The highs and lows of Puerto Penasco

We have arrived in Rocky Point, aka Puerto Penasco, northernmost port in the state of Sonora, Mexico. We are only an hour's drive from the international border, with Lukeville, Arizona on the other side!  We have come here for several reasons:  Bill's brother Barry is here on his boat, the marina is inexpensive, AND we will be able to travel to California in just a few hours~  which we will do on March 1.

Barry has been showing us around the town and made sure we got

to have the chili size and the Sunday breakfast at one of his fave

restaurants-  The Pink Cadillac, a cool fifties themed place.

Puerto Penasco 'enjoys' some of the world's most

extreme tides, and with the full moon this weekend,

it was even more extreme! Our depth under the boat

measured less than three feet during this photo...

Au contraire, in THIS photo we were at 25 feet!  Pretty crazy, huh?

This wide swing doesn't affect us much, unless you want to walk up

or down a ramp at LOW tide- that means a work-out!  The place

featured in these photos is the local boat yard... where we just may

have the boat painted this year- pulling out at high tide, obviously!

What a Two Humpback Whale Show!

Almost on cue, two huge humpbacks begin to rise from the

sparkling blue water of Bahia de La Paz.  We were one hour

north of the city when we noticed a boat making circles ahead

of us.  Only when we got closer did we realize why AND that

the boat was a whalewatching vessel!  We got a free show!

The two whales came very close to the boat that was allowed

to approach them.  We had to stay back, but still got quite a

show.  You cannot see the whale in front of the boat, but the

one to port looks like he is waving, "Hey, look over here!"

The La Paz Singlar Marina Mascot Greeted Us...

This sunning sea lion had staked his claim at the end of the fuel dock

the day we pulled in to fuel up before leaving the La Paz area.

After getting warmed up, it was time for a dip in the

harbor.  This pelican seemed totally oblivious to him.

After cooling off, it was time to climb back on the dock!

We are greeted by leapfrogging sea lions in Bahia La Paz!

At first we thought we were seeing the ever-present dolphins, but at

second glance we realized it was a seal show unfolding... amazing!

...and the winner is..!  We had never seen seals showing off like this.

A Different View of Mazatlan

We were anchored in the old harbor by the ferry and cruise

 ship docks. The redstacked vessel is a maritime transport, while the
Baja Ferry runs between Mazatlan and La Paz. Between these two,
 the two visiting cruise ships can be spotted.  What a busy place!

Isla Creston is attached to the city via a causeway. Even though

this lighthouse is high above the waterline, it appears to be the only

light.  We could see no other when we left port at 1 AM for La Paz.

Our favorite restaurant in Mazatlan is called Panama!

Dessert carts are wheeled from table to table to tempt

the customers.... even at breakfast~ too much for even

our sweetooths!!

The first two times we visited Mazatlan we stayed in one of the marinas on the north end of the city. This time we decided to anchor out on the south end!  It was a neat experience and we even got a lot of excerise in, since we walked to the city center twice- quite a hike.  Alice also walked to church and back on Sunday- another sizable hike.  Alice likes to walk for the sake of walking, while Bill will walk willingly for a purpose. She thought it would be cool to walk to the top of Isla Creston, the lighthouse island right next to our anchorage.  However, after hiking switchbacks part way up we heard that there are then 300 steps! No thanks!!  We did all our walking on relatively flat ground.

Fun with the Felt Family

Bill, Alice, Stephanie, Brea, Jensen, Tom, and Analisse

Mary, their cook, makes fresh tortillas for each dinner!

The second Sunday Alice attended church in Puerto Vallarta she met the Felt Family of Bucerias.  Their Utah home is in Alpine, but they are living in their vacation home in Mexico this year so the children can attend school to acquire Spanish language skills.  Tom offered to pick Alice up for church each week, cutting her travel time in half!  They have visited us on Grey Wolf and we have enjoyed a lovely dinner at their beautiful Spanish style home on the beach within view of our anchorage.  We appreciate their generous hearts and sweet spirits.  We hope to visit them again, perhaps in Utah!

