The sun rose and birds singing, Tracy went for a run before the sun broke through the hill above us, along the canal, I rounded up the boys, it is quite cool in the mornings so you get a good night after the air has cooled. But this Monday a day of a lot of jobs if we were going to get away by Wednesday, firstly  friend from Newport and does deliveries of yachts today, and the boys love him, he is a retired fireman and will help on this 3 to 4 day leg by allowing tracy only have to 6 to 10 pm shift and Garry and I will do the rest of evening, so she will be more rested and if things get hard handle the boat. Plus I think he is itching to try a new part of the world he has not sailed before.

Next I started the check out of Mexico procedure this involved dealing with marina and getting a clearance from them, then going to downtown and Harbor Master and getting an Exit Zarpe (certificate ) to leave the country this took an hour lots of paper then over to immigration and then back to harbor master and then back to immigration. Now 3 hours latter you have the documents, and we can then customers to the boat which was completed 7pm this evening, we have now only immigration to come to boat to see all the people and that is Wednesday after Gary arrives.  This took most of the day but I was doing it with Eric from a Swiss boat “Company” and Elan 40 he also was trying to check out so we struggled through together.

But the inspiration of the day came from my time with Eric, (not often do I meet a person who has travelled more than I)  he is Swiss left Europe for a year to travel to Caribbean that was 6 years ago, he got diverted to Brazil and stayed a year, met people cruising from Africa in Brasil heard stories so sailed to Africa then on to Australia and the new Zealand then the Pacific islands and I mean the really remote ones like Pitcan, he then wanted to go to Alaska. This is an issue as you need a visa pre done to enter to USA with a boat and this could only be done in New Zealand, which he had just been too. So he decided to sail from French Polynesia to Japan (6000 miles and took 45 days) he spent a year cruising Japan got the visa and then last summer sailed to Alaska from Japan, and then down the American West coast. The big thing is he has done this single handed, he basically sails, and he does not make too many plans as they keep changing based on people he meets. He is currently heading to Peru, then back into Pacific via Easter Island. He is my age, and just living off his savings, he is happy confident, and extremely interesting. We spent hours talking today about experiences and places, swapping stories and locations especially in Africa. But it was the get on and do it attitude which inspired me, and often you get stuck in what you are doing on a day to day basis. He talked about the current issue we have which is Rolly anchorages which he agrees (along with everyone else in the harbor that this year on the west coast it has been bad), and he said head south, this was good to hear.

I also spent time with another cruiser who has been out for 4 years, he heading north so was a fund of knowledge on the spots south of here and back to Australia and again he expects calmer anchorages and great cruising, he loved El Salvador.

In many ways while it is the experiences and new locations and cultures it is also the like minded people from different walks of life that you meet cruising that really make this life style nice and interesting.

Tonight we went back into town (which is building up for Easter) and   at on the tables at the open market, good food, and Mexicans all locals all around, the atmosphere and colors were vibrant. Sean and Alex are just taking it all in, they ended up in a park with Mexican kids playing Sean is communicating in broken Spanish and Alex is trying.  This town is nice, the harbor is well maintained, good marina here but the twon it's self is not for Americans it is used by Mexicans and it will hopping for Easter al the already the atmosphere in the shops, and streets the plazas is oozing with culture and fun, even if we were not checking out I would come here and cruse either by boat or land, superb beaches and snorkeling.

 Tomorrow it is carting jerry cans of fuel about, and doing final stock ups and clean up the boat ready to go.

Stay tuned.