Category: Blog Post

Bucerias is a town along Banderas Bay in between La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta.  I never looked up actual populations, but it seemed to me to be bigger than La Cruz, and quite a bit more touristy.  We didn’t spend much time there, but a couple experiences may be worth mentioning.  Lady Carolina had been talking about his place called the Luna Lounge for like, forever, because when they were here the previous season they had gone to see an Elvis (as in the King of Rock) impersonator band and they also have good, cheap ribs (two for one dinners, I think).  Once we got to La Cruz we had been trying to organize a big group to go there for dinner.  Once we got foiled by too much rain, but we finally pulled it together on Jan 6.  After a seminar at Paradise Village, the boys and I hopped on a bus with Lady Carolina and True Blue V back to Bucerias and then met up at the restaurant with Tim, Dazzler, San Dollar, Moments, and Appa.  We had tried to hire a taxi van to take us but we couldn’t haggle down to an acceptable price (by Steve’s standards, a near impossible task) so we were all pretty hungry when we got there after the long bus ride.  The kids all sat together at their own table, which they much prefer these days, and we all dug into ribs, ribs, ribs (and plenty of beer and wine too).  We enjoyed each others’ company but we just weren’t in much of a dancing mood it turned out, and Lady Carolina was a bit disappointed it wasn’t the magical evening they experienced there a year before.  That’s the way it goes sometimes.  Those fun, memorable nights just spontaneously happen sometimes and recreating them is near impossible.  But, like I said, we had fun, and we all hopped into a taxi this time for the ride back to La Cruz, and we got a ride all the way back to doorstep of the marina.  Which was great, until I remembered Jonathon (Fluenta) was with us and I was supposed to stop up at the top of town to take him up to their condo.  So, I asked the driver if he could take us back up there.  I didn’t have any more money, but he was nice about it.  It was on his way back, after all.  Once Jonathon was safely home, I ran all the way back down the hill to the marina.  In flip flops.  It was exhilarating, but my feet were not happy with me the next day.

The next day, I used the fact that we needed more cash to hop on a bus back to Bucerias.  There aren’t any ATMs in La Cruz, so my plan was to go to Mega in order to take out some money and get a few food items.  Along the way, I stopped at Bucerias El Centro, and just meandered around.  I just felt like getting out on my own for some low key exploring.  The coastline in Bucerias was very nice with a soft sandy beach and lined with palapas.  But the town didn’t draw me in like La Cruz.  It was much more of a tourist town, and it was lined with those little garage shops that all have the same t-shirts, hammocks, and blankets and the people yell at you to come see there stuff.  It reminded me of Cabo, the part of Cabo I don’t like.  Once I got away from that I enjoyed a couple art galleries and stopped for a fizzy water before calling it a day and continuing on with my errands.  It’s kind of funny what a big tourist town Bucerias is, and before now, I had never even heard of it.

While staying at the marina in La Cruz the kids all enjoyed riding bikes around the docks.  The Kenta Anae and Heavy Metal boys all had normal boy bikes that they would graciously share with the other kids, and we got out our folding bike to also throw into the mix.  One day Alex came back to Exodus, not quite in tears but definitely on the verge and visibly shaken.  He said, “I fell in the water with the bike.”  Since the kids were young I’ve always tried to teach them “first things first,” meaning that when something happens we always check that everyone is OK before we start assessing blame or scolding.  So, my immediate reaction was to ask him if he was OK or if he was hurt.  The tears are getting closer now, and he assures me he’s ok, but he couldn’t save the bike.  He lost it and it’s now sitting on the bottom of the marina floor.  At this point I almost start laughing, but I knew it wasn’t yet appropriate for that.  Thankfully, Tim jumped up without leaning into him about how it happened or how he needed to be more careful.  He just started brainstorming ideas for how to retrieve it.  The first thing they did was go over with the depth sounder to see how deep it is.  If I recall correctly it was about 11 ft deep, and at this point Alex starts to visibly calm down, because he realized the bike wasn’t really lost, he could dive for it if he needed too (except for that alligator that had been spotted in the marina waters!).  The first thing Tim tried was magnets.  We have very strong magnets for retrieving metal objects that have been dropped overboard.  He could get the magnets to attach, but it was difficult to keep the bike oriented properly while raising it, and the magnets would detach.  So, the next thing he tried was the boat hook, which wasn’t quite long enough.  Then one of the dock workers came over and suggested we could use a small anchor, and we had a claw anchor for our dinghy, so Tim lowered that down, and the third time was the charm.  He retrieved the bike by hooking the anchor claw under one of the bike cables.  The bike got a thorough fresh water rinse and WD-40 bath, and seems to be doing just fine.

