February ‘97

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

February 1, Saturday

John washed down the boat real good – I defrosted the fridge/freezer. Talked to Jazz and Miss Teak II, they are in Tenacatita. It sprinkled last night. Today has been cloudy with a nice breeze, really nice (80°), put me in the mood to bake oatmeal cookies. Yum.
Today’s atmosphere is one of vacation to me. After worrying about John out on the anchor, this marina is very restful, even if we have to run the gen-set. John and Samie went into town while I had quiet-time; that’s something of a first this year.
We turned on the Southbound Net (4051) at 7:30 pm and listened while Jambalaya in El Salvador, and Ray of Hope, 35 miles from the s/v Dragon Wind, near the Panama, were trying to get coast guard help Dragon Wind, 2 people aboard. They were at 07° N - 80° W on the rocks and breaking up. Around 8:30, their batteries went dead and Ray of Hope no longer had contact. It took 2.5 hours before a US Embassy in Panama got a helicopter on its way. Also, about the same time, a Panama Coast Guard was on its way, boat or helicopter, not known. At 10:45 pm, they relayed that no helicopter was sent out, but a cruise ship, Radison Diamond with life boats. I finally went to bed at 11 pm.
At some point in the night, they were rescued, thank god!

*I seem to remember a little bit of this night and hearing about Dragon Wind, I can sense a bit of the tension that would have been in the air while listening for updates on the HAM radio and praying for their safe rescue. I absolutely cannot and don’t want to imagine such a scenario - having your beautiful boat beat to a pulp on the rocks and not knowing if you’ll make it out alive. I pulled up a rough idea of the coordinates - there are these two small islands of sorts that are off of Calabacito and I wonder if that’s what they’d come up against. Otherwise it looks like they’d have been pushed way in towards shore, maybe closer to Guanico Abajo where there are some rocks jutting up along the coast. I think it’s cool that the last boat they were in contact with was Ray of Hope. ❤ From the perspective of the cruise ship - that would have been a wild detour as a passenger (any that were awake, at least), to witness such a rescue.

February 2, Sunday

No clouds and no breeze and it’s warm at 86°. It did cloud up and kick up a breeze later.
Samie met Alex, 10, from Julie Marie II and they hit it off real good. John took ‘em to the pool. Everyone pitched in their hoses and ran fresh water to the dock. The men were all like little boys washing down the boats. The Wandrin’ Star is all clean and white, free of the black soot from Manzanillo.
We took a walk around the hotel pool area. The hotel itself is amazing, but the pool and landscaping are spectacular! We hear there is 2 million invested in the project and a normal suite goes for $200 U.S. per night.

*I don’t remember the hose scenario, but it makes me laugh to think of now - I wonder how many hoses they connected to reach down the dock?! I’ll bet the guys were excited to wash down the boats and get them shiny again.
Fun fact: 8 years later I happened to be watching Real World Road Rules Season 10, Inferno II (a reality show where a bunch of 20-somethings compete for their share of $50k) when I recognized the resort they were staying at. For one of the challenges, they were on the first dock below the resort and the cameras were looking at the exact slip we had stayed in, where I had celebrated by 10th birthday. I couldn’t believe it and thought it was SO cool that we had been there when the whole place was being built and had gotten to stay in the marina for free as well as having limited access to the resort pool and some other outside areas. It was just wild to see one of our beloved cruising haunts on this crazy show almost a decade later. Here’s a video of what the resort looks like. You’ll see a few clips of the marina, too. For comparison of the cost of a basic suite, that would be close to $400/night nowadays.

Below that are some comparison photos - our view in ‘97 passing a little cove before the marina with a beautiful view of the resort vs a professional photo from some much more recent year.

February 3, Monday

Our mail has arrived – one packet, anyway. There should be 2 more in La Cruz. Samie stayed on the boat reading it while John and I walked around town. We met Lorrie (FUW) and her husband, Chris tonight over at Star Song with Molly and Steve.

