A Note From Gail

It’s now hot and humid and the town of La Cruz seems to have shifted into summer mode.  We all have heard of “siestas”, but we didn’t really notice any significant siesta time during the busy winter cruising months.  But now that things have slowed down I am noticing a change of pace.  In the winter, shops here in La Cruz were open all day and seemed to close around 5-6 pm.  Now, quite a few shops close from 2-4pm for lunch and siesta but stay open later.  As it cools down in the evening more people are out and about.  One interesting thing about La Cruz is that it is still a small town with a mix of homes, shops and restaurants next to each other on the streets.  The homes are typically small with very few windows to help keep them cool.  But during the evening the streets are converted into their “patios”.  Out come the tables and chairs and the families sit down to talk, have dinner, and enjoy the evening.  It’s great to see, but I feel like I’m walking through their living rooms. 

As for us and Music – shade, shade, and more shade is the order of the day.  We’ve brought out all our shade options – a bimini to shade the cockpit, a Shade Tree to cover the main part of the boat, and we had a cover made here in La Cruz for the foredeck.  Music has beautiful lines but they are hard to see with all that canvas.  Summers in this part of Mexico have a lot of rain and we are getting into that season.  August and September are supposed to have the most rain, but we’ve been getting a lot of early morning squalls which at least cool things down a bit.  It’s also hurricane season and the tropical storms, even if they don't come close to Banderas Bay, bring a lot of humidity and monsoon type moisture.  According to historical records, however, when it comes to direct hits from hurricanes we are well protected here in Banderas Bay.  Mountians immediately to the south along with a very mountainous point on the southwest corner of the Bay, called Cabo Corrientes, seem to divert hurricanes or tropical storms out to sea, away from us.  

One of the benefits of staying here this summer is that we’re getting to know more people around the marina as well as some locals.  There is a cruiser here in the Marina who organized the La Cruz Kids Club to give the children of cruisers some kids time.  Tami is a bundle of energy and has been doing the kids club for about 6 months now.  They have been getting involved with the locals and during the 4^th of July invited the Bucerias Orphanage over to the Marina to join the celebration.  The Marina really embraces the Kids Club and supports its activities.  We were supposed to have a bbq at the beach palapa, but the weather didn’t cooperate so we had it at the Marina restaurant instead.  It was great fun to watch them play musical chairs, get their faces painted, and beat John up with their balloons.

Kids playing "musical Chairs" at our July 4th celebration

We’ll be leaving in about a week and the rest of our time here will be “de-commissioning” Music for the summer.  The big thing is to minimize mold and mildew and to prepare for storms.  So sails come off, the propeller gets bagged so the barnacles don’t cover it, take down all canvas, and then do what you can down below to open things up.  We bought a dehumidifier which we used every winter on Music in Bellingham and California and we’re hoping it works as well for us here.  We will have folks watch Music while we’re back in the States who can take care of any problems that might come up.  We’ll be back in October to continue our adventures.

Adios amigas!