A conversation with Alex afterwards revealed he had simply lost his balance while going slow, and he treaded water for a little while holding onto the bike, but he couldn’t hold the bike, keep himself afloat, and reach for the dock.  So, he sacrificed the bike, a wise choice, I told him.  I told him that I worry about so many things out here, but him falling off the marina dock with the bike and drowning simply wasn’t one of them.  It was totally off my radar.  Truth be told, he was so upset, not because he was physically shaken at all, but because he was worried about how much trouble he was going to be in for being careless and losing the bike.  We also talked about how he was likely going to take a lot of ribbing from the other kids about it, and his best tactic would be to just smile and laugh along about it.  Making a couple jokes at his own expense could also diffuse it, which he did, and it did.

Right after Tim pulled the bike up one of the other kids said something like, “Geez Alex, that was the stupidest thing I ever saw.”  At the point Alex was still more concerned about how much trouble he was going to be in than engaging in banter with the kid, but Brenden piped up, sticking up for his brother saying, “Well, it’s not like he did it on purpose!”  That was nice to see.

Exodus has six macerator pumps and it seems like there is always an issue with at least one of them at any given time.  Each head has two of them, one between the toilet and the tank, and one at the tank exit (so when we empty heads its all nice and ground up.  TMI?)  The latest issue was the exit macerator on Alex’s head, so his head had been out of commission/off limits for awhile.  Tim tends to (understandably) procrastinate these repairs because we have 3 heads on board so one being out of commission is not that big of a deal, and, well, they can be a little messy.  Unjamming or repairing the macerator is usually not a difficult task.  The difficult part is detaching the macerator without partially emptying the tank into the bilge.  Yes, sadly, this time we ended up with a bilge full of poo.  It was HORRIBLE.  The smell drove us all from the boat except poor Tim who had to endure the smell and deal with the mess.  Would you believe we even had the tanks pumped out at the marina beforehand hoping that would minimize mess, but to no avail.  For several days, Exodus was known as the poo boat.

Many times Steve and Carolina have told us how they learned from Steve’s parents not to flush their toilet paper.  It doesn’t matter if it’s the special kind of paper that dissolves it still messes with plumbing systems and clogs pipes, and perhaps, jams macerators.  So, we finally started taking their advice and don’t flush our paper.  It’s kind of gross because we have to keep a bag near the toilet to collect it, but we have only had one macerator problem since.

December 31, 2013

The plan for New Year’s Eve was a dock party on dock 11 (our dock).  Once again, we are reminded that planning can only get you so far, and the weather gods often laugh at us for even trying.  What I’m talking about is rain.  And plenty of it.  It didn’t stop the afternoon soccer game on the beach that Brenden was absolutely ecstatic about, but it did move the evening’s festivities off the dock and into the marina VIP lounge.  A fun time was still had by all, and surprisingly enough, I even stayed awake until midnight.  Alex, Kyle, and the two older kids from Sand Dollar (Nate and Kaylie) hung out playing games on Exodus and all of the younger kids alternated between running around and playing their idevices.  Someone brought out sparklers close to midnight, and that brought back memories for me from my own distant childhood. 

December 25, 2103

Like most people, Christmas is a time when we are usually visiting with our extended family, but this year found us far away from all of those we love.  However, we were surrounded by our new surrogate family, the cruising community, and more specifically, our few good friends who share the bond with us of summertime in the northern sea of cortez.

