We're Back in Action!!!

Zorro's Bar ... aka the 120 Bar.

This is Nathaniel, the dinghy valet. We pay him $10 or $20 pesos a day to help haul our dinghies in and out of the water. He also watches over them while we are in town. He was instrumental in the kayak rescue as it was he who roamed the streets of Zihua to find us in the "One Twenty Bar", as Randy calls it, to tell us someone found our kayak.

Randy with long hair, thinking about going to the "120 Bar" where ice cold beer is only $120 pesos (which is actually more like $1 per beer).

Thea and Randy and our pirate skull, having decided to go to the 120 Bar. Thea the net controller this morning.

We now have a new camera and have found our kayak. The kayak caper involved a reward/ransom/bribe with a sly and paunchy local fishing guide called Benny who claims to be tourist friendly. At first he denied knowing anything of our little red kayak. His idea of "tourist friendly" was us giving him the reward first and then him sending a Felipe, an innocent jet ski rental guy, to retrieve the kayak, which Benny claims was found by a fisherman two miles offshore. Felipe did not want to be involved. We refused and insisted that the reward and kayak be exchanged simultaneously. He refused, and threatened us by making it clear that he was the only person who knew where the kayak was. Eventually he agreed that Randy would accompany Felipe to retrieve the kayak from a nearby fishing boat. When Randy and Felipe arrived at the dock a nervous Mexican teen met them at the dock. He hopped from boat to boat feigning to look for the kayak until Randy yelled "This is BS; give me my **&^%-ing kayak". At this point the boy, refusing to make eye contact, was so scared he almost bolted. Finally he climbed into a large fishing tourist boat called "El Gordo II", unlocked it, climbed down into the cabin and produced our kayak (with life jacket) for which he received $2,000 pesos as a reward. We paid Felipe $1,000 for tracking us down and arranging for the pay off. The Big Benny, who loafed in the shade of a large beach umbrella during this entire adventure, probably got $500 of the $1,000 pesos we gave Felipe. We suspect he also got most of the $2,000 we paid to the deliquent on the docks.

Today I was the net controller. The net is a VHF radio sort of "meeting" on Channel 22 at 8:30 am, except Sundays. The net controller is like the chairman of a meeting. I ask first for emergency and medical, then get all the boats to check in by name and location. Other items on the agenda include, lost and found, services wanted or needed, "treasures of the bilge", general announcements, tides and weather, trivia and jokes. The Cruisers' Net, as it is known, is useful for getting information about the area, finding parts or serviced for your boat or just meeting people. For example, a catamaran called "Don Quixote" checked in this morning and advised the fleet that they had three children on board and were looking for other boats with children on board. Most anchorages and marinas have some sort of cruisers' net and it's usually on Channel 22. There are also nets on the the single side band radio which are much more formal and have more reliable weather (Amigo Net, Chubasco, Happy Hour Net etc.,).

Randy, aka Howard Hughes, has decided to see how long his hair will grow and has found a new bar called Zorro, owned by a Canadian from Kelowna. Ron decided to move to Zihuat to open a bar after watching the Shawshank Redemption where the main character says that he'll move to a little Mexican town called Zihuatanejo when he gets out of jail. Randy has renamed Zorro. He now calls it the 120 Bar.