Both our "Next Food Network Star" Videos are online!

Hi everyone!

Mary decided to go for it too! Check out her video.

We both had a blast shooting these videos.

We both now have videos posted. The links are:

Mary's Audition Video for the Food Network Show: "Next Food Network Star"

The Miso Salmon Recipe from Mary's Video

The Edamame Puree Recipe from Mary's Video

Bill's Audition Video for the Food Network Show: "Next Food Network Star"

The Tagine Recipe from Bill's Video

Warmest Regards to all,

Mary & Bill

Next Food Network Star?

Hi Everyone!

Most of you know that we love to cook and really enjoy great food.

Lots of our friends commented that we should write a cookbook or
have a cooking show. So we decided that I (Bill) should submit an audition
tape to Food Network for their next season "Next Food Network Star"
program.

We thought you might get a kick our of this 3 minutes video, so We'd like to share it with you.

The video is at:
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?
fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=13771412
Note - If you're a MySpace user, We'd appreciate a ThumbsUp rating ;-}

You can also find the recipe on our website at http://raptordance.com
(see the Recipe link in top of the left column - then look for
"Tagine", it's currently recipe 13).

Let us know what you all think!

Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary

Soda Club

One of the really great items that we've been using aboard Raptor Dance since we set off on our cruise is a gadget from a company called "Soda Club" (later renamed "Soda Stream")

This unit is about the size of coffee maker and makes really tasty soft drinks (see picture below). One CO2 canister holds enough gas to carbonate about 110 liters of soda. You make up a liter batch of seltzer at a time and then add the flavoring of your choice.

They sell the flavors at their website, you can mix your own or obtain syrup elsewhere.

It's a really cost effective way to make soda, mixers and saves enormously on storage space.

We bought from the 6 extra carbonators so we don't run out as they can't ship the gas bottles to Mexico. We also stocked up on their Diet Cola, Diet Tonic, Diet Ginger Ale and Diet Lemon/Lime Soda. Their Tonic is much tastier than any we've found in Mexico.

To check out their products, click the link/graphic below (note they do give us a small referral fee if you buy their goodies after following our link).

Also, until October 15th they're running some specials for online orders:
Save $30 on any new soda maker package when you use promotion code FIZZYFALL and
Use promotion code CHEAPGAS to save $15 off any 110-liter spare, licensed carbonators.

What we're doing on our summer vacation...

Hi Everyone!

It's been a while since our last message. Gosh it's almost July already!

Since our maintenance chores kept us from heading to the Sea of Cortez until it was too late in the season, we flew back to our "vacation home" on May 2nd. Since then, we've been busy with home chores and catching up with family and friends back here in the states. Fun, but not as exciting as cruising in Mexico - so we won't bore you with the details.

We are planning to head back to Mexico, late September/early October and visit Copper Canyon on our way back to Nuevo Vallarta where Raptor Dance is parked for the summer.

We'll share with you anything super interesting that we do over the summer, otherwise we'll give you inbox a rest ;-}

We'd love to hear from you and possibly visit during the summer. Drop us a line at our raptordance.com emails when you have a moment and let us know what you're up to!

Warmest Regards,
Bill and Mary

Latest News and Updated Pictures from Raptor Dance

Hi Everyone!

We just finished uploading the latest batch of pictures to our website at http://raptordance.com

We posted some great pictures from the Lucha Libre match we attended and also a short (1 minute 32 second) video of some of the highlights.

Also posted are new sailing shots of Raptor Dance.

Additionally, we have updated our writeup on "Using WiFi while Cruising". A recent article in the Latitude 38 suggested a solution that we've seen is far too complex for the average non-computer geek cruiser, so we posted an update to our original article (from Oct 2004). We share our recent experiences helping cruisers afloat connect to the Internet from their boats.

We also added a really neat feature, Clustrmaps (yes, no "e"). Clustrmaps shows you where our website visitors are from. Check it out and let me know what you think!

