El Nino in Tenacatita 1.30.10

Back in Tenacatita we have been stymied by a constant wind & rain that has hit the area. This season has been so incredibly weird weather wise and it just keeps coming! It keeps us stuck on the boat or changes our plans frequently but we’ve still managed to partake in trips up the jungle to town and beach runs, Darrell and I managed to win ‘Tenacatita Champions’ in bocce ball (winning two games back to back), and the famous Mayor’s raft-up where all of the dinghies are tied together and we pass around appetizers, books, cd’s, dvd’s etc and engage in a great talk that is suggested by Robert & Virginia, this year’s Mayors.



And being ‘stuck’ on the boat does have it’s good times as well. As I mentioned, we’re in a ‘utilize everything’ year – trying very, very hard to use every can, bag, bottle, & package of whatever we have and making it into something scrumptious. We originally provisioned in 2005 and still have items left over from then, not to mention the provisions from 2007!! But we’re doing good and have only found one canned item that went ‘bad’….the sweetened condensed milk turned into caramel. Yum!! Haha… I made a Pear Walnut coffee cake the other morning and an improvised super yummy pot of clam chowder that was incredible. We’ve even broken out the board & card games on the boat and have been playing them as well! (Though Michael seems to kick my ass!) The consensus out here is ‘it’s better to be stuck with some rain….than be back at work any time!” haha…



More to follow!
Rene

Leaving Barra 1.28.10

Just a week, that's all we gave ourselves in Barra lagoon. As with every stop, Barra lagoon is both good and bad. Being in Barra lagoon is lovely - you're anchored in 4' of water, the boat is as still as being in a marina (when the wind doesn't blow!), there is so much to do, see, explore, eat, & enjoy! BUT..it's a lagoon. That means dirty water. No diving off the boat and swimming around, you can't make water in the lagoon (some have.we won't, the water is too icky), and to 'do' anything, you must dinghy into town or shore. Last season wi-fi service was offered in the lagoon which was great as you could just log in any 'ol time you wished. This season both services are down which means to do any internetting we have to pack up the laptops (yes, laptops.plural! We fight over the laptop if we only take one!), put them inside their waterproof cases, make sure to take all info - passwords, notes, e-mail addresses, etc with us, load ourselves & the laptops on our backs into the dinghy and go into town. There are two convenient spots for picking up wi-fi: Fortino's Restaurant and The Sands Hotel, each with their own detractors as well. Fortino's is an amazing spot to work and all last season we did all of our interviews there via Skype! But we know the operators too well and end up chatting with them during the work time, haha. And The Sands Hotel is where most cruisers go to pickup internet as they have nice tables & chairs, a bar that serves mean 2-for-1 drinks, and it's poolside! The con for there is that there are lots of cruisers there..lots of talking, lots of Skyping, and the mosquitos are horrible there! One morning I went into The Sands early hoping to miss the crowd and was literally driven away by the mosquitoes as I didn't wear any repellant. It's a tough life!! :-)

Since wi-fi is such a cruiser necessity and Fortino's Restaurant is more than willing to provide the service, Michael and I went on the lookout for the equipment needed for setting up their own wi-fi service into the lagoon. By the time we left Barra, we were able to get many of the pieces donated by the folks who offered service the previous year and only have one main part missing that will make the system functional. Joe & Deb from Pacific Jade (yeah, we finally caught up with them!!) were planning a trip into a town just South of Barra de Navidad called Cihuatlan by bus so we joined them and scoured the couple computer electronics stores for this part but were not able to find it. We may have to bring it down with us next season. The trip into Cihuatlan was a lot of fun, we always have fun with Joe & Deb, and they were successful in finding what they were looking for - a generator for the boat! Theirs was beginning to die and they needed to find something to replace it. We wandered the town, partook in the always fun 'ask for directions' game whereby you go to one business and ask for what you're looking for (using your BEST Spanish you've been practicing and still receive the look like you have 3 heads!), find out they don't have it, and then you ask them where else in town you might try. They proceed to tell you how many blocks to walk, the general direction, and even landmarks to look for. So you walk the mile to the next business and the fun begins again. This continues..and continues..until you find what you're looking for (hallelujah!), you get plum wore out from walking, or finally give up! Because it's almost impossible to find someone who will tell you they don't know where you can try. I think sometimes it's a game they play with us! 'Let's see how many places we can get them to walk'! haha. While walking to one of the other stores we were suggested, we stumbled upon an 'Elektra' store and, amazingly, they had a 3000kw generator for 5000 pesos! That's a killer price! We told the gal we would be back, walked to the other end of town (just in case there was a better one there!), stopped for lunch at an amazing eatery called "Tena" that had some of the tastiest pork I've ever had, and made our way back to Elektra. The generator was loaded up into the back of a taxi and we made our way back to Barra. Another fun day.

