Cruising Adventures of the Red Witch

March 14, 2025  One morning, as we spent our time surfing, swimming, and playing at the beach, we were given quite the show by a mother and baby humpback whale.   They were just out from the anchorage, and they breached and played their way together across the whole bay.   It was a beautiful sight, but it was not until later that day that the show got even more spectacular.   It was around 1pm when we were kayaking that the large mother humpback whale and her small calf came close to us.   At first we did not notice them as the mother was simply floating almost motionless at the waters surface, but then the baby began to play right around the mother.   Around and around it went, spy hopping, tail slapping, and fin slapping all while the mother lay motionless.   We worried at first that the mother was hurt, but I assume it was just trying to rest, as it seemed fine later.   Very infrequently the mother would raise slightly, breathe, and sink back t...

March 7, 2025    One afternoon we checked the weather and spontaneously decided that it would be a good evening to go into La Manzanilla for dinner.   We wanted to go to Mateo’s restaurant for Chimichangas.   Mateo is the person who my Mom and Dad rented their air bnb from in January when they visited with us here, and he had offered at the time to be our contact person and location for getting one of our propane tanks refilled.   One day, about two weeks prior, we had taken our empty tank to him.   The propane tank truck drives around the area most days playing music, like an ice cream truck does, to alert potential customers that it is coming.   One can either call ahead and say that they have an empty tank, or one can flag the truck down when they hear the song.   Mateo had called in advance for us and we waited at his restaurant for the truck to arrive.   We prepaid and the truck took our tank. The next day our tank was returned full to ...

February 28, 2025    We went out in our tender to get the best view of the sunset on the best viewing night of the great planetary alignment.   In theory, with a telescope one could have seen all seven planets in the sky at one time, which apparently is a very rare occurrence.   We sat and watched the sun set and ate cookies that Falcon and I had made, watching to see which planets we could see.   We managed to see the slightest sliver of the 0% waxing moon as it followed the sun over the horizon.   Then we could see Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars all in an arching line just up from where the sun had set.   Falcon also had fun playing with our dive flashlight and shining it into the water saying that he was going night diving.   It was quite neat and Falcon still talks about it.   We have also been out snorkelling.   Falcon wore his water wings and swam along with us as best he could, and I pulled him along when he didn’t keep up....

February 20, 2025   There is an amazing amount of life in this anchorage, with the Humpback whales, Dolphins, Carvel Jacks, Flying fish, Pelicans, and Frigate birds, and there are not many days that we don’t see something interesting while at anchor.   One morning while we were on board we had a humpback whale come and slowly swim its way through the anchorage surfacing several times not far from our boat.   Unfortunately this was while the water clarity was very poor so there was no hope of seeing it underwater, but it was still very cool to have it surfacing so close and to hear its loud breathing.     It is not uncommon for us to have a couple of dolphins in the anchorage, usually it seems to be a pair, but one morning there was just one very large dolphin.   Jason called Falcon and I up from breakfast to see it as it was coming close to our boat.   Falcon and I got up into the cockpit in time to see it surface beside us and the...

February 10, 2025  For the whole month of January the water quality here was very poor.   We had poor visibility all of the time, and at times it was only a couple of feet.   What seemed to be a type of red tide would roll in and out.   In the morning we might have only two feet of visibility, but by evening we could see five feet.   It changed frequently and quickly, but it was never good.     Since around the beginning of February things have improved immensely.   We still can’t see the bottom in 25 feet of water where we are anchored, but we can look into the water and see all of the fish that swim around our boat.   We have now been snorkelling a few times and hopefully the water clarity will continue to improve and we will do more.   One day we went out to a rock that sits alone as a pinnacle in otherwise deep water.   Jason did some snorkelling around it, not close enough to actually see the rock, but about...

January 25, 2025   In mid January we contacted the surf shop in Barra de Navidad and found out that they had a used 9-foot long-board for sale.   The owner ended up meeting us in La Manzanilla, and we acquired a long board.   Since then we have been regular surfers.   All three of us have been enjoying learning to surf and we are now all able to stand up and ride a wave.     After seeing us starting to surf Falcon was eager to try.   It started with us holding his hand and him standing on the board while it was floating in the calm water, then he quickly progressed to standing without our help.   He then started lying down on it and standing up on his own, so we tried giving him a little push while he was lying down and he quickly hopped up to standing.   Now we can push the board just ahead of a little wave.  Falcon paddles with his hands that barely reach off the board, then he will hop up and ride the wave.   ...

January 15, 2025  After my parents left we started to explore more of the area that we are anchored close to.   Beach time has become an almost daily component to our lives. Now that we have had more time to explore all of the beaches, and to dig holes and build sand castles on each one, we have learned that the black sand that we had assumed was part of all of Tenacatita, is actually localized to only one of the three beaches.   It is the largest of the three beaches and the black sand is quite obvious on the surface in the dry upper part of the beach.   Lower down it is not obvious until one starts to dig, when it can be found at varying depths, but usually within the top six inches. Over on the other two beaches we have dug quite deep down and have never found black sand.   We now spend most of our beach time on the smaller, more western beaches.   The beach that is right beside the lagoon entrance is a perfect child-friendly beach. It is one hundred per...