News update - we're still working out the problems with our Transmission and Prop. We've missed our cut off date for going to the Sea of Cortez this year - so we'll be returning to Sonoma California late on May 2nd. More later.

Warmest Regards to all,
Bill and Mary

Puerto Vallarta, March 2007

Hi All,

March was a great month. We had family and friends visit, did lots of other stuff and had an exciting time during the Banderas Bay Regatta.

The month of March started with a Ham Exam at the Vallarta Yacht club. Bill was looking for something to stick his nose into and found it. I have my General ham licenses and Bill had his Advanced (He was first licensed in November, 1963). Bill decided to test for the Extra (which gives him a few extra radio bands, but more important: bragging rights) and Volunteer Examiner - allowing him to hold Ham exam sessions (a team of 3 VEs is needed, so he'll need two others to hold a session). Naturally he aced both in short order.

One of the side benefits of visitors is that they can bring "stuff", like the replacement Soda Club machine, Shaft Shark line cutter, rebuild kits for our Autoprop Propeller and Rix SCUBA compressor and Snyder's Sourdough Hard Pretzels. That was very handy as shipping parts into Mexico is usually a problem and we can't find great pretzels down here yet!

We were happy to be having visitors from home. In the past, that four letter word beginning with W has interfered. That changed when our cousin Frank from San Diego retired last year. Now cousin Helene and her husband Frank were finally able to get their schedule coordinated to come to Puerto Vallarta.

PV is an easy place to fly into. Raptor Dance is docked at Paradise Marina in Nuevo Vallarta see: http://www.paradisevillagemarina.com/

The Marina is part of the 5 start Paradise Village Resort http://www.paradisevillage.com/

We have the marina, yacht club, hotel and condos right here with all the amenities: pools, restaurants, shopping center, etc.

Puerto Vallarta is just a short hop away as are a host of other small Mexican towns and attractions. Ah, don't let me forget beautiful Banderas Bay for sailing, whale watching, fishing and salt water immersion of one type or another.

You have the idea. It is an ideal place to have visitors. Once Helene and Frank arrived and we ascertained how active they wanted to be, we were ready to rumba. Actually we did not rumba but we did salsa at a Cuban club in downtown PV.

We started with a nice little trip into the mangroves to Fajita Republic for dinner. The food is quite nice and it's an interesting dingy ride up the estuary. We tied up to a tree on their beach and had a nice dinner.

The next morning we went back into the mangroves in a little steam engine driven boat, The African Queen. It was similar to the boat in the movie but a bit smaller. This was a crocodile seeking jaunt and was plenty successful. There were small Crocs, about 6 feet long, larger Crocs on the mangrove banks and in the water, and the Big Guy whose head was easily 2 feet wide and length unknown (our guess over 17 feet)...very big. He came right up to the boat looking for a bit of chicken. There was no hand feeding!

That evening we headed up to Las Carmelitas http://lascarmelitas.com/

This restaurant has a great view of all of Puerto Vallarta. The food is not as good as past years, but the view is still fantastic.

The biggest challenge of the place is getting back! It's off the beaten track, up a few kilometers up a dirt road. You need to take a taxi to get there - the problem is that taxis don't just hang around waiting for return fares. Folks from the area typically have their original taxi come back 2 hours later to pick them up.

We, however, came from Paradise Village which is over the state line in Nayarit (Puerto Vallarta is in Jalisco). Nayarit taxis are not allowed to pick up fares in Jalisco - thus the quandary - our taxi was not permitted to come back to pick us up! Fortunately half our group got in a cab that was dropping off a new party of late diners. Unfortunately, the rest of us had to wait an hour for another cab, with frequent requests to the restaurant staff to call another cab. With the frustration of having multiple cabs coming by - returning to pick up their earlier fares.

Our general recommendation is to skip Las Carmelitas and go to Le Kliff http://www.lekliff.com/ instead. Le Kliff has both a fantastic view and food and is easy to get to and back - either by bus or taxi!

