Adventures in Mexico

Vessel Name: Myla
Vessel Make/Model: Moody 44
Crew: John and Julie King
28 July 2017
06 July 2016
26 May 2016
01 April 2016
09 March 2016
10 February 2016
30 December 2015
07 November 2015
30 October 2015
26 October 2015
24 October 2015
04 October 2015
28 September 2015
03 September 2015
26 August 2015 | Alamitos Bay Marina
Recent Blog Posts
28 July 2017

Year 2

What a difference a year makes…I blogged like a crazy woman our first year, but haven’t posted a single blog this second season, so here goes. One mother-of-all-blog posts summing up this past season….

06 July 2016

Wonders of Nature

In most situations, it might be a little awkward to hear your husband excitedly exclaiming, “Boobies, boobies, boobies! Wow, look at all these boobies!” But knowing we were the only ones in the entire anchorage with a spectacular, uninterrupted view of the Sierra de la Giaganta Mountain Range, I [...]

26 May 2016

Up and down

It has finally happened. Rather than that moment in the morning when you first awaken and collect your thoughts to determine the day of the week and the long to-do lists ahead, we now have to take a pause to determine the month. It isn’t a long pause, so no reason to get worried here, but time has [...]

01 April 2016

"And here we are..."

Well, here we are…that’s become a rather frequent phrase here aboard the good ship Myla. Every time we drop our Ultra Anchor, we sit back with a great sigh of relief and satisfaction knowing that we are safe and sound, and John will inevitably begin every conversation with…“Well, here we are…” We have done a popular route amongst the cruising community of crossing over from La Paz, and then heading south for winter, and then starting back north in spring. The plan is to get into the Sea of Cortez for spring and summer. After that, it is finding a safe place to hole up during hurricane season. We’ve been discussing our options of where to have the boat where it will be safe, sound, and insured for those hot and blustery days of hurricane season, and we’ve decided it’ll be La Paz for this first year. We have plans to head up into the states for some land touring August – October. We’ve heard it is terribly hot in Mexico then…as if it isn’t already hotter than Hades. But meanwhile, back to our travels. I may have already covered some of these coves in the previous blog post about our southerly trek, but we visited many of them again while heading back north. Seeing them a second time has added a better appreciation and sense of familiarity to these beautiful coves. Our southerly trek began back in January after about a month in La Cruz. Our first stop was Chamela. That was our newfound favorite cove with beautiful islas that provided great snorkeling and anchoring. After all the boat repairs, this was our first port where we could sit back and fully appreciate our surroundings and relax. We also reconnected with our good friends Don and Peggy Cox of Intrepid. We were new fish together in the Corsair Yacht Club 15 years ago, and they’ve been cruising in Mexico now for 10 years. It was great to see them and learn some of their wonderful, seasoned cruising tips. Peggy outfitted me with a macramé shell anklet, and I really began to feel like a cruiser! The town of Perula in Bahia Chamela turned out to be quite quaint and inspiring. I found a place to get my hair attended to while John went roaming about the town. He ended up locating a nonprofit English language school that was just getting set up after the hurricane. There was a huge pile of dirt to be moved, and John found his way to lend a hand, and a very strained back by the end of the day, too. Meanwhile, while John is being altruistic and phal trophic, I was being vane and anticipating becoming bald or worse at the hair salon. Only after the color had been applied did I realize that there was no running water in the place. The dirt floors should have given me a head’s up! But the gal did a great job, and I miraculously looked 20 years younger when she was done. I later joined John at the English language school and discussed their programs with the owner’s wife. Once a teacher, always a teacher! We both returned the next day to give another round of help. John brought along our pal, Daniel McCoy from S/V Kini PoPo and the two of them helped move quite a bit of the dirt to the backyard garden. I brought over quite a bit of costume jewelry for craft projects and some school supplies. We had hoped to stop again on our way back through while heading north, but the surf made a dinghy landing a bad idea. We will be sure to stop by when we go through the cove this time again next year. From Chamela, we went to Tenacatita. We heard there were more boats there this year than there have been in the last 10 years. I think there were at least 40 boats. There are planned activities such as bochi ball and mermaid swims, and there’s even a mayor of the fleet aboard S/V Harmony. We felt like the slurking newcomers to this established fleet at first, but seeing Don and Peggy again helped us to feel like we were part of the gang. We