Michael wasn't feeling so hot during our time in Barra as well and he ended up visiting the doctor in town. Another infection, similar to what I had in San Blas but not as advanced, it appears. It's been a weird season aboard Ahea Kali!

During one of his 'down' days, I went for a hike with Pamela from S/V Precious Metal & her best friend Laura through the golf course in Colimilla to the ocean side and on to an incredible private beach I was shown last season. The waves have been pounding this beach because of the high winds & swell that has been in the area which left the beach beautifully carved with high, steep sand berms that were interesting to traverse! The sand was such a clean caramel color and was coarse on our feet - so the soles of our feet were rewarded with a massage and pumice stone-type cleaning as well. The beach met up to a large rocky hill that upon closer inspection had steps carved into the rock. Up and over the large rock we went until we were on the other side to the private beach sheltered from the battering waves, littered with beach glass, shells & driftwood, and even a long tube where the waves came all the way through. It was a beautiful sunny day and we found a couple groups who had found the beach as well from the Hotel. And in that crazy 'it's a small world' system, we asked one of the ladies in one of the groups if she would mind taking our photo and upon chatting with her, learned she was from B.C., Canada.just a few miles from where both Pamela & Laura lived and they even knew some of the same people! Crazy.

We did the 'circuit' while in Barra - Pipi's burritos (the best, biggest burritos in town for some crazy cost of 35 pesos or so), Mexico Lindo (another great restaurant), went up to the top of the Alondra Hotel for cocktails & sunset among friends, wandered through the streets looking at all of the changes, spent plenty of time at the Hotel Sands' pool & bar, and even found a few new places! And you can't come to Barra lagoon without enjoying the fresh baked specialties of the 'French Baker' who motors out in a panga every morning and visits every boat in both the marina and lagoon and sells scrumptious baguettes, croissants, pies, & quiches. My favorite is the almond croissant but the ginger chocolate orange pie is a close second. :-) It's no wonder I don't lose weight out here! Haha.

The big fishing tournament was in town again this year and we went to the final weigh-in that was held at The Grand Bay Hotel & Marina. This is a huge fishing tournament, bringing in anglers from all over the West coast, and they go after the big fish - marlin, dorado, & sailfish. The event is held on a beautiful grassy overlook of the marina & lagoon entrance. Tents & structures are erected and items are advertised or sold to all of those in attendance. Like last year, beer & tequila were sold - beer, margaritas, a shot of tequila, or an alcoholic beverage sold in a can called 'Pisto Listo' were only 20 pesos. I went for the Pisto Listo, why not?! It had a snazzy name and when I asked the gal selling it what it was, she read to me, in Spanish, exactly what was advertised on the can - a beverage with tequila and a grapefruit flavored soda. Sounds good! And they were. ;-) We ran into Jaime, the marina manager from Marina Mazatlan who told us they took 1st place in Marlin and the other two classes were also won by Mazatlan anglers. Woohoo! You may remember our story from last year.but this year was much more mellow - and our liver thanked us! Michael wasn't feeling good so after seeing all of the anglers bring in their catch, we headed back to the boat.

After 8 days in the lagoon, we were beginning to run out of water. We hold 215 gallons of water on Ahea Kali that is used for everything - showers, cooking, cleaning, & the toilet. When we arrived in the lagoon our water tanks were close to full but we managed to get pretty low in those 8 days - to less than 100 gallons. So it's time to get back out to fresh water! Back to Tenacatita we go. I can use some more swim time, bocce ball, & relaxing! Though, I'll be honest, I've been 'working' on stuff that will help us when we're in Alaska this summer. Oh, how I suffer! :-)

Only 30 boats were in Barra lagoon when we left!
More to follow!
Rene

Videos! 1.25.10

Finally...enough bandwidth to upload videos, though it only took about 2 hours! haha... Enjoy!!

