Leaving Bahia de Chamela in the evening, we had a short overnight passage to our next destination: Bahia de Navidad. We arrived early morning at yet another picturesque Mexican bay, with two choices on where to anchor. The first was off the town of Melaque, at the north end of the bay. Our guidebook indicated that this could be a rolly little spot, so we did a drive-by before checking out the next spot which was in the lagoon at the south end of the bay. We motored over, but the specific directions about getting into the bay were quite confusing, and the guidebook, chart plotter, and local channel markers all told a different story.
We decided to follow the local channel markers, thinking that would be the most accurate, and all was good until the markers abruptly stopped at the fuel dock. Well we didn’t need fuel and could see all the other boats at anchor shortly ahead of us so tried to make our way to them. Watching the depth sounder closely, it went from 16 feet, and started falling rapidly. 10 feet. 9 feet. 8 feet (we draw 7 feet so this was concerning). 7.5! 6.8! Well that’s not good. Fortunately the bottom was mud, so even though we hit the bottom, it was easy for us to back off into deeper water. By this point, a cruiser had seen our plight and came to offer assistance, directing us towards the channel that we could make it through. So we turned ourselves around, following his instructions, found what we thought was the channel and headed for the anchorage. Again, we watched the depth sounder. 15 feet. 12 feet. 7.5 feet! 5.8! Well that’s really not good. We were good and stuck in the mud by that point. So much for a deeper channel. And our predicament was such that we couldn’t just easily back out of the mud as we had before. So Austen and I quickly launched the dinghy so it was hanging off the starboard beam, heeling the boat over enough that Tim could back us out of the mud. By this point we’d had just about enough, turned Candine around, and heading back to Melaque. Apparently there were mosquitoes in the lagoon anyway.
With the anchor set in Melaque in a safe amount of water, we went ashore and found many abandoned hotels, but still, many a gringo. The RV park I’m sure contributed to this, but Melaque also seemed to be a haven for gringos escaping the winter months. It was a neat little town, and fortunately they had a bank machine. After securing some pesos, we set out for a nice little Mexican bar to have some cervezas. Of course, the first establishment we encounter has Canucks jerseys (among others) and Tim Horton’s signs everywhere – we found the Canadian bar. We didn’t stay long in Melaque, but it was a beautiful bay and a neat little town. But we still had our sights set on Ixtapa and Zihautanejo, about two days away.
The following few days saw little wind, and a lot of motoring. About 48 hours after leaving Bahia de Navidad, we made it to Marina Ixtapa. We decided it would be nice to have a night at the marina, as the boat, along with ourselves, was overdue for a rinse down. Once at the marina there were signs everywhere warning us not to go in the water due to crocodiles in the area. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) we had no crocodile sightings.
It was only a quick afternoon sail from Marina Ixtapa to Zihuatanejo, where Austen and I will boatsit for the next few months while Tim goes back to work in Victoria (remember the acronym B.O.A.T.?). So far, Zihuatanejo is looking like a pretty great place to be stuck for a few months. We just need to get used to the heat! We’ve already made friends with Alfonso, who meets us at the beach to drag our dinghy ashore, and Milton who makes fantastic margaritas. And I’ve also been told I can’t adopt every cat I see at the local market. I think that’s going to be hard.