Monday 16th March 2020
Today is a Bank Holiday here in Mexico, so the Harbour Master is only open until 1pm today. Our task today is to wash the boat down before it gets too hot. Before that we need a cup of tea and some breakfast. Bres & I cleaned the boat, whilst John did the check in with the Marina Office and Harbour Master. He and Bres met John and Deby from Lovely Reta to collect the Reed Sailmaker sewing machine they were selling. The bobbin winder is broken and she tells me it is a bit temperamental, we shall see. We went up to La Peska for a well-earned drink and a bite to eat for lunch. As we managed to get some Wi-Fi. We have found out that a lot of countries are in lockdown and that Bres’s flight home has been cancelled. We had heard that the shops are empty and that you can’t buy provisions or eggs and that toilet rolls and hand sanitiser are sold out. I came back to the boat and finished cleaning the floor inside. We went into Karen’s at Buccerieas for Dinner. We had never been there before. It was a small restaurant on the beach and the food was excellent. We then walked across the bridge and past the church to Bar Sunshine where a friend of a friend’s family member was singing. It was a really lovely evening. Our boat is next to a guy called Kenny and his lovely dog Rocky, who is always pleased to see us, I’m sure it’s nothing to do with the dog treat we give her each morning.
Tuesday 17th March 2020
It seems the La Cruz market is postponed until further notice, some of the regatta has been affected too. Dean has messaged John to say Kylie’s wedding in Australia has been postponed as no-one an get out there. We are going into town to have breakfast, do the laundry and to get some provisions for later. I had seen that Fiona had just come through the Panama Canal and that the Marina was in lockdown as was the supermarket where they did their shopping, which had guards on the door, and they were letting a few people in at a time. We had breakfast in La Cruz Inn and there were half the number of tables out to normal. The lady who owned it said it was to keep a distance between the tables. She had had armed police arrive the night before trying to close her down. It then came to nothing as the governor of the area said it was OK. She reckoned though that after today they would probably be told to close. The chap from the French Bakery here was closing at 2pm and then going to the mountains until further notice. We went to Kenny the butchers and got our supplies from the local tiendas and got everything we needed. We spent the afternoon sorting out money things on the internet then had a beer by the pool with the crowd from Angelique II, Willow & Dolce Vita. I cooked Chicken Milanese and Dennis came over. We had laid his setting out with rubber gloves, sanitiser and covered the cushions in plastic as when we were at the pool he was trying to open bins and door by using his T-shirt as a shield. He saw the funny side to what we had done. Bres managed to take a picture.
Wednesday 18th March 2020
Well the net this morning told us the swap meet was cancelled on Saturday and that all the seminars regarding the Puddle Jump would now be done on FaceTime and not from the Cruisers Lounge. We are to refrain from meeting in the Cruisers Lounge in groups and if we but food from the poolside grill, it is to be taken away. There were a lot of questions about hand sanitiser and where it can be purchased. It seems to me that from people who supposedly couldn’t find it, but from the long list of places that had it, you must question how hard they looked in the first place. Bres has got a flight back to the UK from Aero Mexico, it was on an email this morning. It is 24 hours later than the one he previously had, which isn’t too bad in the scheme of things. John is trying to fix the port light which died on the trip here from Chimala. Bres has just returned and it seems the server is down and the phone number for Aero Mexico, unsurprisingly, is engaged. I suggested that if he is really worried, to go to the airport himself and go to customer services as it isn’t too far from here, which is what we ended up doing. Whilst we were in that sort of direction we went to Zaragoza the marine chandlery and then on to Puerto Vallarta where we walked along the Malacon. We had a drink and some nibbles in a bar on slits which overlooks the beach. After the Uber trip back we booked a paddle boarding lesson for tomorrow morning. Bres isn’t doing it because of his knee but Dave is joining us. We caught up with the news and it seems the schools in the UK are closing on Friday and that they have cancelled the Summer Exams. Bres cooked breakfast this morning and John is cooking dinner tonight, so I have had a day off which is rather nice. For dinner tonight we have some of the steak we bought last night with Asparagus and garlic and onion mashed potatoes. We ended the night with a game of Yahtzee, the competition will continue tomorrow as we only had time for one game which Bres won.
Thursday 19th March 2020
We were up early as today John, I & Dave had a paddle boarding lesson. The kettle is on as I write, and we have some more lovely Mangos for breakfast. The Paddle boarding was great fun but much harder than I had first imagined. Having managed to stand up my thigh muscles were working overtime whilst I was trying to keep balanced. An excellent way to keep fit though as it uses every muscle in your body. I didn’t fall off but did topple to my knees a few times. John fell off three times. There is someone on Dock 6 in Mazatlan who paddle boards with his dog (named Sid Viscous) standing in front of him. Deep respect to him and the dog, although Sid does have 4 legs over our 2. Bres and Dave are signed up to go Whale watching on Saturday. We decided not to go as we need to save our money and it’s 1,000 pesos each. Kim and Clay on Willow are leaving tomorrow, so we have offered to return the favour and go to the fuel dock with them in the morning, for which they were grateful. We have now had a power cut at the Cruisers Lounge in the Marina, so that means no more internet. Dinner on the boat was very nice, we invited Dave and Dennis, John cooked Spaghetti Bolognese. We finished off the Yahtzee game yesterday and Bres won.
