#53 / 2005 Tour 3: Maruata

MARUATA

#53


Day 4

Sailing due west at 270 degrees we are heading toward Maruata to anchor for the night. Actually we were warned about this spot. We got there in nine hours of sailing. 

It is a tiny place; Joe and Rick go ashore to get some fresh tomatoes and cold beer. This little town consists of Indios, not Mexicans. I guess this is equivalent to visiting an Indian reservation. Palapas on the beach are only for rent, they offer no food or drink.

Maruata has been built up on either side of a tiny landing strip constructed back in the heyday of drug running. So the whole place built up around the drug smuggling trade. I was told the planes don`t land there anymore. 

But all the same, there was an inhospitable air to the whole place. So Joe and Rick skedaddled back to the boat where I greeted them with rice and vegetables with rice pudding for dessert. Joe is feeling a little peckish and declines his meal.

I have begun reading Peter Fenchen´s "Book of the Seven Seas." At night I crawl into the bunk with a flashlight and read until my eyes grow heavy. The book is well over fifty-years-old but still fascinating.