We had no trouble filling the rest of Helen and Frank's time with sailing, flying through the trees on zip lines at the Los Veranos Canopy Tour (http://www.canopytours-vallarta.com/ ), eating well, exploring PV, and just relaxing at the pool and beach. We were all happy but the time flew by too quickly.

We were in the zone now. Friends Lani and June arrived March 17th, just in time for the Banderas Bay Regatta with extra days to spare. I admit, we did some of the same things...visited favorite dinning spots like Calamari Adventura (The Frisky Squid) and Le Kliff and went on the Los Veranos Canopy Tour. Why do we all love that? I guess it's the thrill and feels like being a little kid again. Yippee! Oh yes, I had a close encounter with a friendly python too. Hmmm.

Our sailing week started with the Pirates for Pupils Spinnaker Run. It is a benefit for local school children which takes paying passengers on the boat, north to Punta Mita. There we all go in to shore for lunch, dressed in pirate gear of course. By 2PM the wind is up and we sail back to the marina with spinnakers flying. It was a great day on the water and a great sail. It was also the first time Lani and June were actually sailing on our boat. All the other times we were sitting still in the marina or both traveling on our own boats.

Also joining us on the Spinnaker Run was our very good friend Jan Brewer (aka Queenie) and a couple from a power boat who came along for the charity event. We thought they were a bit quiet and shy until they told us later that they had never been on a sailboat flying a spinnaker and they were totally in awe!

We'll cover more about the Regatta in our next posting.

After the Regatta, it was back to boat chores... The rebuild kit for the Autoprop was a lifesaver (see: http://www.ab-marine.com/ ). We had Guillermo The Diver pull the prop and found one of the three blades was very loose with the seal shredded and the ball bearings about to fall out.

It took Bill and two friends: John Jones of Jonco Marine Repair and John Prentice of Prentice Marine Services the better part of a day to disassemble the prop, clean it up and reassemble it with the new bearings and other parts. Guillermo then put the prop back on this morning and she works like a champ.

Guillermo also mounted the "Shaft Shark" line cutter we had Lani and June bring down in case we have future run ins with long liners.

That's the latest from Raptor Dance!

Be sure and write us back and let us know how you all are doing! Just please send us a new message instead of "replying" to this one!

Warmest Regards to All,
Mary and Bill

Barra de Navidad to Puerto Vallarta - February 2007

Hi All,

We've been busy, but now we have a chance to catch up with everyone...

We hope you are all well and enjoying Spring weather. Speaking of the weather, it was a relief when we returned to Barra Navidad in mid-February. It almost felt cool in the high 80's. Zihuatanejo was probably 10 degrees hotter plus greater humidity.

It was so hot that some of our Scharffen Berger Chocolate bloomed (horrors)! Fortunately, it's still tasty! The most affected bars we melt down and make almond bark!

The first order of business once back in Barra de Navidad was getting the boat cleaned and taking care of whatever boat part has demanded attention. This time it was an oil leak that needed to be tracked down and remedied. It was the hoses to the remote oil filter. We removed the remote oil filter assembly until we could get new hoses in Puerto Vallarta.

Then there was the engine raw water pump that needed to be replaced as it was leaking salt water from the shaft seal. We had a spare pump and had the old one rebuilt in Puerto Vallarta.

Also Bill replaced the shredded genset impeller. And what is going on with the bow thruster? (Too many barnacles). Bill had his hands full. Luckily we had the spare parts needed and Bill made pretty quick work of it... only 4 days.

The highlights for the time in Barra was my birthday party and the trip to Colima that Bill arranged for me. We hired Memo (Español for Bill), a Mexican tour guide to give us a private tour of Colima and the surroundings.

Colima was a lovely surprise. Even though it is an old city, it is modern looking with clean wide streets, lovely gardens, several universities, museums and a performance art center. It's very prosperous.

We also visited the ongoing archeological site in Colima and went as close to the volcano as we could. The volcano was not blowing off any steam that particular day.

