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November 10th, we left Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta, our home for a whole summer. Somehow sad to leave, but also an incredible feeling of freedom again, for us to realize, how much we really missed being out there on the hook, just the two of us in a desolate anchorage.
You should have seen us on our last day in the Marina. The time just slipped by and I still hadn’t checked out with the Capitan del Puerto, nor gone shopping. At 4 PM finally all was done, by then we were so pooped, that Sid suggested we could always spend another night here and leave early in the morning. No way Jose, we were out of there and a couple of hours later, sitting on the hook in La Cruz enjoying it with huge grins on our faces. We stayed two days to get our sea legs back, which was very easy to do.
November 12th, 47 miles south, again we were sitting in this washing machine of an anchorage in Ipala. Although the swells were much smaller then last time, this anchorage is just very uncomfortable and noisy, with the waves crashing onto the sharp cliffs and then back washing into the anchorage, which gives it that wash machine effect. The Anchorage is relatively small and has enough room for three to four boats. As we sat there three freaky swells came through the anchorage, they must have been 15 feet high. The local fisherman’s pangas where all anchored close to shore. One of them got tossed way up into the air like a little shoe box. It got tossed way out of the water and finally tumbled onto the shore. Wow, amazing what kind of force water has.
Early next morning we departed for Chamela, another 49 miles south. As usual we had a noserly and the iron jib had to help us out. Chamela is still as charming as we remembered it. The swell does come into the anchorage and makes it a bit rolly, but not nearly as much as in Ipala. The first evening as we were sitting in the cockpit, enjoying the quietness of this anchorage, we saw a twinkle light fly by us, right through the cockpit. What was that? We couldn’t believe it, there were lightning bugs flying everywhere. Then we realized that the whole shore was twinkling with lights; that was too cool! The next evening we took the dinghy closer to shore and watched them up close. I’ve never seen this many fire flies in one spot. The snorkeling here was awesome too, the water this time around was much clearer. We found chitons which we’ve never seen anywhere else. They’re suppose to be very good eating, which nobody has to tell me twice and a bit later we enjoyed them for an appetizer and yes, indeed they are very tasty and are now on my cooking list.
The weather has gotten much, much better and the nights are getting almost refreshingly cool, but there are still some thunder clouds hovering in the area, which on some nights offer us a nice lightning show. As long as they stay away from us, we don’t mind.
While in PV, Sid bought a Ham/SSB Radio (M700). It’s been so much fun listening and talking on the net. Amazing how far the range is, we talked to a boat up in Ensenada and they came in crystal clear. It’s really fun to listen to some of the boat names, especially when net control can’t understand them, like the boat SLAKER, came out as WACKER. Here are some unusual boat names, some we’ve met and others we hope to meet: “ADIOS”, “AMAZING GRACE”, “BARNACLE”, “BLUE BANANA”, “BODISATTVA”, “BOLD VENTURE”, “BOOMTOWN TRADER”, “BRASS LOON”, “CAUS-A-LAW”, “CIRCUMDESITION”, “COCOO’S NEST”, “COMFI”, “CRAZY FISH”, “DAY BY DAY”, “EATCHY FEET” with Dingy “DESONEX”, “ESCAPE VELOCITY”, “FLEXIBLE FLYER”, “FLYING CLOUD”, “FUZZY LOGIC”, “GIBSY BUGALOO”, “GULL’S WAY”, “HOP-ALONG”, “HOT TODDY”, “IT’LL DO”, “JOI DE MAR”, “LAUGHING BUDDHA”, “L’EAU LIFE”, “LIGHTEN UP”, “LYON AROUND”, “LOAFER”, “LOG ON”, “LOONITUDE”, “LOUPE DE MERE” (which is said: LO DE MERE translated TOILETTE OF THE SEA!), “MENAGERIE” (had five kids on board), “MOONDUSTER”, “MO-Z-IN”, “NEENER 3”, “OKOKE-CHAK”, “ON RUST”, “ORINOKO FLOW”, “PEGGY-DOLL”, “PIPE DREAM”, “PORQUE NO”, “PURE JOY”, “RARE METAL”, “RAT TRAP”, “REDNECK”, “ROCKING CHAIR”, “ROOSTER COGBURN”, “RUNNING SHOE”, “SEA MINT” (Cement boat), “SHORE LOOSER”, “SI-YES-DA”, “STILL CLUELESS”, “THERE YOU ARE”, “TIN CAN” (all aluminum, no paint), “TOPLESS”, “TUSITALA”, “TWO CARRIED AWAY”, “WANDERING ROO”, “WASABI”, “WHAT’S YOUR POINT”, “WHISKER”, “WISELY DONE”, “WOODEN SHOE”………..
And this is what we hear on the VHF radio, when they call each other:
WONDERING STAR --- WONDERING STAR ---LIGHTEN UP
I DID IT --- ADIOS
THERE YOU ARE --- SHORE LOOSER
REDNECK -- - WHATS YOUR POINT
RUNNING SHOE --- EACHY FEET
EACHY FEET --- DESONEX
CIRCUMDESITION --- WISELY DONE
IT’LL DO --- TOPLESS
PORQUE NO --- SIYESDA
ON RUST --- TIN CAN
SIYESDA --- DAY BY DAY
LYON AROUND --- TOPLESS
SLAKER --- SHORE LOOSER
TOPLESS --- PORQUE NO
HOPP ALONG --- PEGGY DOLL
And when Lyon Around signs off you hear: “Lyon Around on the side!”
