I've been posting to Instagram (mvweebles) but whats missing is the day to day drudgery that cruising involves.
We will depart Ixtapa at 0700 tomorrow morning. Yesterday was a trip into Zihuatenejo to the Capitinea de Puerto to check in and out (we arrived last Friday so Monday was the first we could check in). We spent about an hour at the port captains office including going across the street for copies. There is no charge for arrivals and exits within Mexico, but they do want to you to check on and out. Their house. Their rules. We like it here so "The Dude will Abide ".
We had lunch at the Mercado. Great tacos from a place there if it were in the US would be shut down immediately. We are way to serious about this stuff.
Honey is sold everywhere in Mexico and we use a fair amount. Mercado is the best place to get it so that was on the list. I eat granola and fruit with yogurt most mornings and a splash of honey is perfect. On late night watches, a cup of tea with honey is also great. So we go through a fair amount.
I also needed some 20 micron filters for the watermaker. I have a dozen 5 micron but wanted a coarser pre filter. We discover a lot about a town looking for parts and searching for filters was no different. General strategy is to find a place (hardware store in this case) and see if they have what we want. If not, ask for a recommendation. We struck gold on the third store and came home with 6 filters.
Final stop yesterday was a grocery store for some more yogurt. Cilantro, and a handful of fresh fruit and produce. So the day took around 6 hours of bus rides and waiting. Was a good day.
Today was getting ready to leave. I have a few chores. Change water filters for water maker. Fix gasket on fridge (fairly involved but boring), futzed with the inverter (a different thread), finally found the replacement water heater element I'd been searching for, checked out of marina ($40/nt all-in-one including power, water, and slip fees), and stowed misc gear. We managed to find time to go for lunch at a place run by a Canadian who does vegan type lunch, a change from tacos.
Bottom line is if relaxation is the goal, not sure cruising is the right solution, at least if you're trying to move around. Frankly, we tell folks we're on a lazy delivery so not sure if fully qualified as cruising, but we believe it does.
Still having a great time. Not tired of tacos yet. There are fewer anchorages and places to stop going south but that's okay. We are looking forward to Huatulco in a couple weeks where we'll hopefully pause for a week or so and take a trip inland to Oaxaca, heartbeat if Mexican folk art and food
Peter
PICTURES
- Port Captain office in Zihuatenejo
- Cavendish at anchor, a SeaPiper 35 (for those who think you need a Nordhavn, we've been playing leap frog with Cavendish for 500 nms)
- And a Sports Bar with cute banner.