Sea Of Cortez

Upon leaving San Blas on the mainland we had planned to head to Agua Verde on the Baja, and slowly work our way to La Paz, about 100 miles south. Unfortunately our weather window closed on our crossing and we had NW 20 to 25 k winds on our nose, short and steep seas, making headway difficult. So we hove to for 36 hours, slowly drifting NE, allowing us to head west when the winds came down. Our landing was at Isla Partida, 80 miles short of our goal, but we were on the Baja.

Nancy had driven down the Baja in 1986, both of us drove down in 1990, and we twice towed our 26 ft trailer-able sailboat, s/y Krill, to Bahia de Los Angeles in the mid-90's. We love the Baja!

We spent a month cruising between Isla Espiritu Santo and San Evaristo. The anchorages provided good hikes, beach combing and snorkeling. Pelicans provided most of the entertainment. Wherever the bait fish were, the pelicans were diving in a feeding frenzy. Seagulls boldly waited for the pelicans to surface and then they'd try to steal fish out of the pelican's beak. We never tired of the show.

Local fishermen have set up fish camps in most anchorages and use their small shacks to store equipment and clean their catch. Their catch is either taken to town directly or taken to a road where a truck takes it to town.

We arrived in La Paz during Carnival and anchored across the channel from town. The sound at night during Carnival was unbelievably one loud conglomerate of intense noise, as there must have been four or five bands playing simultaneously. Also every amusement ride had music blaring. The main goal in La Paz was to haul out, clean and paint Tamara's bottom, it being almost three years since our last haul out. In addition to the normal slime and barnacles, there were area that had gotten ground down by ice to the bare metal. We barely made 4.5 k full speed as we entered La Paz channel due to the foul bottom.

Back in the water we began to provision and make ready for the voyage to Hilo, Hawaii. We also took in a few movies, Slumdog Millionaire (great!) and Operation Valkrri, and Nancy got her teeth cleaned and visited a dermatologist. We left La Paz Saturday, 14 March and are currently on our way, expecting to arrive in Hilo in three weeks.

We have enjoyed our four months in Mexico and have met many fun and interesting fellow cruisers.



Ciao!

La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Mexico

We spent 17 very peaceful and enjoyable days anchored in Bahia Tenacatita. The anchorage is off a one half mile long beach with the anchorage at one end of the beach and a small hotel at the other end. In front of the anchorage is a small campground used by locals, and a restaurant palapa, both located at the entrance to a creek into a mangrove swamp. A popular outing is to take your dinghy up the creek to a lagoon that backs onto another beach on the outer edge of the bay. The route through the mangroves narrows down to barely the width of the dinghy and becomes totally covered over by the trees. Snowy Egret, Great and Little Blue Heron, Night Heron, Brown Pelican, Brown Booby and Osprey are found throughout the mangrove and around the anchorage.

On several occassions we had large schools of small fish hovering around the boat, attracting boobies out of the sky and schools of Jack Craval. The Boobies would dive out of the sky and land in the water just a few feet from the boat, one actually hitting the rigging on it's way down. The Jack Craval would swarm in and attack the smaller fish, banging against the hull of the boat and thrashing on the surface of the water, creating a dramatic disturbance around Tamara.

The village of La Manzanilla is a 20 minute dinghy ride across the bay and has several small tiendas (stores) where most of our provisioning needs could be met, as needs here are quite simple--tortillas, beer, salsa and cheese. A walk along the creek that borders one side of town allows one an up close and personal encounter with cocodrilos (crocodiles). Weekdays it's a sleepy village, but on the weekends it's a popular spot for a meal in one of the many palapa restaurants.

While we were in Tenacatita, we rendezvoused with Hans and Roos (s/y The Wind Cries) a Dutch couple we met three years ago in Cape Verde. They most recently came across the Pacific from Japan to Vancouver and down the West Coast. They are currently headed for the Panama Canal and on to Cuba before heading back to Holland. We enjoyed catching up and exchanging cruising stories.

