The Belle of the Ball

We are dancing around the harbor in LaPaz. Two steps to the left, one step backwards, then turn around and promenade.   First night in we stayed just outside of town at Bahia Falsa.  Then we moved on into town the next morning, finding a spot just off the Municipal Pier and the Malecon where everyone walks in the cool of the late afternoon.  A few ragtag hippy boats there.  We watched one disheveled black hull cutter erupt with eight young men and women clambering around the decks.  At 10:00 PM the club opened up its doors ashore and we were entertained till the wee hours with Karoke music of the lowest quality.  Can you hit that note? 

So the next day we moved the boat west, around the other side of the marinas and found a spot where the boats were larger, cleaner, and spaced further apart.  Each day the current runs west then east then west then east.  All the time the wind blows generally from the north.   So the current will point your boat one way and the wind will try to point it the other way.  The current usually wins. 

If a boat drops both a stern and a bow anchor then that boat does not swing along with the others. Sorta like that old guy who is just standing still out there on the dance floor while all the couples dance around him.  Watch out!  When anchoring, we watch for those old guys who don’t move and calculate our anchor drop and rode length so we won’t swing into him.  It’s much better if we all swing together. 

This second anchorage appeared to be working for us just fine, until day two when the admiral of the boat next to us couldn’t get her captain to say anything to us so she just shouted across the water at us, “We think you are too close. Can you move your boat?”   

11.        We weren’t too close and

22.        They could have just run their dinghy over and had a nice little conversation beginning with “Hello, nice to meet you.  Would you mind….”

Up the anchor came again and we moved further out on the fringe of the anchorage, trying twice before we got just the right set.  A neighbor came by in his dinghy and asked us why we moved.  Getting our answer he said, “Yea, they asked me to move too.”   Some folks just need more dance room than others.

We hailed our other neighbor on the VHF and asked him if he was comfortable with our position. He came up on deck, looked around, then gave us the thumbs up.  Now we were really set. Done. At home.

A few minutes later the Mexican Navy pulled up and a very polite young man complimented us on the morning and on our beautiful boat.  “My superior asked me to come over to see if you could relocate a little bit further from the Navy yard.”  

The anchor windless got another workout as we pulled the hook again.  The Navy boat then asked our two neighbors to move a little also and I’m sure the young man did this in a very polite manner.  You don’t argue with the Mexican Navy so we cruised around looking for another spot. Meanwhile the other two boats were cruising around also.  Three 40 something foot cruisers sharking around through a mooring field looking for a home. 

We found a spot , dropped the anchor, backed down on it and looked right into the windows of a boat just 30 feet away.  Not so good.  So up the anchor went and we sharked around some more, finally finding a “creative” spot near two boats what seemed to be unoccupied.  Down with the hook, let the chain out, back down and watch her swing.  That’s it.  She’s set.  Now let’s sit back and watch the dance for a little while. 

We had completed our five steps and believed this time that we’d learned the dance.   We jumped into the dinghy and drove over to the Marina to visit our friend Marco on Linda Rae.   

When we came back, Traveler was doing the cha cha with everyone else and she looked like the belle of the ball.