Our boat is anchored just a few hundred yard to the west. The waves yesterday were enormous.

we thought we would share a couple of the pictures from around the bay today.
On the Garmin front, Garmin has decided that there unit is actually at fault and will be replacing (for the second time) our GPSMap 4208. Most likely we will have one of our mules bring the unit down to us even though it looks like Lisa may make a trip north to help a friend that is having some health issues. We won’t know for sure until the end of this week but all the indicators are pointing that way.
Life in Zihuatanejo is still good, although not as active as one would like. The most active thing we have been doing is to try and keep from rolling off the bed at night. It’s Sunday, enjoy your day, Monday’s commute is nearly as bad as the other 4 days you go to work.

We ran up on the last day of February fairly quickly.   Since we had internet and are literally watching varnish dry today we thought we would give you a quick update on what is going on in the anchorage.

For one thing the waves are up, way up.   Our friends behind us have a beautiful anchorage, or at least from our perspective 500 yards away.   The seas are crashing up on the rocks just 100 yards or so behind them and really give you a feeling that you are close to nature.   For us, it is nice to have a cold beer with them on board but neither Bill nor Lisa could sleep soundly if we were so close to the breaks.   Today the seas are running about 6 to 7 feet high through the Bay of Zihuatanejo.   The period is long, so if you have read this blog before you know that the seas could be considered relatively comfortable if we were underway.   As it is we get a fairly prolonged roll about half of the day.   For those closer to shore the rolls are constant and if the wind is not in their favor they probably don’t have a beer bottle or flower vase standing in the boat anymore.

The weather has gotten decidedly muggy over the last two days as well.   As the sun sets you can see the moisture in the air, and when it rises the decks are soaked and the carpet on the boat feels damp.  The trouble with the carpet is that we walk on it with feet that have been in the salt water all day and even though we think our feet are dry we still leave minute amounts of salt on the carpet which then attracted the moisture in the air at night.   Mildew doesn’t grow so we are not completely worried, and besides we have varnish to watch.

A milestone for the website is coming up soon.   We have had nearly 10,000 unique hits on our website since we started it.   We get a lot of fun out of writing and hope that people are enjoying what we have chosen to put up on the pages.  On the day we think we will see the number 10,000 come up we will post a special splash with some of the highlights that have occurred over the last couple of years that we have been posting.   Tooting our own horns, yes, sorry.

We’re not on the subject but we can’t leave the site alone without mentioning Guitar Fest, Zihuatanejo, 2013.   Guitar Fest starts next week.   There are a number of cruisers around the bay that are promoting it heavily.   We have not been and hope that it really is something special for the town of Zihuatanejo but the way it is being portrayed we have a feeling it was started by cruisers to get their guitar playing buddies to come down to Z-what on a free trip.    Most of the Fests: Z-Fest Lorreto Fest, Sailfest in Puerto Vallarta and the Festival that is held in La Paz each year all raise money for some local charity.   Guitar Fest raises money for the people who fly down from the States and Canada and perhaps a couple of locals to pay for their expenses.   We must have lost something in the translation as we can’t imagine who would support such a thing, but perhaps the guitarist are really good, heck they should be, tickets for the individual shows are up to $200 pesos ($US 18) and the venues are bars and restaurants.   We can hardly afford a dinner for $200 pesos each, let alone a no-name guitarist.  Who knows, perhaps Jimmy Page, Chet Atkins or Estaban will show up.   Unless somebody promotes a day of Festivus, we are all fested out.  Hope the tanks show up soon.

Well, we have done it again.  We ordered services that should have been completed a week ago and still need to be performed.   You can read about it in the Dudes Page if you have a moment today, otherwise you can choose to read it tomorrow.  We will still me here.

Life can be slow in Mexico.   We are taking it with a grain of salt and perhaps a bit of the local nectar.

Enjoy your commute.

Life has definitely slowed down for us in Zihuatanejo.   This morning were discussing that we have been here for almost 20 days and it really doesn’t feel like time has passed by at all.   Of course we are waiting on parts, or this time service to be performed on our dive tanks, but that really is not bugging us that much.   Most of the days here have been very pleasant with a light breeze coming out of the North and a comfortable 80 degree temperature.   Our typical day consists of waking early and having a cup of Joe while the sun rises, listening to the radio nets if we are in the mood or putting on some soft jazz as we nose into the morning and then sometime around 10 AM we get breakfast going.  It could be that this schedule just coincides with noon so we can think about street tacos or a couple of cold cervezas prior to pulling something out for dinner.   We still have our daily palaver on the front deck to discuss the coming days and how we will fill them but really the days seem to fill themselves without much work on our side.

Tempting as it was, we didn’t order the Grilled People for lunch.

We have visited a couple of nice restaurants and some others that had table fare not quite to our particular liking but things are a bit different in Mexico anyway.

Our Garmin woes have not gone away but they are not taking up much of our time either at this point.   We sent a mail off yesterday to see if they would just replace the unit again so we can roll on our merry way.   We hope to hear back today or tomorrow.   As we have said many times before we love the GPSMap 4208 when it works but golly I can’t think that the units we have are typical of Garmin.   If they are I am sure that Raytheon, Furuno and Simrad will soon acquire the Garmin marine unit as they will simply not be able to get away with shoddy work for much time.

Assuming we get our tanks back this week we will be shooting north again.   We believe we have hit our apogee for this trip and will start to make our way home soon.   The deeper into Mexico we go the more we dislike the anchorages, water clarity, fishing and availability of parts.   We have always known that parts would be a problem so on the list of things that make us want to return to the Sea of Cortez, parts rank pretty low, but the others are the big three reasons for making a U-turn.

We have spoken with way to many folks that have gone further south and report that while there is an anchorage or two that should not be missed, by and large the anchorages that we have visited since leaving the Sea of Cortez are typical of the trip south.   For our limited amount of money and time it just doesn’t seem worth the expense when we know that 700 miles north we can find quiet anchorages, fish and water clarity that doesn’t have you scurrying for a fresh water shower when you exit the water.

So there you have it, our plans are a bit changed from the original but that shouldn’t come as a surprise.   We have always written our plans in the sand so changing them is easy for us.   For now we will hang out in Z-what and enjoy the wait while our dive tanks are re-certified.   Zihuatanejo ranks high on our list of large cities that we would re-visit again.  The town really is just a fishing village albeit with about 100,000 residents.   The tourist shops can get in the way if you are near the water front but other than that you do feel like you are in another country as the large hotel chains have yet to appear and almost every hotel in town looks to be independent without any affiliations to international brands or influences.