Adagio Cruising: February 6, 2015

After leaving La Cruz we motored about 7 hours to a new destination. The tiny village of Ipala. We anchored there with two sailboats, and were shortly joined by two more sailboats. The shore had some sizable breaking waves so we decided to stay onboard for the afternoon. It is a small anchorage and is exposed to any weather or swell from the south. We did have some swell from the south but no winds to speak of.

Dolphins in our bow wake. New species for us, spotted!

Punta Ipala, small town or maybe you would say village!

A few hours after arriving a local fisherman in a panga motored out to visit each of the boats. We figured he was trying to sell fish or lobster, but instead was coming around to ask if people had any items to donate to the children of the village. Things like clothing, hats, pencils, etc. We knew this might happen so we stocked up on these items before we left La Conner so we were able to help by donating half a dozen shirts, a baseball cap, and a big wad of brand new pencils. Since accessing the beach looked quite daunting and risky we decided to leave very early the next morning and motor to Bahia Chamela. It’s about 8 hours away and didn’t want to arrive at the end of the day. So we set the alarm clock for 3:00AM and arrived in Chamela around 10:30AM.

When we arrived we were happy to see our friends on sv Flying Squirrel anchored in the bay. We meandered through the vessels searching for a comfortable location to drop the anchor. We set the hook near a Krogen 42 trawler, and also close to sv Flying squirrel. We met the people onboard mv Oriana (the Krogen) back in La Cruz. It’s nice to see people you know when you arrive at a new location. We have gotten to know so many cruisers that it is very probably that we will see at least one boat we know whenever we arrive at a new destination.

Steve took Kathy and our kids along with Mathew, Morgan and Mom Amy from Flying Squirrel toward the beach where all 6 of them jumped off the dinghy and swam to shore. Once ashore, the kids spent a few hours boogie boarding in the waves with their new friends Matthew and Morgan. They also built a nice sandcastle. Steve stayed behind to work on the boat, and Dave stayed behind to work on their boat. When the beach crew was ready to come “home”, Steve dinghied toward the beach and [picked up all of the toys and blankets and then escorted the beach party as they swam back to Flying Squirrel. It was a fun afternoon for the kids.

We enjoyed a very calm night at anchor and we all slept in a little in the morning.