Well, that is maybe, if you can count hurricanes, lightening strikes, and burglary as being normal.
After spending the summer months of 2009 visiting harbors and anchorages from Puerto Vallarta to Bahias Huatulco, the Blythe Spirit was put to bed for the season up an estuary at Marina Chahue in Huatulco. This gave us time to visit inland some of the places we've always wanted to go, Oaxaca was number one on the list.
Why Oaxaca? Because of it's renown as the premier location for the growing and distilling of Mezcal. This region sports hundreds of small distillers using traditional methods to transform the humble maguay into the smokey rich liquid from pre columbian times. To compare Mezcal with Tequilla is like a comparison of Armagnac to Cognac. Mezcal is known for its smooth wood fired flavor and like scotch classed by its age: Joven (young), Reposado (rested), and, Anejo (old). Variations may be "Con Gusano," a single agave worm in the bottle, or "Pechuga" where the steamed liquid is distilled through a whole turkey. There are many other variations, such as creamy, and nut or fruit flavored. To the affectionado, only Joven Mezcal with a subtle smokey flavor and warming, not harsh, flavor is acceptable.
Oaxaca makes an ideal spot to visit other places, the ruins of Monte Alban, Mitla, and Tula.
If you're planning a trip to Oaxaca, be sure to make an evening meal at Le Jardin, upstairs, where you overlook the plaza and all the activity going on in the evening. The restaurant is Basque cuisine, so expect large portions. I treated myself to young goat simmered in white wine, and two carafes of the house wine.
THE BAD NEWS
We brought the boat back to Zihuatanejo, arriving the middle of November after four and a half days at sea. Unfortunately, a freak storm came in from the south and we were struck by lightening. Although the boat is completely grounded, the bolt jumped fuses, breakers and cooked the 8 main house batteries, UHF, SSB, autopilot, TV, DVD player, and still finding other things non functioning.
The bad news continues. After opening the hotel for the season, we had an uninvited visitor who made off with my laptop, cell phones, and several other items from guests (we were packed out). Fortunately, I had backed up the three novels that were in progress minus recent edits, but lost were all the photos of our trip to Oaxaca.
The bad news continues. After opening the hotel for the season, we had an uninvited visitor who made off with my laptop, cell phones, and several other items from guests (we were packed out). Fortunately, I had backed up the three novels that were in progress minus recent edits, but lost were all the photos of our trip to Oaxaca.
So, it appears that we may be missing our window for Costa Rica, and may instead go north to Puerto Vallarta for repairs and replacement. If that's the case, we'll spend the summer cruising the 'gold coast,' then go back to Huatulco as we did last year.
THE BAD NEWS CONTINUES
We pulled anchor on the 5th of May, thinking to spend the night at Ixtapa Island then launch for Puerto Vallarta the next day. Big swell was coming into the Bay, unusual for this time of year. A friend of mine in the Mexican Navy has been busy laying sensors on the bottom of the sea trying to map these rare currents and had advised me that it was going to be very careful in the anchorage.
When the anchor was half way up, the windless slowed and starterd growling. I looked over the side and saw a 3 ft ball of chain all wound up with itself.
Thinking this was from swinging, I took a small brass hammer and gave it a few whacks and the ball came apart. I didn't notice it then but would later, the chain had crystallized. A few minutes later the wave action gave the chain a few good pulls and it snapped.
The waves were huge in the bay as my friend had advised, but I hadn't thought of 8 footers. Being free of the ground, and an inoperable engine, we started deploying the 5 anchors we had on board. One after the other they failed to grab the hard sand bottom and we ended up on the beach.
The Hardin 45 is an encapsulated full keel boat with a weight of around 45,000 lbs. Needless to say we dug a big hole in the beach as we sat pounding in the surf. Hours later, without the help of the Capitania and the Comondante of the Naval station ( both had large rescue boats at their disposal) we were freed by a small fishing boat and the help of an enthusiastic ground crew. Both the officials mentioned above were on the beach, taking pictures with their cell phones.
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ABOUT THE NOVELS
Three novels are currently in progress, "La Carta," "Zihua (and the legend of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe)," and "Jose, Jesus, and Jesus." I'll post excerpts on another section of the blog. La Carta is in it's "final" edit, if there is such a thing, its usually edit, edit, edit, then edit again. Luckily I've had help on the edits, Deborah Wilson and lucretia Blanco who have helped with the color and correcting bad spelling of Spanish words.
