03/21/2008, Tenacatita Bay
A very pleasant place to be anchored. We had quite a trip from Chamela. Sailing in 4-5 knots winds making way at about 1.5 knots was great fun! For a couple of hours. We actually got to see sea turtles bobbing in the water since it was pretty calm and they would just sort of float on by! We passed on the anchorage at Careyes, as it had too many power boats and lots of rocks and surf..just too close for comfort..so on we decided to press on to Tenacatita Bay and finally dropped anchor at 6:30pm. We met up with Tahoma (Linda & Bob) who had us over for dinner the 1st night and boy were we tired the next day... The famed "Friday dinghy raft up" was held at 5pm with lots of appetizers and meeting of new and old friends. 10 boats in all while there were 30 boats all anchored in the bay. On Saturday we took our dinghy and went on the "Jungle river trip". It definitely is a must see trip as we saw alot of herons, egrets and navigated a narrow river with vines and mangrove roots and other water trees canopying over head. Thankfully no crocodiles or snakes! The little village Tenacatita has lots of beach front palapa cantinas (so that's something different...haha!) and of course being Easter week, hundreds of Mexicans on holiday, camping and having fun in the surf. An easy hike to the top of a vista to look down on 3 beautiful beaches from one point! Of course today is Easter Sunday, so a definite reason to have happy hour! Tahoma (Bob & Linda) and Sugata (Susan & Todd) joined us and we had a great time catching up! We decided to stay one more day (Monday) so Linda & Bob, Jim & Jan (from Manana) and us went on the jungle river ride one more time in search of a tour of a reeso distillery.... We did however spot a baby crocodile in the mangrove roots just sitting in the water, watching us. It was about 2ft long and stood very still. If it wasn't for the panga driver ahead of us, we would have missed him! Once we got to Tenacatita we couldn't find the tour to the distillery so Linda & I went snorkeling in what is called the "Aquarium" in the outer lobe of the bay. The water was a beautiful turquoise blue but a pretty chilly, 68 degrees... We saw quite a few beautiful fish...vibrant blue ones and white polka dotted ones, yellow striped ones and a couple fish that just looked right into your face mask! Even a "ferret fish" and a "tiger eel", at least Linda knew the names of those. The surf was pretty swirly and after 30 minutes we decided that was enough...at least I tried it...But I may have messed up a good thing...Rob wants me to help clean the bottom of the boat, now that I can handle "colder" water!!!! But since he now has a "scuba tank hooka set-up" which only has 1 hose, I might still be safe. He did clean the bottom on Sunday, as we seem to have to do it every 2 weeks down here in "fertile" water!!! Our last trip back down the river was uneventful but still fun. We caught up friends on "Mira" (Dwight & Jan) as they happened to anchor right behind us while were gone and later had happy hour at Tahoma. Our day was complete as we actually got a picture of the resident dolphin...Chip... He's been around every day that we've been here! That night the sky was just filled with a zillion stars... each one we consider to be our lucky star that we're able to be on this trip of a life time!!! Sure glad we stayed the extra day... Tuesday, on to Barra de Navidad...
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03/18/2008, Chamela
Well, it is official...our trip yesterday from Ipala (just south of Cabo Corrientes) was in 25-30 knot winds gusting to "Gale Force Winds" of 35 knots. What a ride!!! We were not surprised however, as Don from "Summer Passage" had predicted 25-30 winds, so that is why we left Yelapa a day early... Fortunately the winds were behind us and so were the 15+ ft seas! We sailed with only the staysail up and with the motor on to keep us on course because of the huge seas, we were making 6.5 to 7.5 knots all the way. In the middle of the night at 3am in Ipala we were awakened by the sounds of "whale songs" ! What a very cool thing...just like in the Star Trek movie!!! We went topside to see what we could see, but they must have stayed underwater. Only a few flying fish seemed to be active at the surface. Anyway, the ride down from Ipala to Bahia Chamela was awesome. Some monster waves that in my novice opinion were over 15 feet and probably close to 20 feet high! We surfed on our 38ft, full keeled surfboard with grace! We spotted a few floating sea turtles were just swirling around in the big swells, enjoying the ride as well! We entered the Bay of Chamela and in fact we did see 35 knots on our wind indicator. Once again we were fortunate to have our CQR anchor dig right into the bottom and we held our position in the anchorage! The winds did settle down before dark and today they are only light and variable with some swells left over from the big winds of the day before. We ventured into shore, had a good lunch and caught up with Jim & Sheilagh on Aurora. We haven't seen them since LaPaz!!! Our next stop will hopefully be the little anchorage called Isla Pasavera, still inside Bahia Chamela...if the wind is right!
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03/17/2008, Ipala
We have just rounded Cabo Corrientes at 11:00am with only slightly roly seas, almost no wind (5 knots out of the North) and some 5-6 ft swells but some 15 seconds apart...Quite comfortable, but still motor sailing. This area is the Mexican version of California's Point Conception, that can be no wind or 30knots with huge swells, because of the strong current coming from one direction and the wind coming from another... But both have been very uneventful for us...A little good luck, good timing and some planning seems to have helped us!!! We have now anchored for the night in a tiny village of Ipala that is home for maybe 17 families and 3 Palapa cantinas. There are 3 other boats that arrived since we anchored, so it's a pretty good stopping point after rounding the Cabo Corrientes or heading north into Banderas Bay. We will take off in the morning (Tuesday) for Chamela, where we will most likely stay for a few days...(we hear there is a French Baker that takes orders for fresh croissants there!!) We seem to have left the lush green Palm and jungle to the water type of surroundings of Banderas Bay to white rock and desert brush and cactus hill sides of what's known as the "Gold Coast". Water temp is just beginning to warm up to 68 degrees and the air is about 80 with a nice ocean breeze!!! We could ask for no more than this.
We wish you all warm breezes and beautiful sunsets...
Jan & Rob
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