Friday, January 1, 2016

Isla Grande to Barra Navidad

     We pulled up anchor and left Zihuatanejo on the 26th at 08:47 and motored to Ixtapa where we fueled up and was underway again by 11:09.  Course set for Isla Grande.  It was a pleasant 5.4 mile tour and we dropped anchor in 12 feet of clear water at Isla Grande at 12:02.  We utilized our time wisely and spent the day swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, drinking cold drinks and eating fresh guacamole.  There were no bugs, we love this!  We went to bed early (like 6:30 or something) and awoke early on the 27th.  We had breakfast of pancakes, eggs, coffee, and juice and was underway by 08:51.  Course set for Barra Navidad.  

     The guys were getting a little restless.  We have all been reading, reading , reading.  one book after another.  Someone need a break from the books and “had an idea.”  It was the Captain!  He had the wonderful idea of rigging the hammock chair to the spinnaker pole so we could all take turns sitting outside the boat dangling our feet in the ocean.  OH MY!  Seems like shinanagens to me and I am not so sure I want to be involved. I am on shift  (12:00-16:00) so it is a good reason for me to stay at the helm and watch the excitement while being alert to the fact that we might be performing more than just a man over board drill, we might be doing the real thing.  Marshall was all in on the rigging and knot tying.  The boys in these men came out to play.  Honestly, I am glad they did, because IT WAS FUN!  Yep…..I joined in too.  It was irresistible.
The "idea" begins to materialize

This looks like a go

Captain first

Whoo-Hoo!

This is AWESOME!

Next....

I'm in....it looks too fun to not to.....

Grant takes the plunge

This is livin'


     We played with chair for a while and pulled the rigging back in.  Grant came on shift at 16:00.  He would be on watch until 20:00.  It was an uneventful evening, although the seas were fairly calm and winds light both were still against us and kept us motoring at 2100 RPM and moving a mere 4 knots if we were lucky. The sea state began to change the winds grew stronger the morning of the 29th. Neither was in our favor. I started to develop a headache and felt queasy from the relentless thrashing about.  Marshall had the 12:00-16:00 watch  I was due on until 20:00 and was hoping to find some relief from the motion sickness before my watch.  

This is how Marshall does the 12:00-16:00 watch....he makes it look good



     We had about 15 hours of hellish conditions.  Things calmed down around 02:00 on the 29th.  We pulled into the marina at Barra Navidad Resort at 08:44 on 12-29-2015 and tied up G dock, slip 24 just in time to buy breakfast croissants from the French Baker.  Life is good again.

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