Taking advantage of our stay in Poland, sailing on Jeziorak, we had the opportunity to go the Andrzej Korycki and Stare Dzwony (Old Bells) concert, and also later in Ostroda we listened to a more romantic Andrzej Korycki and Russian romances sung wonderfully by ... Dominika Zukowska. It was an unforgettable event, Tomek loves Andrzej’s very much romantic songs, sometimes when he’s in a good mood, and after some glasses whiskey he takes up his guitar and hums the"  Three  Gods" ,  „Waves”  or ”About one  tear which will cheat the cruel sea "  Unfortunately, the concert in Siemiany (near Ilawa) on June 20, 2006 had a little different character and in spite of Tomek’s persistent requests, he was unable to talk Andrzej into singing "Three  Gods"  or  any other, typical for him song. As  an answer to such resolve we went, on Mirek’s boat, (Tomek’s brother) on the canals to Ostroda, where Andrzej Korycki in a more agreeable mood, sang all Tomek’s favorite songs, as well as the ballad of old Bulata Okudzawy, and Dominika Zukowska enriched them with the most beautiful Russian romances .
 

In December "Stary" ( "The Elder") came to Ensenada, along with its very sympathetic crew. We welcomed the New Year together. There was lots of alcohol and great company, especially the bottle with Slawek. Nobody had a hangover, because a hangover results only from bad company:-)

Christmas-eve Guest

On December 24 I got to San Diego with Sara, Tomek was waiting for us at the Mexican border and from there we went to Ensenada together. Uncle Janek was already on deck of the Luka, he was also Tomek’s holiday guest (not the last as it turns out). After we ate the exquisite Christmas-eve supper, which Tomek made (he cooks splendidly), and which consisted of: Scallop soup, oysters and shrimps, shrimps in hot sauce, fried fish...we supported the digestion with a bottle white wine...well, maybe two..:-))
 The smell from our yacht “spread" over the whole marina  ...
Around midnight my thirst woke me up, I went to the kitchen, and then I decided to go to the toilet. When I went out, right near the yacht, I noticed eyes glistening in the darkness and  right after them a huge black dog, I got really scared, I started to wake Tomek,  “Tomek , Tomek, come with me to the bathroom, there is big wolf there and he’s winking at me with huge eyes"  It’s not that I’m afraid of dogs .. .but who knows… It sits right near the yacht, motionless and it keeps looking at me with those glistening eyes…
Tomek did not end the previous evening with wine, along with Jasiek they opened up a bottle of whisky, so not completely woken up he groaned - “return to bed, you’re dreaming this" , not  giving up I grabbed him, in the end he got up from bed, looked out and immediately woke up, then asked – “I hope he didn’t say anything to you..?? "
Tomek disappeared inside the yacht, after a moment he returned with a bowlful of dog food and fried fish- after all it was Christmas-eve ... The next day the dog sat exactly in the same place and followed us with its vigilant eyes .. It was a mystery where it came from. In Ensenada there are many homeless dogs, but if the municipal dog-catchers manage to catch any, they are killed immediately. He appeared in a marina watched over by guards; he sat right near our yacht and didn’t take his eyes from us for a second, as if that’s how it was meant to be. It looked like he was waiting for something ... We could not adopt him, I was returning to Florida, and Tomek was going on his cruise, besides he already had a crew member, Wacek. The only thing we could do was to feed him and wait for whatever would happen next ... Every day we fed the dog, it got so used to us that he started thinking of us as his owners, and when a stranger passed by our boat, the dog would warn us. He also started to compete with Wacek; he gently tried to show him who was bigger. A few days after that came the marina guards with the dog-catchers to take him away. They appeared...four of them...with ropes, Tomek would not allow them to take him, knowing that in Mexico homeless dogs are simply killed, and instead promised them to take care of him ... “, this dog chose us to save him". I broke down and proposed that I will take him to Florida...  "And what, we’ll have three dogs?”  - Tomek did not agree. We made a plan that I would smuggle the dog through the border to San Diego and put him in a shelter there ...where they don’t kill dogs, all of them are adopted sooner or later. We went to a local veterinarian to find out what documents will be necessary to take the dog from Mexico to the United States. When we were waiting in line, we met a nice American lady, who told us that right near the border there is a an animal shelter, led by a woman from the U. S., where they do not kill the animals, but find them new owners in the United States, she gave us the address in Rosarito. Because the Mexicans do not acknowledge this type of solution...  the shelter does not receive any financial assistance from the Mexican government, and exists only thanks to the noble notions of persons from the other side of the border, who are sensitive to animal suffering... We put the dog in the car, along with a bag of food and went the 60 km to Rosarito. Once there we had to take a taxi to lead us...the shelter was a few kilometers away from town, on desert ground. There was some confusion with the taxi-driver, because we didn’t speak any Spanish, and the taxi-driver did not speak any English and at the beginning he took us to a completely different place...to a shelter, where homeless animals are killed...He thought that we wanted to get rid of the dog that way. Sunny proved to be a very pleasant woman, when in the end we found her dog oasis, she greeted us warmly and thanked us for going through so much trouble to bring our holiday guest here.. .We left the dog, the bag of food and a donation... We returned with mixed feelings ... Sunny told us what they do with homeless dogs in Mexico and how they do it...they put the dogs in one cage, hose them with water, and connect them to 220 V ...
 This dog definitely felt, with a sixth sense, that Tomek was a  good man and that here lies his salvation .. .. This is the internet site of the shelter

http://www.bajaanimalsanctuary.org/

Both CHristmas - eve guests: uncle Jasiu Purzycki and dog.