Chamela - Tenacatita - Barra de Navidad

Despite the great forecast for the kind of wind sailboats like - from the side, mostly, we motored all day with wind straight on the bow. Dang, this happens way too often, and then when you get to the anchorage and are ready to relax, or paddle board, the wind picks up. Anyhow, we motored our way south, past some really fun mansions on the hillsides and with a few distant whale-sightings, and arrived in Tenacatita around 4pm.

We took a short swim and then employed the solar shower bag once more on the foredeck, and Allan and I waited for our friend Maciek on s/v Que Vendra! to pick us up in his dinghy. Dropping the dinghy from the rack on the stern of Cadenza takes measurable time and effort, and Olena and Maciek's dinghy was already deployed, so he was elected as water taxi.

The last time we saw Olena and Maciek was early last summer in the Sea of Cortez, where we had our last cup of Maciek's fabulous painstakingly prepared coffee-aficionado coffee and then waved goodbye - they were headed north and we were headed south. We had a planned meet-up in Detroit in the summer but it fell apart. So it was great to catch up with them and hear the news of their last year and plans for their cruising future. After sharing a huge bowl of perfect guacamole and some cheese and crackers, Ola made a yummy dinner and Allan and Maciek talked electronics and mechanics and we all talked about things like getting temporary residence status in Mexico, why and how, and we nibbled little chunks of rich dark chocolate and finally it was time to go back to Cadenza so we didn't break our curfew.

In the night, the swells were just such as my grandma used to say, as to cause the main boom to move left-right-left-right a few tiny inches, repeatedly, transferring a squeak and a thump down the mainsheet and through the cabin top into the aft cabin and thence into my brain, which locked onto the hypnotic rhythm until I decided I might go mad. I stuck my head out the hatch and sure enough, we'd forgotten to install the little bungee that holds the whole thing tight. Now I had a conundrum: Jay and Terri were snoozing happily in the cockpit, and I needed to get out through the main cabin hatch, make a tight squeeze past them both, climb up on the aft cabin roof and sneak over to the port side. Somehow, I managed to do all of that without causing a stir, so I patted my Ninja self on the back, took a few minutes to appreciate the beautiful stars overhead, and snuck back and into my now-quiet bunk.

We awoke to cloudy skies, which filtered the otherwise hot sun, and enjoyed bagels and coffee and fruit in the cockpit. Tenacatita has a very active radio net every morning at 8:45, where the boats in the anchorage (and a few from farther away) can all connect and get information from the volunteer Net Controller - weather, local news bulletins, a chance to seek local knowledge or ask to borrow tools, or find tradespeople, and other stuff like that. Radio nets exist all over the world in the cruising realm, some more active than others. The Tuesday net controller was terrific, she managed the whole thing with intelligence and humor and a capable air. Jay put out a request for a particular tool that he and Allan needed to run some tests on the alternators on the boat, and our friend Maciek responded. So after breakfast we dinghied over to get the part and have some of Maciek's amazing coffee.

Jay and Allan played mechanic while Terri and I wrote and did other things, we had some lunch, I paddled about some but the wind had come up, churning the water, so it wasn't really a great time to explore the anchorage. We returned the tool to Maciek via dinghy and visited a bit more with them. Terri and I did some yoga aboard and Allan took a swim and there it was: another day, wrapping up. Our final dinner at anchor and on Cadenza was a delightful pesto pasta and leftover rice and beans and chicken mole. It was amazing - those Cuban black beans and rice got us through most of the the trip!

There were over 50 boats in the anchorage in Tenacatita, and a good number of them were planning to make the move south to Barra de Navidad in the morning. We wanted to get ahead of the traffic into the tiny Barra marina, so we were up early on Wednesday and underway by 8:30 for the 3-hour passage south. Allan and I started gathering our stuff from the four corners of the boat and getting repacked for our move into the Grand Isle Resort in Barra, where we'll spend the next 6 nights.

We pulled into Barra at 11:30 and were met at the dock by our old friend Curt from Channel Islands, and his wife Mary, plus a few others who helped catch the lines and guide beautiful big Cadenza into her berth for the next month. Hugs and hellos, then check in's - Jay and Terri with the marina office, Allan and I with the hotel, and then we met at the pool restaurant for lunch.

We spent a month in Barra last year on Fly Aweigh, and it feels weird to be here without a boat, and in fact - our sister-ship s/v Moon Drifter is in almost the same slip we were in last year and I wouldn't be surprised if I accidentally wander down there and climb aboard in a moment of heat-stroked inattention. But the hotel is wonderful and our room has an absolutely spectacular view of the beach, the little bay, the town of Barra across the bay, and the marina. We're looking forward to seeing yet a few more of our sailing friends from last year and getting in some yoga on the beach and some swimming. Otherwise, our ambitions for the week are low.

Jay and Terri will be busy catching up with the myriad friends they have here, as this is the 7th year they've come down. They're participating in a volunteer event called "Cruise-In" which raises money for the local schools by hosting a myriad of sailing activities. This is one of the reasons why so many other boats are on their way to Barra this week. We'll unfortunately miss most of the fun as it starts the day we leave, but we'll be here for a few pre-event activities.

Our room in the huge and complex hotel takes 3 elevators and crosses two tiny bridges to reach, way out on the northwest wing on the 9th floor with a truly spectacular view, out over the bay to the town of Malachi to the north, to charming Barra just across the inner bay, and off to the right we can see almost the whole lagoon, with over 30 boats at anchor. It should be a nice, quiet week which I'm sort of craving.

So our voyaging with Cadenza comes to a close for this chapter, with piles of new memories added to other piles of old memories that all suggests, without doubt, that we have a very fun and fortunate life. And with each passing day in this complicated world, we savor this more and take less for granted.


Ps. I can finally post pictures in the gallery, so check it out under "Sailing Cadenza."