It is necessary to set the stage properly. Corrientes is notorious. It is even rumoured that a few boats have been lost while trying to round the point. If conditions deteriorate quickly and get bad, the current, waves and wind could put you onshore with more power than any boat can cope with. The best days to round this point is when the weather calls for calm winds and calm seas. The best time to round Corrientes is early morning and the worst time mid-afternoon. The best direction to round Corrientes (as if you had a choice) is South. With huge swells from the South for the last few days, and North winds of 20-25 knots while we waited in Chamela, we were not looking forward to our trip. We pounced on a weather window that called for no winds overnight and the next morning and hoped the predictions were accurate.
The best time to leave would be when there was no wind and when there was still light. Sunset, at 1900 is the best fit to those criteria. We needed to Corrientes before 1200 the next day or the currents and wind and waves would force us to spend the day at Ipala and head out again the next night to round Corrientes. What that meant was that we needed to average 4 knots for the first 65 miles to Corrientes and then average 5 knots to cover the 35 miles to La Cruz to arrive before dark. If we could not arrive before dark in La Cruz, it means we would have to anchor out instead of going into the marina for some rest.
Of course, when we left at 1740, there was still 15-20 knots of wind from the North. We would be making 3 knots into a 15 knot headwind the whole evening and into the early morning. Morale was low as we realised that unless we could average 5 knots for the rest of the journey, there was no way we would make it around the point that morning. By 0200 in the morning, however, the wind had died and the waves had calmed enough that we could take the sails down and begin motoring. Slowly over the next hour our speed under power increased from 3 knots to our normal cruising speed under power of 5 knots. Things were looking better.
Until 0900, when the waves started building again. The worst possible scenario. No wind to tack with, but the same choppy waves that would slow us down. Luckily, there is a normal 2 knot current setting North around Corrientes. With 15 miles to go to reach the point, we were making 3.5 knots. The mystery of the no-wind chop was resolved when the wind picked up 5 miles further North to 15 knots right on the nose. Putting our main up at 1100, we motor-sailed to point better into the wind and were making 4.2 knots good. We were somewhere between 2 and 3 hours behind schedule when we rounded Corrientes at 1300 just as conditions were deteriorating, but both of us would prefer to anchor in the dark at La Cruz than be rounding Corrientes again if we turned around to go to Ipala for the day.
After rounding the point, we could fall off the wind onto an upwind port tack. We were motorsailing with only the reefed main up and making 4 knots until the wind died down to 15 knots, when I felt we could put up more sail around 1400. So we shook out the reef, put up the drifter (light wind headsail) and suddenly we were motorsailing close-hauled at 5.5 knots. At that speed, we might actually make it. From there, it just got better as the wind moved further West, allowing us to be on a more down-wind tack. By 1600, we were making 6 knots under full sail with no engine heading straight for La Cruz, and arrived after two hours of our best sail of the trip.
We had made 100 miles in 24 hours around the infamous Corrientes and were rewarded with a delicious and expensive dinner of Italian food in La Cruz, and a wonderfully calm night's sleep tied to a dock in the cheapest marina in the world at $15 a night for puddle jumpers.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
North to Chamela
After a few days in Las Hadas, we were ready to head back up North. We are both anxious to get up to the Sea before it gets too hot (and crowded). So directly from Las Hadas we went to Tenacatita skipping Barra. That trip taught us a lot about our boat as it was the first upwind journey we have had to make so far.
We were motoring up and things were going well until we hit Bahia De Navidad, which always has a wind pick up in the afternoon. Around 1500, we were less than 10 miles from our destination, rounding the Southern point of the bay. We rounded the point straight into 15 knots of wind. Our 26 horsepower engine managed to push our 12 tonne boat at a pitiful 2 knots against the wind and chop. The wind kept building to 20-25 knots, and it became clear if we wanted to make any way we would have to put up sails. We reduced our sail area by putting up the working jib and a double-reefed main. We then proceeded to motorsail while tacking upwind and we were still only making 2 knots or so in the direction we wanted to go (in retrospect, we probably had too little sail area out).
