Hola Huatulco!

Karin wrote:

Wow!  What a passage, we left Acapulco as scheduled and arrived in Puerto Escondito after 44 hours of some sailing but more motoring than we would have liked.  The anchorage was full of moorings for pangas and very little room for a 43' sailboat.  We set the anchor and watched as the boat dragged towards the beach. OK lets try this again, and again.  We gave up and decided to slowly make our way to Huatulco. Up went the sails and we happily downwind sailed at a comfortable 4kts an hour.  We arrived at 10 in the morning and decided to treat ourselves to a marina stay since we had not been in one for 5 weeks, and after 64 hours of hand steering we were friggin tired!

The next day we went into town and brought home a super delicious rotisserie chicken.  This is very much a tourist town but as we've seen in most tourist areas the Canadians and Europeans are here in force but the Americans are still too scared to come here.  Very sad that the media has frightened people from coming to such a beautiful friendly country like Mexico. Yes it has it's problems, but if you're not out doing drugs at 3 in the morning, you're fine.  Honestly, we're way more scared in Phoenix where everyone is gunned up. Don't get me wrong, I'm very proud to be an American, being American's is what gave us the opportunity to be doing this. (Thanks Dave!)    

Ok that was my little rant, back to our schedule.  We are waiting for our friend Mark who arrives April 11th and then we are going to cross the Tehuantepec and put the boat in Chiapas for hurricane season. There we can put the windvane on and clean up the boat. We're hoping to find a place to rent and explore more of Mexico by land and take some spanish lessons.                                                                                                                 

Some pics from Acapulco 

Our Great friend Lisa from Molly J

Adios Acapulco; 3/22/14

It's hard to believe we've been here a week! We really enjoyed the place, and the people!
During our stay, we've met met some other cruisers, and a couple that lives here. He's from New Zealand and she's from Mexico city. They introduced themselves to our friends on Molly J, then invited us all for lunch, to talk about boats and cruising. He's planning on buying a boat here and sailing it to New Zealand. To make a long story short, they were very nice people, and we will always remember meeting them.

This morning we'll be getting the boat ready to be back at sea. We plan on leaving for Puerto Escondido at about 6 pm. It should be about 40 hours, depending on wind and currents, back to doing our 3 or 4 hour watches. We get there on Monday, and decide if the anchorage  is o.k., if not, we'll have time to get to Puerto Angel, another 30 miles south.

The Log From the Sea of Cortez by John Steinbeck

Karin wrote:

This is such a fantastic book and is so amazing in the fact that it was written in 1939 and so much of it, especially politically holds true today.  If you read this blog I implore you to get a copy and read it.
That being said, I have to give you my favorite quote from it.

"We do not know whether Mexicans are happier than we; it is probable that they are exactly as happy.  However, we do know that the channels of their happiness or unhappiness are different from ours, just as their time sense is different.  We can invade neither, but it is some gain simply to know that it is so."

Joe and I from the beginning of our journey have always found that the people we most relate with are the Pangeros (fishermen) they are hard working, fun loving, rough around the edges, but kind and family oriented people.  Much like the family we left behind at Skydive Arizona.  Through our poor Spanish we have been welcomed by them to their towns and they have guarded our dingy and given us fish, taken us to town for fuel and have been the reason we both question our leaving Mexico.

3/15/ 2014: Acapulco

We've been anchored off the beach in Acapulco for three days. We like the easy access to the beach and town, and security doesn't seem to be an issue; there are tourists on the beach, everyone having a good time.

There is a strong military and police presence that is actually reassuring. 

Now to recap the passage from Zihuatenejo:

Monday, 3/10/2014, we hauled anchor about noon for a short 10 mile trip to Petelan.

We anchored in an open, unprotected bay, knowing it could get rolly, but, just overnight, it shouldn't be bad. Maybe we should try the stern anchor? No, it's not bad..... it got worse. No problem, we left around 9 am for Papanoa.

3/11/2014
 As usual, calm conditions in the morning, so we decided to run the watermaker while underway. running it for two hours gets us 3/4 of a tank, enough for the 3 to 5 day cycle of the filters.
The wind did come up from the northwest around 1pm, and we able to shut off the motor.
We arrived in Papanoa at 3:30, set the hook in the outer harbor, behind the breakwater, and settled in for an early night. Kids were fishing, and the evening was nice and cool.

3/12/2014:

77 miles to Bahia Marques, we woke up at 2:30, and went back to bed until 3:30 to stick with our plan to leave at four. That cost us later. The radar and AIS made our pre-dawn departure less stressful. Once the sun came up, so did the wind, and we were able to sail for several hours. Along the way, we saw more sea turtles than we had seen, mostly with birds resting on their backs.

At one point, I saw two manta rays resting at the surface, I looked to the right and saw a small sea snake. I looked left again and saw a large turtle, then back to the right, and saw a shark; all in two minutes, with no camera.

Eventually the wind came up, but we were motoring into a strong current just barely getting 4 knots; we weren't getting there in daylight. Should of left at 2:30!

We arrived in the dark. The chartplotter is not to be trusted; we've anchored on cliffs according to Garmin! 

Having a near miss with a sunken object, with no light, is scary. We missed it, then, had to divert for a mooring ball, then an unlit derek tied up to the new pier and marina under construction. We finally anchored in 45 ft.

The next morning, seeing the place in the light of day, we decided to try Acapulco.