Friday 20th March 2020
Today the net was all about everything to do with self-quarantine and everywhere that was closing. Despite all the doom and gloom Donald said that the pool volleyball is still on tomorrow and that face masks will be provided. We see Kim & Clay off at about 10 am. Breakfast was cooked on the boat and I need to go up to the Marina Office to do some catching up. Spoke to Robert who said they are all working from home and that unless you get to the supermarket for 6am there is no food. He also said that all bars and restaurants are closed. Aileen said they are in work but on a rota as they have to be open for Key Workers and Vulnerable children. She laughed and said how many parents they had had trying to say they were key workers. We asked Hugh how Easyjet going and he said he didn’t want to go there, so we suspect either they aren’t paying him or there is a bigger problem. We couldn’t get hold of Alex, Sophie or Mum & Dad. We aren’t sure whether tonight is going to be on with the dancing horses. So, it’s all a bit depressing really. Dave is trying to book a flight back to the States but isn’t sure whether the border has been closed. We walked into town and the Dancing Horses were there. I don’t know one end of a horse from another, but they were beautiful creatures which were very well looked after. While we were sitting there having a drink, we saw Charity and Tim arrive with her father, more or less straight off the plane from Hawaii where her dad was in a home. We left them having dinner watching the horses and we went to the brown chair restaurant. As always, the food was delicious.
Saturday 21st March 2020
Bres was up early this morning in anticipation of the Whale Watching trip that he and Dave were doing after breakfast. The earlier in the morning the more chance you have of seeing them apparently, time will tell. We emailed Mum & Dad, Emma, Alex & Sophie. Mum had made some Face-masks, I laughed and said has she crocheted them and then when she showed us, John commented on it looking like underwear and she confirmed it had been made from and old bra. They are not allowed out unless it is one of the reasons on a downloadable form. If they do go out together they have to walk a metre apart. They are busy packing a couple of boxes a day in readiness for the move which she thinks is still on. But having said that, the comment passed was that after all this house prices will be halved. We said well if the people were buying this with a mortgage, that may be revoked, and it would be cheaper for them to pull out and pay the costs rather than continue with the purchase. Time will tell on that and everything else that is happening at the moment. Emma and Paul have driven to Devon as they have no work. She even suggested Robert and Amy go to Amy’s mums to sit it out. Alex seems OK although Luisa will be at home again as Piera’s nursery is closed. Sophie was emptying her room in halls and will be back in Hertford. We said she should just do one trip and leave what wouldn’t go in the car. We went with Dave to refuel his boat as he has a flight back to the States tomorrow. We will fill ours tomorrow and come back to the Dock. We will see whether he and Bres manage to get their flights. We will be sailing back to Mazatlan once Bres has or hasn’t got his flight, if he hasn’t then he will have to sail; with us back to Mazatlan too. We ate a shrimp dinner on Dennis boat last night and had a lovely evening. The latest yet I think as it was gone 11.30pm by the time we got back to the boat.
Sunday 22nd March 2020
So todays kick in the balls was the engine. We put the engine on in order to go to the fuel dock and we were out of our slip starting to head round the corner when the engine cut out. We shouted and Mambo came over and a couple of others. We managed to fend off the rear of the boat and get a line out to tie us on to the very end of the dock. John and Dennis tried to fix it by following Rick’s instructions on how to bleed the engine, but the injectors would not get bubbles of fuel coming out of the top. Defeated, we went to the marina office to tell them where we were. Dave dropped by with food emptied from his freezer as he is headed home later today. Bres has been checking his flights as he isn’t convinced, he will be going. It seems the government is trying to push through urgent legislation to stop flights. Not sure how that will affect us but without an engine we aren’t going anywhere at the moment. John telephoned Fernando and he said he would be over tomorrow at about 10:00am. We went up the La Peska, one of the restaurants in the Marina for a change of scene and a light snack for lunch, they seem to think today will be the last day they will be allowed to open. So, it’s catching up here as at home all restaurants, bars and gyms are closed.
Whilst there we also received an email telling us our flights home have been brought forward by a couple of days to the 10th May. I expect that will change again as the UK government are trying to rush through a bill to close the airports. We are sitting on the boat just reading and feeling rather depressed at the whole situation. I caught up on my emails and I got some lovely messages from the children wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day and also Caitriona sent a picture of the garden with the Clematis in bloom. Later in the afternoon the Australian father and son who have been working on their rigging as they can’t do the Pacific crossing at the moment asked how we got on with the engine. The son, Brett offered to take a look and he looked at the fuel pump and the water separator and he managed to get the engine started. It was air in the system that had caused the problem. We had a few beers with them on the dock and John sent them back with some Cooks Fizz by way of a small thank you. Mambo also came to say hello, they are really lovely people and Pat has offered to show me projects on the machine that are fun. I cooked the rest of the steak tonight, which was tasty. During the afternoon I sent a message to Charity and Tim to cancel our meeting up tomorrow evening as in the current climate it seems unwise. I mentioned to Bres about our last supper tomorrow evening before he goes back and he said about going out. I really don’t think anywhere will be open, but we will see. We haven’t cancelled Fernando yet, just in case the engine plays up tomorrow morning when we have a Groundhog Day, but hopefully with a different ending this time.
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