Zihuatenajo and the Mexican coast

It has been a long time since our last big update. We’ve had a few smaller ones to a few folks but it is now time to bring everyone up to date. We last updated two days before leaving Nicaragua for Mazatlan and, to say the least, much has happened since then.

Starting at the beginning, the next day we were visiting the famous surfing beach in Bahia del Sur, Nicaragua and the rainy season had begun in full force. Every afternoon, the sky would cloud up and about 3pm there would be a heavy downpour of warm rain. Well, we were in a small beach side café along with a whole bunch of surfers. They had seen the storm coming and most were out of the water up with us. We saw that we could be trapped in the café for hours and might miss the bus back to the town. It was a two kilometer walk back to the pick-up point along a very beautiful and very remote beach. So we decided to hightail it back while we could. About half way back, Mary heard the words “dinero, dinero” and turned around to see a guy with a 10” knife, basically robbing us from behind. So, after a few moments of conversation, we came to realize that we were really being robbed, that he only wanted cash, and that he was new at this (cause he was trembling so bad). He got $60 worth of Nigcaraguan currency – a small fortune in this very poor country. He only got that much because we’d tried to pay in advance for a ride to the airport for the next day, only to be told that we’d have to pay for four people and then find two more to reimburse us. So, we didn’t buy the tickets and instead gave the money to our robber. If that wasn’t bad enough, the robbery took so long that two minutes after it, we got clobbered with a drenching downpour.

However, all was well, we were alive and made it not only back to our hotel but on to the airport and, via Los Angeles , back to Mazatlan where the boat was. We spent about two weeks putting the boat to bed and getting it ready for hurricane season. Then took one of the luxury buses from Mazatlan to Guaymas where our car was waiting for us – cloaked in about two inches of dust and dirt. As we got some lunch in Guaymas, Mike complained of a pulled muscle in his right calf – an odd occurrence since we had been doing nothing for 12 straight hours during the bus ride. Well six days later the ache turned out to be another Deep Vein Thrombosis and Mike was in the hospital in Lubbock , Texas for five days. He had great care but it was a shock nonetheless.

After the hospital stay, all our plans changed. Gone were visits to cruising friends and other relatives. Hello to getting back to San Luis Obispo where we could be with our daughter and grandson (Kristin and Aidan) and recuperate mentally and physically. This could have been the end of cruising and this was a lot to digest. But the pain was not to stop.

Two weeks after getting back to SLO, Mary complained of chest pains and trouble breathing. We thought it was a relapse of Dengue Fever and so treated with Tylenol and rest. When that did not work, it was another trip to a hospital where Mary was diagnosed with Pneumonia. In four weeks, she was back to strength while Mike played nurse and chief grandson sitter and entertainer. All the while, Mike was trying to find out the best source of treatment for the DVT and an answer to the cruising question. Ha! It still wasn’t over. In late August, we both went in for our annual skin exam and the doctor found an “in-site melanoma” in the middle of Mike’s back. Two weeks later he had a 3inch scar and mandatory two week recovery period. Then the bad news stopped – for a while.

We found a doctor in the USC Medical clinic who is nationwide known for his DVT knowledge. Got an appointment and got the go-ahead to keep cruising. He’s the doc to a couple of movie directors, big corporate hot-shots, etc. so we felt safe regarding his recommendations. It is a field that very few know about. And since there is so little promise of financial returns, there is little “big medicine” companies doing research into new products. In the USA , the standard treatment is simply to keep your blood from clotting in the future. There is no effort made to treat the clot in the leg and make it disappear, nor any effort to find out what caused the clot and try to remedy it. Thus, “treat the sympton, not the cause” standard medicine continues. So, Mike now takes Warfarin daily, for the rest of his life. It is an anti-coagulant and is often, and mistakingly, called a blood thinner. It is fairly dangerous but not dangerous enough to prohibit sailing.

Finally, with the go-ahead, we headed back to Mazatlan to get the boat ready to head to Equador. But the new solar panels and structure to hold them took 10 weeks to build and wire. By December 11th we were three days away from pulling away form the dock and a month behind schedule. Then on the 12th, Mary got a call from her sister, that their mom was dying and to fly home immediately. She did and Mike followed three days later. This was indeed the case, but Mom made a miraculous recovery and within another three days was sitting up, talking, more lucid than for the last 12 months. It was amazing. So, with things now going well, we spent Christmas with Kristin, Aidan, Jenny (our daughter from Dallas had flown out as well) and had a great time.

With Christmas over, it was time to head back to San Diego , see Mom again, and get ready for the January 3rd return flight to Mazatlan . Everything was great, but then on December 31st Mom took a turn for the worse, was rushed to the hospital from the nursing home. Three days later, on January 3rd she passed away at about 2 am. The funeral was on the 8th and we finally returned to the boat on the 11th. Mary’s back seized up on the 4th and would not relax until about a week ago! Funny what stress can do to you.

Within a week the boat was ready and on the 20th we shoved off, though now plans for Equador were on hold as we only had six weeks to meet the March 1st deadline we’d made for ourselves. We decided to just have fun in 2008 and that would mean cruising the coast of Mexico and going where we wanted, when we wanted and stay as long as we wanted. One of the great things about this lifestyle is the ability to change plans constantly and still enjoy life.

We made a straight shot sail from Mazatlan to Tentacatita – the isolated anchorage that is a cruisers favorite. There we found clean water, warmer weather (it had been really cold in Mazatlan – down into the forties at night) and easy living. After a week there, we sailed again straight to Manzanillo ( Santiago Bay – at the north end of Manzanillo). A short sail but fun never-the-less. Another 10 days went by. We went with Kathy and Hal from Airborne to visit a Turtle preserve that also serves as a refuge for iguanas, crocodiles, and various birds. They’ve put over 100,000 baby turtles into the ocean this year. We found great food buys in the town of Santiago, got our VHF fixed for $10, found a bar right out of Casablanca where for $2 you could get a beer and all your could eat of cevechi and guacamole.

We next sailed down to our current favorite – Zihuatenajo (Z wha tay nay ho). A very nice tourist town with lots of Mexican, American and Canadian tourist, it is still a great town. Like the rest of Mexico , it full of wonderfully friendly Mexican who are always willing to listen to your Spanish and talk to you until you can’t say anything more and then they start talking in English. The bay is not as pretty as it used to be as the town has grown and the sewage is still dumped into the bay. So, we sail out of the bay to make water and then come back and anchor in a new spot. We went to the movies last night and saw “Love in the time of Cholera” for a total of $4.

Thus life is good, we’re having fun, this is the Mexican Riviera where it is hitting 88 every day and cooling off to 70 each night. No clouds, light winds, warm water and good times.