Finally arriving in Tenacatita at 2000 by moonlight and feeling confident because we had been there before, we promptly dropped our anchor next to the only hazard in the bay: a reef submerged due to the high tide. Waking at 0200 in the morning, we saw how close we were to the reef and re-anchored by moonlight once again. In the morning, we went over our GPS history and found that while we were never in danger of hitting the reef, we were certainly a little close for comfort. After so exhausting a day (11 hour sail and sleepless night) we spent two days recovering in the bay. Of course, the water was still murky.
After cleaning the bottom for the next upwind leg, going up the river for ridiculously slow lunch and generally having a ho-hum time, we left for Chamela on March 13th. This time luck gave us a wind such that we were on a single tack upwind for most of the day. Experience gave us the wisdom to know to start tacking early and keep our speed up even at the price of pointing further upwind (trigonometry does not lie). After a relatively easy sail, we arrived in Chamela after 8 hours of sailing.
The swell in Chamela was at least 6 feet from the South, which translates into a very uncomfortable anchorage. Isla Colorado, our favored little deserted island was simply out of the question as an anchorage for waves were sweeping the island from both sides. In the main anchorage, it was swelly, but that is better than wavy every day of the week, especially if the waves are breaking as they were at the island. The swells were so large, in fact, that it was more comfortable in 30 feet of water than in 20 feet. In 20 feet, the swells had already started piling up and becoming steep. The entertainment was watching the pangas (20 foot fiberglass fishing dories) deal with 8-10 foot breakers on the beach. We vowed to leave as soon as the waves died down in two days to round the infamous Cabo Corrientes in the upwind direction.
Stuck on our boats due to the waves, the boats in the anchorage (Sirius, Aurora, Samantha, G-Rated) passed the time by psyching ourselves about the horrors we would experience when we tried to round Corrientes. We decided to leave with Aurora around sunset on the 15th of March, hopefully rounding Corrientes around mid-morning to arrive in La Cruz that afternoon. The backup plan was to head into Ipala (a bay just South of the point) for the day if things got nasty or we could not make the point by noon.
We were motoring up and things were going well until we hit Bahia De Navidad, which always has a wind pick up in the afternoon. Around 1500, we were less than 10 miles from our destination, rounding the Southern point of the bay. We rounded the point straight into 15 knots of wind. Our 26 horsepower engine managed to push our 12 tonne boat at a pitiful 2 knots against the wind and chop. The wind kept building to 20-25 knots, and it became clear if we wanted to make any way we would have to put up sails. We reduced our sail area by putting up the working jib and a double-reefed main. We then proceeded to motorsail while tacking upwind and we were still only making 2 knots or so in the direction we wanted to go (in retrospect, we probably had too little sail area out).
Finally arriving in Tenacatita at 2000 by moonlight and feeling confident because we had been there before, we promptly dropped our anchor next to the only hazard in the bay: a reef submerged due to the high tide. Waking at 0200 in the morning, we saw how close we were to the reef and re-anchored by moonlight once again. In the morning, we went over our GPS history and found that while we were never in danger of hitting the reef, we were certainly a little close for comfort. After so exhausting a day (11 hour sail and sleepless night) we spent two days recovering in the bay. Of course, the water was still murky.
After cleaning the bottom for the next upwind leg, going up the river for ridiculously slow lunch and generally having a ho-hum time, we left for Chamela on March 13th. This time luck gave us a wind such that we were on a single tack upwind for most of the day. Experience gave us the wisdom to know to start tacking early and keep our speed up even at the price of pointing further upwind (trigonometry does not lie). After a relatively easy sail, we arrived in Chamela after 8 hours of sailing.
The swell in Chamela was at least 6 feet from the South, which translates into a very uncomfortable anchorage. Isla Colorado, our favored little deserted island was simply out of the question as an anchorage for waves were sweeping the island from both sides. In the main anchorage, it was swelly, but that is better than wavy every day of the week, especially if the waves are breaking as they were at the island. The swells were so large, in fact, that it was more comfortable in 30 feet of water than in 20 feet. In 20 feet, the swells had already started piling up and becoming steep. The entertainment was watching the pangas (20 foot fiberglass fishing dories) deal with 8-10 foot breakers on the beach. We vowed to leave as soon as the waves died down in two days to round the infamous Cabo Corrientes in the upwind direction.
