We’re in Manzanillo, anchored outside of Las Hadas resort and we’re on the verge of a transition. Our friends that are heading to El Salvador and Panama are heading south while we turn around and return to La Cruz in Banderas Bay. Manzanillo is where we make the choice not to head to Panama, or El Salvador, or Columbia, or Costa Rica, or the Galapagos or even to Zihuatanejo, because it’s too far to just turn around. Boats are now making their plans to head south, or head into the Sea of Cortez, or like us, to sail across the biggest ocean on the planet.
But where are we going? Well, we’ve said we’re going where the wind blows. We’ll go to the Marquesas to check into French Polynesia. They’re the closest islands to Mexico, about a three week sail away. We think we’ll spend Ruby’s eighth birthday in the Tuamotos and we are planning on getting to the Tahiti Moorea rendezvous at the end of June. And then again we’re free as birds to explore the South Pacific. We’re pretty sure we’re on our way to New Zealand except the wind blows to Australia. Our friends on s/v Britannia buried treasure for us in Tonga that must be dug up and our desire to catch up to them might be stronger than the wind on our bow between Tonga and New Zealand.
Have you ever looked at a map of the Pacific? There are 20,000-30,000 islands. Could we find 10,000 and name them to be sure? How in the world will we choose? How will I ever feel satisfied that I’ve seen enough? I’m loving Mexico, every town, every hill climbed for the view, every beach, every anchorage. I want to go south and see more. I want to go into the Sea and see more. I want to go back to the islands north of La Paz just to see that amazing clear blue water again. It’s going to be very difficult to leave when we do. I’ll miss Mexico because it’s beautiful and wonderful in so many ways, and because I don’t yet know it well enough.
As the miles flow under the keel and I see more, the more I want to go just around the corner. I can only think of one way to make sure I get to see everything I want and to explore the world in intense detail. Have you noticed that if you rearrange the letters in Forge Over you can spell Go Forever?