Neos Log for May, 2012

                                                      Potluck on the beach at Candeleros

We left Candeleros and headed to Loreto for provisioning.  We anchored off of the town with a forecast of smooth seas.  We headed into Pescador, the main grocery store and loaded up.  We ran into lots of cruisers, even Bella Brisa.  They had come over from Escondido by taxi to provision.  Amazing how nice cruisers can look once they get off of the boat!  Cruisers clean up nicely. 

The next day we headed south and anchored in Juncalito for the night since we had south winds.  It was finally time for Loreto Fest.  This year, it ran from May 3 through May 6.  Sponsored by the Hidden Port Yacht Club, which is half land cruisers and half water cruisers, the Fest features seminars, athletic events, dinghy races, evening entertainment and silent auction.  The original purpose of the event was to get cruisers together to clean up the bay.  It has grown considerably! 

We rounded the point and took a mooring inside Escondido, then headed to the dock.  I signed us up at the marina for the 4 night stay and then we signed up for some volunteer duty during setup.  We totally enjoyed this event.  Our first afternoon, we volunteered to help set up the food and beverage booths.  Rog spent a couple of hours working on a leaky beer tap (which leaked beer for the two hours he worked on it…..well somebody had to drink the stuff!! Can’t let it go to waste.) 

 Meanwhile, I cleaned tables, set out food supplies…whatever needed to be done.  That evening there was a potluck dinner followed up with a puppet show put on by a cruiser.  He made some gorgeous puppets….but the show was really just the puppets “lip synching” to songs.  Pretty good by cruiser standards.  The next day, we attended a couple of seminars and rooted for our friends in the horseshoe and bocce ball tournaments.  A local dance troupe did an hour of cultural dances in the afternoon. 

We joined the yacht club which entitled us to a free dinner that evening.  Cruisers brought in their favorite songs and a DJ played music for our dancing pleasure.  Then Saturday was the swap meet, more seminars, and another potluck.  That evening a great jazz band played and we got in our fill of dancing.  Things really wound down on Sunday.  There was a delicious brunch in the morning and a final potluck dinner that preceded the awards ceremony and raffle.  The weather was perfect the entire weekend and fun was had by all.  A definite “attend” for anyone in the area!

Monday morning we dragged our shade material over to the dock area and found a shady spot in front of the shops.  We were able to cut out all of the pieces we needed, roll them up and return them to NEOS before noon.  Meanwhile, Linda Singleton, a yacht broker here, took us over in her dinghy to the waiting room and showed us an anchoring system we can use in July when we travel back home.  It was time to leave our marina mooring so we took NEOS over to try out the anchoring system.  After lunch, we dinghied over to Rock N Roll and picked them up for a trip to Hotel Tripui for an afternoon swim.  We met 4 other cruisers there and played some Farkel and relaxed.

The next day, Oasis drove me and RnR into the hospital for our 2 month medical visit.  Rog (healthy old cuss!) didn’t need the 2 month checkup, but I needed it to continue on my Pravastatina, so he stayed aboard NEOS.  Just like La Paz, we got our blood work done in the morning and then had to wait to see the doc in the afternoon.  So Oasis took us to every grocery store in Loreto, a few hardware stores, and a pie shop.  I picked up a few things we needed.  After lunch, it was time to head back to get our lab results and see the doc.  Again, like La Paz, we had to wait all afternoon and finally got into the doc at about 5:30.  Then it was a trip to the pharmacy for the meds and back to Escondido.  We got back to NEOS at dusk.   After 2 nights, we were ready for some fresh air and headed out to Marquer.  Pretty much by ourselves after a hectic weekend of socializing, we spent 3 quiet days rejuvenating.  The water is still pretty chilly for swimming but there are mild breezes so we aren’t dying of the heat.  We headed up to Loreto for more provisioning, then headed to the south anchorage of Coronados where we had the entire southern coast to ourselves.  It was gorgeous.  After a few days, the south wind started up so we had to head around the tip to the northern anchorage.  It was a bit more crowded here…maybe 12 boats.  Most of them were waiting for south winds to travel north so they slowly peeled off over the next 2 days until there were about 5 of us left. 

