Ketevara

Hola hola amigos,

It’s definably time to write all of you ones again what I’ve been up to. This will be the first time I’m trying to figure out how this blogspot thing works, so hopefully it'll works out. No photo’s though this time. Why? You will find out in the next piece of writing.

The 28th Ed and I finally sailed away; hoping for good winds and following seas.
For almost four weeks we sailed down the Mexican coast on Ketevara, a 36ft Pacific Seacraft; anchoring in little alcoves and bigger bays to explore the sandy beaches or bustling towns. Swimming in the 27C warm water and snorkeling where ever it was possible. It was so nice to be underway, feel the movement of the sea and feel the salty wind in your face. It’s extremely tranquil to be on a boat. There is no other way to go than right on this moving house, so no reason to get all excited and full with ideas………
Wrong, it IS very relaxed on a boat, and you ARE a lot calmer in the head after a week being out there, but I really discovered that I can not sit still and do nothing. If I was not writing my dreams I was writing my diary. If I was not eating, I was cooking. If I was not reading I was studying Spanish. If I was not talking I was thinking. Ed showed me that just sitting still, watching the sails, the water, the distant shoreline and the occasional sea turtle is a real art, a real Buddha process that takes a lot of ‘ohhhmmm-ing’ for me.

Don’t get me wrong, being on the boat is one of my most favorite things so far. I love the quiet, I adore the subtle differences in the waves, I shriek when I see yet another group of dolphins. I can not get enough of the phosphor essence at night; and the amount of stars when the moon has not risen yet. And no matter what you’re doing, if the sunrise or sunset is underway you stop and let yourself be taken away. It’s just not to describe what being on a boat is like unless you've experienced it yourself.
Ed and I did a few overnighters, the whole night and day we would let Ketevara slide thru the swell. The sea becomes your home, the animals your pets.

We saw so many dolphins, huge pods with more than fifty individuals, all jumping in front of the bow. I would whistle to them, they would shriek and piep back; so graceful and so playful. It’s amazing how high they can jump! Many a morning we had the pleasure of seeing those sleek bodies jump out of the water and make loops not to be compared with what you see in zoos. And at night they shoot whole streams of bright green sparkles. The phosphor essence bouncing off them is like jet-elf’s in the sea.
Other friends that we came across were huge turtles, flying fish, jumping rays, sea snakes, birds that were tired and needed a rest on the mast and Ed even saw some whales in the distance.

There was only one problem…….we had no wind, something rather important with a sail boat.
In the 22 days we traveled a distance of 811 nautical miles in 193 hours, that’s only 4.2 knots per hour. And 75% of the time her motor was purring with only the main as stabilization.
Ed really knows Ketevara, and many a time he would just watch the sails, do little corrections and make the canvas look tight and smooth. Lines, sail, knots, wrenches, hoisting, tacking and jibing, twanging, using the preventer and watching the tell-tails. I learned a lot.

And of caurse we visited many towns:
Barra the Navidad was only one night for a stop over.

Manzanillo was very touristy, but we had a good snorkel on a far away beach and in the evening there was a huge spectacle for Dia Del Muertos, the day of the death, or in America Halloween. Here in Central America they really honor the death, all families go down to the graves of their loved ones and decorate it with flowers, candles, cut out papers and seads. Then the favorite food and drink of the past away person is displayed (boy would there be a lot of bread and tea for me) which gets eaten at the end of the night, its a real party.

Isla Grande was an island where we had another shitty day on the beach: little bit of snorkeling, little bit of cocktailing, little bit of good food, a lot of massage and for the rest not much else then watching the sun make a circle.

Zihuatenejo was a town we both really liked. We stayed a few nights, did good snorkeling and enjoyed the locals in town.
Straight the first night we went out for Ed’s birthday. Ed got good drunk, we discovered weird, interesting people at five in the morning, and suddenly you also don’t care about the filthy street hotdogs anymore.

Acapulco is where we saw the real, original cliff divers. Those guys jump from 35 meters high cliffs into small alcoves. It was at night and sometimes they jump with torches in their hands, it was a spectacle.
Acapulco itself was very dirty and busy, definably not a place for the rustic.