Stuck on our boats due to the waves, the boats in the anchorage (Sirius, Aurora, Samantha, G-Rated) passed the time by psyching ourselves about the horrors we would experience when we tried to round Corrientes. We decided to leave with Aurora around sunset on the 15th of March, hopefully rounding Corrientes around mid-morning to arrive in La Cruz that afternoon. The backup plan was to head into Ipala (a bay just South of the point) for the day if things got nasty or we could not make the point by noon.
Bahia de Santiago
On the way to Santiago Bay we encountered a red tide,a jelly fish bloom and my favourite, a pod of dolphins. There were probably 100-150 Dolphins jumping out of the water headed north. We were aimed at a smaller pod and they caught our bow wave for a free ride. By the time Justin came up with the camera they had already returned to their pod headed north.
Our attitude for these sightings is to enjoy the moment because its usually short lived and we are not professional photographers and any pictures we take will probably not turn out anyways.
All along our cruise south along the coast we are trying to better understand the boat. The number 1 concern is energy consumption. For the past week Justin has using his maths skills to work out how many Amps our solar panels, wind vane and alternator put into our batteries. He took it on himself the otherday to clean the battery connections and to measure voltage acrosss different connection in the boat with the multimeter. Its been at least 6 years for Justin and close to 8 years for me since we both used Ohms Law and calculated resistance or voltage across a circuit. Its the first time I have had to usethese skills since finishing physics in CEGEP. At the time I remember telling my physics teacher that since I wanted to go into biology these skills would never serve me again. Well I have been proven wrong....if you own a boat then you will need to use them again.
After 2 days we left Santiago for a short motor to Bahia de Manzanillo and anchored directly outside the Las Hadas Hotel. On our way out of Bahia de Santiago we saw the red tied. It seems the red tied will arrive and depart without much notice and doesnt ever really last long. This part of the bay looks as though we are in Greece with its white buildings stacked up. We dinghied into the marina and had lunch by the pool. Today we do a little provisioning and maybe we will leave tomorrow back north.....but who knows. As everyone says here "plans are written in the sand at low tide".
Our attitude for these sightings is to enjoy the moment because its usually short lived and we are not professional photographers and any pictures we take will probably not turn out anyways.
All along our cruise south along the coast we are trying to better understand the boat. The number 1 concern is energy consumption. For the past week Justin has using his maths skills to work out how many Amps our solar panels, wind vane and alternator put into our batteries. He took it on himself the otherday to clean the battery connections and to measure voltage acrosss different connection in the boat with the multimeter. Its been at least 6 years for Justin and close to 8 years for me since we both used Ohms Law and calculated resistance or voltage across a circuit. Its the first time I have had to usethese skills since finishing physics in CEGEP. At the time I remember telling my physics teacher that since I wanted to go into biology these skills would never serve me again. Well I have been proven wrong....if you own a boat then you will need to use them again.
After 2 days we left Santiago for a short motor to Bahia de Manzanillo and anchored directly outside the Las Hadas Hotel. On our way out of Bahia de Santiago we saw the red tied. It seems the red tied will arrive and depart without much notice and doesnt ever really last long. This part of the bay looks as though we are in Greece with its white buildings stacked up. We dinghied into the marina and had lunch by the pool. Today we do a little provisioning and maybe we will leave tomorrow back north.....but who knows. As everyone says here "plans are written in the sand at low tide".
Melaque and Barra de Navidad
Melaque is a town situated at the northern end of Bahia de Navidad (Yes, Christmas Bay). It offers the typical Palapa restaurants, white sandy beach and good holding for the anchoring. We anchored bow and stern to the swell. We decided that we would take the dinghy to the Barra lagoon with our handheld GPS and the GPS way points. Barra lagoon is situated at the south end of the Bay and requires careful maneuvering through a narrow channel with mud bars on either side. We wanted to check it out and see if we wanted to go to the lagoon. The trip across the bay was wet in our little dinghy and we worried about the trip back. We checked out the lagoon and then landed our dinghy at the Sands Hotel. We eventually found our way to port captains office and found him talking to a neighbor outside. We walked into the office and he came running in to his post behind his glass partition to tell us that he was closed. Justin played it a little dumb and he decided to finally check us in. We then wandered the town of Barra to find a restaurant that would serve Justin a Hamburgesa con papas (he is still on his search for the best hamburgers and pizza in Mexico). Once our upper was done we headed to the French Baker's cafe for a latte and apple pie. We debated to hang around Barra till the wind died down or to bite the bullet and get wet in the dinghy ride back to the boat. We decided the later. As we moved against the current and the waves poured into Ghetto Duck we vowed to never do that trip again by dinghy!