Boats leaving Chamela headed to Tenacatita after the awful evening at anchor....



The jungle river trip through the mangroves into Tenacatita...




Slacker motorsailing to Tenacatita...

Pictures uploaded! 1.23.10

I’ve finally had internet & uploaded some pictures! Check them out!

Videos are next…
Rene

Welcome to Barra de Navidad! 1.23.10

We arrived in the lagoon of Barra de Navidad a few days ago and set the anchor just in time for some high winds that were funneling in. The anchorage is tricky getting into as there are sandbars all around but we were given some GPS coordinates and follow them to a tee every time we come into the lagoon and, knock on wood, they’ve never failed us! The anchorage is in a lagoon and the bottom can only be described as muck. I like to think of it like jello….it’s not super good holding ground for the anchor and many have slipped. We have a bit of a theory that we test here – drop 50 feet, let it settle, drop more, let it settle, etc. So far, again knock on wood, we have held. This year we came in and dropped anchor in about 4 feet of water. There were about 17 boats in the anchorage – much, much less than previous years. The winds continued to blow – harder and harder – and we noticed the boat beside us slipping. Luckily, there was no one behind him and he was able to re-anchor without episode. Poor guy, he has the wrong type of anchor for this bottom and has slipped a couple times.

Since we were new to the anchorage, the first day we stayed on board while the wind was blowing just to make sure we had no slippage. Now that we’ve held for a few days, we’ve spent lots more time in town. The first day off the boat we went and found some blessed internet! Yeah!! Woohoo!! I was able to check e-mails and go through the 150 or so junk mail messages. Funny how you can’t wait to get to your e-mails and when you do, you spend so much time cleaning out the junk! But I was happy to get down to the good stuff.  And then on to the news – how horrible the situation in Haiti and then the crazy weather in California! And finally on to a phone call. Today is Saturday and I’m looking forward to a few more phone calls and updates. Michael has been busy as well – today he’s off to get some additional fuel, and make arrangements for cervezas & sodas to be delivered to the boat. Maria’s tienda, a staple in this area for the cruisers, is closed for the season but she still helps us cruisers get large items – cervezas, sodas, propane, & water. Internet is no longer offered in the lagoon and so we must load up the laptops and go into town for internet. That’s a big bummer. It’s not a problem, just an inconvenience. That wi-fi card service is looking better & better each time we have to lug laptops into town!

Yesterday we went into Melaque by bus to shop in the Super Hawaii store (a small grocery store that stocks lots of ‘gringo’ food) and check out the town. It’s always a fun place to go and there are lots of shops to check out – t-shirts, dresses, hats, etc. We walked the beach and ate lunch at a restaurant right in the sand at the end of the beach where it’s rumored to have the best taco salads in town. And the price was right – only 37 pesos, about $3 with 9 peso beers. We made our way back via bus into Barra de Navidad and back to the boat….and then over to S/V Equinox for an appetizer party aboard their boat. It was a full day.

So, life continues to be good here. I hope this message finds everyone safe & sound! We’re thinking about everyone and hoping for the best with the crazy weather.

More to follow…
Rene

Leaving Tenacatita 1.20.10

I hate to even mention this….but the worst has happened. We’ve run out of gas for the generator and even worse…beer. So we’re headed into Barra de Navidad lagoon, a short, 3 hour motorsail further south down the coast where we can get resupplied and keep out of the way of the crazy large winds & swells that are rumored to be heading our direction.

Our time in Tenacatita was just amazing and we may just get resupplied and head right back instead of going even further South this season. We’ll see! The water at Tenacatita was crystal clear and warm and activities were plentiful so unless this swell totally wrecks it, we’ll just spend our remaining time this season hopping between about 4 anchorages in the area.

The few days since our last slog was spent in similar fashion – swimming, hiking, playing games, snorkeling, kayaking, enjoying dinners and appetizer parties with friends, impromptu get-togethers, and oh, don’t forget the Mayor’s Friday night raft-up! Every year a ‘Mayor’ is chosen – someone who will be in the area pretty much the entire season and provides assistance to folks coming into the anchorage. Well, every Friday night is the Mayor’s night out and everyone jumps into their dinghies, heads over to a spot in the anchorage near ‘good dog beach’ and ties their dinghy to their neighbor until a circle of dinghies is achieved. Then out comes the swappable items – DVD’s & CD’s, followed closely by the appetizers. You bring an appetizer to share and the trays of appetizers are passed around the circle. Similar to a potluck, it’s amazing what everyone manages to make up on the boat and there is almost too much food to eat! Popcorn, pasta salad, crackers & yummy dips, brownies, mango upside down cake, stuffed grape leaves, quesadillas, and other scrumptious goodies were shared. Then everyone in the circle stood up & gave their boat name, when they left, where they were headed, and answered the Mayor’s question of the day – tell us about the most memorable night passage you’ve experienced. The stories ranged from amazing to horrific but they were all great to hear. There were about 20 boats represented and it was a great night.