Christmas Message from the Captain

Well, it's that time of the year again. I remember when I was a kid that the last two weeks before Christmas seemed like five years. Now it seems like the last five years only took two weeks!
It is at this time of the year when people turn their attention to Christmas that Satan gets busy using people who are afraid of Christmas or anything to do with God to try to persuade people that there is no God. I remember when there was a push to tell everyone that God had died; now they run ads that say "There is no God'. Psalms 14:1: The fool says in his heart 'there is no God'. So this foolishness has been going on for much longer than most might think.
I have oftime wondered what a great faith these people must have to convince themselves that all we see- Sun, Moon, Stars and this beautiful Earth and all life that is on it just happened by accident... If I tried to tell those same people that the automobile came into being by a Big Bang that happened some time ago, they would think me crazy and they would be right, if I really believed that. When you think about it, isn't a car much simpler than mankind and the animals? We all know that the car was created by a higher being than the car. Does it not stand to reason, then, that everything was created by a being much higher than the thing created and that something so complex as the animal and man had to be created by a much higher being? Genesis says 'In the beginning God created...'. Simple faith and logic tells you this must be true. I have always wondered why anyone would spend so much time and energy fighting something they 'don't believe in', or do they? I have a theory that they fight God so hard because they don't want Him to be there, because if He does exist then all that goes with Him is true also. Down deep they worry about the judgment day that is coming and they well should. Numbers 32 tells us that God punishes His people when they ignore Him and seek their own glory. Remember, God is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever!
Now as we look to Christmas, and reflect on the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we see the great LOVE that God has for His creation. In Philippians 2: 5-8, (read please), we are told that Christ, in His great love, came to provide the only way back to our Father in Heaven.
We can all retell the Christmas story of Jesus' birth in a stable with people and animals at His side, the wise men coming from afar bringing gifts, but what we so often miss is the great love God has for us. He has provided everything we need to be close to Him. Some complain about how commercial Christmas has become, but it has long been that way. When I consider God's great gift of love for us in the coming of Christ, is it wrong for us to show our love to others by giving gifts as well? I think it is the thing to do, and I think it pleases God that we show our love. But don't forget to give a return gift back to God to show our love for Him. He is what it is all about, after all.
I am so thankful that we can look back and remember that Christ has already come. Before that time God's people looked forward to His coming with the same faith we use to look back to that wonderful day~ Christmas!!!
My hope and prayer is that you will celebrate Christmas by praising, singing, and giving a gift to God. Also, show your love with gifts to your family and loved ones.
Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!
With love to all from Bill and Alice

El Dia de los Muertos

The Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 2. It is a really major holiday here in Mexico, complete with decorations, as shown above. Graves are decorated and some families bring food to the cemetery to share a meal with deceased family members, as in Costa Rica where all burial plots are above ground. The cemetery shown above was in readiness for El Dia de los Muertos when we left. In El Salvador, Alice found special bread in the bakery to commemorate the day (see El Salvador 2 slideshow). One government office we were in had a display of photos of dead relatives, flowers, food, and candles. Roadside memorials were decked out with orange and black Halloween decorations, too!

Guatemala did not want to be forgotten!

We had spent time in Guatemala in January and about went broke in the process, so we knew we had no plans to stop in transit unless we had an emergency, just thought we would enjoy the volcano landscape as we cruised by. However, the Guatemalan Navy decided they would stop us! We left El Salvador at 1 PM on October 31. The next morning we noticed a fair-sized Navy ship approaching from the west. They moved past us and then launched a small craft replete with men in full combat gear and black masks, toting automatic weapons, which pulled up beside us. Bill stepped out and spoke to them in English. It was apparent they wanted to board us, so we waited while they manuevered to allow one man to jump onto our swim step (above). Lt. Cordoba, a handsome young man who was fluent in English, examined our papers and spoke to us briefly about the reason why they stop boats- drugs, of course. He did not really inspect the boat, our honest faces allaying any fears that we were drugrunners!! Just another one of those 'interesting experiences' that have contributed to our adventure...

Back to Bahia del Sol~ One Last Visit in El Salvador

As it turned out, the hardest place to enter was the one place we wanted to revisit! The breaking bar outside of the estuary where Marina Bahia del Sol is located was calm the morning we were escorted safely in (above). Our number one priority was to pick up some tourist brochures and other supplies for our friends Bill and Jean who are busy promoting tourism to El Salvador. They will be coordinating a boat rally south from Puerto Vallarta next spring. Two big boxes later we had accomplished that task. We enjoyed visiting with local gringos we had met in January, among them Jan Turner, a Canadian who has built her home on Isla Cordoncillo, near the marina. Alice brought her a shoebox of school supplies for her English/Computer classes she teaches the island youngsters. She also hustled and made three new baby quilts for Jan to give to families in need (above).

We also contacted Elizabeth Scoville (sister-in-law to a friend of Alice's in Indio) and her family in the capital city. We enjoyed getting to know them in January and wanted to invite them to the boat. Her husband was working in the U.S., but she came with her mother, son and daughter. Bill took them out for a cool dinghy ride- above. After dinner, Alice rode back to San Salvador with them. We went shopping the next day and ate a delicious lunch mom Dora had prepared. Then we all rode the 1 1/2 hours back to the boat, after which they went to the beach. They even came down one more time before we left~ dear, dear people!

The day of our departure the bar was NOT nice to us, greeting us with a few 6-8 foot waves that made it feel like we were 'surfing the big ones'. Just one week after we left a terrible Pacific storm inundated tiny El Salvador, causing massive mudslides and flooding which took the lives of some 200 people...