Marina living...

They have a new marine here in Apia. Only a couple years old. Nice cement
docks. And you MUST tie up here. There is no longer any anchoring permitted
in the harbour. They even send out a boat to greet you, guide you into your
berth and help you to tie up. And...there is drinkable water (hurray) and
electricity (220v - not so handy for us). And of course, there is a nightly fee...which adds up quickly.

Marina living is pretty good. We were put into the slip right at the bottom
of the ramp to shore, so we have met everyone here. Not many cruising boats
here - a couple of empty sailboats, and a few fishing charter boats.
Everyone has been super friendly. And for the first time in memory, we're
the largest boat, for the moment. Weird. So we've been having quite a few
dinners aboard Renova.

Here we are enjoying musical performances from Alec (fishing guide aboard
Southern Destiny) and Shawn (local from across the street). Dom and Eric
also provided musical entertainment for the evening!

Birthday Fun

We have been enjoying Papeete. I had a fun birthday lounging around, and enjoying a day without boat chores. We had a fun dinner with the hilarious Licorne crew at the marina restaurant and finished up with drinks in the bar. Tango gave us a fabulous mattress pad, so we're now happily sleeping in comfort for the first time in almost a year (hard to believe we've been living on this boat for a year already)!! What a birthday gift!!

The last few days have been a blur. We've been trying to make arrangements for flights home, doing brightwork, shopping, refilling propane, exploring Papeete, etc. Lots of boats here that we've seen along the way, and many more new faces, so it's been fun to hang out and get to know more people. Most are moving along, and heading to Australia or New Zealand for the cyclone season.

We also stopped into an internet cafe in town and had a chance to check out the blog. Thanks to everyone who has been leaving comments on the blog - we really enjoy reading them!!

Mikey's just arrived, so we're looking forward to lots more exploring and sightseeing, now that he's here.

La Paz Living

La Paz continues to enchant us. John's spirits are high - with both a new (to him) spear gun, and a refurbished outboard motor. I am stocking our shelves with enough supplies to take us into the next phase of this adventure. And, we're enjoying sharing the company of the other cruisers down here. Here are a few images from the last week or so.

The La Paz malecon - or main drag - is a wonderful tiled walkway along the waterfront, complete with ice cream, kettle corn, and a variety of street vendors. And at this time of year, families flock to the malecon to test out their new Christmas prezzies - skateboards, bicycles, and roller blades!

Bronze statues are common along the malecon

This radar tower in front of the navy is dressed up all pretty...

Everyday involves shopping for provisions for the next leg of this adventure. This requires me to take inventory of what we currently have in Renova's stores. Here is a photo of the re-provisioning process, as a tribute to the similar photos that SV Pisces loves to share.

Ola Mexico!

After a few errands with the rental car, and a nice lunch with Denis and Holly (Tango), we left San Diego late on Monday afternoon, and after a short trip, we arrived in Ensenada Mexico at 4:00 on Tuesday morning. It was a lovely overnight passage with a full moon and calm seas. We both managed to sleep for a few hours. We had originally planned on a slow sail and tacking in front of the harbour until sunrise, but we arrived early and when we saw how well lit the harbour entrance was, we decided to enter. We didn't have any problems and were able to tie up at Cruiseport Marina without incident. In fact, a staff person was on hand to welcome us and check us in!

After a couple hours of rest, we began the process of getting assigned a slip in the marina for the night, and then checking in with all the various authorities - Immagracion (3x); Bancocito (4x); Customs; Pesces (fisheries -2x); Port Capitan...etc. We started at 8am, and we finished in time for lunch at 12:30. Whew. Luckily...the kind folks at the marina prepared our paperwork for us (at no additional fee, although the moorage wasn't inexpensive), and were super helpful in making the process go smoothly. We did all of this in the company of Mark and Vicki on s/v Southern Cross, so the line ups weren't a problem, as we had people to chat with, and a spanish speaker to ask for directions!

We also spent some time at the TellCell store, in hopes of setting ourselves up with a new cell phone. It didn't work out to be as easy as we hoped, so we aren't going to have a new cell until La Paz.

Renova Has Moved!!

Hurray! After about 18 months on the waiting list, we've finally secured a slip at the marina. We've loved the time we've spent at the government docks - it has a great sense of community, we enjoy walking down to the boat, and the price is right. We'll miss our harbour neighbors. Yet...we are looking forward to having a designated slip, always knowing where we'll tie up, and not be so vulnerable to other boats.

We had a glorious, sunny day yesterday so John rounded up a couple friends to help move the boat. Without an engine, this task isn't as easy as it seems. We had to tow it with our little aluminum boat, and the outboard wasn't very happy with the freezing temperatures. Apparently, it was a gong show, and we've already managed to gain quite a reputation at the new marina. I'm glad I wasn't there.