Sometimes when you're at your lowest it's easier to reach your highest. Our friend Ryan on Godspeed was suffering. Everything was going wrong for him. He was trapped in a lonely dirty port a ruthless victim of Murphy's Law and at the mercy of a conniving worthless mechanic. Even the little town conspired against him by refusing to accept his dollars just to buy a little beer. You see when Ryan left us almost three weeks ago he was bound for El Salvador so he unloaded all his pesos prior to his departure. But the world conspiring against him as it was drove him back into a tiny Mexican port devoid of pesos and hope.

Two weeks and about $700 dollars later, very little of that was spent on beer mind you, Ryan was beginning to think things couldn't get worse. We talked with him on the SSB to try to cheer him up a little and reassure him we would be there to help out soon. But it wasn't until a 37 foot boat called Sonrisa (means smile) shared the anchorage with him that his luck changed and an incredible story unfolded.

The owners on Sonrisa from Kansas wanted to go home. Mexico is a long ways from Kansas and I doubt Dorothy ever went that far. So Ryan being of a similar melancholy mindset invited them to dinner on Godspeed. So after shopping for food at the one place he found that would take US dollars, he returned to the anchorage where the guys on Sonrisa waved him over to see if he'd prefer to cook on their boat. Ryan was impressed with the space on their 37 foot Endeavour sloop. The owners again mentioned their desire to just go home and how they've been discussing what to do with the boat. After a pregnant pause Sonrisa's captain smiled at Ryan and said, "With your permission I'd like to give you this boat."

I think we're going to have to change Ryan's name to Sonrisa, because he can't stop smiling.

Isn't that the best story you've heard all year? (See the photo of beautiful Sonrisa below)

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:

http://www.sailmail.com

We just got back to the boat a couple of days ago and busted butt on boat chores (changing oil, climbing the mast, etc.) so we could return to the quiet anchorage. But we�?¢â�??¬â�??¢ve just got to tell you more about Oaxaca (�?¢â�??¬�?�??wah-HA-kah�?¢â�??¬). We stayed at this place called �?¢â�??¬�?�??Casa Raab�?¢â�??¬ where they had 40 acres of land, 5 dogs, 4 cats, 4 burros, a horse and 3 parrots. When we unpacked our beasts from our 2 cars and added a dog and 4 cats to the mix, they blended right in. Even Jordan and Jezebel reluctantly made some new friends. The Casa Raab folks also rescue strays and find them homes after some much needed TLC. Needless to say Scott and Liz found an adorable new crew member, �?¢â�??¬�?�??Lilly Mae�?¢â�??¬.



We had a great time at Casa Raab. We learned first hand how Mezcal is made by helping to dig up the cooked �?¢â�??¬�?�??pinas�?¢â�??¬ and prep them for fermentation. We enjoyed lounging by the pool and taking walks around the property and playing with all the animals. And I also got to try my hand at playing the �?¢â�??¬�?�??Washtub Base�?¢â�??¬ while Scott and Tony played guitar.



As I mentioned earlier we went to the Monte Alban ruins which date back about 500 BC to 1600 AD and we also went to see some other ruins, �?¢â�??¬�?�??Dainzu�?¢â�??¬, which date back even earlier. You can see Liz and Sherrell checking out the Dainzu sports arena where they played a game which seemed a little similar to soccer.



There are TONS of unexplored ruins dotting the hills and valleys. I suppose if you were an archeologist with some spare funding you could probably make some fantastic discoveries. And the city has some great architecture like the European-style cathedrals.



Now that we are back at anchor and have the boat in good to go condition, we�?¢â�??¬â�??¢re going to explore some of the bays a little more and let Lilly Mae get used to life on Ocean Lady before we cross the Tehuantepec in a week or so. When we find some time we�?¢â�??¬â�??¢ll post a story about Southern Mexico on the homepage. I�?¢â�??¬â�??¢ve got some beautiful panoramic photos and some good underwater shots that just need to be seen.

We packed up the cats and together with Ocean Lady we took two rental cars and drove to Oaxaca. Perhaps you might have heard of this place on the news due to their riots and the Canadian reporter that was killed. Well, that scared off the regular tourists, leaving the place to hardy travelers.
Oaxaca has a very rich and old culture with lots of ruins and amazing artwork. When we find some time, we'll post some photos and tell you about our time here. It's been really fantastic and the place we are staying in allows us to bring all 4 of our cats and a dog. In fact there's a even bigger surprise as Ocean Lady has a new crew member! More on all that later!

After saying good by to Willow and Tara who headed out for their long trek to Costa Rica, we sucked it up and headed out on a grueling passage to Isla Cacaluta about 4 miles from the town. There's a massive beach that obviously gets pummeled in the summer by hurricane waves because the beach is practically a 30 foot wall of sand. We found some nice coral there, and walked the beach and the park checking out all the animals. But the wind switched and the second night was too rough to sleep.

