Today was one of those perfect cruising days moving from one anchorage to another. By 7:00 AM we had the anchor up and were motoring away from a quiet week in Tenacatita Bay. I had spent the time getting over a strange type of flu, a milder case of which John had enjoyed a couple of weeks earlier, so neither of us partook of the busy social scene in that popular cruiser hangout. An example of a perfect Tenacatita moment is when I climbed out into the cockpit to shake out my dust rag and had the privilege of seeing a pair of dolphins surface to take a breath right next to the boat! It's truly a beautiful place, but we didn't feel like braving the breaking surf for a dinghy trip to shore. John swam in twice instead. If you're going to get soaked, you might as well get some exercise too.
Not 45 minutes out of the anchorage this morning John hooked two dorado on his homemade handlines. The smaller of the two managed to shake itself loose and John was able to land the three footer. We had fish for lunch and we're having fish for dinner. While John cleaned the fish on the sidedeck I saw a nice-sized pod of dolphins moving with a purpose in the opposite direction. None of them diverted for a frolic with Nakia but we're always happy to see them passing by. We saw a whale spout off in the distance before it dove. And finally, it took me a startled moment to figure out what I was seeing but we must have surprised a turtle alongside the boat. All of a sudden we were passing what turned out to be a column of bubbles and a turtle disappearing into the greenish murk.
Paraiso has a private compound onshore so we assume the beautiful sand beach in front of that is off limits to us. Instead we donned our snorkel gear and swam to a smaller sandy beach. Snorkeling wasn't great. It was late in the afternoon with low visibility and the water was cold (76 F). But it was good to get out and "stretch our legs." Even with a stern anchor out we're rolling in the swell. We'll leave tomorrow morning for Chamela Bay and better protection from the forecasted NW blow coming in over the weekend.
{GMST}19|28.348|N|105|03.650|W|Gold Coast|Paraiso{GEND}
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