So far, we have executed our overall cruising plan just as we planned it back in Seattle–that is, sail from Seattle to San Francisco with the Coho Ho Ho rally, reach San Diego by early November, sail to Cabo San Lucas with the Baja Ha Ha rally, sail up into the Sea of Cortez to La Paz, cross the sea to Mazatlan, and head south to Banderas Bay. Between those major stops, we had numerous anchorages on islands and remote villages and saw some pretty amazing things. We are now almost 1/3 of the way through our 14 month adventure. It would have been easy to spend 3 more months in Puerto Vallarta getting ready for the Pacific Puddle Jump to the Marquesas, but we want to see as much of Mexico as possible, so we planned a 670 mile round trip journey down the coast to Zihuatanejo during the month of January. We will then spend February and half of March in Puerto Vallarta preparing for the crossing. So once again we parted ways with other boats we have become friends with, and began heading further south. Our sail plan was to break the trip to Zihuatanejo up into 4 legs and visit places like Tenacatita, Manzanillo, Santiago, Ixtapa, and others.
Tenacatita
We caught a nice wind out of Banderas Bay (La Cruz), sailing downwind at 7-8 knots for 8 hours under full main and genoa. Steady winds of 20 knots moved us along nicely and since we were ahead of schedule, we decided to go all the way to Tenacatita, 122 miles from La Cruz. Unfortunately, the wind died suddenly and we found ourselves motoring the second half, but still reached Tenacatita by 10am the following day, where we anchored in a nice bay alongside a dozen other boats. We went ashore and met 2 guys gathering coconuts. The method was to find trees that had reachable branches with coconut clusters BELOW them, and shake the branch until some coconuts fell. Not easy work but well worth the effort. Jacintha helped with reaching some branches that were too tall for us to reach! We spent another full day at Tenacatita and played Bocci Ball on the beach with fellow cruisers, then joined them at the restaurant/bar along the beach afterwards. Jacintha played on the beach with a girl her age who was vacationing with her family from Guadalajara. Towards evening we took our dinghy about a mile up an estuary that weaved its way through thick mangroves. It was like a real jungle cruise (as opposed to the one we did a few months ago at Disneyland) with lots of Pelicans, Herons, Egrets, crabs, and insects. We didn’t spot any, but crocodiles are known to make this their home. We rushed out of there at the first hint of mosquitoes. Back at the boat, Karen finished covering some port inserts with fine mesh for mosquito protection and we lit a mossy coil (our first night there we were unprepared and left the ports open until we realized we were inviting many blood-thirsty mosquitoes inside).
We started getting into the habit of raising our dinghy up to the lifelines every night using a halyard. We were advised that although most places are safe, every year there are cruisers who wake up in the morning to find their dinghy gone. We also remove the engine from the dinghy and hoist it up to the stern bracket overnight. Keeping the dinghy out of the water overnight has the added benefit of slowing down barnacle growth on the bottom.
Manzanillo
A morning departure from Tenacatita put us in Manzanillo at 2pm. Winds were light so we motor-sailed the 36 miles. We anchored in front of the Las Hadas Resort, known for its unique white-stucco architecture with domes, spirals, and arches. For 200 pesos ($18), we could dock our dinghy there and use the amenities–a huge pool, showers, wifi, and restaurants. There was also a well stocked marine store and a fabulous gelato store within the resort.
We spent 3 days anchored in Manzanillo using the amenities of the Las Hadas Resort. The view at the anchorage was great, the price was right (free!), and we enjoyed the 5-star resort for less than $20 per day. It was hard to leave, but Zihuatanejo was calling….