So another tough 4 miles and we joined up with Godspeed, Get Lost and Ocean Lady in Jicaral. The coral here is really good and there's quite a few small types of tropical fish. Luck for you, Ocean Lady had an underwater little camera, so we'll soon be able to post some photos of 50% of the world we've never been able to show you before.

The water here in the Hualtulco area is amazingly clear. I can easily see the anchor at 25 feet down and the snorkeling has been some of the best we've had in Mexico -- on par with our secret spots in Isla Angel de la Guardia in the northern Sea of Cortez.

Last night we had a beach barbecue under the full moon. It was a nice mellow night and we wondered how our friends were doing sailing their boats along the lonely stretch of Guatamala heading south as we sipped cold beer and listened to music.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:

http://www.sailmail.com

We really liked La India, but our friends on Willow and Tara are departing to Costa Rica and are taking the weather window to get across the Tehuantapec in the next couple of days. So we braved the 10 miles needed to catch up with them and anchored in Santa Cruz next to Godspeed. We're pretty close to the small stores and downtown from here and we caught a 16 peso ($1.60) taxi ride to Marina Chahue to see Willow and Tara. We also met up with Con Te Partio, Homers' Odyssey and a few new people who are hanging out in the Marina.

Our plan is to be in this area for about 3 weeks, surfing, snorkeling and diving while the weather in the Tehuantapec slowly improves as we get closer to fall. During the fall the high pressure systems in the Gulf of Mexico become less frequent so less wind pours over the low lands of southern Mexico and the windows for crossing get larger.

Anyway we probably won't be posting much until we get ready to cross unless we happen across something spectacular.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:

http://www.sailmail.com

Sometimes when the right wind is blowing you just have to go with it. So when the wind kept blowing from the southwest we hustled to pickup our laundry, 15 gallons of water and hoisted our sails. We had a nice sail all the way into La India. Those big swells coming from deep in the Gulf of Tehuantapec were running at about 6 feet and close together as we rounded the point. We were a little concerned that La India wouldn't provide us much protection, but we tucked deep inside the cove and it's calmer than Puerto Angel and about 10x prettier. We are the only people here and it's nice. Times like this you lay back and breath out ahhhhhhh.

Check out this spot on the google map above and zoom in to see the details!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:

http://www.sailmail.com

We found a very slooooow internet connection in Puerto Angel so we slapped up some new photos to go with the slog entries. Take a look back in the past few weeks.

For some strange reason historic traditions allows governments sovereignty at all times over boats in just about every country in the world. Who cares if it is your home and you happen to be hidden in the cockpit naked trying to wash off three days worth of salt before having a nice dinner at 6 pm at night? Well the Navy and the Port Captain didn't seem to think twice when they motored up to our boat. I think they might have been a bit surprised though when I jumped up in a towel all wet and dashed down below as they started to board our boat. Surprised enough that the Navy decided to forgo the inspection, but the Port Captain boarded and was all business. He stepped around the shampoo bottles, over the bucket and plopped down with his papers. He sat there with his shoes resting in a shallow puddle of soapy water while I was dressing down below and Sherrell was scrambling to move things out of his way. And of course Jordan pushed her way into the cockpit to see what was going on.

Sometimes boats buzz in and out of ports quickly to try to avoid checking in. So they were going to make sure they got us before we tried to take off in the morning. Since we told him we planned to stay a few days and we'd come by his office he just took copies of our paper work and said he would prepare the documents ahead of time for us. He was also relieved we could communicate completely in Spanish and told us it was a pleasure. He didn't seem phased that my hair was all wet and in a messy knot.

Well, at any rate, their visit to Sarana probably provided some stories back in the village last night. I wonder if they'll rush out to board the next boat that anchors here....

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:

http://www.sailmail.com

We managed to make the 37 mile leg to Puerto Angel (AHN-hel). It is a very pretty little bay and village, but not a spectacular anchorage. Hopefully we can find a place where we can get water and some veggies.

On the way here we saw turtles everywhere. They were swimming, mating and being tossed in the air like toys by dolphins. Pretty standard. We were minding our own business when to LARGE humpback whales surfaced 3 feet from the boat. A momma and her baby were so close they could have easily smacked our boat. In fact, Sherrell was already planning our survival escape after they sunk our boat. Because sometimes whales will agressively attack and sink boats, it's rare, but in the wild who knows what they are thinking. And a mother with a calf...well, it was enough to stop Sherrell's heart. Fortunately they went their own way because even the baby calf was almost as big as our boat.

Well, at least we survived another savage day at sea.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:

http://www.sailmail.com