No Warm Welcome Back in La Paz (Sunday, 11/22/09)

I don’t know exactly what it is, but our return to La Paz did not inspire the warm, fuzzy feelings I thought it might. First, the larger than life anchorage is full of boats, probably from the Baja HA-HA. Finding a place to anchor was just short of a small miracle. Secondly, being the responsible sailors that we have been for almost a full cruising year now, we stayed on the boat to make sure there wouldn’t be any problems for our neighbors after we finally did select a spot, although Windfall's crew was eager to get off the boat and go into town... the La Paz tides are strange and unfriendly at times. Thirdly, we soon discovered that the tides are not the only thing strange and unfriendly in La Paz. 

Remaining on board after anchoring didn’t stop one neighbor from announcing hysterically over the hailing channel for EVERYONE to hear that Windfall was too close to her.                                                 Let’s stop now for a second and think about this... how hard would it have been for her to ask us to switch to another channel and discuss the possibilities rationally? There was NO immediate danger. But that would have been without drama... that would have been... mannerly, kind, courteous... and also, very boring.                                                                                                         So, Jim moves the boat and re-anchors further away where there is absolutely NO internet and is, quite frankly, closer to the channel than we would have preferred, only  to have another boater several hours later and at dark tell us that we’re “a little tight on him”.                                                                           I thought I might jump out of my skin and grab him and shake him into niceness... what is happening to me????? Jim, the diffuser, comes out to save me from my savageness.
    “How much chain do you have out?” Jim asks the instigator.
    “Two hundred  feet,” the instigator crows proudly, arms crossed in 'what-ya-gonna-do-about-it' body language.
    “Two hundred feet? In twenty feet of water? That’s ten to one scope. Don’t you think that’s a little excessive in a crowded anchorage?”
    “No... I don’t know if you’ve ever been in La Paz before, but the tides here are very strong. That’s why I’m telling you you’re a little tight on me. I’m just warning you.”
Oh Goody, I think to myself. Another know-it-all. Another guy who just came down with the Baha HA-HA and thinks his trip down the outside of the peninsula all the way to La Paz makes him ‘seasoned’. Or worse and more likely, a guy who has sat on his rotting boat for ten or twenty years going absolutely nowhere but who knows EVERYTHING there is about everything to do with sailing because a decade ago he happened to sail that old, falling apart wreck down to La Paz and never managed to leave. Not a "cruiser", but a "boater with bad manners". Goody gumdrops!
    “Yes,” says Jim. “We were in La Paz for three months. I know how the tides and currents can be here... the La Paz Waltz, they call it. I checked the tide table and there is no change until ten tomorrow morning. But two hundred feet? Huh. Well, I’ll keep an eye on it and I may move in the morning, but I’m not moving tonight.”
    “Well, I’m just letting you know. You’ll need to keep an eye on it,” the know-it-all expounds.           I’m not sure, but I think Jim just said he would keep an eye on it. I guess it just makes the know-it-all feel like it’s his idea if he repeats it.                                                                                 The next thing I know they’re talking boats, models and makes. I slink back down below to finish up dinner, resentful that Jim is being buddy-buddy with the instigator.

Jim sleeps like a baby that night. I am up and looking out the companionway every hour to make sure we don’t waltz into the instigator in the middle of the night. The instigator is probably the suing type, I think to myself. Of course, we’re nowhere near him. Either he's a trickster and doesn’t have two hundred feet of chain out or we are further away from him than he originally thought. Nonetheless, I know in my sleep deprived, shriveled-up little heart and head that tomorrow my temperament is going to fit right in with the likes of the grumpier in La Paz!

NOTE: True to my word, I was very grumpy the next day. But after a long walk in town, a cup of Crema Y Limon ice cream, running into old friends in the marina, and seeing our kids happily hook up with other boat kids... I found that my shriveled heart was Grinch-ified (the magnified heart part) and I was once more restored to a much nicer me. I’ll have to be much more cautious about letting grumpy boaters in La Paz suck me down the emotional Davy Jones' Locker!