All dressed up and no place to go!

Loreto Fest is a get together for boaters in the Sea of Cortez. It began 15 years ago when a group of boaters wanted to do something to raise funds to help a local orphanage. It started out simply: a couple of kegs, pull out the grill and cook up some hamburgers and hotdogs and give all the proceeds to charity. Over the years it has grown and morphed into the biggest gathering of cruisers in all of Baja. This year’s festival attracted more than a 100 boats and spanned three days. They held seminars on various cruisers friendly topics like navigation, fishing lure making and diving Baja. Besides the tons of hamburgers and hot dogs there was a spaghetti dinner, a pancake breakfast and a silent auction. All the proceeds still go to locals in need.

But more than anything it has turned into the place for boaters in Baja to make friends and meet up with some old ones. The days are filled with elimination rounds of Bocce ball and horseshoes, cribbage tournaments, Mexican Train marathons (a domino game) and Michigan Rummy matches. The bar opens at 1000am. The mornings got started with Margaritas and Bloody Mary’s which flowed buy the tubs full and the kegs were never ending. Bill and I were excited to come and I was excited to be back in an area with AA.

When we arrived I already had info for the local meetings but was stunned to find out that the marina was actually extremely isolated. Go figure, Loreto Fest is actually held in Puerto Escondido. A taxi ride into Loreto’s meeting would cost me $80! The only other meetings were in Nopolo which is a $40 taxi trip but are only held mid week. Well *&^%$%^&!

The festival wasn’t set to start for two more days and they were still posting information so, right off the bat I asked the organizers if I could post a notice announcing friends of Bill W meetings. They were happy to oblige me and I scurried off to make a flier to post on the announcement board. With so much already scheduled I decided a morning meeting might attract the most folks so the flier said 8am Fri, Sat and Sun mooring buoy #82. For information call CH 22 S/v Island Bound.

Every morning I got up at 7:00 am, took a shower, got my tea and flitted around cleaning up the boat for company. Three days running no one came. I was actually surprised that I wasn’t terribly bothered by that. Disappointed yes but OK just the same. I had made sure I had my Big Book out, had pages marked for How it Works, the Steps and Traditions and The Promises. When no one came I grabbed my iPod and listened to a speaker tape. I would have loved the company but oh well I did what I could and left the rest up to fate. Would I do it again? Yes. In fact I am kicking myself for not having stepped out in some of the other places we have traveled. But it was simple and easy and the next time it will be even easier.

On a sad note my custom AA flag was badly damaged in a sudden blow. It rolled in with much higher winds than forecasted and virtually brought the last day of the festival to a halt. By the time Bill and I had muscled our way through the flying surf and across ¾ mile of open anchorage in 35-40 knot winds I was soaked to the skin with sea water and my poor flag was in tatters. Guess it’s time to find some dark blue material and binding tape and make myself a couple more. I love flying my flag. So far it has not brought me any new BFF but three people have come to the boat and introduced themselves when they saw it and I have faith that there are larger things in store.

Fellowship from afar, Kat