In our travels to and from we visited banana, avacado, mango, coconut, papaya and coffee plantations; salt flats; a brick factory; coffee mill and the lovely country side.

We stopped at the town of Comala, just North of Colima, between it and the volcanos. Comala is known for the uniform color of the town's buildings. They were all painted the same, white top half, red bottom half and orange interior walls. Recently the locals decided they wanted to show some individuality. So now some of the buildings have either blue, green or pink bottom halves. The top half of every building is still white.

The town's other uniqueness is a series of restaurants that serve Botanas (small plates of food), for free, when you order a drink. The waiters keep bringing new items until you ask them to stop. Mariachis are everywhere, both inside and out. It was a popular place, tasty, a nice lunch and it was very inexpensive.

My birthday party was much more fun than I anticipated. It was good to have a fine group a friends to help celebrate. Bill set up the party at "Restaurant Mary's" (Hmmm, I like that name). It's a palapa in the Barra de Navidad Lagoon with great food. They even added balloons and silly hats. You can see in the pictures on our website that no one minded being silly.

You do need to be mindful of the ambush with that fizzy tequila drink. I'm not sure what the ingredients are but they slam it on the table and it just start foaming away. It took me by surprise.

We also tried out the newest restaurant in Barra, Sambuca. Most just call it "the tree house restaurant" because it is located by a landmark major tree and gives the impression that it is a tree house with several levels. It has a limited menu but each item is excellent. Highly recommended.

We found the fish market which supplies the local restaurants also along the Barra Lagoon. So when we left we had a nice supply (3 kilos) of giant shrimp. Yum! They became Thai green curry and coconut shrimp, shrimp diablo and paella. Yum again. No, (thank heavens) we are not gaining weight with all this talk of food.

Our time was up in Barra and it was time to head north. We passed over Tenacatita and went directly to Chamela which we like better. I love being out on the water, moving, traveling to a new destination, wondering what we might see this time. Once there, we alerted Yonish the Polish dude who is a partner in Manuelitos Palapa, that we were up for perogi. He knew we were coming back so he was ready with his ingredients. He had a busy morning. The next day he served a perogi lunch to about 20 cruisers.
Yum. Oink. This is not a light dish. It is better suited for a cold winter evening. But it is still yummy.

Yonish also was able to give us the recipe for diablo sauce, at least his mother-in-law's. Later when I followed her recipe, I modified it slightly (adding the cabernet vinegar and honey) to achieve the bit of sweet and sour effect with the heat. Check the recipe section on our website for the revised recipe. In all fairness to her, Mexican catsup does taste different...much more sugar.

We spent four days in Chamela waiting for a favorable forecast to round Cabo Corrientes and return to Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta). While we were there, other boats pulled into the bay until 8 were queued up to head North.

In the past when we left Chamela headed North, we departed in the morning and stopped in Ipala for the night. Early the next morning we rounded Cabo Corrientes before it started to blow around noon. Ipala has added fish holding pens taking up a lot of the prime anchoring spots. We all had a major concern that all of the good anchoring spots would be taken. If we left in the morning and Ipala turned out to be full, we would be forced to anchor in a very uncomfortable spot in Ipala or round the cape
during the highest winds and seas.

We changed our habits and left with a group of 8 other boats at 4 PM on Feb 26th. We went non-stop to Puerto Vallarta. All started out fine but soon the winds built on our nose - only 18 to 20 knots - but the seas were short, square, choppy and confused. That is not good sleeping weather because the boat falls off the waves and slams. It's not too bad in the cockpit but down below it is much more dramatic.

We compensated by slowing the RPM's down and tacking out 30 degrees and them tacking back. That helped but it was still choppy and also took longer. Ipala was full so we could not stop there. But at that point conditions improved. We still had a few hours to go so sleep was in order...in shifts naturally.

Our timing was good. It was daylight when we reached Paradise Marina in Nuevo Vallarta and came right back to our old slip, E-44.

That was our February.

Stay tuned for our March fun in the continuing adventures of Mary and Bill on Raptor Dance!

