Hello, semi-faithful readers. As some of
you may know, I’ve been in La Cruz, Mexico for the past three months as we work
to get the boat ready to sell. When we arrived here, I was incredibly excited
about going home. I was ready to get the hell out of the tropics, and live up
in rainy, grey Vancouver. Ah, bliss. Now, things are a little different. As
I’ve gotten to know this season’s fleet, and made friends with all the kids,
I’ve found myself wistfully looking at pictures of the South Pacific and
dreaming about the smell of frangipanis and the taste of star-fruit.
These past few months in the same place
have made me restless. I’ll be honest – right now, in this moment, I want to
cross the Pacific again. But I know that by the time I’ve finished writing this
blogpost I’ll be back to being excited about having a door again. So, instead
of angsting about it, I’ll concentrate on the good things that have been
happening.
One of the cool things about La Cruz is
that it has a Kids’ Club, which was just starting up when I was here six years
ago. Over the past three months, we’ve volunteered at a local orphanage, worked
at the spay and neuter clinic, started a tree nursery, run several local
restaurants for a day, and tomorrow we’re planning a beach campout.
 |
| Working at a local restaurant |
 |
| Decapitating a pinata |
It’s a great program that concentrates on
getting the kids in the marina out into the neighbourhood, and meeting locals
instead of staying in the marina all the time
.
 |
| Julia from S/V Pickles playing with one of the girls from the orphanage |
I think my favourite activity was probably
working at the spay and neuter clinic, where we helped the vets fix forty cats
and dogs in the first day alone. Everyone pitched in, and dog slobber and cat
pee aside, it was really fun.
 |
| Me and a puppy at the clinic |
It’s also been lovely meeting this year’s
fleet of kid boats. There’s been a huge amount of them – at one point there
were eight girls my age here, which is the most I’ve ever seen.
 |
| Tacos! |
And of course, my parents and I have been
working hard, getting the boat ready to sell. We’ve been painting anything that
doesn’t move, (actually, I think the cat got some paint on him) and sanding and
gluing and varnishing and generally attempting to make the boat look like it
hasn’t been lived on for eight years by a family with a very furry cat.
 |
| Slightly dangerous Mexican fair |
 |
