Sailfest in Zihuatanejo was a spectacular event -- and Zihuatanejo is a spectacular town. As mentioned in our January II page, numerous cruising boats arrived for the 5-day event. In fact 99 boats registered, even more were in the harbor. All the events were fund raisers; we participated in two and in addition sold tickets and solicited a few auction and raffle prizes from local businesses.

One day while we were at the table selling tickets for the culminating event, the sail parade from Zihuatanejo to Ixtapa and back, a man walked up and said he was leaving in a few days and wouldn't be in town for the parade, but could he pay for four tickets and ask if anyone would take him and three others out for the same sail a week on the Sunday before the scheduled parade. Roy and I looked at each other and nodded, and so we told him "sure." We felt pretty good about raising $100 US so easily -- imagine going out for a sail and raising money for a charitable cause! A few days later we took him and his friend along with the owners of the hotel he was staying at. Here's a shot of Roy with the young owners of the hotel.

Along with most of the crowd we participated in the auction. Here's Roy, Tony and Bob -- in the end we were outbid on the one item we thought was worth having.

The finale was the "for real" sail parade. The first shot shows one of the boats sporting pennants -- several, including Jellybean, looked like this. The second shot shows several of the boats departing Zihua with part of the town in the background. The third shot is of several boats enroute. We all had a great time. This event is one of the biggest fund raisers since almost all the boats had several paying guests, each paying $25 US to take a ride on a sailboat.

Several days lapsed before we weighed anchor and headed back north. This is a shot of sunrise on our last morning in Zihua -- breathtakingly beautiful. Next year we plan to continue heading south to Huatulco and visit Oaxaca inland.

We headed north, thinking we would stop along the way, but continued on straight through to Santiago Bay, by now one of our favorites. We had a nice visit with Jamie and Steve on Reba who have many wonderful stories about their South Pacific adventures. We visited with Mark and Deanna on Salacia and also Dan on Che Bella, who by this time has become a regular sidekick of ours. The highlight of our brief stay was an evening potluck on Dolce Vita. Everyone in the anchorage participated. The food was, as usual, spectacular -- cruisers love to cook gourmet dishes -- and the jam (music) session was so much fun that we all stayed much longer than usual. Kay on Semonship and Jane on Anticipation were wild women drummers. Sue on Dream Chaser, a classical pianist, picked up the beat on the keyboard without a hitch, a few of us used tambourines and murachas for rhythm, however the "grammy" for the evening went to Dave on Dolce Vita, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter extraordinaire. After a few trips into town it was time to leave and continue our journey north.....

Earlier sections of our website display photos of Barra de Navidad and Tenacatita, our next stop -- however we got a few new shots on this visit. This shot shows panga drivers in the Barra lagoon casting nets to catch bait fish, a scene we see often, however catching the cast in a shot was a goal of mine for the past few months!

These next photos were taken in Tenacatita. The first is a nice shot of Jack and Shirley paddling around the back bay in their inflatable kayaks. The bay was inundated with jellyfish for a few days. Needless to say, we weren't in the water then! We had some nice visits with folks from Adios, Homer's Odyssey, Reba and Java. Before we left Tenacatita for the last time this season we motored over to the outer bay to do some snorkeling at the "aquarium." We had a good time, however we saw only a few interesting fish. The last photo in this set is from the sunset on our last evening, the outer bay in the foreground, the thin spit of land with palaps and the ocean and sunset in the background....pretty hard to leave this beautiful place.

We had a brief stop in Chemela where we played bocce ball with folks from Chalet Mer, Maestra, Cat'n About, Adios and At Last. Well, Roy found his beach niche. He played superbly. Lets say that my beach niche is still a good book and on occasion "Mexican Train."

After another rolly night at Ipala and a few nights at La Crua we arrived in Paradise Village Marina on schedule, March 10. We thought our traveler repair job would be done by then, however the company we hired had ordered the wrong part and it has taken until today, March 30 for them to presumably get it right. We are waiting on the boat right now for a promised delivery, after which there will be dodger installation and finally the last of the traveler repair. We haven't been sitting around moping however. We both had an excellent dentist clean our teeth; Roy returns tomorrow to have some "bonding" done.

And the BIG highlight was my walking over to the turtle sanctuary with Linda, Lyn and Christie one afternoon and seeing hundreds of turtles that were going to be released that evening. The shot with hands is of me holding a newborn. We also saw the area where the eggs are placed underground with markers indicating the date of burial. Newborns need to be returned to the sea within a day or two of hatching.

Linda, Roy and I walked over again that night to participate in the release. The volunteer, David, draws a line in the sand a few feet from the water's edge. All the turtle releasers hold our turtles in our hands until he gives us the signal to put them down, pointing toward the sea. This gives the turtle sort of a GPS orientation of where they will return to lay their eggs.

We plan to finish out the Banderas Bay Regatta and festivities before heading north to Mazatlan and then crossing over to La Paz to start the Sea of Cortez in the Springtime part of our journey.