Thursday ended up being an errand day where we went into the town of Melaque to do some internet, lunch and some groceries. Friday we went to a restaurant/Deli that was recommended to me by a man swimming by the boat the night before. Chez Penny is small deli where we discovered some imported extra sharp cheddar, something we have been dying for since all Mexican cheese lacks any real flavour. After dinning on cheddar sandwiches, potato salad and buying all sorts of baguettes and croissants we finished doing groceries and headed back to the boat. We went for an evening swim, rinsed off and headed over to Lovely Reta for drinks and horse ovaries (as Debbie calls it). John and Debbie, on Lovely Reta, are another couple from Dock 6 that Justin became good friends with while working on the boat and left for cruising before I arrived in Mazatlan. It was so very nice to meet them after Justin had talked so much about them! They were heading into the Barra lagoon the next day to catch up with some boats anchored in there and at the last minute on saturday morning we decided to follow them into the lagoon. Once Anchored, we launched the dinghy and picked up our laundry. We met up with Tristan &Mindy and they invited us over to the Grand Bay Hotel where they had some passes that we could use to go swimming in one of the three pools. We spent the afternoon colling off in the pools and waterslides which was a nice change from sea water;)
On Sunday Dalia took the dinghy into town on her own and spent 2 hours looking for long distance calling cards since she had a couple of calls to make on monday concerning her student loan. On Monday Dalia and Justin took the dinghy into Barra where Dalia made her calls (very frustrating) and Justin checked out with the port captain, checked his e-mail,bought a pizza, banana bread and some croissants. We had lunch on the beach and headed back to the boat. We dropped off Justin's purchases and headed to the town of Colimilla which is across the lagoon from Barra. In Comlimilla we did our final stock up of fresh produce, juice and water at the famous Maria's Tienda. Which was promptly delivered to Steady Beat that evening.
Upon our return Justin noticed that two boats in our proximity had swapped positions in the anchorage and one boat was closer to us than before. Concerned Justin try to hail both boats on the vhf and was unsuccessful. Another boat in the anchorage hailed us and proceeded to explain that boat 1 had dragged back onto boat no2 who moved out of the way and several cruisers in the vicinity got into their dinghies and threw out a second anchor on boat no 1. The wind had picked up considerably in the afternoon in the lagoon causing boat no 1 to drag back and no one was on the boat. The importance of putting out enough ground tackle was the lesson from that close encounter.
Tuesday with our boat stocked with provisions we pulled up our anchor and headed to the fuel dock for diesel and water and then South to Manzanillo.
Thursday ended up being an errand day where we went into the town of Melaque to do some internet, lunch and some groceries. Friday we went to a restaurant/Deli that was recommended to me by a man swimming by the boat the night before. Chez Penny is small deli where we discovered some imported extra sharp cheddar, something we have been dying for since all Mexican cheese lacks any real flavour. After dinning on cheddar sandwiches, potato salad and buying all sorts of baguettes and croissants we finished doing groceries and headed back to the boat. We went for an evening swim, rinsed off and headed over to Lovely Reta for drinks and horse ovaries (as Debbie calls it). John and Debbie, on Lovely Reta, are another couple from Dock 6 that Justin became good friends with while working on the boat and left for cruising before I arrived in Mazatlan. It was so very nice to meet them after Justin had talked so much about them! They were heading into the Barra lagoon the next day to catch up with some boats anchored in there and at the last minute on saturday morning we decided to follow them into the lagoon. Once Anchored, we launched the dinghy and picked up our laundry. We met up with Tristan &Mindy and they invited us over to the Grand Bay Hotel where they had some passes that we could use to go swimming in one of the three pools. We spent the afternoon colling off in the pools and waterslides which was a nice change from sea water;)
On Sunday Dalia took the dinghy into town on her own and spent 2 hours looking for long distance calling cards since she had a couple of calls to make on monday concerning her student loan. On Monday Dalia and Justin took the dinghy into Barra where Dalia made her calls (very frustrating) and Justin checked out with the port captain, checked his e-mail,bought a pizza, banana bread and some croissants. We had lunch on the beach and headed back to the boat. We dropped off Justin's purchases and headed to the town of Colimilla which is across the lagoon from Barra. In Comlimilla we did our final stock up of fresh produce, juice and water at the famous Maria's Tienda. Which was promptly delivered to Steady Beat that evening.
