After a week of cold, but mostly sunny, weather we awoke to a white outside this morning.
Bill got outside before any cars had driven down our street and got some pictures of our house covered in snow. It is not common to have snow in Tillamook, but more snow is predicted for the nest few days.
When we went out to the Brill’s for dinner, Alexa had constructed this nice snow chair. No school tomorrow, so the children get to enjoy the snow.
We spent the evening three floors up at an outside on-the-roof bar above the marina offices here and had a very enjoyable time. There was plenty of great food and it was all very good and the drinks were included in the price. Bill is getting himself ready for Oregon by drinking Cuba Libres. I enjoyed a Pina Colada followed by many glass of nice white wine. We both enjoyed champagne and 12 grapes for the midnight revelry. Also at midnight, the fireworks were visible all around the bay.
We both managed to last until about 12:30 when we returned to Lanikai for a long winter’s nap.
We tied up in Marina Rivera Nayarit the Thursday before Christmas and began getting the salt out of things to stow below while we spend time stateside. Christmas Eve we spent quietly on the boat, but Christmas Day we got together with lots of other cruisers and local “gringos” at a favorite hang out. The restaurant provided turkey and the rest of us provided the pot luck food. Turned out that there was plenty of goodies and we all ate our fill.
After we had eaten our fill, Santa arrived to pass out gift bags to 400 children from the local area and it was great to see the gifts light up their faces.
Before Santa handed out the gifts a group of the children sang Christmas carols for us in English.
We dropped the hook just outside the marina here this morning not long after sunrise. It was not as bad rounding Cabo Corrientes as we had thought it would be and the entire passage was quicker than expected. For four hours after entering Bandaras Bay we slowed down so that we could arrive at the anchorage in the daylight as the marina is new and covers a lot of the old anchorage area. We left Chamela with very light winds that did not pick up until early afternoon. Then we had good wind (20-25 mph) until well after dark when it moderated as we neared the Cape and midnight. The seas were quite sloppy much of the journey.
Later today, after resting a bit, we plan on taking the dinghy into the marina to see about a slip there for the next year or so, as we have decided that this is a good place to base our travels from over the next few years. We have spent little time exploring the large Banderas Bay in the past and anyhow the weather is slightly more moderate here than in Mazatlan.
We spent several afternoons on the beach in Chamela enjoying cold beers and sometimes ceviche.
The dinghy landing was right in front of the restaurants, so we picked the one with all the strands of shells. Most days the beach was occupied by only a few tourists but on Sunday the traffic really picked up and we enjoyed watching all the families enjoying themselves in the sand.
We even got to watch as jet skis were attempted to be launched from a trailer backing into the water over the sand flats. The truck got well stuck but was eventually pulled free with another pick up leaving the trailer and jet skis in the water. With some effort they got the skis off the trailer and the trailer pulled ashore.
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