On Christmas Eve, a dock party was organized over on one of the other docks which included a potluck and much drinking and socializing.  We started late with cocktails with Lady Carolina on Exodus, so by the time we made it over to the potluck everything had been pretty well picked through.  I made lasagna and Carolina made roasted potatoes and maybe a cheese and cracker plate (I can’t quite remember), so when we showed up we basically put our food down and then proceeded to just eat what we had brought.  We laughed that we should have just eaten on Exodus.  However, the lasagna did win a few new friends before it was completely gone. 

Kids were running around everywhere, and this is when we first met Sand Dollar who have 3 kids, 14, 12, and 9.  It rained on us, but we didn’t care.  When it started up we’d all retire to someone’s boat on the dock and when it stopped we’d all come back out.  It was a good night, and we had to drag the kids home or they probably would have run around all night, or at least until they collapsed (or Brenden was on his face.) I don’t recall, but I’m sure the kids asked for a sleepover, because, well, they ALWAYS ask for a sleepover, but being Christmas and all, we woke up on Exodus with just our family on board. 

Christmas was much more sparse than it usually is in the Gresham household.  Presents were at a minimum, but no one seemed to notice or complain.  The boys had a few items in their stockings when they got up, including a couple lumps of obsidian in Brenden’s as a joke (simulating coal). They got practical gifts like sunglasses and watches.   We had been able to get some shopping done at Walmart in Puerto Vallarta, so Brenden even got some Legos.  Alex was difficult to shop for as usual, so we got him some dinghy scrubbers (with a 200 peso note attached).  

We had a big Christmas dinner planned on Lady Carolina.  Carolina was cooking a turkey and True Blue V was cooking a ham.  I’m not much good for cooking large meat items, so I stuck to several side dishes (salad, homemade rolls, sautéed mushrooms…)  Carolina had purchased a Turkey at Mega (if I remember correctly) and it was a very sad voice that popped up on VHF in the morning calling True Blue V about how big their ham was and if it could feed everyone.   The turkey was rotten!   Well, that’s how it goes, holiday dinner, cruiser style.  Through this lifestyle we have all learned to roll with the punches because you just never know what’s going to happen.  I know Carolina was disappointed, but she rolled with it, and the ham was huge and we all stuffed ourselves as is the usual Christmas dinner tradition.  I used the occasion as an excuse to open one of my few remaining bottles of California red wine, and Carolina, Leanne, and I savored drinking something better than the Chilean “wine” we have grown accustomed to.  The boys exchanged gifts with Kyle and Joel, and all the boys got a nice surprise of candy from True Blue V and Dazzler. 

There was another dock party for Christmas dinner, but since we had already eaten until we were going to explode, we didn’t even bring anything.  We just loaded up on drinks and went to join in the camaraderie.  The highlight of the evening was when Allison (Kenta Anae) brought out all the fixings for the kids to make gingerbread houses.  Brenden was in heaven!  He had actually commented to me that he wanted to make a gingerbread house (like he normally does with at least one grandparent each year), and I had told him we didn’t have the supplies to do it.  Allison showed that all it takes is some initiative and creativity to make it happen.  All of the kids had fun, but especially Brenden.

It wasn’t our typical Christmas day, but it had all the ingredients to make it a memorable one:  Good friends (practically family at this point), good food, good drinks, and lots of fun.  And a rotten turkey thrown in for good measure.

I loved La Cruz.  I cannot overstate how much I loved La Cruz.  It was by far my favorite town we have visited so far in Mexico, which is saying a lot.  Admittedly, I think Santa Rosalia would be a closer second if it weren’t so bloody hot while we were there making it so much harder to enjoy, but it would still come in second.  La Cruz was a smallish town in the midst of the larger bustling greater Puerto Vallarta area. (Not unlike El Segundo in the midst of the greater Los Angeles area, but on a smaller scale, of course.)  It is large enough to find most things you might need, but still smaller than La Paz or Loreto.  There are several medium sized tiendas that had most canned and dry goods you might need and enough good restaurants and street side taco stands that I often got a reprive from preparing dinner.  One of the tiendas held a vegetable market twice a week where you could score plenty of apples, pears, broccoli, green beans, and bell peppers, which was such a welcome chage. 