Upon our return Justin noticed that two boats in our proximity had swapped positions in the anchorage and one boat was closer to us than before. Concerned Justin try to hail both boats on the vhf and was unsuccessful. Another boat in the anchorage hailed us and proceeded to explain that boat 1 had dragged back onto boat no2 who moved out of the way and several cruisers in the vicinity got into their dinghies and threw out a second anchor on boat no 1. The wind had picked up considerably in the afternoon in the lagoon causing boat no 1 to drag back and no one was on the boat. The importance of putting out enough ground tackle was the lesson from that close encounter.
Tuesday with our boat stocked with provisions we pulled up our anchor and headed to the fuel dock for diesel and water and then South to Manzanillo.
Bahia de Tenacatita
We found Bahia Careyes to have too much swell and very little room and we made a quick decision to continue down the coast to Bahia Tenecatita. As we headed in to the inner anchorage there were probably 20 other boats anchored there and among them were our neighbors on dock 6, Rena and Allan from Follow you, Follow me. That night we hung out on their boat and met their new crew member, Jan, who will join them as they cross the pacific this March. The following day Rena, Allan and Jan in Me2 and us in our Ghetto Duck headed to the beach to do the jungle river cruise. It was a bit tricky to land the dinghies onto the beach with the surf but we managed and were off on an adventure. We took our time going up the river and enjoyed the wildlife along the way. At the end of the tour we headed to a palapa restaurant on the beach of the outer bay and enjoyed a fantastic lunch of fish rollovers in almond cream sauce...yummy! On the way back Justin and I raced back down the river with Gregg and Kate from Sirius......it was crazy scary and fun!
On the way back from the river tour Justin noticed that Lady Hawk was anchored in Tenacatita and was very excited to go over and say Hi. We had drinks and dinner that night with Mike, Marilyn and Jane on Lady Hawk, it was fun to meet another boat that Justin had been good friends with in Mazatlan (on Dock 6) and to hear about their adventures. The next day Tristan and Mindy came over to invite us over to their boat for drinks before the Friday night raft up. Justin spent the afternoon making peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and we headed over to Aita Pe'a Pe'a where we got a tour of their high performance catamaran and met their adorable cat Joey. The dinghy raft up consisted of 21 dingies tied to each other in a circle with a couple of people throwing anchores in the water to keep the group in place. The hors d'oerves were passed around in a clockwise direction as crew members introduced themselves to each other. This was the largest dingy raft up at Tenacatita for the season and the food was running out, luckily we saved some cookies for ourselves on Steady Beat. It was a nice way to put faces to the many boat names we were hearing on the radio.
On Saturday we decided to race up the river for lunch with Aita Pe'a Pe'a and we met Sirius at the palapa restaurant. The 3 dinghies raced back down the river where we laughed the hole way down.....there were some near misses with mangrove branches sticking out of the water but Justin refined his dinghy driving skills on this trip. When we got back to the beach Justin and Tristan went surfing while Mindy and I hung out in the water.
We spent Sunday washing the boat inside and out and invited Aita Pe'a Pe'a for pizza dinner aboard Steady Beat. We spent the night chatting with them and exchanging videos. On Monday we had very good visibility to the bottom (20') and we decided to anchor in the outer anchorage where there is supposed to be decent snorkeling. We left the inner anchorage and saw hundreds, literally hundreds of jelly fish (gross!), the outer anchorage had no visibility and was very rocky so we headed back to the inner anchorage and went swimming at the beach.