The day after the raft-up, a group of girls and I went for a hike from our anchorage along the top of the mangroves, and into Tenacatita. We were chaufered in to good dog beach by the guys and four of us – Juliette on S/V Synchrony, Adele on S/V Sea Change, and Sharen on the Catamaran Sunsation – hiked into town.



What a great hike! There was lots of flowers blooming, the hike was mostly without bugs, and the conversation never stopped! As we came over the ridge and could see town, the beach seemed to stretch for miles – miles and miles of clean sand beaches with the swells pounding in. We left early enough to make the hike in, check out town, grab some lunch with the guys who brought the dinghies in through the jungle trip, grab some groceries, and get back to the beach for bocce ball in the afternoon. Fun, fun.

A couple days later, after helping out a boat in the anchorage with some much needed parts for a generator repair, we were invited to dinner aboard S/V Ohana. We provided the halibut and Nicole made an incredible halibut corn chowder that was to die for. And for desert – brownies with real whipped cream mixed with grand marinier….heavenly! Tom & Nicole are sailing with their 6 & 8 year old kids, Max & Makenzie – what an experience for them! This was also after sharing a dinghy ride into La Manzanilla, a super cute town on the opposite side of the bay from Tenacatita, to watch the football game (Dallas was skumked!) & stock up on some provisions.



This was the first time we had been to La Manzanilla and it was another spectacular beach town. I look forward to going there more often!

Projects were completed on the boat, fun was had, and most of all…there was plenty of relaxing accomplished! It was a great time in Tenacatita. We’ll have to go back there again… 

The crazy weather that’s hitting the west coast of California is also hitting Mexico and is coming our way, with predictions of up to 15 foot swells and high winds. We will duck into the anchorage of Barra de Navidad lagoon to ride out the storm, if it hits all the way down here. We’ll see!

More to follow…
Rene

Tenacatita 1.14.10

Ahhh…..Tenacatita! I mentioned on the last update that we pulled into a calm bay, dropped our anchor in 10’ of water and all was well. And it has stayed well. So well, in fact, we will probably spend as much time here as possible. As long as we don’t run out of gas for the generator or we can find some somewhere, we’re staying! The water is an incredible jade green color and crystal clear, you can see all of the fish swimming around the boat, our anchor & chain on the bottom, and every rock & seashell as if they were just a foot below. It’s incredible! The air temperature is in the upper 80’s and the water temperature is in the low 80’s. This spot is as close to paradise as I know.

I’m currently sitting in the cockpit of the boat looking around and will try to describe what I see! The pelicans & coastal birds are flying around the boats giving us quite a show of their grace and beauty while trying to find breakfast. There are obviously large fish under the water as I’ve seen several fish jumping out of the water right beside the boat. We make it a habit of throwing our garden waste (fruit & veggie scraps, mostly) overboard and there are lots of fish underneath our boat that appreciate our offerings as well as the shade that the boat provides. I’m currently facing southwest and I’m rewarded with a stunning rock face that is covered in green, yellow, pink & white – several variety of trees all with different colored leaves, super tall cactus jutting out of the rock face, shrubs, some beautiful blooming trees with incredible pink & white blooms, and vines everywhere. And there are those cool air plants that are everywhere too. That rock face comes down into the bay with no beach to speak of, but large rocks with waves that slide up the face and tumble back down. It is one of my favorite sounds. I can see 5 boats by turning my head side to side, but I know there are another 20 of so behind me. The boats come & go in and out of the anchorage daily. Some stay for lengths of time (there have been two boats here for more than 2 months), some stay for a week (about how long we’ve been here), and some only for a day or so. This is just one of the stopping points along the way.

