A couple of days ago we left Barra de Navidad and headed South to the big port town of Manzanillo, Mexico. We anchored in the northernmost bay of the area called Santiago Bay. It's a nice peaceful anchorage off of a gated community of pretty houses. Of course, at one end of the beach there are still the mass of obligatory palapa restaurants that can be found everywhere that there is a good beach.

Manzanillo has really changed since we were here nine years ago. It is still a very blue-collar town, but has really grown! The first thing that we noticed is that the container port has expanded massively. It was a big port before, but now looks more like the port of Seattle of Vancouver. Ships, ships, everywhere coming and going. There are also many more stores, american stores and fast-food, than there were before. Manzanillo, which doesn't live or die by tourism, seems to really be booming.

This was a quick stop for us. Just enough time to take a bus downtown for a good walk around, buy a few provisions at the new Walmart, and rest up for the 200 mile trip South to Zihuatanejo.

Early this morning, as the sun came up, we headed out of Manzanillo. The bay was very smoky which back home would make my think that there was a catastrophic structure fire somewhere. But, down here, it is pretty normal - Mexicans love to burn stuff to get rid of it. Eventually, we cleared out of the smoke which was thick as fog and emerged to bright sun in a cloudless sky.

The best thing of all is that there is actually some wind today! Nothing significant, but pleasant land and sea breezes. This morning, we sailed away from the bay on soft offshore breeze. Now, after a few hours of motoring in no wind, we are sailing along at about 5.5 knots in a 7 knot beam wind. Normally, light wind like this wouldn't be that exciting. But, since we have motored so much lately, we are positively thrilled. It's so nice and quite with no engines running for a change. 70's songs are playing on the stereo, I'm having an early happy hour, and Dee is catching a nap in advance of her night shift on watch.

If all goes well, we should arrive in Zihua just before dusk tomorrow. We are looking forward to revisiting one of our favourite small Mexican towns!