went on a jungle river ride on a dinghy with our two intrepid solo sailing friends, Daniel (Kini PoPo) and Patty (Kiwi 3). We reconnected with several other pals we’ve met thus far along our cruising adventure, and otherwise loved this place. The bugs seem to really like me, and especially at Tenacatita. We’ll be better prepared when we pass through again. Even with bugs, this was our new favorite. La Manzanillo is close by and provided ample opportunity to re-provision. From Tenacatita, we went to Melaque – not called Rocky Melacky for nothing! We soon moved on to the Barra Navidad Marina where amenities of a luxury hotel resort are included with the slip fees. We soon found ourselves in a pool with a swim up bar. Something about a gin and tonic, cool pool water, and luxurious surroundings to make you feel special. After all the native gypsy living we’ve been doing, the reprieve was thoroughly enjoyed! From Barra Navidad, our new favorite place, we went about three miles back north to Cuastecomate. We got together with Peggy and Don again as well as fellow Ha Ha sailors Stephen and Benta aboard Wind Star. Benta introduced me to how a lady drinks tequila, and we had a wonderful progressive dinner that led well past cruisers’ midnight. We headed back south to Santiago where we did some terrific hikes to some abandoned hotels and homes way up on the surrounding hills. We then went to Ensenada Carrizal where we did a beach clean-up. I mentioned this in a previous post. We fueled up in Las Hadas, and along with our pal Dan aboard Kini Po Po, we headed south to Cabeza Negra, Bahia de Maurata, and Coleta de Campos for about one night each. These are coves that are often passed by as they have a reputation of being a bit rough and not as welcoming to cruisers. We found them to be delightful stops and rather than doing the long overnight trek from Santiago to Zihuatenajo, we’re very glad we explored these coves. Each had tremendous views, great hikes, and a more Mexican feel than many of the more touristy areas. We even helped set a baby sea turtle free. Yes, cousin Roz, I think we did have a pet turtle named Myrtle. We always had turtles won at school fairs and such, but none of them were as grand as this baby sea turtle we came upon in Mexico. How we became freedom fighters for this little guy began at a restaurant where a waitress delivered a bowl we thought was chips. It was dark and we almost reached in when we realized that the bowl contained some water and a little turtle. The waitress asked us if we’d take him out with us when we returned to our boats and set him free as far off the shore as we could. Here’s hoping Myrtle is out there growing to be a big turtle now. From Caleta de Campos, we headed to Isla Ixtapa, otherwise known as Isla Granda. It is grand, but not large. It is about a mile long with more palapa restaurants than sand. It is a tourist destination with a fleet of pangas bringing people from the local hotels in Ixtapa all day long. Sounds horrible, but it actually was pretty neat. There were attentive servers about every third lounge chair or so down the beach. There’s even a favorite palapa amongst the cruisers. This savvy owner brings a round of beers or a bottle of tequila, and even some fresh sashimi. That got our attention and our continued business, for sure! We met quite a few fellow cruisers who were all heading to Zihuatenajo, so our fleet grew. We headed to Ixtapa Marina for two days for some much needed boat washing. While we didn’t see it at the time, there was a crocodile swimming behind our boat at one time. Our buddy Kevin and his guest, Lamar, aboard the M/V Adente snapped this one. We then did the 5 mile trip south and arrived in Zihuatenajo where we saw a lot of familiar boats. There weren’t a lot of the 2015 Baja Ha Ha fleet, but many other cruisers we’ve met along the way. This was our new favorite harbor. At night, the hills are lit up like a Christmas tree. The guitar festival was really a lot of fun. Our pal, Michael Brietenstein, came down and joined us. He is an amazing musician himself and got to stand in with a local blues guitar player during a gig. We wrapped up his stay with a lovely day at the beach at Playas las Gatas. The music was fabulous the whole week, and we’d highly recommend the guitar festival to all music lovers. The ambiance of Zihuatenajo was a mix of La Cruz, Santa Barbara, La Jolla, and La Paz. We were sad to leave. When we exited the harbor, there was a moment when we considered throwing away our plans to head north and just continue south 112 miles to Acapulco and beyond. We were only a little over 300 miles away from the Mexican border and Guatemala. Panama Canal anyone? But that may have to wait for another time. After having some starter problems and some much appreciated assistance from Ian and Leslie aboard the S/V Tango, we headed north as planned and revisited many of the harbors we’d seen. We did a few overnighters to take advantage of weather conditions. We did a night landing in Santiago in Manzanillo Harbor as it is particularly well lit. From there, we visited