On Tuesday we got a call from Cathy and Steve on Lilly, a 47' Benateau, that we met in Mazatlan on Dock 6. They had arrived the previous night in Tenacatitas inner anchorage and had decided to re anchor closer that morning. As steve put his head in the anchor locker he was shocked to see a snake coiled up at the bottom of it. Cathy wanted to know if we would come over and help them remove the snake. Once we had established that the anchor locker did not communicate with their bilge (as ours dose) Steve fashioned a hook out of a plastic hanger and the end of a butterfly net. The first attempt to hook the snake failed and he moved further back in the anchor locker under some chain. Steve let more anchor chain out till the snake was visible and with some luck we hooked the snake (who was about 4' long) and tossed him in the water. He looked upset and tried to find a way back into the boat. He swan to the back of the boat and finally crawled into one of the 4 dinghies tied to the stern. We concluded that he probably was not a water snake and decided to drag the dinghy with the snake to the shore and remove the snake. Once he got into the water and saw land he swam straight for it and it was a happy ending for everyone. The remainder of the day Justin scrubbed the bottom of Steady Beat and we got ready to leave for Melaque in Bahia de Navidad.
There are about 5-6 resident dolphins in Tenacatita that you can see every morning and every evening hunting around the bay. These dolphins on occasion will swim up and down your boats anchor chain to scratch themselves. There is one dolphin in particular who is supposed to be friendly with cruiser and he is aptly named chip for he has a chip out of his dorsal fin. On several occasions I (Dalia) have noticed the dolphins swimming close to the boat and have slipped into the water hopping they will swim up to me and let me touch them. Every time they seem to be focused on following the fish and ignore me. The day we motored out of Tenacatita the dolphins were fishing in our area. They swam up to the boat and started playing in our bow wake, there were 3 and then there was only chip. I looked down from the bow sprit and said Hi to Chip and he squeaked back. He stayed with the boat for a minute and then went back to his pod (who were hard at work getting breakfast). As he did this he breached 10 feet out of the air 4 times and then went back to fishing. This is one of the most spectacular things we have seen so far and there are no pictures because we were living and enjoying the moment and it truly was a memorable moment.
On the way back from the river tour Justin noticed that Lady Hawk was anchored in Tenacatita and was very excited to go over and say Hi. We had drinks and dinner that night with Mike, Marilyn and Jane on Lady Hawk, it was fun to meet another boat that Justin had been good friends with in Mazatlan (on Dock 6) and to hear about their adventures. The next day Tristan and Mindy came over to invite us over to their boat for drinks before the Friday night raft up. Justin spent the afternoon making peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and we headed over to Aita Pe'a Pe'a where we got a tour of their high performance catamaran and met their adorable cat Joey. The dinghy raft up consisted of 21 dingies tied to each other in a circle with a couple of people throwing anchores in the water to keep the group in place. The hors d'oerves were passed around in a clockwise direction as crew members introduced themselves to each other. This was the largest dingy raft up at Tenacatita for the season and the food was running out, luckily we saved some cookies for ourselves on Steady Beat. It was a nice way to put faces to the many boat names we were hearing on the radio.
On Saturday we decided to race up the river for lunch with Aita Pe'a Pe'a and we met Sirius at the palapa restaurant. The 3 dinghies raced back down the river where we laughed the hole way down.....there were some near misses with mangrove branches sticking out of the water but Justin refined his dinghy driving skills on this trip. When we got back to the beach Justin and Tristan went surfing while Mindy and I hung out in the water.
We spent Sunday washing the boat inside and out and invited Aita Pe'a Pe'a for pizza dinner aboard Steady Beat. We spent the night chatting with them and exchanging videos. On Monday we had very good visibility to the bottom (20') and we decided to anchor in the outer anchorage where there is supposed to be decent snorkeling. We left the inner anchorage and saw hundreds, literally hundreds of jelly fish (gross!), the outer anchorage had no visibility and was very rocky so we headed back to the inner anchorage and went swimming at the beach.
On Tuesday we got a call from Cathy and Steve on Lilly, a 47' Benateau, that we met in Mazatlan on Dock 6. They had arrived the previous night in Tenacatitas inner anchorage and had decided to re anchor closer that morning. As steve put his head in the anchor locker he was shocked to see a snake coiled up at the bottom of it. Cathy wanted to know if we would come over and help them remove the snake. Once we had established that the anchor locker did not communicate with their bilge (as ours dose) Steve fashioned a hook out of a plastic hanger and the end of a butterfly net. The first attempt to hook the snake failed and he moved further back in the anchor locker under some chain. Steve let more anchor chain out till the snake was visible and with some luck we hooked the snake (who was about 4' long) and tossed him in the water. He looked upset and tried to find a way back into the boat. He swan to the back of the boat and finally crawled into one of the 4 dinghies tied to the stern. We concluded that he probably was not a water snake and decided to drag the dinghy with the snake to the shore and remove the snake. Once he got into the water and saw land he swam straight for it and it was a happy ending for everyone. The remainder of the day Justin scrubbed the bottom of Steady Beat and we got ready to leave for Melaque in Bahia de Navidad.
