Barra to Manzanillo and back (Heading north!) (:-()

Ok so I am happy to be heading north, Larry sad. Just can't make the sea miles to Panama then Anna Maria, Florida. Will have to arrive in another manner.

Blog entry from today:
More photos of Barra:

Barra de Navidad, lagoon waterfront.

Arriving via water taxi.

From Barra de Navidad we had a nice sail down to Ensenda Carizal. It is supposed to be some of the best snorkeling on the coast. It was very nice with lots of coral and a number of fish. One looked like a yellow eel sitting in the rocks. I wondered if it took on the yellow of Larry’s bathing suit to hide. Visibility was low, about 10-15 feet. The anchorage was nice, a bit rolly and a bit rocky.

Next stop Bahia Santiago. Loved it.

We were turned onto a great beach restaurant by SV Oya who has cruised down here for seven or more years. “El Rey” had the best ceviche I have ever had. My two favorite flavors coming through nicely, lime and cilantro.

There is a ship wreck there in 25 feet of water. A category 5 hurricane hit in 1959 and this steel ship called the San Luciano sustained damage and sunk here. During low tide, a lot of it sticks out. We snorkeled in a higher tide so we could go over the top of it. Great fish watching. My favorite were these little 2 inch fish that were bright purple on the top and bright orange on the bottom. Brilliant. Larry’s favorite was the HUGE puffer fish he saw in one of the boilers. They had cut holes in them I believe to create sanctuary for more living creatures. This puffer had a head the size of a volleyball. It was too dark for me to see the rest. Larry says it was about 24 inches long and 12 inches in diameter.....that according to my measuring tape is at least 24 inches around its belly. A fatty. Imagine how big he is when he puffs up! He’d make a good light......

Next stop was the cruise around Bahia Manzanillo (bad visibility above the water too) then up to Las Hadas where the movie “10” was filmed. Lovely as well.


Manzanillo with its billowing smoke stacks left us little desire to spend much time breathing this all in.

Two huge smoke stacks. Now why would the visibility be so bad???

Yesterday back to Barra for food and fun. This place is really quaint --especially at night. The restaurants on the ocean side of the spit offer you a sunset view. The Lagoon side is the most exotic with the palms, low lights, moored boats and warm breezes.

Today we took the bus to a nearby town called Melaque for the all too important bank ATM.  The town is more Canadian then Mexican as far as its inhabitants. We think all of Canada has come to the Gold Coast of Mexico for the winter. One hotel was only $180 per month....the thrifty baby boomer’s paradise I guess. It was very nice and quaint and had some really nice family type hotels on the beach. We may try that anchorage there too.

This is Melaque, a little town north of Barra. An anchorage, nice beach and a bank--not to mention half of Canada!

Larry loves the coco palms!

We are currently anchored in Barra Lagoon. We had to re-anchor this morning. Pulling up the chain and anchor revealed sludge. Mud, mud and more mud. yick.

The French Baker in his panga recognized us here in the Lagoon. He gets on the hailing channel, “Sun Baby! Your French Baker is here!” I had to go out and explain we were out of pesos and were going to the bank today but tomorrow, please come by. He says, “ I give you credit!”  I had tallied up all that I bought from his last week. It was about $50 US dollars over four days. I am surprised my clothes still fit! And no wonder we are out of pesos!

The French Baker hard at work last week at the marina.

Tenacatita Moon and on to Barra de Navidad

The night before we left Tenacatita, the moon was just gorgeous. Perhaps you saw it? 

 Only about 14 miles separates Tenacatita anchorage from Barra de Navidad so it was a short trip. What we were not prepared for however was how pretty it is here. Lots of palm trees which seem to elevate my husband's soul and cool breezes and hot sun.

The entrance to the lagoon for anchoring, the town of Barra de Navidad and to the marina is all manicured. I was too busy putting up fenders and dock lines to get a photo but I will add it later after we leave.

The marina had a .50 cents per foot special so we are taking advantage of the special and the attached resort. Take a look:

View of Barra de Navidad from the resort, 6th floor.

View of the marina, lagoon anchorage beyond, from the resort, 6th floor.

There are water taxi's that will take you to town either from the marina or the lagoon. Incredibly, there is a French baker that brings fresh baked goods to the marina docks and lagoon boats each morning except Wednesdays. Good thing we arrived Wednesday afternoon. Breakfast and lunch were great--quiche and a ham and cheese croissant then tuna on a fresh croissant......dinner will be something (soup?) with the baguette! Oh the pounds.......adding up. Must leave....soon.....