In the morning, just before we came to the nice bay of Puerto Escondido, we had a visit from a pod of dolphins. Ed said I could jump in and play, he would turn Ketevara around. So I did, I dove in and made tons of noises and pieps. They were all around me, as close as two meters, I could almost touch them. Fantastic, what an experience, I loved it. The second time I jumped in didn’t go to well though; I jumped right into a group of jellyfish. It took more than three weeks before the marks were gone, boy those things sting like nettles.

Puerto Escondido was a story on its own; another bay with nice beaches, a calm town and lots of tourist.
One night we ended up at a very lively bar, good times ones again. I lost Ed in the conversations I had with others and Ed was dancing with some hotties.
I ended up going to an afterbar, not more then a bar under a cane roof, some low tables with cushions in the sand and a DJ on a plastic table.
At about four in the morning I decided that I wanted to go swimming in the sea. One other guy and I went up to the beach, put our stuff with the RED flag and dove in.
Yep, I know, sometimes your brain just doesn’t put one and one together. Trust me, it was not the two cocktails I had in the beginning of the night, and I was not hopeless blown away with this guy. My head was clear and working normal, except for that one wire………
I kinda know now what it feels like to drown, how the surf can really suck you in. One wave after the other, no grip with your feet, you get totally tumbled around like a dryer and there is hardly any time to get some oxygen in your longs. More and more salt water is swallowed, more waves pull you back and the lights of shore are hard to find.
I really have no idea how I got out of it, but I do remember myself thinking: ‘Mathu, you’re way to strong for this, this is not gonna happen, just swim back.’ God knows why I stayed so calm, but I’m glad I did.
The next thing would only hit me 15 minutes later, after we rested and were ready to go back. My camera was gone.
I still don’t know if someone stole it, or if I lost it. But for the rest of the morning, until the sun was glowing one hour warm, I looked for it, turned around all the sand, in the bar, the whole beach and everything in between. I don’t know if any of you ever lost a camera…….trust me, it’s the worst thing ever, 350 photos were gone, the whole month sailing with Ed, and there were some good photos.
Like from that same day, we went horseback riding on the beach, every girls dream, galloping thru the waves, flying sand and a bottle of wine in the hand. It was so cool. Ed made some really nice pictures and we had this really funny movie. Blerg, when I think about it, it makes my stomach turn around. I hope I will have a new camera soon. I really do miss making photos.

So the next day it was a chore to get the police to write a report about what had happened for my insurance.
Three times we came back and still the jefe was not there. Another day turned around. But the next day we got somewhere, long waiting, two different offices and an extra trip back to the boat for my passport. But I have what I need, Mexico is really a disaster with getting things done, I would get so frustrated with it. No way that I could live here.

Leaving Puerto Escondido was at night. I had eaten something wrong and was close to puking, but luckily the toilet only saw some nasty brown water, no food for the fish.
It was the same night that a gale came down on us. Rain so dense and hard that you could fill buckets in minutes, Ed said you couldn’t see the mainsail. Twenty-five knots of wind and a coldness for the first time in five weeks. We had a rainstorm before (showering in the warm water at the fore deck), but this was different. Lightning so loud and close, it was eardefening, it lit up the whole sky. For an hour or so Ed worked the sails. And as sudden as we sailed into it, the sky was clear again and the start were back. What a thing to go right thru it.

Puerto Angel was another small, beautiful bay where we went up to Zipolite and walked the whole beach, finding new shells and good food.
It must be so boring to read this part, just about Ed and me enjoying ourselfs on sandy beaches and drinking cocktails with the seafood. No big wild adventures or strange moves, the sailing itself was the adventure I gues.

We ended this leg of the voyage in Huatulco. Ketevara got a slip in a marina here and after two days Ed went back to the USA to fly people to different places. The waters were calm, the wind was dead and the next leg of the trip would develop.

Not to long from now you will be able to read who I encountered in Huatulco and what kind of epic stories rolled out of that one.

Till then my friends, be good to your padres and love the coffee in the morning.
Mathu