February 4, Tuesday

John is back to normal and is busy polishing, waxing and shining the boat. He took Samie and Alex up to the pool here at the hotel. They are now letting us use it if we buy a drink. Beer, 20 pesos, Coke, 12, and lemonade, 18 pesos. The fridge and freezer are sitting on the sunny side of the boat and won’t stay chilled down. So we hung a white tarp over the side – made a 10° difference!
Samie is doing part of tomorrow’s school tonight so that she’ll have more time to play tomorrow. She is really tired tonight after swimming for 2 or 3 hours today.

*This photo is from some other time and place, but it shows the tarp we would use to help keep the fridge cooled down - and of course Dad polishing something!

February 5, Wednesday

John fixed the broken BBQ – very important! He also finished waxing the boat. He played horseshoe with Steve and the guys while I took Samie and Alex to the pool at the Sands Hotel. A Mexican power boat came in last night, she’s the sister of the guy building this place – anyway, they had caught a 10’ marlin and gave us a chunk that we got 5 steaks off of – had some tonight – wonderful!
Goon tried calling, but she couldn’t hear me. Poop!

*The Sands Hotel was across the bay - we would dinghy over and tie up at this spot and were allowed to use the pool. I remember going there often and had the most fun when John and Lisa from Jazz would join us, because John had this fun trick where he would submerge and balance my feet in his hands, then push up from the bottom of the pool real fast which would propel me up out of the water like a little rocket. I couldn’t get enough, it was so much fun. He even signed a postcard once as “The Rocket-Launcher” - too cute.
Here’s a rough idea of the size of that 10’ marlin based on the 8’5” sailfish we caught back in January 1995.

February 6, Thursday

Happy B-day Mom

We had to move to the other dock this a.m. so that they can work on those docks, putting in the dock boxes and such. John took Samie and Alex swimming and I lemon-oiled the inside wood.
There was a big dock party, probably 16 to 18 boats. Great food. I called Mom for her birthday – all is well.

*I had forgotten about the traveling mariachi band that trolled around the in their dinghy to the docks! Love it!

February 7, Friday

We have been getting after school every day – so today we skipped it. John shined the windows and really gooped the stanchion screws in Samie’s cupboards – hoping they won’t leak anymore.
I planted myself in the sun with a book. We went into town for dinner at a new Italian place. Ok, but there was hot dogs in the lasagna and the linguine tasted like it came from a box mix.

*Let’s hope that goop holds on those dang stanchions!
Dinner sounds rough! Hot dogs in the lasagna, huh?! Too funny. 😅

February 8, Saturday

Talked to Jazz, they and Miss Teak II will be over here on Monday.
Samie and Alex went swimming here at this hotel pool.
Talked to Danielle, all is set with her plane ticket. Still don’t know if the other two will be coming or not.
Shine and Goon called, we told them to try and come after Danielle.

February 9, Sunday

Happy B-day Regan and Steve K.

Samie called her Jones family, Regan is sick today – poor girl.
The boat Amity came in today, they have a 10-year-old daughter, Leah and 15-year-old Jenny. Samie and Leah hit it off great. Those 2 and Alex watched movies on Amity until around 11 pm. John and I borrowed The American President with Michael Douglas and Michael J. Fox – very good, comical drama!

*Poor Regan, being sick on her 4th birthday! At least she was probably too young to even remember!
It’s funny, I don’t even remember Leah having an older sister - I wonder how she entertained herself without any kids her age in the area at the time.

February 10, Monday

I gave us (mostly me) the day off school. So Samie only had to clean her room and then she was off to play. I got to wander the docks and visit like everyone else.
Still no Summer Wind on the radio – hope they’re ok.
Miss Teak II, and Jazz came in today around noon. Nice to see them all again.

February 11, Tuesday

After school, we took Leah into town with us. The girls were gonna swim, but the pool was crappy. So we got some lunch and a few groceries. Leah watched Greedy with us, (Michael J. Fox, Kurt Douglas), good movie.
Shine called, him and Goon will fly into P.V. on March 2nd, the same plane Danielle will return on. So there might be 20 minutes we can all have a soda for my birthday. What a great present!!

