January 21, 2005
Isla Grande (Isla Ixtapa), Guerrero Coast, Mexico (17o 40' N 101o 39' W)
(You may be able to tell that I'm a little behind on my posting, the events in this post occurred when we were in Zihua Bay and we've now moved to Isla Grande. That's because I want to make sure I cover all the things we're doing but don't want to have to write hours every day to do it. This way when there's nothing going on, like yesterday when we sat around and read all day, I can catch up a little).
We had a big problem after being at anchor in Zihua for almost a month. The bottom of the boat had a huge amount of growth on it. I had spent some time on a few patches and cleaned most of the barnacles from the prop but Linda and I needed to work together on the rest if we expected to have a clean bottom the next time we got underway. To that end we moved to Playa Ropa where the water is a little cleaner to completely scrape the hull. I bought two plastic putty knives from the hardware store so we could keep from scraping off the bottom paint. We both wore gloves to keep the barnacles from scratching our skin, a SURE way to get an infection, and we dove over the side to start the process. Linda worked on the water line, as far down as she could reach without diving, and I worked on everything else. Three hours later we were both water logged and had swallowed enough salt water to shrivel our tongues but NAKIA's bottom was clean. We stayed at Playa Ropa for the next week, until we departed for Isla Grande, and I dove every day to keep the sea critters in check. Well, at least I don't have to mow the lawn too.
The day after our bottom cleaning marathon was my birthday (Jan 15) and we invited a bunch of our fellow boaters to spend the day at Playa Las Gatas to celebrate. We'd spent a day at Amado's beach palapa restaurant the week before and thought this would be a great place again. The waiter at Amado's, Jorge, gave me my current nickname "Juanito Mion" and after the party everyone in the fleet has been calling me that. Anyone know what it means? The party was a success, the guest of honor electing to spend the day playing dominoes and watching the beach activity, while other members of the party hiked to the lighthouse and snorkeled. Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate!
Sunday is traditionally fleet party day in Zihua Bay, how that happened is hard to describe, and the day after Juanito's birthday was no exception. However, this time instead of having a dinghy raft up, or boat dog pile (where someone with a big yacht invites the entire fleet over to their boat), Rick (of Rick's Bar) invited everyone over to his house for a Pool Party. Strangely, no one thought it was a bad idea, especially with Rick offering to open his showers, kitchen, satellite TV and pool to the fleet. Linda spent most of the time in the pool playing with Rick's German Shepard, "Zorro" (who wasn't allowed in the pool), and I just hung loose, recovering from my B-Day fest the day before. We had a great time!
As I've said we're at Isla Grande outside of Ixtapa for a few days, we've checked out of Zihua and are on our way north. We've had some strange weather here (to be described in the next post) so are waiting for things to die down a bit before we take off.
John and Linda
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