Oh, and then we had God’s Grace, Amazing Grace and Mary Frances all in the same anchorage!
HAPPY TURKEY DAY in Tenecatita!!! And a sad day as well, we got double bad news. Pat and Roger on Victory, our boat neighbors in Paradise Village had an electrical fire behind the bulkhead, while they were at sea. It took four extinguishers to kill the flames. The good news about them was that they were OK and the boat could be fixed. The other very sad news, Sara Lee Baxter, our very good friend of many years, passed away. A few years back in Cabo San Lucas, she told me that from there sometimes you can see the Southern Cross. Ever since then I’ve been looking for it, and have finally seen it. Every time I will look at it again I will think of Sara Lee. She was a great lady and we’ll miss her.
We shared Thanksgiving with Sandy and Daryl on the Dark Duck (Black Swan), her best friend Ann with Daughter Kirsten and cousin Jan, all from Alaska. And a very nice cruising couple from France, Jo and Josette on Otea. Turkey and all included, plus the magnificent view of a beautiful palm covered beach.
I like this one, Sid found this in a magazine: If aliens are smart enough to travel through space, why do they keep abducting the dumbest people on earth?
November 30th yeah, it was time again for Xmas deco, it still is one of my favorite times of the year. As every year, we have a miniature tree with miniature ornaments and other odds and ends decorating the boat, including battery operated Xmas lights and a Santa windsock. It looks very cozy.
The following day, December first, Sandy and I drove to Ajijic by the lake of Chapala, about 200 miles inland and about 30 miles before Guadalajara. We stayed at her friends house, which she calls the “Hilton” and that it was. What a gorgeous house, with a breathtaking view over the lake. The house itself was a giant villa. The next morning Sandy and I left the house at nine and drove to Guadalajara for some shopping. Cost-Co, Sam’s, Wal-Mart and Mega Commercial are all right next to each other. Boy that’s what I call shoppers heaven! It took us all day to go through all four stores and of course the car was filled to the top with goodies. Then back to Chapala, where we decided that we’ll spend another day in this beautiful area to recuperate from the “stressful” shopping. The next day Sandy showed me around Chapala and Ajijic and we sure had a lot of fun.
The drive to and from Chapala is very scenic. It takes you by and actually around the Colima Volcano. Everything was still very green from the rainy season and of course, nowhere a spot to pull out and take a photo. But then photos just don’t do justice anyway, that’s what we have a mind for, to keep things in memory.
The Tenecatita river trips are always a blast and whenever Black Swan calls us to join them, we just can not say no and we head into the jungle for another adventure and good lunch. Today was an exceptional trip. On our way back, there was not one ripple on the water, the path through the mangroves was like a mirror and the mirror image we saw was just absolutely incredible. You couldn’t tell what was up or down and driving through there at 20 mph, it felt like we were flying. Flying through a tunnel of mangroves and sky above us and below us, absolutely beautiful. We wondered, if the Raisilla (Mexican Moonshine) we drank earlier made us hallucinate?
Dec. 6 it was another goodbye with some dear cruising friend we had met and had a wonderful time with. Daryl and Sandy will stay in Tenecatita until March and then take Black Swan back to Sitka in Alaska. Now it was off to Melaque, which later we found out is actually called San Patricio, and due to a very famous hotel named Melaque, people refer to it as Melaque now. After the terrible earthquake a few years back the hotel now is in rumbles. Melaque is a quite, beautiful anchorage until Sundays that is, then the many restaurants on the beach have DJ’s and of course the biggest speakers you can imagine. We actually could see the Colima volcano from here as well, mostly early in the morning.
About quite, the Police Department here didn’t have it so quite. One boring afternoon four cops, sat together at the station and one of them pulled his gun out and started to play Russian Roulette. “Bang”, I don’t have to tell anymore, I think you get the picture.
I’ve been studying for the Tech Plus Ham License for 8 days and had only two more days to go until the test in Puerto Vallarta, when Sid talked me into studying for the General as well. I really didn’t think that it would be possible to get this done in just two days. On the 10th I took the bus up to Puerto Vallarta to Paradise Village and the next morning attended the test. And yes, I passed them both with no problem. Yeah, I’m a real hamster now and I’m really proud of it too. My call sign is: KG4EZH. Now I just need a TNC a better ham radio and I can do email from the boat. But that will have to wait until we get to Florida.
A Celebration was in order, together with Carl and Karen on Reliance we hiked up to the point way above the anchorage with a very neat palapa restaurant. Had a couple of beers and even got a ride back in the back of a very, very old pick up truck. Dinner in town and then back to the boats with a fun day behind us. Now I guess I have to study some more ham test for the advanced, because Reliance wants to go and Celebrate some more!