It is one of the spots that offers so much though, which is why we love it here. I mentioned how gorgeous the water is, which allows for swimming daily (sometimes multiple times a day!), snorkeling, kayaking, & even some surfing. But that’s just the beginning of it. Every day around 2pm at the beach there is some activity going on that you can join in, watch, or just ignore! Bocce ball games, volleyball games, Mexican train dominoes, walks along the beach, organized swims into shore (from a boat), you name it – there’s something going on! Fishing from the dinghy, from the boat, spearfishing while snorkeling… And if that doesn’t suit you, you could always spend as long as you want sunbathing, reading, or just lounging in the hammock we have strung up. Did I mention….ahhhhh……

There are a group of boats we’ve spent quite a bit of time with – Slacker, Outrider, Maradon, Overheated, Pacific Voyager, & others. Barry & Pat on Pacific Voyager (our sister ship) is headed down to Ecuador this season and we knew the time was getting short to spend one-on-one time with them so while we were in Chamela we setup a dinner with them…..on the evening of the day we all split & headed to Tenacatita. Luckily, though, they also came into Tenacatita and anchored just behind us and we had a lovely dinner of Alaskan halibut & veggies with them that evening. We were bummed to see them go the next morning but know they have a good weather window and the time was right to head further South. We hope we will be able to hook up with them sometime again, but realize it is unlikely. That is the hard part of cruising – meeting folks that you really like and realizing you may not see them again. But the time spent with them was fabulous and we will remember it forever.

We have had some funky weather this season – rain! I can count about 6 times this season where it rained and it hasn’t stopped the further South we have come. Since we arrived in Tenacatita, we have had a couple of overcast days – somewhat of a problem for us since they’re a low solar day and we rely on solar power to charge our batteries, run our refrigeration, & keep our lights burning! Luckily though, the sunshiny days have well outnumbered the overcast days and well…an overcast day out here is better than any day at work anyway. Wink, wink! The lightning & thunder have been a bit of a treat though!

It’s about an hour later than I first started this update as we’ve had a couple visitors come by the boat in their dinghies to chat. It’s a very social community. I’m now facing the gorgeous beach that we play on during the day as the wind has shifted. The beach is about a mile long from the entrance to the jungle river trip to the Blue Bay Hotel, an all-inclusive hotel set up against a large rock separating one beach from the other. The beach itself is a honey colored sand and is lined by palm trees. A group of 4 horses can be seen being ridden along the beach a few times a day and there is a little palapa restaurant called La Vena that sits in the far corner by the river entrance. It is rumored that the area is owned & maintained by ‘plantation’ workers and only those associated with the plantation are allowed at the beach, but I can’t find any specific info. I will tell you, there are hardly ever any people on the beach save those at the hotel and, well, that’s OK with me too! Haha…

Speaking of the jungle river trip, we went up to the town of Tenacatita via the jungle river trip a couple days ago in search of fresh veggies. Anne & Jeff on Outrider, Mike & Julie from Slacker, Neil from Moondance, & us made the trip up the estuary to town. The jungle trip is so much fun, no matter how many times we’ve done it. The mangroves are amazing, the birds beautiful, and don’t forget the little red footed crabs! It’s a lot of fun roaming through the mangroves that surround you, duck under tree limbs overhead, & shimmy around fallen trees that obstruct your path to get into town. Once in town, there is a spot to leave your dinghy and a group there to provide security from 9 to 5. They charge a modest 20 pesos, about $1.50 and they help you park & re-launch the dinghy, as well as take any trash you have. Not a bad service! We spent the day checking out the town – walking from one end of town to the other (it’s a small beach town), checking out the full RV park in town, salt & pepper beach (a black & white coral beach), seeing what the vendors had to sell, & finally settling in at one of our favorite restaurants – Restaurant Cato – for their famous ‘Rollo del mar’ which is a thin filet of white fish, topped with shrimp & veggies, rolled up, wrapped in bacon and served with a creamy almond sauce over the top. It’s scrumptious and a specialty in this area. It’s a must try when you’re down here!!

Oh, I almost forgot – the sky is a bright blue color interspersed with white fluffy clouds. We’ve had several ‘pineapple express’ days where a small cell of weather comes our way for a few hours, half days, etc. But today it’s nice, perfect for bocce ball games on the beach!

Well, I guess that’s enough typing for today – my chore for the day is done! Now it’s time for some the big decision…..snorkeling? Or kayaking?

