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Talk and Heal Like a Pirate

It’s been a very rough year for the cruising community in the Puerto Escondido area of Baja. For one thing, personality and other conflicts tore the community apart. With the two main combatants now gone, one to Cuernavaca and the other to San Diego, things began to simmer down. Then the new manager of the Fonatur facility, who replaced the much-loved Constanza Noreiga, began to implement what were seen as all kinds of petty rules and fees for things that had been free in the past. Most recently, a widely distributed letter recapping one person’s version of the ‘Troubles’, is said to have infuriated a lot of members of the community who have stayed behind, ripping open wounds that had finally started to heal. If that wasn’t bad enough, Fonatur headquarters announced that the pricing at all their facilities, including Puerto Escondido, was going up dramatically. Members of the cruising community are wondering what they’ve done to deserve all that has befallen them and if their troubles will ever end. Indeed, some folks have announced they are giving up by closing down their businesses.

Seen here from the Ensenada Blanca anchorage, Villa del Palmar Hotel is extremely welcoming to cruisers.

© 2011 Mike Wilson

But there is a ray of good news in the area, although not right in troubled Puerto Escondido. It’s called the Villa del Palmar at the Islands of Loreto Resort, seven miles to the south, where the management has been knocking themselves out to make cruisers anchored out front in Ensenada Blanca feel welcome. Gordon Alexander and Kate Angier of the Westsail 32 Miskatonic report:

"We were surprised one morning by a knock on the hull and a shy, “Good morning, good morning, hello?” A fellow named Mauricio from the resort staff had stealth-kayaked out with fresh, warm breakfast pastries and coffee, and an invitation to attend any resort event we wanted during the coming week. We thought, “What a nice gesture?” and made plans to see the open-air movie with Bernard Slabek of the the San Francisco-based Freedom 33 Simple Pleasures, the only other sailboat anchored off the resort at the time.

"The next morning there was another knock. It was the lovely Victoria — hostess, folkloric dancer and all-around cheerleader — in the kayak this time. Actually she crashed into our hull, muttering ‘Oh, I don’t know what I’m doing with this thing!’ But she got dry breakfast and delicious coffee onto our boat, thanked us for coming to the movie, and hoped we’d be able to get back to the resort soon.

Where else can you get coffee and pastries brought to your boat by such a lovely delivery person.

© Mike Wilson

"Almost every morning since then, one of a revolving cast of staff has made the trip to all the anchored boats, and most of us have spent at least an evening or two a week enjoying happy hour, Mexican Night, a fine dinner, or other diversions at this laid-back, out-of-the-way resort. We thought surely this can’t last, but it’s been going on for over two months now! People come and go, but the number of boats in the bay has steadily been increasing. There have been as many as nine at one time. And they’re not all single-hander guys hoping to help Victoria steady her kayak. Actually, she’s gotten pretty good at it herself.

"We plan to hang out here for the rest of hurricane season. Prices have apparently risen steeply at the Fonatur marina in Puerto Escondido seven miles to the north, enough so that we’ll only be pulling in there for a serious storm or to buy diesel. In the town of Ensenada Blanca, which is at the north end of the anchorage here, you can find drinking water, groceries, gasoline, and laundry services — pretty much everything the marina at Puerto Escondido offers, with only slightly more effort. We also get great Internet here, both WiFi signal from Ensenada Blanca and a strong Banda Ancha from our line-of-sight on Loreto.

The hotel’s pools are enticing, refreshing, and obviously uncrowded.

© Mike Wilson

"In addition to that good news, a bunch of the folks from Puerto Escondido — ‘in the spirit of making things better around here and lightening things up’ — have decided to throw an International Talk Like a Pirate Day party on Monday, September 19 — at Ensenada Blanca in front of the Villa del Palmar Resort. They have contacted the very helpful resort management, which has agreed to let them use their beach facilities.

"There will be various games, beach volleyball, lounge chairs to lay on — and a potluck, so bring your best pirate dish, plate and utensils. Cocktails and cerveza will be available for purchase. An award for the best costume and the Pirate King and Queen will be voted on and announced. It should be a blast! ARRRRHHH Matey!!! For further information, contact Diana, who writes, ‘the hotel is welcoming us with open arms, including coffee and donuts delivered to our boats, happy hour from 4-6 p.m., and specials each night. It is a fabulous spot to anchor, with a soft sand bottom and pristine clear water. Friends have said the snorkeling and diving are fabulous.’"

On such short notice and in the middle of hurricane season, this event isn’t going to draw a large crowd. But it’s at a great venue, with very welcoming hosts, and perhaps presents yet another chance start to bring the cruising community of the Puerto Escondido region back together again.
 

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Franck and Delphine wowed the crowds at Seattle’s Elliot Bay Marina recently. © Derek du Nann As reported earlier, a unique troupe of sailing acrobats will arrive in San Francisco Bay any day now, and will perform their amazing aerial acts — suspended from their rigging of their 40-ft sloop — in a variety of Bay locations.