Tenacatita

I'm in Tenacatita, a little town on the Mexican coast, and it is nice here. There are Crocodiles, there is a nice big beach, and lots of Canadians. Lots. I've met 6 different groups of Canadians here, a few of them have houses that they spend some time of the year here with.
I've traveled from Chamela over the last few days, two of which were in a failed race with Kashmir, another boat, an Islander 30, crewed by two young men who met traveling and then bought the boat together in La Paz. The first day was a strong headwind, with us starting late, and the race was too far for us to make the distance before dark, so we diverted to Paraiso, which was a great place to go. We all went diving, and I ended up shooting a nice big Amberjack that I gave half to a catamaran, then fed Kashmir and myself with the other half. And Amberjacks are a great fish to eat. The next day, we got up early to make the distance in time, and the wind never came up. It was dead all day long, so we abandoned the race about half way. It goes to show me that I'm not supposed to be a racer, I guess. This was the first time I've ever been in a real race, and it failed.
So I got here last evening, and it is a big bay with a few places to go. I am currently in front of a town that I'm not sure the name of, but there is collossal red tide here, it is orange blood in the water all over. If it clears up I will go to the other places and look for fish, or I'll just continue to Barra De Navidad, where it is supposed to be beautiful, and there is a surfing break.

More surfing... sort of

Just to show my big sister that I can surf all sorts of waves, here is some evidence. In fact, I was practicing my tow in surfing on some waves, towing behind a dinghy to get up to speed, and then slingshoting into a wave. The waves were a shorebreak, but it was still fun. Then we towed along the break, and I could dip in and out, and try to jump a little, but that didn't work out too well, they just built up too quickly, so I ended up on the wrong side of a wall, being towed into it. Still, plenty of fun. The water has warmed up a little bit down here, but is still not toasty, hopefully it will get better.

South of Puerto Vallerta

I finally made it south of PV. It is always difficult to go past a place where you can get parts and food, where there are a lot of other cruisers around, and, for the last week, where you can go surfing. I went out to Punta Mita after Dad left, and surfed for about a week, which has improved on my technique some. I've been working on that top turn business, and I have a little dishy motion that gives me a lot of speed to make it past some of the sections on the Punta Mita break. Its a Right, so I have to go front side, which I haven't worked on too much, since I was back side (Left) at Pavones (in Costa Rica) and I haven't really surfed a lot since then.
Anyways, I am now about 90 miles south of PV, in a town called Chamela. It has a nice little point but no surf, and a big sandy beach, so I'll go walking on that tomorrow. There is supposed to be really clear water here, but I haven't found it yet, so I haven't been diving in a long time. And I need to go, to clean off the bottom of the boat.
While I was at Punta Mita, I was surfing in really long sessions, because it is a long paddle to get to the wave from the boat, so I was out there for 4 hours a couple times, and I would meet a fair amount of people. I met these two guys who were from Virgina, and one of them asked me if I was going to watch the Super Bowl. I had no idea when it was, or who was playing, thinking it to be in a week or two, but it was that afternoon! So they let me come over to watch it at their place, and it was nice to watch TV again.
So after that, I went to bed late, but we had arranged to get up early and do a Dawn Patrol the next day. I paddled ashore, to meet up with them, and then we walked the mile trek out to the point, across jagged rocks. As we were wandering along, a dinghy drove by and yelled out something, but I couldn't tell what they were saying, except that it sounded like they had lost a dinghy in the night. I figured it must have been stolen, since everyone knows how to tie knots. So after walking around a while, I got to the point, and lo and behold! There was a dinghy in the surf! Upside down, and hard to see, because it was bumping against rocks, but an inflatable dinghy was out there. So I ran out to it and tried to lift it and flip it over, but it had an outboard motor attached!
So the motor was completely under water for a long time, but I finally got it flipped over, despite the surf and the rocks, and then started pulling a line that had tangled in something further out. I found an anchor on the end of that line, just in the break, and then pulled it up and threw it as far as I could, to pull myself further out. Finally I got the dinghy out of the surf. But now I had to swim back! Anyways, I surfed for a while with it sitting there, until another sailor came by with their dinghy and I told them to go call the owner of this one, so they towed it away and all was well, or all except the motor were well.
Then I picked up my own anchor and went back to PV to get food, and took off for here.
Soon I will go to Barra de Navidad, where it is supposed to be really pretty, and then on to Manzanillo, and onward.