This is the life…..
Rene

BAD Chamela!! 1.8.10

Well, what we thought would be beautiful Chamela….turned bad. This just proves that however wonderful, enjoyable, exciting, etc. that people perceive our lives out here to be, it ain’t all sunshine & blue umbrella drinks! After a good night’s sleep we got up & around, working on our morning chores when an announcement on the radio alerted us that there was high winds and rain about 35 miles away and heading our direction. We had plans for the afternoon but they quickly changed as we had to button up the boat in preparation for the storm cell that was heading our way. Slowly, the wind began to build, turning all of the boats around to point in that direction. Then the swells began to come into the anchorage, testing the set of our anchor. It wasn’t uncomfortable, wasn’t scary, more like fascinating – watching the wind meter to see how high the winds got (between 20-25 knots), watching the swells swim past us & crash on the beach. Luckily (or not, depends on your take!) the rain never came, though folks just 35 miles down the road saw up to 4 inches of rain in a couple hours. Makes for a great fresh-water boat wash! The storm began around noon, which was pleasant as although it ruined our plans for the afternoon, it wasn’t hitting in the middle of the night which is worse. Unfortunately though, around 4pm the wind just up & stopped like a light switch was turned off. And with no wind to point us in the direction of the swells that were still marching in like soldiers…..we were eventually swung beam-to the swells, rocking our boat from side to side. Now this is what I call uncomfortable. Everything makes noise when you’re beam-to the swells and though you may try your hardest to make sure the pans don’t come flying out at you, and the plates have some cushion room between the cupboards, it all makes noise. Then, to make things worse, we started doing the twist. This is the worst of all. Now you’re not going just side to side, the whole boat is doing a twisting motion and it’s time to hold on for dear life! Haha… Just imagine putting your house, or even your car on a tilt-a-whirl ride from the fair or amusement park….you may get a feel for what we endured for not the 3 minutes of the tilt-a-whirl joy ride….but HOURS!! It’s, um, not fun. No, not fun at all. Luckily, nothing went flying and we had no casualties though we did have some fun conversations on the radio with the other boats who were doing the twist with us! Not even a broken egg in the refrigerator! Everything was locked up tight and we made it into the evening with no problems, thankfully! We slept fitfully that evening as the swells were still marching in though much mellower than before.

The next day we jumped in the dinghy and made our first successful dinghy landing since leaving Stone Island – woohoo! It was time for an internet fix and since we can’t get internet in the bay we wandered into town to find the local internet café. The town is about ½ mile from where we beached the dinghy which made for a nice leg-stretching walk – nice since we were stuck on the boat for the past 2 days. We made our way into the center of town and chatted with a local business man about the missing internet café in town. He confirmed what we remembered from last year, there was another internet café about 5 blocks away so we hit the road again. We found the papeleria that had the ciber café inside and chatted with the owner, a woman we also remembered from last year. She has 4 PC stations and this year, wi-fi! I had brought my little laptop and took a seat outside on her patio while Michael took to one of the PC’s inside. We had a bit of catch-up to do, pictures to upload & slogs to post as well as some business stuff. We ended up spending about 2 hours there and walked away $4 lighter. We decided to forgo picking up any fresh veggies as we planned to spend many more days in the anchorage so we walked back to the dinghy landing area via the amazing beach front. The white sand beaches stretch on for miles with very few buildings or structures around. I’ll be able to upload photos in the next week, but believe me, it was spectacular.

The dinghy landing area is right in front of Miguelita’s restaurant palapa and when we walked up, we found about 17 cruisers sitting there, refreshments in hand, soaking up some sunshine & enjoying the conversation going on around the table. It was a ‘great to be alive & just because’ celebration. New friends and old, we all had something to talk about! But alas, the breaking swells on the beach began to get bigger and bigger and it was time to head back to our boats.

Back at the boat we planned for the next day’s events & settled in for a good night’s sleep. Well, it started out good! Haha… But around 11:30 or so that evening we saw lighting in the sky – uh oh. The winds picked up a little while after that and before we knew it, it was again blowing hard and those relentless swells just kept on marching in. And then….the wind stopped. Ugh. Crap! Grumble, grumble, grumble. #^&*%$!! And any other expletive you want to throw in here! It was about 1am. And so we began doing the twist again and I can assure you, Chubby Checker would not have enjoyed it either. We went beam-to, twisted, rocking horse (a comfy position), twisted, beam-to’d all night long. All night long! It was awful. Forget about sleeping! No matter where you were in the boat, you were going to get bounced out. Not to mention it was just downright uncomfortable!