There are about 5-6 resident dolphins in Tenacatita that you can see every morning and every evening hunting around the bay. These dolphins on occasion will swim up and down your boats anchor chain to scratch themselves. There is one dolphin in particular who is supposed to be friendly with cruiser and he is aptly named chip for he has a chip out of his dorsal fin. On several occasions I (Dalia) have noticed the dolphins swimming close to the boat and have slipped into the water hopping they will swim up to me and let me touch them. Every time they seem to be focused on following the fish and ignore me. The day we motored out of Tenacatita the dolphins were fishing in our area. They swam up to the boat and started playing in our bow wake, there were 3 and then there was only chip. I looked down from the bow sprit and said Hi to Chip and he squeaked back. He stayed with the boat for a minute and then went back to his pod (who were hard at work getting breakfast). As he did this he breached 10 feet out of the air 4 times and then went back to fishing. This is one of the most spectacular things we have seen so far and there are no pictures because we were living and enjoying the moment and it truly was a memorable moment.
Bahia de Chamela
We left La Cruz Marina around 2 in the afternoon after filling up with some diesel. We sailed out of banderas bay and rounded Cabo Corrientes around midnight and anchored in the northern anchorage of Chamela. We must explain a bit about Cabo Corrientes, it is a point notorious for unpredictable winds and current. Thus a good weather forecast is necessary and passing the point after midnight or early morning is the best time. We did the passage by doing 4 hour watch shifts. Justin made some Mac&Cheese for dinner and took the first watch as we rounded the point. Dalia slept in the cockpit and woke up for her midnight to 4 in the morning shift. As we rounded the point we encountered another sailing vessel (the name we forget) heading north to La Cruz. They told us there were some heavy winds south of the point for 20 miles, we did not see this. During Dalia's watch the wind died and we started the engine as we headed south east down the coast.
When the sun came up we were both on deck ready to do some sailing but alas there was no wind. We saw an incredible amount of sea life on our way down, which included turtles, dolphins and of course whales! Dolphins love to come up the bow of the boat and surf on our bow wave. Some times you will be sitting in the cockpit on your own and you hear a "swoooosh" sound like someone breathing through a large snorkel and you look behind and 100 hundred feet of your stern is this glorious whale. That has to be Dalia's favorite part of cruising down here, is the fact that we can get soo close to the wildlife.
Bahia de Chamela is a beautiful large bay with a sand beach, palapa restaurants and a couple of islands. The first night we anchored in 30 feet of water and went straight to bed. The next was a vacation day which we spent watching movies and recovering. On our 3d day we planned to leave and anchor off one of the island, Isla Colorado, which is rumoured to have some good snorkeling. We got the boat ready, hauled up the Ghetto Duck (our dinghy) when we heard a vessel calling Ahea Kali on the vhf. We put our plans on hold and radioed them. Another sailing vessel relayed for us and we found out that they were headed up the coast to Chamela. Ahea Kali was a boat that had been on Dock 6 with Steady Beat and Justin was anxious to catch up with Micheal and Rene. They were headed up the coast to Mazatlan to get back to their car and head up the west coast to Alaska where they got jobs for the summer as guides. They told us how they spent Christmas anchored off Isla Colorado with Lady Hawk, the water was clear, they saw a sea horse while snorkeling, and the day they left there was a 20 foot whale swimming around their boat in 15 feet of water. We had to go! This was valentines day and we went into the beach for a nice lunch. The beach landing was difficult and Dalia got knocked over and got completely wet! we managed to have a nice lunch and a less wet departure.