(While I was in Paradise Village I met the newest addition, a 6 months old howler monkey, what a cutie. I even got to monkey-sit him for one whole day, changing diapers and all. Which was a lot of fun, except it took me at least a half hour to recuperate gagging from the diaper change, guess I wouldn’t have been doing so good as a mom! Well, while changing the diaper, the monkey ran loose, up my arm around my neck and down the other arm leaving a stinky mustard looking mess all over me.)
14th pulled anchor again and drove across the small bay into the Grand Bay Marina, where we spend two days of boat scrubbing, canvass cleaning and laundry etc., which took us a whole day. This really is a very nice Marina and Hotel, very, very elegant, but it always seems like a ghost town, there are no hotel guests other then the cruisers. Remember the story about us having a problem with the 30 cent verses 80 cent slip. Before we came into the marina I told Sid that they probably will refuse us because I gave them such a hard time. Well, when we walked into the office, the harbor master literally jumped out of his seat ran over to me and shook my hand, ignoring Sid. Then whenever they saw me leave the boat or coming back from shopping they would be ready for me and drive me in the golf cart back and forth. Sid said, that he’s never seen this much respect anywhere else, we laughed about it too.
On the 16th we left beautiful Barra, still the place with the friendliest Mexicans anywhere, and headed 24 miles south to Las Hadas in Manzanillo. The last time we where here was with Lyn and Norm on the ROO, I didn’t care all too much for this place, but of course if you’re in your own home it’s always a different story. The anchorage is calm and quite until the ski boats come by and drive in circle around the anchored boats and maybe one or two jet skies. Other then that it is a quite anchorage. Unfortunately I caught a bad cold at Paradise Village and was sick pretty much all of our stay here.
December 22nd, winter solstice and also a full moon. A full moon on winter solstice only happens about every 130 years or so. The last time was 134 years ago. The moon appears 14% larger and also 7% brighter. What better to ask for a night crossing. We used it to take our 185 mile jump down to Zihuatanejo. It was a calm day and the evening spoiled us with a sunset with the most unusual, fiery red, even purple colors, just amazing. In mid afternoon we caught a beautiful 25 pound Dorado, our first Dorado in how long? We could see the Colima Volcano really clear and he even decided to show off for us and spew some gas up into the air for about 15 minutes, what a sight. We saw some whales, marlin and sail fish and as we got closer to our destination, lots and lots of giant sea turtles. One’s head was as big as the head of a seal. At that time the water was so calm, no breeze, nothing, the sea seemed like a giant puddle of oil. Anything which moved on the water surface was easily seen. We pulled into Isla Grande, which lies northwest of Punta Ixtapa, which is just around the corner. The island has tourist facilities which brings lots of pangas, water skiers and of course tourists over, but by 4 PM they all disappear and leave it to us to enjoy. Yeah, life is good.
December 24th, MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY!!! All the cruisers got together for Xmas, we decided to have it more quite and stayed alone in Isla Grande. Instead of a Turkey, we had a stuffed chicken with all the trimmings. With a turkey we would have to eat leftovers for the next months or so.
ISLA GRANDE: is really beautiful with the most magnificent view. So far, all the anchorage’s we’ve been visiting, were open to the south with just the ocean to see. This one is open to the north with a breathtaking view over a beautiful palm tree overgrown sandy beach with a mountainous background.
Get this, the little beach of Isla Grande harbors about 8 different palapa restaurants, which all seem to have their own pangas. If you really like it decadent, you can order just about anything from Margaritas to any kind of Mexican Food, and the panga will deliver it on a tray to your boat!!!
From here we did a little dingy trip into the Ixtapa Marina, which is by far the nicest marina we’ve seen. A little empty, but the boats you see in there are really something. Most of them are Azimuts. All I can say is BIG BUCKS! We had a small lunch, which should have been a pizza, looked like one but, well….. it wasn’t too bad. The margaritas were excellent and then we filled our jugs full with water and headed back to the anchorage.
The next day we departed for Zihuatanejo, which is only 6 miles south. Zihuatanejo lies in a very pretty cove, rather open to the southwest, but still giving some protection. The town is actually much bigger then I expected. There were about 40 or so boats in the four possible anchorage’s and within the next months it will probably triple ore even quadruple.
Of course we ran into a lot of cruisers again, which we hadn’t seen since the Sea of Cortez. I have to tell you what happened to Geisha in one of the anchorage’s before Zihuatanejo. A fishing panga approached them to sell lobster, but Geisha told them that they were vegetarians. The to pangaderos started smiling at them and said: “Oh, you want some Marijuana!” I guess if you’re looking for some weed, you just tell them you’re a vegetarian!
ZIHUATANEJO: my first impression of Zihuatanejo I wasn’t so sure if I liked it or not, I somewhat was disappointed to see how big it was. I expected to see a laid back little town with a lovely, white sandy beach. But I found the best produce shopping in Z-Town, it’s been the best so far in Mexico! You should see the veggies, fruits, meat and fish selection at the Central Market, I haven’t seen anything fresher than here, from Eggplant, Artichokes, Asparagus, Belgium Endives, Radicchio and the best looking mushrooms. Although the prices are much higher too then anywhere else. Boy, we’ll never get read of all the canned goods on the boat! One thing though, be very careful what you come home with. There might be some cucarachas hidden in the shopping bags. I was extremely cautious, washed the produce right away and also sprayed the shopping bag with roach spray, and we still got some on the boat. They are not fun battling with.Zihuatanejo is a very charming town, and as I said much bigger then I had pictured. It’s very clean and has so many little tourist stores, you can window shop for days. Three cruise ships show up three times a week and get this place really hopping.