Barra Navidad, but we stayed in the lagoon this time. The French baker visited the next day with some delicious treats, and we made a stop at the carnaceria to pick up the best bacon and pork chops in all of Mexico. We also got to meet up with our amazingly talented friend Ian Hoffman. He’s a drummer for several bands in the Barra area. He’s also the brother of our dear friend Lauren Sinz. It was great to see him and hear him play again. Meanwhile in Barra, a boat dragged their anchor in the lagoon and had several cruisers not come to assist, the boat would have surely swamped or worse. Of course, they didn’t have an Ultra Anchor…nor did the three other boats that we know of who have dragged in La Cruz. Just sayin…..our anchor has been a dream of dependability and comfort. From Barra we then went to Tenacacita again and reconnected with our Ensenada and Ha Ha friends, Jeff and Deanne of S/V Stryder. With only about 10 boats this time and the mayor not in attendance, the activities were pretty low key. We decided to have a spontaneous raft-up to get to meet some of the other cruisers. Several boats joined us, including one couple who have obviously spent a lot of time there because they had written a song about it. There we all sat aboard our respective dinghies, bobbing about, sipping drinks, and sampling appetizers while a delightful gal aboard a S/V named Traveler played her ukulele and sang. It was quite magical, until the bugs of Tenacatita descended. I’m sporting about 50 bites at present. First year cruisers’ learning curve! We left Tenacatita and continued north for Chemela. We had a solid night’s sleep and left after a nice walk along the beach the next day with fellow cruiser and gal sailor Rainy aboard the S/V Comet. We banded together with Comet and Strider with the plan to round Cabo Corrientes at about 3am. It has been rather strange that regardless of the direction we’re heading, the wind is directly on our bow. I’m beginning to think we have a motor boat with a sail for stabilization purposes. We motored the entire way, except for a few fervent attempts, and rounded at exactly 3am. I had the watch from there on and caught a gorgeous sunrise in Bandaras Bay. After spending almost all of December and some of January there, it felt like a homecoming of sorts. We stayed in the anchorage and it was a great reunion of many familiar faces. What made it even more exciting was seeing our friends we met earlier who stayed in La Cruz to prepare for the Puddle Jump. That’s the rally that goes to the South Pacific. We got to see new intrepid pals Jeanie and Merv aboard S/V Meridian Passage start their final leg of their 18 years of cruising. They’re heading back to New Zealand. They were quite generous with their friendship and great tips, and as you can imagine, we were totally enamored with their accomplishments. It was an exciting time to be in the harbor, for sure! We then moved the boat to Paradise Village Marina, where the boat currently is docked until we return after a short trip to the states to deal with taxes, etc. We were more than delighted to see several of our Corsair Yacht Club friends at the marina. Sandy and Rich Lewis looked radiant as they hosted family for spring break. Barb and Huge Tate, former members, were there, too. If there is a commodore of the marina, we think it must certainly be the Tates! They’ve got a lovely trawler now, and look quite happy with a great group of friends in the marina. We also spent quite a bit of time with Jacques and Theresa Lorch aboard Jacques Beateau. Jacques and Theresa are preparing to do a little cruising in the Sea of Cortez, then bash the boat back for a season with the Corsairs in Catalina. We’re hoping to catch back up with them near La Paz. Our last in night in Paradise Marina before we left began innocently enough. We banded together with Theresa and Jacques, then we were joined by Ha Ha friends Leslie and Hartley on S/V Atsa and Steve and Pat on S/V Ahalani. Then we were joined by some new friends from Long Beach aboard a 50 ft. Cheoy Lee motor sailor headed south to Panama, and friends from La Paz, Rick and Sharon aboard S/V Between da Sheets. We all decided to check out the “all you can eat shrimp buffet” at the resort. Honestly, we didn’t know, but there was all you could drink, too. Let’s just say we were very glad there was time to recuperate and rest the next day on the flight home! A great time was had by all. We are now home taking care of taxes, renewing visas, and fixing up some home repairs, etc. It is so weird being back in our home. It seems so expansive and cavernous. It is a beautiful home, and while we lived here, I think we were often so busy with work and the day-to-day stress of living in the Southern California fast-paced environment, that we didn’t appreciate it enough. I’m loving it now! Fast Internet! No limited solar showers off the stern for me here! But then again, I don’t get to see any dolphin jumping while I rinse off. Trade-offs! Looking forward to returning next week and rejoining our fellow cruiseros as we venture into the Sea of Cortez.

