April 12th, Easter Sunday, 2009. Happy Easter!! We heard from the McAssey clan today. Florence had Shane’s family, Ryan’s family, Everett, and a few other folks there for dinner today, so she called us on the cell so we could talk to her and to the others. Isn’t that so sweet? I miss Florence. She is very kind and always thinking of others. We still can’t call out, so I haven’t talked to my family today. We sent love and prayers at breakfast tho. We had easter breakfast of pancakes with strawberries and cream. It was good. No easter eggs to hide tho. Just another day for the boys. No traditions in this house, that’s for sure! Merle is not big on that stuff – that’s my thing. But I didn’t try to source egg dye nor chocolate easter eggs in Mexico. More luck with fireworks and coconut candy!

Above is our view of the PV lighthouse, and below is the view from the lighthouse. (Kenta Anae is in this photo. Can you find her?) We spent the warmest Easter ever here in the heart of Puerto Vallarta. We are moored in the marina here amongst little pangas and colossal megayachts. Tom is letting us stay in his slip in Marina Vallarta for a few days. He said we can stay forever. He's funny and very sweet. We had Salmon for dinner tonight, a tribute to British Columbia and all of the things we appreciate more now that we have been away. Take care. Love and blessings to all of you!

We will be here while Merle does some work on the boom and I do some provisioning. We sailed here today and Merle took the boom off when we got here. Now the boom is ready to go to the shop. Last night, before we left La Cruz, Merle said that maybe we should take the boat to Loreto and leave it there in the Sea of Cortez instead of making the voyage on the outside to Ensenada. That would be great with me. I will do some more research and try to talk to people with lots of nautical miles under their belts about the Baha Bash. Bash up the Pacific or hide in the Sea of Cortez? The long and short is, our plans are in the air again. No surprise there! (We do write them in the sand at low tide …) Provisioning will be fun, not knowing how long we will be at sea. I guess I will just buy stuff with a long shelf life that will last … !

Puerto Vallarta is nice on the water, but very commercial. I much prefer La Cruz to this place. Tho walking down the malacon here is its own funny adventure. When we are approached by the Mexican salesmen who ask us how long we are here visiting, and if we’d like a tour/adventure/activity, we answer, in Spanish, that we are living here aboard our own boat. They smile and grant us a certain respect, like equals almost. Maybe not quite, but it is a step up from being a tourist. Then they start asking curiously about living aboard and sailing around here. Today we climbed the lighthouse and looked out. It is a great view from there. You can even see our boat amongst the rest – everything from fishing pangas to mega yachts, and everything in between. We fit right in! There is a crocodile who lives here in the marina. He occasionally eats people, but other than that, we’ve heard that he is just your average marina pet. So the boys have been instructed to stay off the open ends of the docks, and if they see El Cocodrilo, they can watch him as long as he is visible and far away. The minute he disappears under the water, vamenos! Get the heck out of there! That adds to the excitement of walking down the dock! We didn’t plug in tonight, as the voltage was 135 volts at the plug. Not sure what that will do to our 120 volt electronics onboard. Don’t have a ‘firewall’ for that yet. It is low on the list, but apparently pretty important. Sounds like electricity from Mexico south can be pretty surgey, and the computer is our only connection out. Good that Merle checked.