On the 28th around 11.20 PM we got rudely awakened by a 5.9 earthquake, which happened right in the bay of Zihuatanejo. Mexico City could feel it pretty good as well, but Acapulco, only 100 miles south of here, didn’t feel a thing. It was pretty strong and reminded me of the Northridge quake, never a pleasant feeling anyway. Well, here we were, sitting in this beautiful bay of Zihuatanejo, being reminded of LA with its earthquakes. Amazingly no damage was done anywhere, wow (we think they didn’t measure it right, with 5.9 there should have been extensive damage, especially the way the houses are built here!
HAPPY NEW YEAR ! HAPPY MILLENNIUM ! HAPPY NEW CENTURY !
As we checked in to the Port Captain, we met two new cruising boats, Marsha and Dave on Manana and Debbie and Al on Different Worlds. Two days later, they asked us if we would like to join them for the New Years Celebration. Neither of us where feeling comfy to leave the boats unattended for that evening due to boats being broken in here all the time and a huge celebration like this would be the perfect moment, since everybody will be out and partying. Later we found out that the cruiser party had a power outage in the middle of dinner and the party was canceled, so we didn’t miss much. So we all set the hook right next to each other and had a “Progressive Dinner” as they call it. We had wonderful appetizers an cocktails on Manana, then a delicious Wahoo dinner on Different Worlds and dessert, champagne and midnight fireworks on Paradise. What a great way to meet new friends. We really had a super time. The fireworks display was just fabulous! Not just the City of Zihuatanejo displayed one, but four more sources had a show just as good if not better then the city’s. We were literally surrounded by magnificent fireworks. We didn’t know where to look, and there was so much AH’s and OH’s, and later on Sid complained having whiplash.
Around 1.30 our company went home, Sid turned the speakers up and there we where, just the two of us, dancing in our cockpit and having a great time. We also had the boat nicely decorated with all kinds of flags (we looked like a used car lot, just kidding). For the New Year’s Eve Party I brought my Lampions (Chinese paper lanterns) out which were lit up with candles, it looked quite festive.
At 10 AM the next morning, I whipped up some Bloody Mary Mix and off we went in our dingy, from boat to boat and passed Bloody Mary’s around. We sure were a welcome sight for most, for most needed a recovery drink, we had a blast. You should have seen us, every time we approached a boat, the hot sauces, Vodka, Mix and Ice came out, they just had to go down below and get a glass or mug, whichever they wanted. Then of course we invited all to come over to our boat at 2 PM. Later in the afternoon at 3 PM we had Irie, Lonestar I, Allonsy, Geisha and Hydra over for popoo’s and drinks. I had the table filled with munchies, the drinks were flowing and fun was had by all until dark.
You may want to know, that our computer, GPs, TV, Radio’s, Microwave, Autopilot etc. didn’t explode and the boat is still afloat, no lights went out or any other Y2K problems. Actually I received a funny email from Ricka I have to share this with you: Well it looks like the Y2K thing was another non-event! Mel’s parents neighbors installed a “Bomb Shelter” complete with water supplies, food and genset? I don’t know if they’re relieved or disappointed!
I wonder when the first Y2K book comes out with funny stories like that?!
January 6th, The Mexican belief is, that the three Kings brought their present to Jesus on Three Kings Day in Mexico, so the kids shall receive their Xmas presents on this day and not on Christmas Day. Since there are so many poor families, who can not afford presents for the kids whether in La Paz, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Tenecatita or Zihuatanejo, the cruisers get together and collect clothes, toys, money and anything which could be of help for those poor families. On the 5th of January we all got together at Naomi’s Restaurant and sorted out all the presents, and placed them in individual bags for the needy kids. Since we were 15 or more women helping and only 4 of us, plus Carey (who organized it), could go to hand the presents out, we had to pull straws. I was one of the lucky ones and picked the right straw and was able to get involved in that exiting event. At 10:00 the next morning we loaded up the pickup truck including us and drove out of town. Our first place was up on the hill above Zihuatanejo, where we got bombarded with kids and mom’s who all wanted presents. Our second stop was just about 1 kilometer further where wooden shacks are built down steep hills, with no water or electricity. Kids came running up those hills to meet us. Some of them didn’t even have any cloths on their little butts. So we handed them out some presents. Some stops we did, we saw kids drive around in brand new bicycles. Then we drove over to Ixtapa and into the interior, where the kids were waiting for as much as over an hour under the same tree, as they did last year. Since we got bombarded on our first stop, we had the kids formed a line behind the truck so that we could hand out gifts in a better order. There was this little girl, I will never forget her face, she was so precious. When I handed her the bag with the presents, her eyes lit up and a big smile befall her face. Proudly she looked at her present, then looked at me, looked at the present and at each of the other kids around her. She was so very happy, there wasn’t another kid like her. As we finally left, they all stood on the road side waving goodbye to us. The next stop was further inland at a school, where the kids seemed to have waited for us as well. They were very grateful and thanked us all. They didn’t seem so poor, all of them were clean and nicely dressed. The last stop was the worst. We saw these six kids and three moms, waiting for us and no other kids. Since we had only a few present left, we stopped for the six kids. Not even there for 10 seconds, out of every imaginable corner , bushes, trees, you name it, came at least 5 kids running and before we knew it we were surrounded by at least 50 screaming kids, mom’s and grandma’s begging for a present. We didn’t have enough for everybody, so we started opening the presents and handing individual items out. Some of the women opened the bags, picked out the items they wanted then tried to exchange the bags for another one. This place was tuff. Although there was a cute little boy about 4 years old. His hair was uncombed, golden brown and down to his shoulder. He had a dark, golden brown tan and brown pants on and he was filthy from head to toe. We all fell in love with him and found him the best bag with a stuffed animal. You should have seen him, when his was holding his presents in his arms, it was a stuffed brown monkey about ½ his size. There he was standing, hugging his monkey, all you could see was his white teeth surrounded by all the brown. If it wasn’t for him, this place would have been the pits. Especially the grandma, calling us names and not polite ones at that. These people here were very greedy and impolite.