Warmest Regards,
Mary Mack and Bill Finkelstein

A Busy Time in Zihuatanejo

Hi Everyone,

We hope you all have a Happy Valentine's day!

We also hope you are having an enjoyable winter wherever you are. We catch some of the weather reports for the states. It does not always sound pretty.

When we last gave you a major update, we were in Las Hadas about to depart for Zihuatanejo. Our weather report was for 10 to 15 Knots from the North West. That would have been good...in fact perfect. We would have a great sail.

What we encountered instead was 20 to 25 Knots on the nose with short choppy seas. This is not good. It would slow us down considerably and not be comfortable. We decided to turn around and go back to Las Hadas. The other 5 boats that left that morning returned also. The flowing day we had light winds from astern...a better trip, but not enough wind to sail.

During this 190 mile motor sail we had plenty of dolphin company, a few whales and a big group of turtles. We did not immediately recognize the turtles. At first I thought it was a marker for some long liners or big floating coconuts. They must have been sleeping. They were not active and didn't even wave. Sorry to say we did not have any nibbles on our fishing lines.

There were a few areas that must be good for the long line fishermen though. We saw a dozen or so long lines on our passage between Las Hadas and Zihuatanejo and about the same number on our way back.

Each long line can be 2 miles or more long. Every 30 to 40 feet along the main line is a 10 to 20 foot leader with bait. The main line is supported by empty 2 liter soda bottles used as floats. The whole assembly typically has a black flag at each end with a panga in attendance. If we can see the long line in time and if we can see the end flag, we try to go around.

Most of the time the main line sinks a little. So as long as the motor is off (I think they call that sailing!) or in neutral we can carefully pass over a section - aiming for halfway between the soda bottle floats. Unfortunately, we have found some lines floating just under the surface.

Coming north from Zihuatanejo we managed to pass over one of these long lines but caught 3 of our 4 hand fishing lines on it. That made it necessary for us put the engine in neutral (there was no wind at the moment) and pull in our lines which pulled Raptor Dance backwards to the long line (we use 200 pound test line). Then we were able to unhook our lines. Funny, we decided to do without our fishing lines for the rest of this trip.

After one overnight we arrived in Zihuatanejo the following morning, just a bit tired. Zihuatanejo looked very different than it did in the early 1980's when I had been there before. It was still charming but much more busy and had greatly spread out. Plus cruise ships come in 3 times a week. Those cruise ship cruisers do not spend much time in town though. It is very convenient to provision your boat. The local mercado (farmers market) and the big "Commercial" (a large chain store) are nearby.

A local fellow, Nathaniel was available at one spot in the beach to help dingy's land and exit the surf. It amounted to valet parking for dingys. Very handy.

Another enterprising Mexican, Ishmael would bring fuel, water, drinks, etc to the boat plus take care of picking up and delivering your laundry. He and his wife were kept busy with the 100+ boats in the anchorage.

There are plenty of palapas and other restaurants available. One of Zihuatanejo's specialties is pozole, in red, green or white variety. This is a hominy based soup with lots of other goodies, very tasty. The green is our favorite.

Playa las Gatos was the snorkeling location across Zihuatanejo bay with cleaner water, a variety of fish and a nicely located palapa at the point. It was good to be back in the water. If we return to Zihuatanejo we'll anchor at Playa la Ropa with an additional stern anchor. It is further from town but the water is cleaner. And the stern anchor reduces the effect of the swell.

The big event was Sail Fest see: http://www.zihuasailfest.com/ - a four day program to raise money for the local schools and school children. It is a very worthwhile cause.

Rick's Bar was cruiser central and the center of action for activities included registering (paying a fee, signing up for volunteer activities, and receiving tee shirts), chili cook off, seminars, school kids beach party, beach pot luck, local music artists CD, seminar CDs, musicians performance at the Blue Mamou, raffles, auctions, soliciting local businesses and cruisers for donations for the raffles or just money, and a boat parade from Ixtapa to Zihuatanejo (carrying paying passengers). Needless to say, we could not be involved in every event. It would have been overwhelming.

