First let me thank Russell and Lori for making Thanksgiving a special holiday for the Jefe’ with their great hospitality and friends at Casa Lori in La Cruz, Mexico. It was a great dinner and wonderful day “hanging out”.
The Opequimar haul out went great and 3-gallons of Americote ABC-3 paint were applied to the old Sailors Run and she is moving sleek as an Otter through the water once again.
It has been somewhat strange this season as several tragedies have been discovered upon arrival at my last three ports beginning with La cruz.
It was in La Cruz that I first learned of the tragic loss of the Catamaran Mulahia with Kim and Dave aboard. The boat was lost on a reef at the atoll of Tikehau in the Tumotus. Once upon the reef there was no vessel large enough to get Maluhia off and she was soon a total loss in waves that continued to increase in size. Kim and Dave our dear friends of some twenty years thank God were rescued by a local family and taken off safely and are currently with their family in Florida.
My next stop down the Mexican coast was at Perula anchorage in Chamela Bay. This the location of my medical emergency when two blood clots cut of the flow of blood to my lungs three years ago, and the miracle in Chamela that followed. Yani, the husband of Monica was one of those magical people that helped save my life and I was so saddened to learn of his passing over a year ago from a heart attack. His family, Wife Monica and two girls Sammy and Amy whom are 17 and 8 seem to be coping pretty well considering all they have been through. The little community they live in is one of my favorite stops along the coast and the view from Monica’s Palapa is just the best.
My entrance in to Barra was not so great as with out a depth sounder and some how not having the channel way points in the GPS I managed to ground on the north side of the channel. You might imagine how I felt about this after just painting the bottom. Oh well in the end it was not so bad as the tide was rising and after thirty minutes I floated off and was soon anchor down in the lagoon just as the sun was setting. “They say if you haven’t been aground you just haven’t been around”.
It was here in Barra that I learned of another tragic loss. Debbie and I are friends of Lorraina the owner of Abuelos restaurant and she has three lovely daughters. Her daughter Brenda one a mother with children had been shot and killed hear in Barra about a year and a half ago. It seems a senseless tragedy and the details are sketchy at this time and it is best just left at that.
I share in the pain with all the losses of my friends and it just somehow brings me closer to the realization that “life is a gift and comes with no guarantees.”
On a much happier note Debbie arrives down here on the 11th of January to spend over a month with me aboard the Sailors Run and believe me when I say she is always missed aboard the Sailors Run by me and many of our friends.
Just trying to keep the keel off the bottom Your Amigo El Jefe’