February 13, Thursday

Well, I fractured my wrist yesterday. So this is a “lefty” mess. We, along with about 25 others, went to Hiolani, Chris and Lorrie’s, for a BBQ. Bringing the dink up on the ramp, I slipped on the moss. Went down on my butt and my right hand. Pop! goes the wrist, both bones. I went into shock for about an hour, in and out. After seeing a doctor here, Steve from Star Song drove me and John into Manzanillo for x-rays. An hour later and only $81 U.S. I have a pink cast up above my elbow.
Samie was spending the night with Leah on Amity.
Jim and Kitty are finally back! It’s been 2 weeks with no beer truck and today it’s a big run on the dock for everyone.
The most memorable thing of breaking my wrist was when I was lying on the ground and Cynthia was leaning over and laughing!! It’s been such a strange year – with the cutlass bearing – depth sounder – Socorros – John’s hepatitis and now this!

*I remember being with Leah on Amity and being worried about Mom. They must have radioed us to let us know what was going on, otherwise I wouldn’t have had any reason to be worried. I remember them not getting back till real late (felt like midnight to me!), but Mom said they had to be sure to get back before dark - apparently the main road in and out of Barra had a problem with banditos - no joke -scary! So they probably got back to Chris and Lorrie’s before dark, but still would have had to dinghy back over across the bay from there, likely getting to the boat around or after dark. Mom said she slept in my room that night cause it hurt so bad she was in tears, trying to sleep. 😭
Below: Mom being carried by Steve and John either inside or to the car on their way to see the doctor. How lucky that someone there had a vehicle! I’m guessing she was still in shock at this point, and not feeling any pain - plus Cynthia was there to help lighten the mood! Mom said it definitely helped her feel better about the whole thing - she can still vividly remember Cynthia bent over laughing, like, “what are we going to do with you and this year of mishaps?!”.
Next is a view from the inlet/waterway where Chris and Lorrie’s house was. The last photos are of the gang waiting at the top of the dock for the beer truck to come in. Down there it was customary to save your bottles and trade them in when you got more beer (or soda) and they would reuse the bottles. If memory serves, that’s why people always wiped the mouth of their bottle before they started drinking from it. I wonder if that’s still how they do it.

February 14, Friday

Happy Valentines Day

My arm still aches, but at least I slept good last night. Lisa, Jazz, made us some cookies and Samie made everyone a Valentine’s card. We haven’t got much school done with Leah here, but all the kids are leaving soon, so I’ve let it slide. I always wanted to be a “lefty” – maybe at the end of this 6 weeks my writing will be readable.
We stayed home for dinner, John BBQed chicken, while Miss Teak II and Jazz went to the fancy hotel restaurant and had quite a comical experience.
Navidad has flying crickets that get in the boats – GOT HIM!
Taking a shower today was quite a trick. Samie had to hold the shower head while I washed my hair and she tried to shave under my left arm. We were laughing so hard!

*I bet Mom would have told us what the comical experience was at dinner, had she not been writing with her left hand. She doesn’t remember what it was.
HA, I don’t remember trying to help Mom shave, but kudos to her for trusting me - I wasn’t shaving yet and had no experience with a razor. I remember when Danielle got there, she helped Mom with that left underarm, haha.

February 15, Saturday

The docks are really filling up - so many kids and dogs. John equalized the batteries today. Arm is feeling better, weather is perfect, warm days, cool nights.
Samie stayed with Leah again.
I had a real bad headache all day and ran a 99.8 fever in the afternoon.

*I wonder if Mom caught something or if it could have been her body reacting to her broken wrist? I also wonder if this was a migraine she had - she didn’t start calling them that for a couple years, maybe she didn’t realize what they were at first. I can’t imagine a migraine, a fever AND a fractured wrist - oh man! 😩
Below are photos of friends around the docks - there was a little girl named Coral who I had fun entertaining, me with Alex and Leah, Alex, and another kid, Brian, from the boat Cabaret. Last is Steve and Molly from Star Song. They had a cute little black poodle named Fiji, she was so cute.

February 16, Sunday

Amity left this a.m. but we will meet up again.
Samie, John, Bob, Lisa and John all went to the beach.

February 17, Monday

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet Samantha Rachelle! #10

Samie played with Alex and the 2 boys off Delphis this a.m. We had spaghetti dinner on the dock with Miss Teak II, Jazz, Star Song, Moonshadow, Hiolani and Calypso. She made a haul on gifts – the best was the blow-up orca. It’s even bigger than she is and was from Cynthia, Lisa and Lorrie. She named it B.S. – Birthday Surprise.
Goon, Mom, Sam and Rane called.
This is the 3rd day now that I’ve run a low-grade fever – 99 & 100°.