I really have very mixed feeling about this whole deal. The kids obviously know that we’re coming and are expecting it now. Also interesting to see was, that in an area of just one kilometer apart the kids had expensive toys and then nothing, not even clothes. It was an interesting experience and for sure had my mind going for several days. If I could do this again, I think I would check out the area first and find the real needy ones. The last stop we did, I would not even think of stopping there again, I would go much further inland, where they really are away from the big tourist town. The whole thing made me feel like we’re ruining more then doing any good with this. The whole thing should have been very satisfying, but it wasn’t, it left more negative feelings in my heart then positive.
After three weeks in Zihuatanejo, we still didn’t know if we liked it here or not. No doubt, it is a very beautiful and fun place, but it has way too much tourism. I think this place is a bit overrated by the cruisers. Although the anchorage is not as busy anymore, as it was for the holidays, but it still has way too many water-skiers, jet-skis, parachute boats, not even mentioning all the other power boats, speeding right through the anchored boats. (Middle of January, we heard of “Lady Kentire” in Honduras getting hit by a jet-ski. The driver was killed on impact and their boat badly damaged. And a few weeks later, La Rieve got hit in the same anchorage as well, by a trawler).
Imagine this, one of the hotel on the hill above the beach complained about sailboats obstructing their view. When the first three boats arrived and had anchored in front of that hotel, they received a lovely invitation to a free lobster dinner from one of the hotels. The catch was, they would have to move the boat away from the hotel. Now that hotel is claiming that boaters are dumping trash into the bay and it ends up on the hotels beaches. The hotels accused us of polluting the bay with trash and sewage even though the city’s sewage is dumped right into the bay, they know that but blame us. The Capitan del Puerto changed our trash hour too, we could not deposit trash until 6 to 7 in the evening, which was somewhat a problem to most of us. We were about ½ mile dingy ride away from the trash area, by that time it was getting dark, the wind usually picked up creating a chop and of course it interfered cocktail hour and dinner time. So we had one trash bag for two evenings in the dingy, (the second evening it was to rough to drive ashore) and the next morning as I got into the dingy to go ashore, surprise! Hundreds of little white maggots where crawling all around the dinghy, yuck. It took me quite a while to get them out. As I finally drove into town, one of the local kids was already on the beach to help me pull the dingy a shore. I sure was hoping on that, although I usually tell them not to help, but this time he was a welcoming sight, especially since I somehow needed to get read of the trash. He helped and also took the trash to the bin, so I rewarded him with a peso for each chore. Another kid came running down and wanted a peso as well. I had to tell him that he didn’t do anything to deserve a peso. So he offered to watch my dingy. As he bargained with me, he watched me picking up one of these yucky creatures and asked if he could help. OF COURSE!!! What a sight that was as I went to do my email, these poor little kids crawled all around the dingy and got rid of all the leftover maggots. I laughed so hard to have tricked them into it. As a reward I bought them some candy with a surprise toy and a peso each. They were gleaming, shook my hand like this was the best business deal they ever made and pushed my dingy and myself off into the water again.
Now this is really funny: When Don and Pat Coffelt from PMYC went cruising a few years back, they had this beautiful brass lantern in the salon. Every time Don walked by it, he'd hit his head. He tolerated this until Tenecatita, Mexico, when he got so pissed off, that he threw that darn thing overboard.
Last week on the Cruiser Swap Meet here in Zihuatanejo, we discussed what the best sell ever was on a swap meet when Al on Different Worlds told us that a few years back he was snorkeling in Tenecatita found this beautiful brass lantern. It was in good shape and still shiny and at the next Swap Meet he sold it for some good money! The world sure gets smaller and smaller.
I tell you how small the world really is, when we went to visit the Roo in Ixtapa, we met his neighbor Eric and found out that he is the son of Sue and Walter Natzler friends of from PMYC. Then the last evening in Zihuatanejo, we had dinner in town with Blue Sky, Austerity and met Cam and Janet on Mystical. As we returned home, Sid kept telling me that he had met Cam before, but couldn’t place it. The next morning Blue Sky came over and asked Sid if he ever had a van painted candy apple red. Now Sid remembered Cam had painted his van some 27 years ago!
