this is mel and dan sitting in the water at ballandra beach. just doesn´t get any better than this, eh??

not much happening here, just lolling around in the sunshine. weather has gotten cooler, only in the 80´s during the day. this morning we had to put on sweats and a long sleeve t shirt. chillly. oh well, by 8 am it was heating up and is pleasant now. never thought i would think low 80´s was chilly, guess i am acclimatizing to mexican weather, huh. we are still in la paz and enjoying the closeness of town, but i am anxious to get back out on the water. tomorrow, we are going with mel and sandy out to the mogote and swim with the whale sharks. they are in the sea now and are very gentle creatures. dinghy´s are going out all the time to swim or just watch them. should be exciting. ralph and angie on nanner moon are on their way from ensenada and are in turtle bay resting up. they should be down here in a week or so. will be good to see them again. when they are rested up, we will take them out to the islands and show them the good spots. yesterday, emily and mark from groovy, showed up in their dinghy. they are back from touring the states in their rv all summer. they are anchored in the harbor not too far from our boat. there is no room in the marina to dock. the baja ha ha will be pulling in, in the next couple of days and they have the slips all reserved. some will stay on and some will leave but for now there is no room at the inn. guess we will be having thanksgiving at palmira marina. they put on a big traditional spread for the cruisers and most of the people go there for it. should be pretty good and i am considering volunteering to help serve, not sure yet. dan hasn´t made up his mind if he wants to go or not. he is not that fond of turkey, so he´s not overly impressed. i love turkey and want to go so we´ll see who wins (usually i get my way). lol. hope this finds everyone well and healthy. we are just enjoying ourselves and loving life. puppies are good and happy, so all is well with our family. hugs to all

here i am again. i have been trying to add pictures of our trip to this blog and so far i am not sure what has happened. if they show up, they are ensenada cruisers, trip from ensenada with suzanne and rick on "kiknit" and all stops on the way. la paz and the beautiful sunsets from our dock. dinner with pat, terry (sunnyside), suzanne and rick (kiknit), caryn and rolland (meliora) at gran establo (owner, chef jorge) and cruising the islands with mel and sandy (big wonderful). i hope they come through, some are great, some are not. hugs

hello again, sorry it´s been so long, but my keyboard decided not to be useful and i had to replace it. now we are working again, so here goes. we are back in la paz after 3 months cruising the sea. what a great place to explore. so many beautiful islands and perfect diving and snorkeling places. the fish are beautiful, so many different and gorgeous colors. it is absolutely amazing. like being in a tropical fish tank. a big one. the beaches are white sand usually and the water temp was almost like bath water. nothing is cold down here, not even the water. it is nice to be back at the dock, with all the conveniences, but anchoring has it´s good points too. the dogs were amazing. they line up on the deck and wait their turn to get into the dinghy and have a hard time containing their excitement until we get close to the beach. then they jump out into the water and swim to shore. once we put the dinghy on the beach, they are in the water and swimming like i had never seen them do before. cept for daisy, she´s not comfortable with it yet, but she has fallen off the boat into the water before and i think she is just a little scared. she´ll come around, i´m sure. she gets in to about her tummy and whines while the other two are paddling around. she likes to dig a hole in the sand under the bow of the dinghy and lay where it´s cool. they all run up and down the beach and try to catch the birds, but so far haven´t had any luck getting any. ha. we are going to stay in la paz until after the first of the year. we are waiting for ralph and angie on nanner moon. they should be down here around the middle of november. we will be having thanksgiving at palmira marina, i think, with the cruising community here. we have heard that they put on quite a spread. i´ll let you know in a future blog. when angie and ralph get here and have settled in, we will be leaving for the islands again to show them the good ones to go to and the ones with lots of bugs and bees to stay away from. not too many bad ones, but we don´t want to go there again. we also want to go diving with the seals. they are so tame, they come up and nuzzle with you. sandy and mel took their son diving with them last week while he was here visiting and sandy just snorkeled and had one come up to her and she cuddled him just like a puppy. she said it was really awesome. so naturally, i want to cuddle with one too. lol. one of the nice things about this marina is the dock restaurant. they have really good food, mexican and american, and it is just a walk up the dock. very convenient. we have a couple of favorites and the waiters all remember us, and know what we usually want. anyway, that´s an update for now, i´ll try to post some pictures, wish me luck. we are both good and the dogs are too. hope the same goes for all of you. remember, we are just a plane ride away. airport is just 15 minutes away and hotels are only a short walk away. you are all welcome to come and visit. hasta luego, mi amigos.