*Wow, B.S. - what a name! I bet the adults had a good laugh at that. “Thanks guys, this gift is B.S.!!” 😅 Funny, I don’t think we ever took a single photo with it, but this is what it was. We also had this ski bob and could pull both behind the dinghy. Anyway, Mom made me a great sign and decorated the bow of the boat - I felt so special! This was a great birthday celebration and I loved spending time with everyone on the dock. We were sure to get photos with me and Alex, Frasier and Tristen and of the evening’s shenanigans. I think it’s cute we waited ‘till dark to bring out the cake and candles. Don’t miss my only other Dear Diary entry from that year, complete with tales of my latest crush and all the fun things I got for my birthday.

February 18, Tuesday

Will this writing ever improve?
John took Samie to the beach and the pool.
Shine called Samie for her B-day.

*Looking back, I’m super grateful for how often my parents took me out and up to the pool and whatnot!
I screen shot this image of the marina and found which spots a few of our boats were in, as best I can tell from memory and from the photos. The following two screen clippings are from the MTV show I mentioned earlier. You can watch the challenge here if you are at all interested, it starts at 8:35 into the video.

February 19, Wednesday

Not much happening today, John used Bob’s hookah to clean the prop and bottom, although he could only see about 6” – dirty water.
The guy on Prologue is a doctor and he doesn’t think what John had was hepatitis ‘cause that takes months to recover from. So maybe the dark urine and jaundice was a reaction from the Septrin Z he was taking. Who knows what he had, then. He’ll get a blood test and see if it was hepatitis.

*We did confirm later that year via blood work that it was, in fact, Hepatitis A, from something Dad ate in December.

February 20, Thursday

Samie stayed with Lisa while John and I took the 8:40 bus into Manzanillo for x-rays on my wrist – all is well. We stopped at Juanita’s for lunch and a vacationing E.R. doctor looked at the x-ray and agreed. We were back home at 1 pm. Samie had made a chocolate cake and cookies with Lisa.
The generator quit so John put in a new resistor.

*It’s a wonder I’m not more into baking, as much practice as I got with fellow cruisers! I’m sure I mostly had fun mixing things and eating the batter!
Mom doesn’t mention it, but at some point we found this baby sea turtle in the marina. I remember being enamored with it - I thought that was just the coolest thing, and so, so tiny!

February 21, Friday

I took John into the dinghy dock so he could catch the 9 am bus to P.V. Danielle flies in at 4:45 pm. Samie and I did school and watched a couple of movies.

*I have to mention in here somewhere about a memory that came back to me randomly a couple years ago. The couple aboard one of the boats next to us, Calypso, were very nice and entertained me often when we were in Barra. I noted in my diary that they gave me a fortune teller on my birthday (yes, I still have it!) and I think Sonia would doodle/draw with me sometimes. At one point or other, I remember her showing me this video they had on their computer about a bird and a fish being in love. It was fairly new digital animation at the time and I really liked the video and its story. Something made me think of it a couple years ago and thanks to YouTube - I was able to find it! It’s so funny knowing how far animation has come!

February 22, Saturday

John and Danielle got here about 11 am – it was a 3.5-hour bus ride. We hung around here for a while then went into town. It is so good to have her here!

February 23, Sunday

Talked to Nanamuk, they are in Chacala and promised to see us in P.V. – looking forward to that.
The guys all ran the connected hoses to do the wash-down again and blew up another hose – that makes about 4 in the 3 weeks we’ve been here. Summer Wind is still working on their transmission – poor guys.
It got up to 100° today! Kids went to the pool – John and I provisioned. They have wonderful meat here. The girls stayed at the pool until 6 pm. Danielle got a little red yesterday on her shoulders and today she got her traditional all-over burn!