Tim, Brenden, and I were able to get our teeth cleaned by a local dentist, and there was a guy who drove around in a truck in the evening selling fresh baked bread (thanks to Kyle for this great find). 

Staying in La Cruz, I had the luxury of shopping just a couple days at a time, just like at home, rather than running around provisioning like a mad woman whenever we were in a town so we would be well stocked for weeks.  Of course, I eased into it.   One of our first days we went to the vegetable market and I loaded up with as much stuff as I could carry, and Carolina laughed at me saying, “you know, they have this twice a week.”  One of the treats of La Cruz is the fish market.  Not that we ever need to buy our own fish (thank you to my three expert fishermen crew mates) but the fish market had shrimp, and I mean I’m pretty sure it was the best shrimp I’ve ever had.  Of course, at home I would buy it de-veined and often shelled as well, so this shrimp took a lot more effort on my part than I’m used to. (Yes, that is a common theme living on a sailboat.)  As I was in the middle of the deveining process I was thinking, well, this is the last time we have this.  I changed my mind after the first bite, and I didn’t even do anything fancy with it.  Just a little butter and garlic, but wow, what great flavor the shrimp has.  Best. Shrimp. Ever.

OK, enough about the shrimp.  Let’s talk about the kids.  First of all, we were able to reconnect with Fluenta, one of the kid boats we spent the early summer with (see the essay I wrote called “The Baja Kid Boat Flotilla”).  Their kids are younger than Alex and Brenden, but the boys adore them.  And I have a particular soft spot for Victoria, who is 10 going on 25 and reminds me of a non-shy version of myself at that age.  We also met several other kid boats, including Kenta Anae who have been living on their boat in La Cruz and have 2 boys about Brenden’s age, Matero and Shandro. Fortunately, we also met a kid boat with some older kids (12 year old girl and 14 year old boy), Sand Dollar, so Alex and Kyle had a few more peers to hang out with.  In fact, although there is only a year between Brenden and Alex, it is a tremendous year at their current ages.  Alex gravitated to the older kids, and Brenden is still as playful as ever and spent most of his time with the younger kids, not getting into any sort of mischief, I’m sure.

I mentioned restaurants earlier, so here’s my quick review of all the places we ate:

Tacos on the Street – Great tacos BUT they only have steak and they don’t let you bring your own beer/wine anymore (Oh, the horror!)

Red Chairs – Again, great tacos and a wider variety AND they let you bring your own beer/wind AND it’s closer to the marina.  Win!Los Twins – All the same as Red Chairs AND they are a really nice young couple with, yes, you guessed it, twins, a boy and a girl.  Double Win!

Charlie’s pizza – Good pizza and burgers, hockey on the TV (not the Kings, though), nice atmosphere, and cats that will jump in your lap while you eating (whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your perspective, I guess)

Gecko Rojo – Excellent burgers.  Enough said.

Philo’s – Mediocre pizza, but they showed the 49ers game, so Tim was happy.  And we found out the Carolina complained about her pizza there, and they gave her a coupon for free pizza.  Ironic.

Frascati – It is a large Italian restaurant in the middle of town at the roundabout, and it is the second time we’ve come close to fine dining in Mexico.  The food and service were excellent, and so were the mango margaritas, even if pricy.  The atmosphere was nice as well.  We only ate there once, and if we ever went again we’d leave the kids on the boat to eat top ramen. 

I had a love/hate relationship with the La Cruz Sunday Market.  It was one part farmer’s market, one part craft market, and one part tourist trap where everything is overpriced and the real target consumers are the people from the cruise ships that they bus down from Puerto Vallarta.  The first time we went I was slightly hung over and even though we were warned that you should go early, we got there right around noon, two hours after it started.  The place was so packed you could barely maneuver along the walkway that was wedged between the fish market and the water.  It was a wonderful venue for such a market, but the people crowding me from all directions made it almost unbearable.  There were, however, some treasures to be found, which kept me coming back whenever we were in town.  These are in order starting with my most favorite:  1) Fresh squeezed orange juice.  Maybe it was the hang over but the cup of OJ I got that first time was like a little slice of heaven.  2) Empanadas.  Mushroom, Spinach, cheese.  I would eat them cold and enjoy every bite.  3) Sausage and ham sandwiches.  These were about 3000 calories each and they were worth it.  You could spice them up as much or as little as you want.  4) Baguettes.  There weren’t a lot of baguettes in Baja, so these were savored (we later found you could also get them at Mega and from the bread guy, but our first baguettes from the market were unforgettable.  5) Honey.  I never actually bought a full jar of honey because it was a little expensive, but they sold it in straws that you could suck on for a little treat, and I think Alex enjoyed these the most.  6) Coffee.  OK, I’m pushing it a little here because I bought some coffee beans and it was good but nothing special, I just REALLY liked buying local coffee.  I felt like I was at home back on my buy local kick.