Here are some other photos of the resort.

Larry loves this ceiling.  It made me feel like I was in a pizza oven.

Head of the dock, Colombia 50. Gorgeous. Tugs on the heartstrings. Larry has raced against this boat Mi Sueno and her owner. We will have to go by and say hello.

Can't wait to jump in!

View of the resort from the marina. It is just gorgeous. Met a Frenchman just leaving after a week and it looked as if he was going to cry. He loved it so much. 

Tomorrow we finish chores and go to town for food. Happy Valentines Day to you all. :-)

Beth, Larry and rocky
83 degrees F, sunny with no clouds a bit of breeze.

Estuary Tour by kayak

There is an estuary lined with mangroves that goes a couple miles inland but comes out at the other anchorage on the north side of Bahia Tenacatita. Here are some photos.

Arms were getting quite tired by the end so glad I did not take my additional 22 pounds that I usually paddle around. No, not my purse, or my arse-- my dog, Rocky.

African Queen

Tia watching carefully for crocodiles!

It was very glassy and in places you could not tell what was the top of the water. The mangroves grow down into the water and then the reflection took over. Very cool. 

We saw many birds and a few types of fish. Pangas are "garaged" up here under the mangroves. They cut a space and back into them. Drive their truck right up to the mangrove. We arrived to a very skinny area and I heard a panga coming down at full speed....lots of twists and turns. They immediately slow down but you don't want to surprise them on a tight turn.

Anyway, cheated death again. We emerged to a little wave action back at the anchorage. Took a couple over the bow. But hey, can't live on the water and not get wet, right?

I am about to brave the bottom cleaning. Stuff grows faster here than in the Sea of Cortez. Slimey yuck along the top. It has only been two weeks. Larry cleans the bottom and I clean the top three feet or so. Lots of acreage down there.

We think we will go as far as Manzanillo then work our way north. Zihuatanejo is just too far for the amount of time we have. It is 200 miles both ways (at anywhere from 5 to 8 knots--basically 5.75 to 9 mph---slow!). Knowing what we know now, we would leave La Paz in November and come all the way down, and work our way back up to Puerto Vallarta for March racing.

Next, perhaps tomorrow, we go to  Barra de Navidad. We hear there is a French baker who comes by the boat in the morning with his baked goods. I am known to like my baked goods.....yum.

It is a lagoon with not much fresh exchange of water. So we won't be there long.

Thoughts and Bahia Tenacatita

Blog entry 2-9-13


Thoughts on cruising and this week’s anchorage

Aside from the geology, nature, fish and beauty of Mexico, the cruisers make this an even better experience. Cruisers we meet are mostly from the west coast, Vancouver, Canada, Alaska, Seattle, Bellingham, San Francisco, all parts of CA and even Colorado and Arizona. (Don’t let me forget to mention the great Aussie’s and Kiwi’s we have met....Sailing vessels Woshee, Kiapa, Sea Raven and Sonrisa...) Sure we see the occasional East Coaster who has made their way through the Panama Canal. But most  that stop and socialize seem to start west, go south then west or south and east  and then there is me, south and north....:-). Much to Larry’s chagrin, after 8 months,  I am still not prepared to be at sea for days on end either to the Marquesas or through multiple countries and heat/humidity of the Panama Canal to home on Anna Maria Island, FL. After eight months, I can stand up for myself and say, “not this time” or “not this year”. We can reach Florda via car or plane from San Diego. However, I won't be surprised if I return to San Diego in June and say, “Ah crud. This sucks. Let’s go back south.”

Back to the cruisers. We are here in Bahia Tenacatita (south of Puerta Vallarta 150 miles and north of Manzanillo) and on the “ladies beach walk” after the “ladies swim to the beach” (while men are pawing at the sand and throwing their bocce balls) the gals were talking and said, “So and So, a really nice couple”......well, to tell you the truth, we have not met a NOT nice couple or single hander. Everyone is helpful and doing the same things, cruising. It is awesome. Very different from home where everyone is trying to survive on their own. Here, we survive together.

Bahia Tenancatita (you are going to get sick of me talking about it as all I heard from my sister in law was Tenacatita this and Tenacatita that.....) Well, I have to say, now I know why....aside from San Juanico on the Sea of Cortez, this is the best anchorage going. It is hardly developed, has a trash bin, a little bar palapa, shielded from wind and waves, wide beach for walks and games and clean water. Did I mention the 80 degree weather in the dead of winter? I should not sell so hard. Someone might develop and ruin it.

