Crazy power boaters
01 February 2015 | Isla Grande, Mexico
It's the weekend now when everybody who has a boat in the area comes out to Isla Grande, and those that don't have a boat come out and rent a jet ski. It was absolutely nuts out here yesterday, Saturday, and we're not sticking around long enough today to see what happens on Sunday!
The area obviously has some money as evidenced by the many 60-100' Azimut, Riva, Princess, and other high end yachts that are around. But, I am pretty sure that whoever is driving these boats probably can't even drive a car. There is absolutely no regard for personal space, as we understand it, or for minimizing wakes. It is not uncommon at all for a huge yacht to power directly through an anchorage making a 3-4' wake. It causes extreme havoc but it seems completely normal. Last evening, a 63' Azimut flew right past us and send many gallons of water in through our hull windows. I can't even imagine what happened to the monohulls further on in the anchorage - they would have been rolling from rail to rail.
If they do choose to anchor, it invariably is right on top of another boat. Last night, one anchored right on top of us and our anchor. We wanted to move but almost had to raft up to him to be able to lift our anchor. Crazy!
Jet skis are the next scourge down here. The people who rent them think nothing of flying by within a few feet of the boat at 20-30 knots. Judging by their skill level, I don't think that they have ever ridden one before so this really is an accident waiting to happen. We've seen several near collisions already.
It would be easy to believe that there are just a few yahoos around. But, I don't think that this is the case. I think that we simply have a lot of very rich locals in the area who have come into money quite recently. Showing it off, with a total disregard to how it affects others, seems to be the norm. If you have money, the deal is to get the flashiest boat available, load it with as many toys as possible, as many people as possible, and then use it as loudly as you can in as close proximity to others as possible.
Yup, quite the culture shock that are experiencing here at Isla Grande. Time to get back to the relative peace and quite of Zihuatanejo.