The La Cruz marina was pretty enjoyable.  I have to point out that before La Cruz the only marinas we had stayed at in Mexico were government run Fonatur marinas (Santa Rosalia and San Felipe), so this was our first time in a real commercial marina.  We wanted to be on dock 11 with Fluenta and Kenta Anae, so they put us in this huge mega yacht slip where Exodus looked like a small panga.  It turned out to be a bonus because we pulled Exodus all the way forward in the slip and the extra dock behind us became a dinghy dock for our friends still in the anchorage.  The shore power worked and there was hot water in the showers, but nothing is without it’s story.  The shore power worked UNTIL a particular mega yacht pulled in and plugged in and then all of a sudden our reverse polarity light would go on, and after I convinced Tim that this time the light really is on and it’s not just the light from one of the other indicators showing through.  It took us a few occurrences to nail it down to that particular mega yacht and by then we only had a day or two left in the marina.  We told the marina guys, but who knows what they did about it.  What we should have done was tell the guys on the culprit yacht, but we are too shy and lack initiative to do something like that.  Or maybe we just didn’t think of it.  As for the showers, on our first day everyone was telling us there was no hot water, but I still really needed a shower, and if I took it on the boat it would be cold water anyway, so I might as well have a high pressure cold water shower at the marina.   But then the water turned luke warm, then warm, then hot, then scalding hot, and I was in absolute heaven.  I felt guilty having hot water when others didn’t so I did shut the spigot off when I was soaping up and such, but the surprise of getting hot water when I thought I was in for a cold shower was immensely pleasurable.  And this kept happening.  People kept saying the hot water was off, and I kept getting hot showers.  I don’t know if I was just lucky or others didn’t know how to work the shower knobs or what.  The knobs were pretty straightforward in that hot is the direction you expect, so I suspect it was the former.

The marina offered wifi to your boat, but we never did have much luck with that.  Funny, in the anchorage we could pick up internet from Exodus for free from a nearby resort, but once in the marina the best wifi to be had was in the “VIP lounge.”  It was air conditioned, so I likely would have gone up there even if we could have picked up the wifi from the boat.  I would take the computer, my ipad, and my iphone and do some severe multi-tasking while enjoying the highest speed internet we’ve had in Mexico.  The marina had a “pool” and I put that in quotes because it was one of the smallest pools I’ve ever seen.  It was an actual hole in the ground, though, and it was safe to go into, unlike the Fonatur pools, so maybe I’m being a little unfair with my quotes.  There was a little store by the pool that was going through a re-opening, and they had a potluck event where the store provided free beer, so Tim and I showed up, drank a couple beers, and were our usual anti-social selves and left right away.  The kids dominated the pool with a bit of volleyball, however, it wasn’t the usual group of kids, and Alex was the only one who joined in.  I watched for a little while, and he seemed to be having a lot of fun. 

Laundry in La Cruz is easy peasy.  (A quick aside… this certainly says something about the cruising lifestyle when how you get your laundry done is often a blog feature.)  There are several lavanderias in town where you drop off and pick up and there is even a service from the marina where you just leave your laundry at the VIP lounge by 6pm and it gets delivered to your boat at 6pm the following evening.  But as luck would have it we arrived on a Saturday, and the service isn’t available on weekends, so we carted laundry into town to the first one we found that could have it ready that day (it was sheets, and it’s always better not to have to wait until the next day to get sheets back, because then you have to remember where the spare sets of sheets are and dig them out).  It was not the closest one, but Gaila did a good job, so we stayed loyal to her throughout our stay in La Cruz.  One day when I picked up laundry she handed me back some extra pesos.  It took a little while for my broken spanish skills to understand that the boys dropped the money when the were last there, and she remembered which boys belonged to me so she returned the money.  After that display of honesty, we definitely stayed loyal to her. One of the things I really miss for the boys are organized sports and other after school activities that they did at home. 

