Buffadero

Hi people.We are anchored in a small bay called Bahia
de Buffadero (that means "snorter" in Spanish- there's
a large blowhole in a rock in front of the town). The
best part of this place is that Rio Nexpa (a good surf
break) is a short dinghy ride around the corner to the
North. It is a very long walk, however. I think I
lost 10 pounds yesterday walking about 5 miles (2 of
it in soft sand) in 85 degree weather and high
humidity. Luckily there was a sea breeze and a palapa
(palm branch roofed shade area) when we got there. We
only had to walk half of the way back because Brian
met a local high school aged surfer, Ismael, who had a
truck and picked us up on his way back to town. Some
of our favorite things lately have been interactions
with locals. A few days ago in a different anchorage,
we saw something green on the rudder of our boat which
sits right at the water line. We got close enough to
tell that it looked like an iguana with a small horn
on it's nose. 2 hours later we left the boat and it
was still there. There were some fishermen in their
boat nearby and we asked them about it because we
didn't know iguanas could swim. They confirmed our
guess and told us they were good for food. I told
them they were welcome to have him so they went over
and picked him off the back of our rudder and held him
up. He was handsome! Bright green, well-placed tiny
horns on his nose and head, 3-foot long tail. This
got us in to a short and enjoyable conversation with
Chuy, the man who removed him from our boat. Along
with the animals and interactions with locals, we
continue to have projects, projects, projects on the
boat. We have about 1000 more nautical miles (total of
about 10 entire days of sailing if we were to do it
all at once) to go before we get the boat to Puesto
del Sol Marina in Nicaragua, where we'll leave Nomad
for the summer. Before we leave Mexico we hope to get
a 2-day trip inland somewhere in the state of Oaxaca
to visit ruins, etc. If any of you knows of neat
places to go, we'd love to have some tips. Hope to
see most of you this summer!Megan

Security

We're both reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book "The First Circle" about life in and out of a Russian scientific lab where political prisoners work for free using their engineering skills and scientific prowess to perform Stalin's whims. While not as disastrous a place to be as the better known gulag, these "sharashka's" were nevertheless long term imprisonment. The book seems to be making the point that imprisonment is important and useful for refining and maturing people. The people not in prison have more struggles, more anguish of decisions and circumstances. The guys inside have time for self-reflection and true friendship. Very interesting. The most unsettling idea is the idea of men being put in prison for merely thinking or being accused of thinking anti-nation thoughts. It rings far to close to the events that are going on under the name of the Patriot Act in the U.S. (Anti-Iran posturing by our media,forgotten people in Guantanamo, spying and wire-tapping of U.S. citicens becoming the norm...) Another thing we learned from this book that seems to be a creepy irony is that both Stalin and Hitler created Homeland Security Departments in their countries soon before using those departments to "protect" the governments from people with different ideas by seizing them without warrant and imprisoning them.

It is a frustrating thing to think about but being removed by water, and quite some miles puts us in our own microcosm where we have decided that to live well, communicate kindly, and be obedient to our purpose is one way to respond to large injustices. It has also brought home the idea that "security" cannot be created by human structures, be they insurance policies, laws, car airbags or airport searches. Security only comes from being confident that our lives are in the hand of God and our minds are given us to use to prevent foolish accidents and the Spirit is given us to lead us to. The men in the sharashka each had their own way of dealing with the injustice of being confined wrongfully. All of them in their own way used their skills to resist the system and stubbornly to grow toward the person they wanted to be. At the same time they were all painfully aware that no matter what they did on the inside of the sharashka or what they had done before they were confined, couldn't make them secure from the whims (beneficial or harmful)of the new prison guard or the powers that were in control of their lives. Reminds me of a verse in Micah...

He has shown you o man what is good, and what the Lord requires of you.. to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

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occupation

I have stubbed three different toes today. What else have I done? People back home wonder how we spend our time. I also wonder where all of our time goes. Here are our occupations.

Yesterday and today, Brian spent a large amount of time replumbing the head so that it has a vented loop. The goal of this endeavor is to convince our toilet to not breathe like Darth Vader with a chest cold while we are under way. During this time, I was cooking meals, sewing patches on the sail cover, tinkering with our windscoop to facilitate better air flow through the boat, and organizing cabinets for improved accessibility (it needs to be done frequently as we use things up, discover things we do or don't use all the time, etc.).
This morning Brian went to say hello to people on another boat and ended up taking the fellow, his dinghy and non-functioning outboard motor to town for the motor to be fixed. While in town he has instructions to purchase more flour and some fruit. I have spent the last 5 hours sewing seams on a sail where the old thread has rotted away. While sewing I took a break to hoist Brian up the mast so he could clean some connecters on our radio antenna (to promote better transmission and reception of signals).

In the mornings we often read and then listen to the Single Side Band radio for the weather report. In the evenings we stay home and play Scrabble, watch slide shows of the pictures we've taken recently, visit people on other boats, walk around in town (last night we splurged and ate a dinner at a restaurant - yay! No cooking to heat up the boat) or do more boat projects.

Books being read on a fairly regular basis on Nomad:
The Message Bible
World Cruising Routes by Jimmy Cornell
Charlie's Charts of Mexico
The Signature of Jesus
Spanish-English Dictionary
Birds of Mexico and Central America (fully illustrated)
Various yachting magazines
The Surf Report bulletins
Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual
The Women's Book of Yoga and Health
The First Circle (blog on this book forth coming)

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