We headed back to the Waiting Room outside Escondido so we could say farewell to RnR.  They were heading back to Texas for a wedding and family/friend visit.  We got in a couple of days of Baja Rummy and were able to see them off.  This visit also confirmed our bad feelings about the anchoring system we were on.  Neos is just too doggone big for it.  We strayed way too close to the shore at low tide and came dangerously close to Trinity, the catamaran anchored near us.  So we went into the marina and got prices for Escondido moorings.  If we can’t find a better anchoring system, we will just head into Escondido.  We shall see!  We walked into the Modelorama store for some beer and then picked up some gasoline at the fuel dock.  When we got back to NEOS, Trinity came over to see the boat and we chatted for a few hours.  Then we had lunch while we headed out of the Waiting Room, headed to Isla Danzante. Our favorite little cove was available, so we tucked in.  Oasis came over a few days later and we got in an afternoon card game.  The next day we headed north to Coronados.  Oasis needed to fuel up and do a few things in Escondido, so they stayed in Danzante.

At Coronados, we prepared for our next visitor.  My niece, Katie Siering, was coming for a 10 day visit from Newport, Rhode Island.  So we relaxed and prepared the guest room.  It was windy for a few days but the day she was due to arrive, we had flat calm seas.  A perfect day to head into Loreto to pick her up.  We left early in the morning and anchored off of the marina, then headed in for a major provisioning.  We got everything back aboard and put away by noon.  After lunch, it was time to head in and wait for Katie at the marina.  She arrived by airport shuttle at 2:30 and we took a quick trip to NEOS to drop off her bags and make a quick change into more comfortable clothes. Katie passed out the goodies; her tax (M&M’s and Starbuck’s coffee…both HUGE bags!), the stuff we had ordered online for her to bring (a new camera for my birthday and a Kindle for Rog’s birthday..plus supplies for the shade project) and a few surprises (oodles of different herbal tea mixes and some body oils to try).  Surprisingly she was raring to go, so we headed back to see the town.  

We hit all of the souvenir shops.. and a couple of ice cream shops.  Katie proved to be quite the negotiator as she bargained for her treasures.  By 6pm, we were done and were relaxing in the town square when a man approached us and asked if we were Roger and Sue.  Turns out that his name was John, and he was vacationing in Loreto with his dad, Butch.  Butch had been on our trip to Hong Kong/Thailand/Korea more than 30 years ago and was a friend of my sister, Micki.  We had actually seen Butch at Micki’s at Christmas this past year and talked about Neos.  At the time, we had encouraged him to come visit.  Well, as they were snacking on nachos at an outdoor table on the square, Butch recognized us.  We invited John and Butch back to Neos where they joined us for drinks and guacamole on the bow as we watched the sunset and chatted for a couple of hours.   By the time they left, Katie was near exhaustion and we hit the berths.

The next day, we headed north.  Our first stop was the Waiting Room to check up on Rock N Roll.  Rog maneuvered NEOS and rafted up to RnR’s starboard hull.  I jumped over the lifelines and tied us up.  Then he and Katie boarded RnR, watered the aloe vera, washed the solar panels and checked on the bilges and batteries.  All was perfect and withing 15 minutes, we were untied and on our way.  We had planned to go to Danzante but the wind was on the nose so we turned north and headed to Candeleros instead.  Katie actually braved the water and did some snorkeling…not me and Rog.  Too dang cold!

With only one more day of north wind, we headed out the next morning to Agua Verde and anchored in the southern cove.  About an hour after we arrived, Tom and Jeanie of Eagle dinghied by and said howdy.  They were in the northern cove and were on their way back from town.  We invited them over for a Farkel game that evening.  We taught Katie how to play Farkel before they arrived so she was primed and ready for battle.  We had a great evening and Katie and Jeanie found common ground discussing herbs.  More on Katie’s trip next month…..