The next day we headed over to Isla Colorado. We were so excited on our way because the visibility in the water was 25 feet! We anchored in 8 feet of water (Steady Beat draws about 5 feet) and 60 feet off the beach, we tossed over the stern anchor to keep us into the swell and turned off the engine. We were on our own little private beach with crystal clear water......paradise. Just then we saw 3 dinghies motoring towards the beach, as they passed they invited us over to the beach for a BBQ. So we packed up some hot-dogs and tuna steaks and headed in. Just then 3 more dinghies came from the north anchorage and we had a full out party on the beach. We met Tristan and Mindy off of Aita Pe'a Pe'a a 30', high performance catamaran from L.A. and Tristan's parents Inis and Kirk on Pilot a 48' schooner that they built in the 80s. We also met Serg and Katie on Kolea a green Pilot boat registered in Montreal. Later that afternoon while on the beach munching on chocolate chip cookies a large mega yacht anchored 100' off our stern and before they were done throwing out their stern anchor there were children on jet skies and power boats everywhere. sigh...the serenity.Just to add to the interruption the power yacht (which will remain nameless) turned on every light on deck and underwater once the sun went down.
Our second day at Isla Colorado was disappointing with the water visibility being less than 1 foot. This trend continued as we waited for the water to clear up for 2 days and on the third day with no bottom in sight decided to head south to Careyes.
When the sun came up we were both on deck ready to do some sailing but alas there was no wind. We saw an incredible amount of sea life on our way down, which included turtles, dolphins and of course whales! Dolphins love to come up the bow of the boat and surf on our bow wave. Some times you will be sitting in the cockpit on your own and you hear a "swoooosh" sound like someone breathing through a large snorkel and you look behind and 100 hundred feet of your stern is this glorious whale. That has to be Dalia's favorite part of cruising down here, is the fact that we can get soo close to the wildlife.
Bahia de Chamela is a beautiful large bay with a sand beach, palapa restaurants and a couple of islands. The first night we anchored in 30 feet of water and went straight to bed. The next was a vacation day which we spent watching movies and recovering. On our 3d day we planned to leave and anchor off one of the island, Isla Colorado, which is rumoured to have some good snorkeling. We got the boat ready, hauled up the Ghetto Duck (our dinghy) when we heard a vessel calling Ahea Kali on the vhf. We put our plans on hold and radioed them. Another sailing vessel relayed for us and we found out that they were headed up the coast to Chamela. Ahea Kali was a boat that had been on Dock 6 with Steady Beat and Justin was anxious to catch up with Micheal and Rene. They were headed up the coast to Mazatlan to get back to their car and head up the west coast to Alaska where they got jobs for the summer as guides. They told us how they spent Christmas anchored off Isla Colorado with Lady Hawk, the water was clear, they saw a sea horse while snorkeling, and the day they left there was a 20 foot whale swimming around their boat in 15 feet of water. We had to go! This was valentines day and we went into the beach for a nice lunch. The beach landing was difficult and Dalia got knocked over and got completely wet! we managed to have a nice lunch and a less wet departure.
The next day we headed over to Isla Colorado. We were so excited on our way because the visibility in the water was 25 feet! We anchored in 8 feet of water (Steady Beat draws about 5 feet) and 60 feet off the beach, we tossed over the stern anchor to keep us into the swell and turned off the engine. We were on our own little private beach with crystal clear water......paradise. Just then we saw 3 dinghies motoring towards the beach, as they passed they invited us over to the beach for a BBQ. So we packed up some hot-dogs and tuna steaks and headed in. Just then 3 more dinghies came from the north anchorage and we had a full out party on the beach. We met Tristan and Mindy off of Aita Pe'a Pe'a a 30', high performance catamaran from L.A. and Tristan's parents Inis and Kirk on Pilot a 48' schooner that they built in the 80s. We also met Serg and Katie on Kolea a green Pilot boat registered in Montreal. Later that afternoon while on the beach munching on chocolate chip cookies a large mega yacht anchored 100' off our stern and before they were done throwing out their stern anchor there were children on jet skies and power boats everywhere. sigh...the serenity.Just to add to the interruption the power yacht (which will remain nameless) turned on every light on deck and underwater once the sun went down.
Our second day at Isla Colorado was disappointing with the water visibility being less than 1 foot. This trend continued as we waited for the water to clear up for 2 days and on the third day with no bottom in sight decided to head south to Careyes.
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