We motored into the mooring field, which was really tight, and tried to anchor off to the side. We were waved off and directed to a mooring. I tied us off, and a kid swam up, asking for 300 pesos a day. Pay him, not the Port Captain. See ya..... we crossed the bay, and anchored in 25 ft. right off the beach. Jack approves of the beach so we're all content.

Highdee Ho! We're leavin Zihuatanejo

Karin wrote:

What a great place!  This town could knock Santa Rosalia off of the #1 slot of our favorite cities list. We'll call it a tie for now.

Jack is really going to miss his good buddy Alfonso and so are we.  He and Jesus we're great dingy valets.

This panga fisherman had a pretty good night.

Best Hot Dogs ever!

Guitarfest was alot of fun also, we attended a few concerts and the rest of the nights we listened from the boat.

Jack even got to go to the concerts.

Our 100th Post!

Karin wrote:

We are currently anchored in Zihuatanejo.  It is Evidently the home of Mr. Hanky from South Park fame.  Don't get me wrong we love the place, charming town, great people, Guitarfest is going on so lots of beautiful music on the beach just yards from our boat, buttttt, the sewer system dumps out right here in the anchorage and at times it can be pretty nasty.  Just looking at the water can be a little disconcerting.  That aside it is a great provisioning place and when we had to make water we just up anchored and sailed out to the big blue and came back.  Like I said Zihuatanejo International Guitarfest has been a blast so we're not leaving until Saturday, maybe longer if I have my way.  Lots of music from all over the world.

 Jack and Joe waiting for me outside the grocery store.  Jack has been allowed in restaurants and even into the Guitarfest concert.  He is such a well behaved little guy in public.  We've not had any problem with street dogs either.

 We counted almost 50 boats at one time in the 2 anchorages, but now it's probably about 25.

Joe has a little over 12000 skydives and I have 2000. Believe it or not this scares the shit out of Joe and I.  Whenever they go by we just look at each other and shudder.

Since we're getting ready to leave Mexico we decided to do a little bit of our favorites and not so favorites of our time here in Mexico.  I got this format from another blog and we had alot of fun with it.

We bought the boat and moved aboard her in Chula Vista Sept. 1 2012

We sailed to Ensenada in Feb. 2013

We've sailed 4072 nm since Chula Vista.

Max speed 10.7 kts.

JOE'S NOTABLES

Most Dangerous Moment: 

Trying to fly a wing in 25-30kt winds rounding Cabo Corrientes

Scariest Moment:

Anchor fouled itself and we dragged in Puerto Escondido.  If we had been off the boat she would have hit the concrete pier.

Most Amazing thing you saw:

A shooting star explode.  

Sunrise and Sunset everyday 

Favorite

Beach: Isla San Jose

Anchorage: Punta Mita, runner up Tentacatita

Marina: Cruiseport Ensenada, runner up Costa Baja La Paz

Town to visit: Santa Rosalia, runner up Chacala

Seafood taco stand: Pepe's, Santa Rosalia

Meat taco stand: La Brisa, Ensenada 

Restaurant: Blue Marlin, Rocky Point

Karin's Notables:

Most Dangerous Moment:

Leaving Refugio for Rocky Point with a favorable forecast that turned to shit real fast.  Confused seas with a 6ft swell and 20-25kt winds.

Scariest moment:

In San Juanico when Gypsy decided to dive off the dinghy because she did not want to get back on the boat.  We had to grab a halyard and haul her up over the rail during this she bit Joe in the face.   Also in Bahia de Los Angeles when she could not walk and we bee lined it for Rocky Point,

Most Amazing thing you saw:

Sailing from San Carlos to San Fransiquito at night during the super moon in June and watching a pod of dolphins swim in the moon beam.  

Seeing whales breaching at dawn while motoring from Mazatlan to San Blas.  They were like rocket ships coming out of the ocean.

Favorite:

Beach: Stone Island, Mazatlan

Anchorage: Puerto Don Juan, runner up San Fransiquito

Marina: Cruiseport, Ensenada

Town to visit: Santa Rosalia

Seafood taco stand: Tacos Estadio, La Paz

Meat taco stand: Tacos Chuy, Manzanillo 

Restaurant: La Mar, Chacala  best chile rellenos ever!

Best Hot Dog: street cart in Zihuatanejo across from the basketball court

Jack's Notables:

favorites: When I go to the Beach

Least favorite: When I don't go to the Beach 

Jack loves when cute girls serve him tequila also.

3/2/14 - Zihuatenejo

We made it to Isla Grande, Ixtapa the following day,set anchor and rested. The next day , we slept in, had a relaxed morning, and by noon we were on our way to Z town. We ran the watermaker underway since it was a fairly calm sea. Approaching the anchorage was the usual... where do we want to go? Good communication, and a slow approach, led us to a perfect spot.

Now it's Sunday, and the beginning of Guitarfest, which will run for the week.

Bands from all over, and cruisers too! This picture was from this morning, (about a third of the anchorage) boats have been arriving for days.

The concert starts tonight at 6, so we're resting up. We went to town for breakfast, and to get a few things. We ended up in a nice restaurant, and were greeted by a clown making balloon toys!

I never saw a balloon Margarita before.

So...... we have sort of decided... to slow down a bit, and finish the season here in Mexico.

We've heard good things about Puerto Chiapas, that may be the place we haul out, install the windvane, get the bottom cleaned, and the keel painted. After that??? 

We'll stay here a day or two, then go to the other side of the bay for some snorkeling, and maybe some surfing, then plan our departure for the trip to Acapulco.