From Tenacatita we sailed to Bahia Chamela for three nights before continuing on to Bahia Bandaras, the largest bay on the west coast of mainland Mexico, nearly 20 miles across. Puerto Vallarta is situated in the center of the bay. We are anchored, along with mas o menas 30 other boats, off the marina at La Cruz, a small community in the NW corner of the bay. We were planning on heading direct for La Paz and the Sea of Cortez but heard that we'd have better luck finding products needed to work on Tamara's hull when we hauled out, hopefully in La Paz. Bahia Banderas contains the largest concentration of boats in Mexico, the majority owned by Americans and Canadians. We went out to dinner last night and you would have thought we were in Southern California, the restaurant full of 50-60 yrs old cruisers.

We will probably stay here through Christmas then continue on to the Sea of Cortez.

Bahia Tenacatita, Mexico

23 November 2008

Bahia Tenacatita, Mexico

We are anchored in a large bay about 26 nm north of Manzanillo in a well protected anchorage. The bay has some development, though for the most part is comparatively undeveloped. We will stay here for about a week then move about 30 nm north to another bay for a week or so.

Our trip from the Galapagos to Manzanillo, Mexico was 1500 nm and took us 13 days. We motored 2/3 of the way due to total lack of wind or light winds on our bow. We were hoping to get some easterly winds as we crossed the outer edge of the Gulfo de Tehuantepec, but it was very quiet. The Gulf has a reputation for being a nasty area and as we passed the northwestern edge there were storm warnings for winds of 30 - 50 k. We had several hitch-hikers along the way, egrets, boobies, and some small bird, and saw many turtles floating past. And Mark caught his first fish off Tamara, a large and colorful dorado, which has provided us with many delicious meals.

It wasn't until we were 500 miles off Acapulco that we starting seeing container ships. Manzanillo is an impressive, large and very modern port, and the city seems to be prospering. There are some large hotels on the north side of the bay but tourism is not the major employer, the port is. We anchored just outside the marina at the Las Hadas Hotel, scene of the movie "10" starring Dudley Moore and Bo Derek. We arrived early in the morning, got anchored, the dinghy put together and ourselves into shore to start the check-in process. It took us two and a half days to complete all the paper work necessary with the three agencies; Immigration, Capitania, and Aduana (customs) - a lot of hurry up and waiting.

There were a few other yachts anchored in the same spot, so we introduced ourselves and starting picking their brains for information on other anchorages and the possibility of hauling out. We also ran into many ex-pats that are now living in Mexico. It's amazing how many there are.

The next couple of weeks will be spent just relaxing and enjoying the area. We hope during that time to get the information we need to decide if we will haul-out in either Puerta Vallarta or La Paz. We've spoken with many people and we have not gotten the same information from any two people. If it's La Paz we will probably head that way by the end of the year.

To our North American friends have a good Turkey Day.

Day 6 To Manzanilla, Mexico

Day 6: 10 November 2008
2230 UTC
Position: 7 10.34 N, 95 07.40 W

We are 600 nm north of the Galapagos on a course for Manzanilla, Mexico - we were originally headed for Puerta Vallarta. The first four days we had SW winds, approx. 10 k and a favorable current, allowing us to make 4.5 to 5 k under sail. But we have been in the ICTZ the last two days motor-sailing in 5k variable winds. We had been warned, and the weather forecasts have confirmed, that we'd probably motor a lot north of 5?. We've got enough fuel to reach Manzanilla but would feel better if we can get in more sailing. The weather has been hot and humid, overcast skies with frequent rain showers. Unlike the ITCZ we experienced in the Atlantic crossing from Cape Verde to Brazil, there have been no lightning storms, at least not yet.

Today was a historic moment for the crew of Tamara - Mark caught his first fish, a 12 lb. dorado. And Nancy got the photos to prove it. So it's fish and salad for dinner tonight and lots of the fish in the freezer for future meals.

We had 4 hitchhikers join us early this morning - 4 small egrets, though we don't know the species or what they're doing here. All four crowded on top of the main mast, two whirling around on the two wind indicators. They were driving Mark crazy since the indicators are delicate and he couldn't scare them off. But they have now taken off even though we told them we'd give them a free ride to Mexico.

Just under 900 nm to go. Hope we get some wind.