well here we are in isla coronados. it is a pretty large cove about 100 miles north of la paz. we have been cruising in the sea of cortez for a month and have visited many, many islands. this is one of the best with white soft sand and clear turquoise water. the water temp is about 89° and is actually refreshing since it is about 100° out of the water. we have been buddy boating with mel and sandy on ¨big wonderful¨ and yesterday kate and mike on ¨magda jean¨and ron and heather on ¨sundancer¨ pulled in here. we met kate and mike in ensenada, but had only talked on the radio to ron and heather, so it was nice to finally meet them. the dogs have been having lots of fun running and swimming. we have been totally amazed at max and maggie..they love to swim and you can´t keep them in the dinghy when we get close to shore. they jump out before we get up on land. daisy had fallen in the water too many times and she doesn´t like it very much. she will get in to about her tummy and that´s all. when we were in escondito, maggie and daisy were runny full out and came to the end of land, but were going too fast to stop and ended up in deep water. it scared daisy and she kept trying to climb up the wall instead of swimming to the rocks. dan had to lay in the dirt and reach down to get her out. she does know how to swim, but can´t get by being scared. that´s ok. she digs holes in the sand and lays in it in the shade while we swim.

a little while ago, another boat we know hailed us on the radio and said they would be up here in a couple of days, so we will be hanging out here for a while longer. that´s fine with me, so far this is my favorite cove. they don´t allow any jet ski´s in this area, so the big power boats with all the toys on board don´t usually come in here. this is a national park and has a bunch of rules about what you can and cannot do. taking dogs to shore is one of the cannots, but we do any way. all they will do is tell us to take them back to the boat. they don´t destroy anything on shore, so we don´t see the reasons for not allowing them. oh well, some rules were made to be broken, right????

i missed girls camping this year and spent a couple of days thinking of all my buddies laying on their air mattresses on the river, but not really wishing i was there. just missing the girls and the fun. hope they missed me a little bit. we were just too far away to get up there this year. hope they all had fun and nobody fell in the campfire!!!!

well, that´s it for this session, i will try to update again as soon as we can get internet service. we are heading toward a little more civilization now, so i should be able to write more often. take care, stay healthy and have fun. love to all...hugs

well, here i am again. we ordered or dive gear, tanks, regulators, bcd´s, etc. and they should be arriving soon. we have a cruisers net here and it has a really good video of rescuing a humpback baby whale. if you are interested, go to www.club cruceros. org and scroll down the left hand side, yellow, and click on humpback whale rescue. it shows just how large the sea of cortez is and the amazing rescue these people did. we are just about ready to head up that direction. soon as the dive gear gets here and our boat buddies next door-mel and sandy on big wonderful, are ready. they had to recommision their auto pilot yesterday, so they are just about done with their projects. mike and dianna on defiant will be joining us as soon as they get their fm3 cards. (mexican residency). we are getting so excited. we have wanted dive gear for years and finally decided that since mel is a master diver and has the equipment to fill our tanks, that now is the time to do some serious diving. further up the sea, we will be able to dive with manta rays, whale sharks, sea lions and of course, dolphins. mel will give us a quick refresher course on the equipment and then off we go into the deep. wish you all were here and could join us. it is such an awesome adventure to swim with the fishes. there are so many different kinds of fish, so many different kinds and colors of coral, it is truly amazing. can you tell i am really looking forward to this. plus we have been sitting at the dock for way too long again. anchoring out will be good. love the rock and roll of the boat at night when we are anchored. soothing and puts me to sleep. also when it gets too hot we can just take a swim to cool off. the water temp right how is in the high 70´s and will get even warmer as the summer comes on. we bought a couple of floating chairs with cup holders, so we can even have a beer while in the water!!! i am anxious to let the dogs off the boat and let them swim and run on the beach. if we let them off while docked, they seem to think it´s ok to get off any time they want, so we have to leave them on the boat. they haven´t had a good run for a long time and they will really enjoy that freedom again. i will try to update this as often as i can and hopefully post some good pictures while we are sailing. hope this finds everyone well and healthy. take care of yourselves and remember, we are only a plane ride away or a long drive for a great vacation. hugs