Finally it was daylight, with the swells still kicking our ass. We had a choice to make – get behind the islands and hope it’s protected or get the heck out of there. And we did! And not only us….but most everyone in the anchorage had the same idea. The anchorage was reduced to only 1 boat by about 10:00am and all 10 boats were in a line headed South for a protected spot. From Chamela, it’s only a 6 run for us to where we are now, Tenacatita Bay. The swells were still uncomfortable on our trek as they were short & tight, but it was do-able. The wind piped up to around 15 knots and we were able to do some motorsailing but the swells were too much to sail entirely as they would stop us dead. We pulled into Tenacatita & tucked up just as close as possible to the corner of the bay, dropping anchor in only 10’ of water. The water is so crystal clear you can see your anchor and chain and is a beautiful jade green color. When we arrived there were about 10 boats in the anchorage. That number grew significantly as the day wore on and today there are about 19. Now pray for some good sleep!

Exhausted….going to sleep now…
Rene

Chamela 1.5.10

Woohoo!! We made it! Yippee! We left the pull of La Cruz (I’ll tell you, it’s easy to get ‘stuck’ there!) and pulled out of the marina around 11:00pm just behind Outrider. Once we were out in the bay the seas were a little choppy, with tight swells batting us around and nearly nonexistent winds. As we got closer to Cabo Corrientes the seas were like a washing machine, seeming to hit us from all sides, but we blasted through with only a few thrown items down below. Incredibly though, just a few miles from the point, the seas mellowed and the wind picked up and it was an incredibly smooth ride the rest of the way to Chamela. What a beautiful day! We saw only a few turtles and just one whale, but the day was a bit overcast which kept the temperature down and was perfect for a long transit.

We pulled into Chamela Bay around 3:30pm and set the hook along with about 10 other boats. I’m not proud of what I’m about to tell you…but it took not one, not two….but four attempts to get the hook set! The first time we didn’t like our ultimate position so we pulled up, the second we aborted before even setting it down, the third it just skipped across the bottom, and the fourth – whalah! Set like a charm! Now that we’ve made everyone in the anchorage nervous and toasted each other on a successful passage (it’s a requisite of the passage!)…haha!!..it was time to do what I’ve been waiting what seems like forever to do….JUMP IN THE WATER!! We dove off the side of the boat like acrobats – swan dives and all (though it probably just looked like a belly flop from other views) and soaked up some much needed salt water time. No agenda, no time limit, we just swam round and round the boat until it was all we could do to haul ourselves out of the water. It was….aahhhh….you know what I mean? After that we fixed some dinner, watched an episode of 24 (Jack Bauer was calling our name!), and hit the sack early. Hopefully we’ll get a nice rest tonight.

More to follow!
Rene

Leaving La Cruz 1.4.10

Hmmm….well….so we didn’t leave on New Year’s day! Haha!! Now c’mon…I know what you’re thinking – and no….it wasn’t because we were hungover (I’ll never admit to it!). haha! No, it was because Michael picked up a cold and that, combined with his hangover (don’t tell him I told you!) kept him in bed the entire day on New Year’s day. Literally. We waited until the last minute before making the decision to stay, and though it was a difficult one, it was a good decision. You just never know what is going to happen out there, and with one person under the weather, it is possible there can be trouble. Michael’s cold kicked his butt and he was a basket case for a day or so after. And my neck is still sore. December was a bad month for me! First I’m rushed to the ER, then I get a bee sting, and then a sore neck. I’ve mentioned this is the year we ‘utilize’ everything on the boat, I never knew I meant all of our meds too! I’ll be fine, just have to get past this rough patch.

Luckily, Outrider had plans to leave on Monday and we are going to follow them down. It’s always nice to buddy boat with another boat while rounding Cabo Corrientes….as well as just having people to talk to when you start to get tired! Plus we’ve had a few days to play with them! Trips into Bucerias, Tacos in the Street, the time passed way too quickly, as always.

So tonight’s the night. We’re going to leave here around 11:00pm. We’ll round Cabo Corrientes around 2am or so and should get to Chamela around 4pm. That’s the plan! Wish us luck…
Rene