While Bill was giving a seminar on Marine and Ham SSB Radio, Winlink, Sailmail and computers (handout posted at http://raptordance.com/sailfest.pdf ) - I went to visit the present school, the new school site and the one school that has already been build from Z Fest money. The present school is made from scrap lumber. The floor boards are flexible and the ground is eroding. So the school is now perched on edge of the eroding hillside. But the children seem happy, energetic and very anxious to learn. Depending on the money that comes in, those with the best grades are given a scholarship to be able to continue their education. At present it costs $250 for one child's school expenses for one year.

The one school that was already built is very basic but built to last. $85,000 was raised this year. That will allow the new school project to begin.

We entered the chili competition. Bill and I created a great chili recipe and cooked a great chili. In fact we won! There were 17 entrants, some cruisers and local restaurants. We've posted he recipe on our website. So feel free to try it yourself. Our friends Linda Frakes and Marie and Don from Freezing Rain helped us serve.

The following day we moved to the small island outside the Bay, Isla Grande, aka Isla Ixtapa. It was a good plan. Because of the "nutrient rich" environment in Zihuatanejo Bay and the local temperature (10 degrees hotter than Barra) it is a very active marine growth area. In other words, our chain, prop and the bottom of the boat needed a good cleaning. In just 10 days there was so much growth on our prop that it slowed our motoring speed by 2 knots, as we went to Isla Grande. As we scrubbed the bottom, this small cove became packed with power boats from Ixtapa and a few more sail boats. But by 6PM all of the day boats were gone.

With a clean bottom we headed north the next morning. "Light and variable winds" turned out to be more "noserly" winds and choppy seas. So besides a rollicking ride, lots of salt water over the boat and the snagging of the long line (previously mentioned) it was a fine ride. Once we turned past Punta San Telmo it calmed enough to sleep well.

It was wonderful returning to Las Hadas, our friends on Liberty and Fafner, the hotel pool and a Pechugón pollo dinner. That's the place with the great roasted chicken and potatoes.

We waited to get to Barra to clean off the salt deposits on the boat and up the mast - we had thick deposits everyone on the boat. I wonder if there's a market for "Raptor Dance Sal de Mer"?

Refreshed with a full night's sleep we continued onto Barra Navidad the next morning, accompanied by 2 humpback whales (pod a du?). It was a calm and short passage back to Marina Isla Navidad.

We do love the variety anchorages and marinas provide.

We hope your lives are full of variety too, whatever direction you take.

Warmest Regards,
Mary and Bill

Raptor Red Top of the Food Chain Chili Recipe

This is our Chili recipe that won the Chili Cook Off at Sail Fest in Zihuatanejo on Saturday, Feb 3, 2007. It's a flavorful red beef chili with a deep flavor and pleasant back heat.

This is quite a different Chili than our team prepared at Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta which won the competition in December 2006.

This recipe is fairly complex and should be prepared at least a day ahead to allow the flavors to blend. It freezes and reheats well. Serve with a dollop of Toasted Cumin Crema (recipe below).

You will need to do a lot of tasting as you go along to get the best results.

The pot is important. It should be big enough to hold the whole batch. The pot should also have a thick bottom to spread the heat so the chili doesn't burn.

We don't have a big pot on board and borrowed one from fellow cruisers. It was fairly thin metal, so we used a flame spreader.

We used 2 separate fry pans to toast or sweat (lower heat than a sauté) the components before adding to them to the pot.

The following makes approximately 2 gallons of Chili.

-----

Preparation:

The Meat:

The meat is very important. You want a flavorful cut of beef with some connective tissue. Chuck is preferred. Flank steak or skirt steak are also fine. We used 3 Kilos (7 pounds) of un-marinated Arrachara, Mexican skirt steak.

Cut the meat into cubes (do not use ground meat). For meal or side dish sized servings, cut into 1/2 inch cubes. For competition sized (tiny) servings, cut into 3/8 inch cubes. Season the beef with salt and pepper.