So here we are. There is a long white sand beach. One end is an RV Park, river to the estuary and palapa bar/restaurant and on the other end is an all-inclusive resort. The bay holds currently about 20 boats--some going north, others south, but all resting here a night or a week or sometimes a couple months.

Robert and Virginia Gleser of S/V Harmony have been coming here for 13 years and cruised with Larry’s sister and brother in law in 2003-2005 (Liz and Glenn on S/V Serendipidy). Robert and Virginia keep Harmony in the north of the Sea of Cortez in San Carlos in dry storage for the summer, pick it up in October, sail south while enjoying the best anchorages of the Sea. Dock in La Paz for Thanksgiving while they shoot home for the holiday, then shoot directly down to Tenacatita for the season (Dec to Feb). They just left today to head back north. Like the turtles laying eggs---back to the place of origin.

Robert has been the Mayor of Tenacatita for many years. Today an ex-mayor has taken over the duties......shepherding the swim team to shore with the dingy, leading bocce ball and presiding over the Friday night dingy raft up with appetizers, book exchange and social hour. It is great fun. Last night we had a gal from S/V Traveler with her ukelele and she was very talented. Not sure I could do this for two months, but good fun.

Tomorrow we ride the high tide through the estuary. Stay tuned for any photos I can get.

PS. What is the difference between “whale watching” and “watching for whales”? If you don’t own the boat it is whale watching. If you own the boat, you are watching out for whales. Dey be big creatures.....

Larry's beach. Coco palms and white sand beach.

This is Paraiso (Paradise). So far Larry's favorite anchorage. a small resort on shore with coco palms. This was one of three anchorages we stayed at getting to Tenacatita.

Still Heading South

We had two lovely days at sea with winds the first day of 8 knots. As Larry made breakfast and I stood watch,  I was thrilled to be going the same speed as the wind. I chalked it up to Larry’s fine sail trim.  He, however, reminded me that the motor was running. Ah shucks, so we had not converted Sun Baby to a race boat strictly by will, skill or the new screecher sail.

The first day we went from Punta de Mita in Banderas Bay to Punta Ipala.  The headland we round coming out of Banderas Bay is Cabo Corrientes. Like most headlands, it can be very windy and rough. The good news for me and the bad news for Larry was that there was to be little wind on the day we decided to go. Made for slower sailing but calmer seas for me.

This is the beginning of Costalegre, a stretch of Pacific Mexico where we can day hop south. Iplala was a pretty little anchorage with restaurants on shore, fish pens and panga moorings taking the most protected areas of the bay. We were over on the more exposed side of the bay but fortunately, the swell was very small.  A total of five boats anchored there by nightfall and all but one left before sunrise to make their next destination. Three of us came down the 50 mile stretch here to Bahia Chamela. We got here first, of course. Cats are FAST!

The trip was great. Even less wind than the day before so we motored most of the way and put the sails up for what thrust we could get.  Many a turtle sighting (turtle dodging really), dolphins coming up to our bows and yes, more whale watching. I made the comment that perhaps the whales did not come this far south. No sooner was that out of my mouth when a mama and baby humpback whale begin to kill fish. Mom was breaching and baby was slapping his/her tail on the water. Then, the baby breached. Then mom slapped the water with her fin. Spectacular to witness.

Here in the anchorage we are surrounded by a long white beach to the east and a rocky headland to the west. There are tons of fish in the water. This morning we had a two big collisions with our hulls. We knew from experience that it is the bigger fish going after the little fish that use our boat/platform for protection. We saw a school of young yellow fin tuna swimming around the boat. Just beautiful fish. Blue on top, yellow tails and yellow fins, about 25 inches long, maybe 15 pounds on them.

This afternoon Larry spotted these tiny fish that were white and purple. It was difficult to determine if they were in the water or on the water.

On our dingy exploration this morning we were cruising close to the beach. Huge schools of little fish were swimming, some forming bait balls, and the pelicans and boobies were diving in around us. Rocky normally would bark at this but there were such numbers that he just watched in amazement. 

Tomorrow we try to anchor between two islands here in the bay and get some kayaking or snorkeling in, then off to an anchorage called Paraiso (Paradise) before we go to Bahia Tenacatita.

We think we will try to make it all the way to Zihuatanejo if the weather and our spirits are willing. Friends have told us that it was their favorite place on Pacific Mexico. The longest stretch between anchorages would be about 70 miles.


Current temp is 81 F. Blue skies. about 5 knots of wind from the north west. Nights are cool.