Santiago

After a 2-minute discussion, and considering the grey skies with no opposing wind, we departed Tenacatita mid-morning Sunday and motor sailed down to one of our favorite anchorages, Santiago -- which is one of the bights within the huge Manzanillo bay.  Several old friends are at anchor here -- what a treat!  And we're meeting many new nice folks as well.  Monday we stayed "home" all day, watching the surf trends, trying to scope out a strategy for dinghying ashore.  We did the same on Tuesday, but since we had been invited to have dinner on Meridien we offered to bring dessert, so having something to occupy a few hours in the afternoon helped while the day away.  As is usually the case, lively conversation lasted well into the night and our dinghy ride back to Damiana on glassy water, illuminated by anchor lights and a few reflections from highly polished white boats, was almost surreal.

This morning was the "test."  We were determined to ride the dinghy into shore without any other cruisers to help us (they all really do want to help and it's very hard to say "no thank you.").  After riding a few not-too-big waves, we had a successful landing,  After we got it onto the hard sand two nice cruisers came by and grabbed some line handles on the side and we just didn't have the heart to say "no."  Well, we left it in wet sand with an anchor since the tide was going out and would continue going out for several more hours.  We met them and another couple of cruisers while walking the beach, and all six of us stopped at a palapa (thatch-roofed open air restaurant) for lunch.  One couple left early.  When it was only four of us, the guy said, we'll walk down with you and help you.  His wife was still drinking her water, so we said "we'll start ahead and really do want to see if we can do this ourselves."  Yea!!!!!  We got it turned around and launched all by ourselves!  We still need larger wheels, but what a great feeling to not feel dependent on others for doing a routine and necessary activity.