Mexican Navy Invasion

Some of the guys waved to me after this picture.

I went on deck yesterday to retrieve a tool for the captain and saw this boat from the Mexican Navy cruise up the canal next to ours.  My first thought was, "Wonder if they're checking foreign boat documents?"  but then common sense reigned and I thought, mmm, this is a Kodak moment.
Truthfully, until recently I held a suspicious view of Mexican authority, whether the army ( whose troops ride around in open trucks with men on board holding Uzis), federales, local policia or the navy. My biggest fear was that I would not be able to communicate properly with them if I were stopped for any reason. One of our dock neighbors, a young and attractive female, tried to get cute with the policia one evening when she was stopped for not wearing a seat belt. Using her hands as a push-up bra she tried to indicate, in Spanglish, why her bust was just too uncomfortable in a seat belt.  He was not amused and slapped her with a 1200 peso fine. While I still don't relish the idea of being waved to the side of the road I now feel considerably more proficient at handling such a situation.

Always very serious...

So camera in hand I walked to the end of a neighboring dock and waved to the guys.  I pointed to my camera and asked, o.k.? "Si," yelled the young man standing next to the helmsman.  "Smile," I shouted and did a thumbs up. Some of them looked my way and I snapped a couple of shots, then gave a loud "Muchas gracias, senors," and bowed. At that point some waved and smiled.  I should have left my camera "on."
They left the marina at that point and didn't stop at a single boat.  Just boys out cruisin', I suppose.