Out here, there’s no baseball, soccer, karate classes or Vintage Canvas to paint with a group.  Out here, it’s mostly just our boys and the Lady Carolina boys (and other kids now and then) running around doing fun, but not all that structured, activities.  So, I was really happy when they had the opportunity to go to “silks class” in La Cruz.  Kenta Anae had mentioned it to us a couple times, and admittedly I had no idea what “silks class” was, and I envisioned some sort of sewing or arts and crafts.  Picture Cirque du Soleil with acrobats climbing flowing silk lines and doing all sorts of daring and breathtaking tricks and maneuvers.  Although, since the boys were just beginners, there was quite a bit of daring involved but no so much breathtaking.  There is a restaurant/coffee shop up near the main road called Jardin del Pulpo (Octopus’s Garden) and they had a silks setup in their top room where Mary Jo gives lessons to adults and kids.  The boys seemed to like it, but that probably had a lot to do with just hanging out with their buddies.  But they had to pay attention and do what they were told in some organized fashion, so it was a good experience.  I also took the boys to one of the shows that featured Mary Jo, and while she is quite talented, Cirque du Soleil, it was not.

Overall, we stayed in La Cruz longer than we ever thought we would, and it we kept coming back for more, but if you are going to be tethered to somewhere for awhile because you are in need of civilization, there are far worse places you could be.

Banderas Bay is a huge bay.  It is capped by Punta de Mita in the North and Cabo Corrientas in the South.  This is where the very famous tourist destination of Puerto Vallarta can be found as well as lots of more little known destinations like Bucerias and Nuevo Vallarta.  The state border line between Nayarit and Jalisco is right in the middle of the bay, and technically there should be a 1 hour time change between the two halves.  But at some point to avoid all the confusion it caused, the coastal section of Nayarit decided to operate on Puerto Vallarta time, so we were thankful for that.  There is an easy to navigate bus system that made it easy to get around the bay, even if Exodus stayed put.  There was a daily VHF cruisers net, which made it easy to ask where you might find the things you need and connect with other cruisers around the bay.  There are several marinas including 1 in La Cruz, 2 in Nuevo Vallarta, and 1 in Puerto Vallarta.  Back in civilization again, we planned to spend some time preparing for our Pacific Ocean Crossing, so we never did make it to the more remote destinations on the southern side of the bay.  There were lots of perks like twice weekly vegetable markets and tons of kids to play with, but we got bogged down a bit and started to feel like we weren’t even cruising anymore.  However, I am thankful for our time there, for being able to find the necessary resources to get all of our projects done, and especially for all the new friends we made.

Have you ever read The Lord of the Flies?  I have, a long time ago, and I vaguely remember that the kids had a rule that whoever held the conch shell was the one who could speak.  Among our group of friends back home this would come up from time to time when we were hanging out and getting a little boisterous and someone would have to talk and they would make sure everyone else knew that they figuratively held the conch.  We had one of those nights on Exodus after our nice dinner in Chacala.  Lady Carolina came over, and Carolina and I drank vodka tonics on top of the 2/3 bottle of wine we each had drank at dinner.  The problem was we all wanted to talk and no one was listening to anyone, so we tried calling, “I have the conch!”  But the figurative conch wasn’t working, and we didn’t have a real one, so we tried all the shells we had, including and abalone shell.  None of them worked.  Sometimes, you just need a real conch.