Sid and I have been getting amoebae and other stomach troubles for the last 8 months, so we finally had our tank water tested and unfortunately found out that it was contaminated with some larvae which is called “Uncinarias”, what ever that means. They are little parasite, which are found in puddles and dirt, which enter the skin and get into the blood stream and can get a person anemic. Not something I’d like to have in my drinking water, no wonder we haven’t been feeling well for so long now. We usually make our own water but sometimes when the opportunity is there to get fresh, clean water we fill it up. No telling, where we got the larvae’s at. I guess it is a good idea to have the water checked now and then. Never know!!!
The very next day, we sailed into a slip in the Ixtapa Marina and bleaching the tank, flushed it at least ten times before filling it with clean water. That did the trick.
On the morning net of the 4th of February, Karen on Reliance mentioned that they had a spray bottle missing from their deck. Following was David on Polar Baer telling us, that he got burglarized the previous night. He got home around 11 PM, when he noticed the damage. His very expensive Guitar, computer, clothes (which he just brought home from the cleaners), jewelry and other items were missing. That night we were at the movies with Reliance and returned home at 9 pm. We notice that the cats were a bit distraught and thought that we may have a bird on top of the mast. So Sid went out with the flashlight and checked around. Reliance had a much slower dingy then us and arrived about 5 minutes after we did. They’re anchored just in front of us and Polar Bear was two boats over from us. We think that we had scared the thieves of Reliance’s boat and probably saved our self from the burglars too by coming home earlier. I think we were very lucky. The next afternoon when we went for an appetizer pot-luck, we locked the boat up good. I think this was the very first time in the over 22 years that Sid had owned the boat, that we locked it, sad but true.
Over the next few days, we learned that other boats had stuff missing as well. It definitely was time to leave.
On Valentine’s day, we said adios to our new and old friends and left Zihuatanejo, to anchor about 10 miles further south in Bahia Podosi, where Reliance was waiting for us. It felt great to be out of Zihuatanejo, it definitely wasn’t on our favorite list. It was a good stop, but I would by pass it next time or only stay a few days.
BARRA DE POTOSI is a wide open anchorage to the west and is a bit rolly and when the wind blows it even gets a bit uncomfi. We stayed two nights and then headed 30 miles further south to the very protected anchorage of Papanoa.
PAPANOA is a man/made harbor and offers good anchorage for about 10 to 12 boats. The little village itself is called Puerto Escondido and is probably one of the poorest villages we’ve seen. Also one of the filthiest as well, everybody seems to toss the trash into the front and back yard, along the street and anywhere else. It even smelled like human waste while walking along the fishermen’s shacks. There were chickens with chicks everywhere and everyone seemed to have a new litter of piglets as well. We strolled through the little village, climbed the hill and ended up on the other side on a very beautiful beach, where we enjoyed a tasty lunch in the only restaurant on the beach and afterwards took a cool swim in the pool.
Another two days later, we left this rather quite place and headed 70 miles south to Acapulco. The “sail”, we’re starting to forget what that is, was a long motor ride, no wind and if some right on the nose. We trolled a lure all the way, didn’t get a bite either, but we did see lots of sea turtles.
ACAPULCO, one of the world’s finest natural harbors and a Port of Entry. You can’t miss it, with the overbuilt hills. Closer to the entrance to this big City, beautiful homes climb up the steep cliffs, making it look dramatic but also a bit too crowded. Behind the cliffs you can see many high rise buildings. Approaching the entrance to the bay, reveals over 50 high rise hotels hugging the whole bay.
Since Acapulco is a port of entry and our arrival was on a Friday, we decided to anchor in the next cove Puerto Marques so that we didn’t have to pay overtime to the Port Captain. When arriving in any port, the Port Captains office is usually open from 8 Am until 1 or 3 PM and closed on the weekend. The general rule is, when you arrive, never tell them that you arrived before or after those hours, and you NEVER tell them that you arrived on a weekend. If you do, they will charge you an overtime fee of 20 bucks, even though at the time you’re in the office is at regular hours. So we either lie or we just anchor in the nearby anchorages.
When first entering the PUERTO MARQUES bay, all you see is this ugly beach, covered with one restaurant after another with ugly aluminum roofs. But then half way into the bay, there is an opening to the left and a very, very pretty anchorage opens with two beautiful palm tree beaches and steep wooden hills, with giant washed out boulders along the shore. You should have seen this beautiful, quite anchorage on Saturday. Within one hour we were surrounded by at least 30 Yachts and buzzed around by at least 40 jet skies. Some of the boats, parked right on top of us. The last one to leave, was so close to us, that we sat on top of his anchor, he was only a few feet away from us and we had to move our boat forward so that he could leave. They’ll never learn. After that Saturday, Reliance moved to the other side where that ugly beach was, to be left alone. The next day, on Sunday, Karen and I decided to go into town and check the marinas out. As we came back, I expected us to be surrounded by power boaters again, but Sid was all by himself and had been all day long. Reliance wasn’t so lucky on the other side of the bay.
