Belated Updates and an Epic Experience

     Hello from La Cruz! I know, I know. It's been a long time since we've updated this blog at all, and for some reason, none of us have been much in a writing mood. No excuses, no apologies. We've been living life and enjoying ourselves! 

     Let's see. The last time I wrote was our five-year anniversary of living aboard Kyrie, so I have a bit of catching up to do. A few highlights:

     The Gold Coast was awesome! We were in Manzanillo on the previous post and slowly worked our way back north, even finding another kid boat on our way. We met the family on SV Sauvage en route from Tenacatita to Bahia Chamela and they actually reversed course and returned to Chamela with us since our fleet was the first batch of kid boats they had encountered in months! 

     After one aborted attempt and a few extra days in Chamela, our little fleet of four kid boats rounded Cabo Corrientes and gratefully dropped anchor in Banderas Bay on Valentine's Day. That apparently signaled the arrival of the kid boats in La Cruz! 

Nearly all the boat kids are enjoying ice
cream after the trash boat regatta here.

     This has been a rough year for finding family boats as a lot of families returned home to wait out this Covid situation. Therefore, we've tried to stick with the ones we've been able to find. I'll admit, it's been a bit of a difficult balancing act, trying to be safe and determine how best to observe social distancing, with kids being so excited to see old friends and make new friends. Okay, the adults are there too! Thankfully, after a parent meeting early on, I think we all reached an agreement everyone was happy with, and the kids can congregate outside to their hearts' content.

      We met a number of new families during this time here, including a family from Alaska (SV Third Day) and a missionary family consisting of seven people living on a catamaran (SV Ankyrios) not that much bigger than Kyrie! The only problem with this lifestyle is that friends come and go and we never know when we'll see them again. Thank goodness for email and other social media, right?

Up close look at baby
Olive Ridley turtles

     Cat here at Marina La Cruz has been running hither and yon, arranging all sorts of activities for the kids and their families here and we finally got to participate in one particular activity that Joe and I have dreamed about literally for years. Campamento Tortuguero Boca de Tomates is a sea turtle rescue and release program in Puerto Vallarta. They watch for sea turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs and once they are done, the volunteers collect the eggs, bury them in their enclosed nursery and keep the eggs safe from predators until they hatch. Once the baby turtles hatch, the public is allowed to sign up to attend release days, which is what we got to do last night! About 30 people from the marina signed up and we got to learn a bit about the situation for sea turtles in Banderas Bay and then see the newest batch of Olive Ridley sea turtles. 

It's a baby turtle
in a cup!

     We were all given a coconut cup and then asked to spread out on a line drawn on the beach. Then volunteers put two baby turtles in each of our cups. Once there were no frigate birds flying overhead, we were told to step forward to the next line, tip our cups over in the sand, and cheer our little turtle babies on in their quest to find the waves! Most of the turtles oriented themselves right away and started their journey, but a few were apparently confused and trying going the wrong way at first. We all had to stay back, but it didn't stop us from cheering our turtles on. Rachael and Megan named their turtles and we could hear them yelling their names and urging them toward the water. It was amazing how attached I felt to "my" turtles and watched until they both made it to the water and I couldn't see them anymore. Any of those babies that are females will return to that same beach some day to lay their own eggs and continue the cycle, and they could live as long as 80 years. Incredible! I feel so honored to have played a tiny part in helping these creatures get started in life.

Right before we all released our turtles

The kids are cheering "their"
turtles on toward the water.

Here are a few of the babies, making their
way to the water and their new life. 
Best of luck and swim safe!