In the Sea of Cortez, stern anchoring was never required.  The anchorages were will protected from swell, and they weren’t very crowded.  So, our first opportunity to try it was in Chacala, our second anchorage on the mainland.  The reason for needing a stern anchor there was the fact that the point was not very predominant so swell would wrap around and enter the bay at a different angle than the wind.  So if you don’t stern anchor you end up with the swell hitting you on the beam, which just isn’t very comfortable.  There are many ways to to effectively get your stern anchor out, and we elected to go stern anchor out first.  So, we picked our spot on Lady Carolina’s port side, turned Exodus into the swell, and dropped the stern anchor.  Brenden’s job was to pay out the stern anchor rode, while Alex’s job was to man the bow anchor.  I was at the helm, and Tim was directing, and going wherever needed.  As Brenden let out the stern anchor I moved Exodus slowly forward into the swell until we were at the point we wanted to drop the bow anchor.  Then, Alex let that go, and I backed up slowly until we were were tightly set between the two anchors.  The trickiest part was backing up, because Brenden had to then pull in the stern anchor line at just the right pace so it wouldn’t foul the starboard propeller.  He nailed it.  This was one of those times we were very thankful for our extended crew.  Alex and Brenden are showing how they are capable of contributing as well as any crew member we could have on board.

We made a stop in Matanchen Bay with the main goal of going on a jungle tour up the Rio Tovaro. This area was legendary for No-See-Um activity, and this was enough for me to protest a bit about even going here, given my previous experience with No-See-Ums. However, Lady Carolina had done the tour the previous season, so they gave us a full briefing on how we needed to do it in order to minimize the damage done to our bodies by the no-see-ums.  Here was the drill:

#1) Anchor as far out in the bay as possible in hopes that the no-see-ums don’t find you.  The funny thing is that in this area of the coast it shallows very gradually, and we were in 40 ft of water when we were still 2 miles out.  But we did anchor pretty far out, and the good thing (for us) was there was already one other boat there so we anchored on the outside of them a ways, so that they could be the sacrificial boat.  (This boat turned out to be s/v Moments, a fun, young couple that we ended up meeting later on in La Cruz).  Lady Carolina and True Blue anchored outside of us.

#2) Close up the boat.  We closed all hatches, portals, and our sliding salon door before dropping anchor.  We suffered in the sauna, but this was better than being eaten alive.

#3) Dress to protect yourself for the morning beach landing.  This includes long sleeves, pants, and socks, and tuck your pants into your socks.  OK, we didn’t quite follow this advice.  First of all, Alex doesn’t even have any pants that fit him except the jeans we bought for Danna’s wedding.  Second, I knew it would be a wet beach surf landing, and I didn’t see any reason to get our socks and pants all wet, as long as we got off the beach quickly.  Tim, Brenden, and I wore pants that we could roll up for the landing, and then we high-tailed off the beach as quickly as we could.  Tim had to linger a bit longer to arrange to leave our dinghy in front of one of the palapas, but he escaped the beach with minimal damage.

#4) Be back to the beach well before dusk, since bug activity is the worst around dawn and dusk.  We were able to manage this easily even packing in a full day of jungle tour, bus ride to San Blas, exploring a bit of San Blas, and then taxi ride back.

#5) Do not pay the palapa who watched your dinghy by staying and eating at the restaurant, since it is imperative to get off the beach before dusk.  Pay them cash, and get out of there.  Check.

#6) When you are back at the boat, jump into the water fully clothed to kill any no-see-ums who have attached themselves to you and/or your clothing.  OK, here we deviated a bit as well.  We simply undressed on the swim step and bagged up our clothes and sealed it tight, then we jumped in and rinsed ourselves off (except for me, I went straight to the showere and rinsed off there.)  We left the clothes bagged until we got to our next laundry opportunity.

So, all of this worked pretty well, and if we had any no-see-um bites at all, it was in the single digits, and manageble.  As we were leaving the bay the next morning, True Blue radioed to let us know that they discovered tons of no-see-ums under their cockpit cushions, so although they didn’t penetrate into the cabins, they definitely found the boats and started setting up shop in their cockpit.  Their cushions are dark colored, which apparently the bugs preferred.  So, we did an inspection of our own cockpit, and they were in or under our cushions, maybe since they are lighter colored, but there was some dive gear on the floor of the cockpit under which we had our own little infestation.  Thankfully we got the heads up from True Blue and we were able to exterminate the little devils before they started chomping on us.