Anyway, Karen and I drove into town to check the marina and Club de Yachtes out. The drive over there is very beautiful and only cost 3 pesos (30 cents) by bus. The Yacht Club suppose to be the hot spot here. The Marina Acapulco is a very small marina with maybe 20 slips. It got beat up pretty bad in the last hurricane about three years past. After inspecting this one, we went over to the Yacht Club, where I thought we’d find a slip for a few days. Not did I just find out that we are not receptacles with the Yacht Club, but that they are very snobby and only talk to you if you belong to Cal or Del Rey Yacht Club. The slips are med ties and are so close together that the boats almost touch. No way, not for us. We had lunch here a hot dog each for 2.50 and a beer and get this, we had to pay 3.30 for a Pacifico, because it is “imported”, imported from where?!!! So we chose to spend a few day in the Acapulco Marina instead. The first day there, I asked for the key to the bathroom, I was told that there was no water!! No water, where on earth are we going to take our showers? Not just that, the bathrooms didn’t have a seat on the toilettes, there was no toilette paper and no light!!! (The last day of shopping I saw a great deal for a new toilette seat in oak for on, so we donated the old one to the marina bathrooms!) Well, it was still a nice marina, with the most spectacular view over the city, especially at night with all the twinkle lights. 24 hour security and the guys whenever they saw us coming home with groceries, would run and help us carry the stuff to the boats. Everybody was very helpful, that made good for not having showers, besides we just used the one dock hose they had and took our showers on the dock. It’s not that we’ve never done that before.
It didn’t take Karen and myself long to take off for a shopping spree. As a matter of fact, we were barely in our slips, when we had the itch to go shopping at Wal-Mart, yeah Waliworld! We must have spent at least three hours in there. The next day we took off for Cost-CO, this time our hubbies joined us and helped us fill up the shopping cart. We met Geisha there as well. They had anchored in Marquese and while we were shopping at Cost-CO, their boat was hit by a Jet Ski. Later we found out that the Jet Ski driver broke his ribs and that he claimed that Geisha was underway and ran him over, just so that he could sue them. The Port Captain informed Geisha about that and told them that in his files they have never been in Acapulco. I don’t have to tell you that Geisha got their butts out of there. To bad to see things like that happen and then they wonder why we hate jet skies! After we came out of Cost Co we didn’t know how to get everything back to the marina, we would have had to hire several taxis, so we hit a guy with a truck up, which had a bed with a tall plywood wall. We offered him 20 bucks to drive us back to the marina, which he accepted. The only problem was the police saw him with gringos in the back, which is not illegal, but he knew there was money to be made and stopped him, didn’t give him a fine, just wanted mordida under the table, they are so crooked. Sid even tried to talk to the cops but it didn’t work, they wanted that mordida really bad.
While in the marina, Sid was applying another few coats of varnish, he just can not relax in a marina. Paradise, looks great though!
On the third evening, we finally went to watch the cliff divers. WOW!!! They are nuts! I can’t believe, from how high they jump, just amazing and totally crazy. On another night Sid and I took the bus into town and went to the movies. After that we had some wonderful chicken wings at Hooter’s and as we waited fort he bus at midnight, Sid noticed the 24 hours open sign at Wal-Mart, so in we went, shopping at Wal-Mart at midnight in Acapulco, crazy gringos! The shopping in Acapulco is just fantastic, we felt like we were in the States, except for the cashiers speaking in Spanish. They have everything here from Cost-CO (I found the most beautiful and huge fresh artichokes here), Sam’s, Wal-Mart to Home Depot and of course all the local Supermarkets, which have more stuff in them than a Ralph’s or Von’s.
You should see the taxis here, they are all small Volkswagen Beetles and each one of them is glowing in all kind of fluorescence colors at night and so are the buses. Acapulco in deed is a very beautiful City, we enjoyed it. As a matter of fact, we should have not spent so much time in Z-Town and more here!
Lyn and Norm on the Wandering Roo drove down to Acapulco for a visit. We had a very pleasant lunch on the beach, and afterwards strolled along the beach and sat down under these inviting umbrellas and ordered a cool drink. We went swimming in the refreshing water and enjoyed the drinks under the umbrellas, when this kid comes by and charges us 2 bucks for each umbrella. I refused, telling him that we’re sure not going to pay him since we ordered drinks too. He then said, that the drinks are from the restaurant behind us and has nothing to do with the umbrellas. So we pulled the chairs out of the umbrellas and kept enjoying our drinks. After a while he came back and wanted 2 bucks now for the chairs. So I asked him if the square cocktail table the waiter brought us, was his too, or the restaurants. He said the restaurants. So we took the table and sat on that and enjoyed the rest of our drinks. I exchanged some words with the server for not telling us and that we think that it is a rip off. After listening to his explanation and explaining that these are two different companies, I told him that both of them, the restaurant and the umbrella guy, were doing an illegal business, they can not sell anything along the water, since it is Fontura area, which is Government area. Boy, he got quite rather fast and agreed with us.
