11/11/17
Turtle Bay Activities
Once again we have slept in – the steady slow low rolling of the swells coming into the bay has worked its magic and kept us asleep long past our usual wake-up time.
Yesterday we had a lovely day, just puttering on the boat and then Val and I went kayaking with Laurie from Tanglewood, explored the bay, visited with other boats, and enjoyed the sun.
Varnebank decided to throw a cocktail party and invite everyone to come over in the afternoon for appies and drinks… pot luck.. and tours of their ship. Good idea, as everyone has been desperate to have a look at her! That worked out well – Laurie and Peter picked us up in their dinghy, we took our appies and bottles of wine over, and spent a few hours talking to old friends and meeting new ones. A thoroughly wonderful afternoon! The high point was tasting the tuna sashimi that Matt had cut up from his catch the day before. Truly delicious!
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Then back to the boats, for a light dinner and early to bed. This fresh air and sunshine does you in.
Today is the scheduled activity, here in Turtle Bay. Dinner at one of the local restaurants, which we missed in 2015 because we passed by this town due to weather. So we are looking forward to it – also to maybe having wifi and being able to send out some emails.
After a big brunch – we have been eating healthy so I decided that it was time for sausages and hash browns and eggs… yum! – I went kayaking with Laurie again and Val finish off the laundry. Lawrence, bless him, figured out what was wrong with the electric pump out for the holding tank. So now all we have to do is make sure the manual pump out is thoroughly encased in paper towels and a plastic bag so it doesn’t leak out, but otherwise we are good to go! literally.
Now we are sitting on the back deck, it is beautiful and sunny but there is a fairly substantial breeze blowing. Along with the ubiquitous swell coming in here this should make getting out of the pangas and onto the pier a bit of a challenge. Because of the waves taking our dinghy to shore is thoroughly discouraged.. although I think a part of it is to provide the locals with some cash, as we will pay to be taxied to the party. Not a problem, nice that we don’t have to take our dinghy down! we are certainly willing to pay ….
at 11:11 I happened to glance at the clock – and called out to the rest of the crew to stop everything and just sit and think. It was pleasant sitting on the back deck in the sunshine – for a minute or two – I was glad that I had seen the clock just at the right time! No poppies on board, wish I had picked one up in Canada before we left, but at least we can honour our fallen in our own way here in Mexico
Tanglewood arranged a panga for all of us, and our driver picked us all up and introduced us to the rather interesting pier and dock arrangement that is Turtle Bay. It is definitely not for the faint of heart or the unsteady – my knee has suddenly started bugging me again so I felt a bit hopeless as I saw the broken stairs, missing hand rails, the twenty foot drop and the ten foot swells.. but the local boys are there to grab your hand and help you up and as long as you know where the missing tread is and don’t reach out to hold onto a non existent railing, it is all good.
We wandered through town, trying to remember the directions to the cantina…. we were looking for a bright orange one of a kind awning and never saw it, but we did find the restaurant. Free beers for the first 50, nice and cold… and a great dinner of a taco lasagna- delicious. We all enjoyed conversations and food, and a few cervesas… then back to the pier to wait for our panga driver. The deal was you were supposed to remember your driver so you could catch a ride with him back – he gets five american a person there and back… unfortunately our driver took the night off!~ however there was a huge panga that could hold about 20 of us. I was a bit fearful of the large size and bulk of this boat, coming against our tender hulls… but the driver was a pro. With many hands and a few fenders, and one or two gasps of fear or admiration, we all made it back to our various boats before the sun went down. Lovely evening, reading and relaxing, and then to bed.
Turtle Bay exceeded my expectations – I had thought we were going to want to leave early, but somehow the late sleep ins and activity on the water with the kayaks, plus just relaxing, reading and enjoying meals with the rest of the group, made the time fly. Now we are ready to head to the next port of call!
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day after tomorrow – Mag Bay – tomorrow – more fishing. hooray!