The Chili Molé (gravy):

We selected a variety of dried and fresh chilies at the local market. If you're not familiar with the chilies, you should taste a sliver of each (after toasting and rehydration of the dried ones) to help you balance the flavor. You may need to use more or less of each based on their size and flavor.

A good guide to identifying chilies can be found on the web at http://www.chillisgalore.co.uk/pages/varietys1.html

Dried Chilies (possibly more of each if small, buy extras):
2 Chipotlé
3 Ancho
4 Pasilla
5 Cascabel
4 New Mexican
3 Guajillo

Remove the seeds and stems from the dried chilies. Then toast the dried chilies (except the chipotles) in a dry pan until fragrant, be careful not to burn.

Pour boiling water over the toasted chilies and allow to rehydrate 30 minutes.

Scrape the meat off the skin of the chipotles and cascabeles (or any other thick skinned chilies) and put in a blender. Do not use their skins. Thin skin chilies can be added directly to the blender.

Add water to the blender to cover. Taste the chili soaking water and use it if not bitter. Blend until smooth.

This should produce around 1 liter of a very thick sauce.

The Aromatics:

3 Poblano chilies, seeded and diced
2 Jalapeño chilies, seeded and diced
3 to 4 Large Red Onions, finely diced
1/2 cup of chopped garlic

Other Ingredients:

* Olive Oil
3 bottles of dark beer, we used Indio
5 Oz of dark, semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
3 14 1/2 oz cans of chopped tomatoes
1 6 oz can of tomato paste
3 14 1/2 cans of black beans, drained
3 Tbsp ground cumin

Ingredients to balance taste and consistency:

* Beef Broth
* Fresh lime juice
* Sweetener (maple syrup, honey or Agave nectar)
* Fresh grated nutmeg
* Salt and pepper
* Hot Sauce or Salsa

-----

Cooking:

Add approximately 1 Tsp Olive Oil in your frying pan (we had 2 pans going at the same time) and brown the beef in small batches.

Do not crowd the pan. You want to brown the beef not steam it, do not burn the beef. When the surface of the beef cubes has a deep brown color, Add the batch of beef to your pot.

Between batches, deglaze the frying pan with some of the beer, reduce slightly and add to the pot.

When all the beef is done, add 1 Tsp of Olive Oil to the pan(s) and sweat the aromatics. Season with salt as you add each aromatic.

Start with the fresh Chilies, sweat 2 or 3 minutes until fragrant (be careful of the fumes), add the onions, sweat for 2 minutes more, then add the garlic and sweat for another 1 minute. Add to the pot.

Add a little olive oil to your empty fry pan and add the can of tomato paste. Cook, stirring frequently until the paste takes on a rust color (1 to 2 minutes). Add to the pot, use beer to get all the tomato paste out of the pan and add to the pot.

Now add the Chili Molé, chocolate, chopped tomatoes, remaining beer, ground cumin and black beans to the pot.

Note - REAL Chili does not have beans in it! You can omit them and have a heartier chili. We added them to extend the recipe for the contest and because we like the taste.

Bring the pot up to a gentle simmer. Stir frequently to prevent burning and to blend completely. Simmer at least 2 hours until the meat is tender, but still has a little bite to it.

During the cooking, you should taste the chili and add the following ingredients:

* Beef Broth - as needed to reduce thickness
* Fresh lime juice - as needed to increase the brightness of the chili
* Sweetener (maple syrup, honey or Agave nectar) - as needed to balance the flavor
* Fresh grated nutmeg - as needed to add flavor complexity
* Salt and pepper - to taste
* Hot Sauce or Salsa to increase heat

When plating, add a dollop of Toasted Cumin Crema to each serving.

-----

Toasted Cumin Crema (also prepare a day ahead to meld flavors):

1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 Cup Mexican crema or creme fraiche
* salt and pepper to taste

Place the cumin seeds in a dry sauté or fry pan over medium heat. Toast until lightly golden brown and fragrant, do not burn.