February 24, Monday

John checked out first thing and we were underway at 9:30 am. We saw finback whales. 3 hours later we were anchored next to Miss Teak II. There were dolphins in the bay rubbing on the anchor chain and swimming all around. John and the girls went to the river and to the restaurant that was built for the movie McHale’s Navy. I took a nap, I’m running a 100° fever again. Miss Teak II came over to say goodbye, they will go back to Barra so their company can fly out, then they are sailing straight up to Mazatlan. They’ll leave the boat there this year. Cynthia will go to Denver and Bob will sail to the South Pacific on Jazz with Lisa and John. I will really miss them.

*Below, are photos of us waving goodbye to Lisa on our way out of Navidad, then Princess Erika and some bottlenose dolphins in Tenacatita, the crew of Princess Erika headed over to say hello, and a glimpse of the movie-set-turned-restaurant.

*Ok, I have a fun memory and this seems like a good spot to include it. The beach in our anchorage (where the movie set is) often got hammered by the waves and was often tough for dinghy landings. The bay was deep and shallowed up real fast coming into the beach, providing less room for the waves to dissipate and meant this beach often had some of the biggest waves we’d see all year. We had some questionable ventures through those waves - even in Princess Erika’s giant red dinghy! I don’t remember what year it was, but I seem to recall nearly being launched from their dinghy one time, coming back out into the bay with them! See, there are several stages of dinghy landings/departures. The first either way is timing and reading the wave sets. For departure, you find your window and then hustle, hustle, hustle! Start pushing the dinghy out as a team and quickly start hopping in once she’s afloat. The last person to jump in is at the very back and gives one last good shove from the beach. Quick! Drop the engine in the water and get that motor started (this is the worst time to stall out)! One, two, three pulls - VROOOM! Ok, now everyone’s facing forward and at least one person heads to the front to keep the bow down. You have to get through the smaller incoming waves before the next big set hits, and it helps to have weight in the bow, especially if it’s windy and the waves are big - you could flip the whole boat, end over end! Anyhow, I seem to recall one such scramble with Princess Erika where probably Cara and I jumped up front in time for one such wave and I have a flashing image/feeling of being suspended in the air after the front of the dinghy met with the crest of a wave and everything kind of shot straight up for a half second before crashing back down on the other side of the wave. WAHOO!! We made it and no one got hurt! Now gun it, before we get caught by another one! 😅
Good times!

February 25, Tuesday

We all went up the river to the outer beach where the girls rode the boogie board. Back at the boat, John and Danielle paddled around in the kayaks. Then we went into the bar, they built for the movie. It will be neat to see the movie.

*Lots of fun here! We would often opt to venture up the river to the other beach which was calmer. It was always fun going up the river, seeing egrets and herons, watching for iguanas and other such creatures hidden in the trees and mangroves. Below you can see photos from the trip as well as the movie set - I see all the stuff written along the walls - I wonder if that was all from the cast and crew? Mom and I figure some cruisers started adding their tags as well, since so many places had ‘cruiser’s walls’ where we added our names. I added a little clip from the movie that shows the barracks and the tree fort we posed in front of. If you look closely, you can tell they flipped the imagery of the landscape for whatever reason, so the entrance to the river goes in the opposite direction in our photos vs the video. It’s crazy to me how identifiable that small bluff still is in the background!
I had to put some random music in the background to keep from getting tagged for copyrights.

February 26, Wednesday

2 weeks with this cast now and it’s getting old, 4 more to go.
We pulled anchor at 7 am and headed out for Chamela. An hour out, just off the point it goes from 5k to 20k – right on our nose. The seas are 5-6 feet and close with white caps. At 8 am the day can only get worse – so we turn back for Tenacatita – where it has been calm all day except for a small swell. The barometer has been rising and falling 4 points at a time for the last few days – who knows what’s going on.

February 27, Thursday

The girls rode on the ski-bob today – otherwise it was a lazy day.

February 28, Friday

We left Tenacatita at 7 am headed for Barra. Still some lumpy swells out there, but not much wind that early. We were dock side again at 10 am and shortly after, the wind kicked up to 10-15k until around 7 pm. We went into Banana’s for a wonderful dinner with Bob and Cynthia, Miss Teak II and John and Lisa, Jazz. Cynthia (Mom) and Lisa had a slice of chocolate mousse with a candle brought to me and everyone sang Happy Birthday. Great night.