I added one more You Tube link to yesterday’s blog. But the other two are uploading very slowly. I will do an update on the next blog.

“Fleetwood” far left front in the Ixtapa Marina. The boat on my starboard is the boat with which Galia Moss became the first Latin American female to cross the Atlantic Ocean single-handed, this year. I guess this means that every one else has done it as well, Mañana has come and gone. In 1980 I met the first woman to solo circumnavigate in 1978, Naomi Power. What stays with me, that she was very feminine but had a strong calloused handshake. If and when I complete my solo circumnavigation there will be several Americans who have done it at an older age. But if I can’t make it into the Guinness record I might have caught the eye of the keeper at the Pearly Gate with my Sunday blogs. For this size city their main church is small but half the attendance stands and sits on plastic stools outside, with speakers above the entrance door. No, I did not photo-shop the lantern into the rosary of our Lady of Guadeloupe and I do not use flash.  Just another fixation of your imagination. Now how about this one I took yesterday morning of the sunrise at my arrival? I see the footprints of my guardian angel.

There is a sharp contrast between the two Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo. The latter is an old fishing village with a few old, most run down, hotels on the beach. Streets with two story homes/shops all with galleries topped with red clay tiles as protection from the summer rain storms. Both places are built on a narrow strip of sandy beach front with what used to be a lagoon or swamp behind it. In Ixtapa this lagoon has been used to make the marina and the low lands into golf courses. In Z-town the lagoon is the home for hundreds of small fishing pangas and lined with the small shacks of the fishermen’s homes. Riding the bus into Ixtapa from Z-town is like driving from Watts into Beverly Hills/Santa Monica. Mass was at 8 a.m. and the passengers boarding the bus from Ixtapa were the night shift from the luxury hotels. Last night I rode my folding bike to where the Ixtapa tourists eat and had a terrific filet of sea bass with mango dressing and a drink for $10. After church I ate near the Z-town beach in a small shop for $2, a (real) quesedilla with a home pressed Maraquila. After I made the detour back from Z-bay to Ixtapa I thought for a minute that I might have to sail back out and find another place for the night. The depth in the Marina channel went from 3 feet under the keel to zero and I could only see power boats. I crawled my way further and then the depth started to increase and when  turned a corner I did see sailboats. But dredging of the channel commenced today and I can only leave between 6 and 7 a.m. and p.m. and 1 to 2 p.m. I plan on leaving on Monday between 1 and 2 pm. I will plan my next stop under way. There is not much between here and Acapulco and the place to stop to await the proper window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec, which can be a treacherous passage, is Huatulco, a four day sail from here.  I filled my fuel tank back up since last Sunday in La Cruz and it came to a whopping 5 gallons, for the 350 miles plus distance where I occasionally had to motor.