On the 27th early in the morning we said good bye to Acapulco and headed further south to Puerto Escondido. We finally were able to sail for a whole day, no noserly for once, we actually had 15 knots on the beam and sailed above 6 knots for most of the day. Underway we saw lots and lots of turtles and 8 miles out to sea I even saw a sea snake swimming on top of the water. The 175-mile coast from Acapulco to Puerto Escondido is predominantly one long, sandy beach interrupted by a few silt-laden rivers and several rocky points and headlands. Variable currents close inshore, detached rocks, and dangers such as Tartar Shoals, discourage hugging the coast too closely, so we went up to 18 miles of shore.
Some 30 plus hours later we arrived in very beautiful Puerto Escondido, but unfortunately it doesn’t have much of an anchorage and what’s there is taken by the many pangas. The only option for us was to anchor in 70’, where it was very lumpy and bumpy. There is not much of a beach either, it drops straight off into the deep canyon of the St. Andreas Fault. After over 30 hours on the way to find this, is a major disappointment. We didn’t even think twice but headed out to sea again for a new destination, Puerto Angel, 39 miles further south. We weren’t very jazzed about that decision either, but it was only 39 miles to go and if we were lucky, we could get there before nightfall. And of course about 10 miles out of there, we had to fight a current, sometimes 1.6 knots against us. But we made it and anchored with the last minute of dusk light. Sid then had to change the fuel filter, which took about an hour. He was very pleased to see that the last time he changed it was over a year ago, not bad at all.
Because of check in hassle in this place, we snuck out very early to avoid the paper work.
Our next destination was HUATULCO with its many anchorages. They are all very close together and mainly interrupted with some rocky cliffs. Each anchorage has lovely yellowish colored beaches and the water is just absolutely crystal clear and has a beautiful emerald to turquoise color. Our first anchorage was La India or Chachacual. The bay provides two excellent and lovely little anchorages. We were tucked in behind the reef, where waves leap over it, but flatten out immediately. The anchorage was very tranquil and calm. Dried out and some green shrubs line the back on the beach. We had to travel two and a half years to finally find very clean and clear water. It didn’t take us long to get into the dingy and snorkel along the shore. Go figure, finally a beautiful place and the water was full of see through baby jelly fish. It was infested with them, but luckily they didn’t sting, they were a bit annoying when brushing against us. It almost felt like swimming through Jell-O!
A few days later, the wind kicked up to 25 knots and blew right into the anchorage and since we didn’t know about the local conditions yet we pulled anchor and moved to the main anchorage La Cruz, which is a bit more protected and much calmer. We arrived on a Friday evening, which meant, to pay overtime to the Capitan de Puerto. Saturday morning early at 8.30 the port captain came by Reliance ordering us to come in to check in. As we did check in, they charged us an anchoring fee of 210 pesos for us and 250 for Reliance, which is ten times as much as in any other harbor. We knew, that they are corrupt here, so I asked him if we pay via bank or API (which is the official office for port fees). Neither one, we had to pay the Capitan and as I asked for a receipt, they told me to pick it up on Monday. Of course on Monday they still didn’t have one for me. In the meantime I’ve been corresponding with another boat in Zihuatanejo and found out, that the port fees in whole Mexico are all the same and they have to be paid directly to API or a bank.
The town of Huatulco lies about two miles inland and is a very, very pretty and clean town, with a lot of tourist stuff, but it is probably one of the cleanest places we’ve seen. Even the way the parks, roads, buildings are built, it almost doesn’t seem like Mexico.
Unfortunately we had some dingy problems and after two days of sweating over it, Sid gave up and we brought it in to a local mechanic to fix it. After re-provisioning we headed to Bahia Maguay, a beautiful little bay just around the corner of La Cruz. The water again was crystal clear and the snorkeling great. Unfortunately the jet-skies are everywhere and make it a sport to buzz around us. We really learned to hate them, especially when they come by and spray water over the entire boat and down all the hatches. We shoot them with our “imaginary guns”!
On the morning of Saturday the 12th of March, we got rudely awakened by big swells, knocking everything off shelves, including us out of bed and had to move back to La Cruz. Which was OK then we had to pick up the dinghy engine anyhow. He charged us 20 bucks for the repair, the engine was running fine, but we noticed that the screen for the water intake was missing, so we went back and he gave it back to us. That should have given us a clue too. Well, days later in El Salvador Sid figured out that this guy also had stolen the thermostat and other parts which are necessary to run the engine and he put a gasket where is was not supposed to be one, we got ripped off.
Remember the story about the three boats hit, two by jet-skies and one by a boat. La Rieve, who was hit by a boat, which had broken loose in the anchorage, hit another vessel. This time he was some 40 hours out of Roratan in the Caribbean when he in the middle of the night, collided with a fishing vessel. The vessel didn’t have any lights on until about 45 seconds after collision. Joe was out there for hours pumping out the incoming water (about one quart a minute). The bilge pump seems to be holding up, the crew was doing fine as well and luckily nobody got hurt. He’s continuing his rout to Roratan and still had ways to go, but is in close radio contact with other boats in his vicinity. I wonder how he’s going to explain all that to his insurance, poor guy.
We’re sitting again in about 10 feet of crystal clear water in La Cruz, the wind is starting to pick up, which tells us that the Tehuantepec is acting up. La Cruz is a good place to be for that.
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