Skagua n. place where the north wind blows

Every Monday morning all the families on the base gather for 50 minutes of worship together.  Usually it includes a guitar or a keyboard player and some words to follow on TV screens.  However, about 6 weeks ago when I was talking to God about how I get distracted when I'm trying to worship, a picture popped into my head from the Old Testament.  with that image, I had a sense that I was supposed to sign up to lead worship, as a way to re-claim my ability to focus on Jesus undistracted.  And so, I prepared a story and a collage project for helping people think about all of God's beautiful character traits (aka his Glory).  Below you can read my paraphrase from the book of Exodus, of God's Glory filling the tabernacle which the people built for Him.  I can tell you, that I was walking around smiling ear to ear to see families with kids of all ages (even as young as 2) creating together something that invited them to think about how beautiful God is.

The kitchen at Rancho Abierto is in a yurt.  Yesterday, was such a cool example of people helping each other, many cultures overlapping and expressing themselves through food, so the yurt is the setting for all of these glimpses:

Yesterday was the big day for learning which outreach team we will be part of. 

Here you see 1. the pavilion where we adults have our classes, also where we have worship together  2.  The picnic tables are where we eat every morning, unless it's very cold.  If it's cold, we can sit inside the yurt, which is where all the cooking takes place.  3.  the tree-lined clearing has our cabins lining it and is aptly nicknamed the "Fairway".  Off to one side is where we all hang laundry. 4. There were two birthdays this past week.  Aleida (in the green apron) made a pinata.  In the background is the yurt and its deck. The dish washing station is on the deck.

Two days ago our slow pace of making food, hiking on land, checking the weather, doing schoolwork, changed. After walking to find an ATM, and collecting enough cash to pay our bill with the Astilleros Cabrales, we were told to be at the haulout slip in 20 minutes.  Within 25 minutes of motoring into the slings of the giant blue contraption with pulleys, chains, and a tiny driver's cage, we were placed gently on old railroad ties, propped up with metal stands, and left to our own device. It was an act of faith to entrust our boat to only 4 strong shackles holding the slings. A half an hour after we were hauled, a 70-foot steel tour boat was lifted out in the same manner.  It was fascinating to see the quantity of marine life growing on the bottom of this boat!  The workers took square shovels and scraped what looked like a coral reef off of the hull.  There were rubbery plants over a foot long, tunicates, and many other plants attached. This is a busy boatyard- full of workmen, guards, cruisers from around the world, boats in all stages of repair and disrepair.  But Eila's favorite part of the Cabrales boatyard is its four Belgian Shepherd guard dogs. They have slobbery tennis balls in their mouths, loud barks, and the occasional water hose to get cooled down with.

Puerto Refugio is astern and to the south of Skagua, and Puerto Penasco is 90 miles due north.  Refugio was a special place to spend our last week cruising. There were multiple beaches and 3 different anchorages to hop between.  The best aspect of Puerto Refugio was the chance to meet other sailors.  Two other sailboats and one trawler had friendly folks aboard to socialize with.  S/V SJ was there the whole time, and had Sarah and Craig aboard.  We went on hikes, had meals at each others' boats, and two different beach fires.  At both of these beach fires, Sarah brought her black light and went searching for scorpions along the upper beach in the dark.  Both times she was successful in her search.  Scorpions turn fluorescent blue in black light!  

Over the last few days we have enjoyed three types of star sightings.