Tenacatita to Barra Navidad

So we left Tenacatita yesterday around 9:45 am. On the way out, we got distracted trying to get a good photo of a whale that was lazing around in the bay. But he was just too lazy. Got a few of photos of his spout and his nose and a bit of his body, but nothing spectacular. Had fun trying though. The trip to Navidad was not too long and pretty uneventful. But going into the anchorage there – well that was another story. We were heading in, you know red on right green on left, but when the bouys ran out by the fuel dock (which was totally occupied by a huge power yacht), we didn’t quite know where the channel went (found out later it is only about 20 feet wide at the most and 10 feet or less deep). Well we found a sand bar between the fuel dock and the channel. We got really stuck! I mean like in four wheel drive low gear have to get out and do something stuck. Burt was just on the radio trying to get some assistance from someone at the marina when a family came up on their dinghy. They had two cute little blond boys. Made me miss River and Neko. They asked if we were ok. I told them we were really stuck. They told us to call on channel 22 to the other cruisers for some assistance. Then they started pushing on the boat. No go. Then came another dinghy and then another etc. They swarmed over to help us. There were more dinghies than we had room on the hull for pushing!! I guess this is a common occurrence and everyone pretty much knew what to do. They got us loose and one of the cruisers named Richard on the boat Bovante stayed on board to help guide us through the channel (we had missed it by about 30 feet). Then, when we got into the lagoon, we had the impossible task of finding room for anchoring. If you went to the outside of all the boats, it was too shallow and inside there was no room. We finally found a spot – a bit tense as the boat swung around on the anchor – hoping not to hit another sand bar. So we settled in and put the dinghy down to go ashore. We figured with the dinghy it wouldn’t be a problem just crossing the lagoon. Nope. We almost got the dinghy stuck too! This place is booby trapped. Oh well, guess there’s no short cut to shore. We found a place that let’s you tie up and drink a beer and use the internet. Got in touch with everyone, checked to see how much work I have – won’t bore you with those details. We are going to go to the Port Captain this morning and check in. Then we are going to explore just a little and I have to work. Burt’s going to find out where to get everything we need and find the brothers and get a meeting schedule.

Burt asked someone who knew someone who is a witness. So we caught the water taxi over to land, then caught a bus and then walked to the meeting on Saturday evening. What a nice congregation! They provided us with a Spanish Watchtower so we could keep up. Also a Spanish song book. Then they all talked for a long time with us after the meeting. In Spanish!!! We are learning.

It took me some time to find a good place to work. The place I mentioned earlier is okay until later in the afternoon. That’s when people come in that need a dictionary to improve their vocabulary!! Oh well, tis what it is. So I found a place – Los Arcos – a restaurant that has decent internet. We were walking up to the restaurant on Monday and there was Stan and Nacho sitting there having lunch! We were so happy to see them. They did the whole water taxi, walk to the bus, ride the bus, walk to the meeting with us for the book study on Tues. It’s later – 7:15 and the bus stops running at nine. We all walked back down to catch the bus after the meeting and the bus just drove right on past us!! So we started walking and there was a cab sitting on the side of the road. We got in and after we got going, Burt offered him something to read and guess what – you guessed it – he’s a brother! We were all starving so we asked him where is his favorite place to eat in Barra and he took us to the best place we’ve eaten since we’ve been here.

Wednesday we went to Melaque to the market for provisions. Found a sling shot (for those birds that insist on sitting on the mast and pooping on our deck). Now we have to go collect some pebbles on the beach. There’s five miles of beach here. The surf is good too. Nacho surfs and he said the surf is supposed to be 7 feet on Thursday.

We went to the school and service meeting on Thursday and we all commented. One of the brothers took us out to eat afterward. We had a really nice time with his family. He has a three year old and a 4 month old – made me miss River and Neko (does that sound like a recurring theme?). We told everyone we wanted to go out in service on Friday morning. This morning – Friday - the alarm didn’t work so we got up a bit later than planned. Then we called the water taxi on the radio and waited and waited and waited. Finally at 5 to 9 we decided we better just hop in the dinghy and head to shore. It takes 20 minutes and the meeting was at 9:00 so we were wondering if we would be too late to catch anyone. It was even more discouraging when we asked someone what time it was and they said 9:30. So we hopped in a taxi and told him we wanted to go to the Kingdom Hall. He didn’t sound like he knew where it was and he was taking us down some very unfamiliar streets, so I was getting worried. We never did make it to the Kingdom Hall, but as we were going down one of the streets there were all the bros and sis walking to the territory. We were so happy to see them and they were happy to see us because the territory is full of English speaking people. We grouped up one English speaking with 2 or 3 Spanish speaking and had a lot of fun.

This congregation is like a magnet holding our anchor down. They are so loving and hospitable. Tomorrow is our last day and our last meeting. It’s going to be so hard to say good bye. We haven’t heard from the Panama branch yet, so we have to keep to our schedule as much as possible. I think we are a bit behind, so we are going to try some overnighters to get to Zihuatenejo. Steve and Misty are in the Bahamas so no use stopping in Manzanillo to see them.