Place in a small bowl, stir in the crema and season with salt and pepper to taste. To dispense, put in a squeeze bottle with a big enough nozzle to not clog with the seeds.

Bara de Navidad to Las Hadas

Hi Everyone,

We hope this new year has been good to you.

After several weeks at anchor and having had a fine time in Tenacatita we decided to move on to the next destination.

Barra de Navidad is just 9.3 miles around the corner. We had originally planned to anchor in the lagoon. But we were both ready for Isla Navidad Marina, with all it's amenities. It is a lovely sight, as you round the corner and see the town to the right with it's multi colored buildings, the well kept marina, the interesting salmon colored hotel with all the levels, the terraces with swimming pools, the lush vegetation and the little island just off shore covered with palm trees and flowering plants. The island can be reserved for special times...like a romantic dinner.

We love being at anchor but were ready to be back in a marina and plugged in.

We had a great time wandering around the town of Barra and sampling the restaurants. We are actually eating on board more than we had in the past though. The bus service is very good and we used that to go to the nearby town of Melaque during the day.

Melaque is very different than Barra and interesting to see. One night we heard Latcho and Andrea, the Blond Gypsies playing in Melaque at restaurant Maya. Many of the other cruisers are familiar with their lovely Spanish Guitar and Flamingo music. That evening we can easily say that we knew more than half of the dinners...other cruising friends. This restaurant is lovely with excellent food. It is a little Mexican but more California cuisine. We enjoyed the lively evening. I'm just sorry that I did not bring my castanets.

Our expected five day stay stretched into ten. One of the things we really enjoy is our time at and in the pool. There usually are not very many hotel guests, so we have the run of the place. But the last few days a (very white, soon to be red) contingent of builders and suppliers from Minnesota arrived and filled every room in the hotel. The pools were overwhelmed. Luckily we had heard about some other, out of the way, pools situated throughout the hotel. Ah. Our own pool, large enough to swim laps, was waiting for us among the suites.

This actually turned out to be a busy week for the hotel and marina. A fishing tournament was also being held over the weekend. This brought out the Mariachi bands and tequila and brought in the sailfish (vella pesce), swordfish, dorado (mahi-mahi), and tuna...big tuna. After watching the men clean the fish, I know very well how to fillet our tuna. Now if we can just catch one. At that size, we only need one!

On our way from Barra to Santiago Bay we had four fishing lines in the water without even a nibble. Too bad. Santiago Bay is a new place to us and we anchored in the area by the town of Santiago. It was a little rolly at night with the swells coming in broad side. The next day, the tide was so high that if we went into shore, we would be landing among the tables and chairs of the beach palapas. OK, it is time for a change of plans. We upped anchor and moved around into the next lobe and anchored off the Las Hadas hotel. Some may remember this from the movie Ten.

This is perfect for us. It is a calm anchorage, and we can use the dingy dock and hotel facilities. So this means that we do not need to do a dingy landing on the beach...so civilized. We'll have our more primitive anchorages later in the Sea of Cortez. So for now we can be pampered. Yes, there is another lovely pool with pool service. The water in the anchorage is very clear too with quite a few fish and turtles. Another great thing is that we finally crossed paths with some of our best friends including, Yvette, Carl, Joel and Kyle on Liberty and Karen and Bill on Miela.

Life is good. We are sitting here on the boat, watching the sunset feeling energized and wonderfully at peace at the same time. This over whelming feeling of well being comes over us through out our voyage. Sometimes it has to do with the spectacular sunset, the colorful sunrises, the feeling we have that we are part fish while we are in the water, or how the mountains look in the distance in the changing sunlight. It is not limited to these times though. This has been/is a very special time for the two of us.

Tomorrow we will leave at day break for and overnight sail to Zihuatanejo. Maybe there is tuna waiting for us along the way.

Our best to you all. We look forward to hearing from you.

Warmest regards,
Mary and Bill