09 March 2016

Z-Town!

We’ve arrived in Zihuatenajo, the furthest we plan to go south in Mexico. We’ve basically been sampling Mexico like a box of Whitman’s chocolates – stopping at every cove we can. We keep finding our new favorite places all along the coast heading south, and we have to say Z-town is our new favorite. [...]

10 February 2016

Never too much to Barra

We are currently in Barra Navidad. We're loving this place! Having access to the beautiful resort isn't bad - almost forgot what it was like to feel so fancy. Heck, anyone who knows us knows that we're never so fancy, but liking it nonetheless! John is getting worried that I may like it too much! I'm in a beautiful lobby, air conditioned, and heading to the pool it a bit! As for cruising plans, we're going to be heading further south to Zihuateneajo for Guitar Fest. Michael B will be joining us down there. We're then going to begin the trek back north to PV. We'll be flying back to the states for about a week to renew visas and such in early April, and then head back for Mazatlan. We'll then cross over to La Paz and then head further up into the Sea of Cortez. We're planning on staying up in the Sea May - June/July or so, and then probably make a temporary homeport in La Paz for hurricane season. We're thinking about some land-trips, and perhaps more stateside visits then (June-October period). We're having a blast, learning more about our boat, ourselves, and making new friends every day. We are loving our Ultra Anchor and have made some Ultra friends, too. We have had some funny chats with the folks on "Worth Waiting For", a beautiful trawler with an equally beautiful Ultra Anchor on the bow. They're veterans down here and are planning on heading up into the Pacific Northwest soon. We were both anchoring in ports along the way from La Cruz down to Barra, and our anchors came up looking like they'd seen the underwater sea monster. Tenacatita was a particularly lively anchorage with a lot of growth on our newly painted boat bottom, too. I think only Ultra owners would understand the passion to polish our anchors once they're back up, poised on our bows! Barra is a particularly fun spot. We've heard so many stories from our boating friends in Corsair Yacht Club over the years about the French baker and other traditions along this route. We couldn't help ourselves from nearly buying the poor guy out the first day! I can now say that the almond crossant is my favorite! It was magical to have him personally deliver, too! Another amazing Barra experience has been coming upon the Cielo Mare, one of the largest sportfishing boats on the west coast. One of our pals from home, Ray, has a sister who worked her way up the corporate ladder and is the proud owner of this yacht. It is by far the most amazing yacht we have ever seen in our lives. And the most gracious owners, too. They invited us aboard for a day of fishing. It was a magical experience, for sure! Yes, we were on a powerboat and LOVED it! Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, I managed to bash my toe while baking some cookies as a little thank you for the captain and crew. At first, I thought all the blood on the floor was from John. He's always getting little nicks and such with his hands in the bilge and engine all the time. I got very mad at him for not stopping to take care of it and for getting blood all over the custom carpets from Anne and Dennis Lynaugh of Welcome Aboard. He pulled himself out of the engine, looked over himself, and said he wasn't hurt. We then looked at me and noticed the baby toe. It wasn't anything too serious, but quite a messy injury. Happy to say that the carpets cleaned up like a charm with just a hose.The carpets have turned out to be one of the best additions we've made. We highly recommend checking them out with Welcome Aboard. Also happy to say that somehow or another, we managed to get out on the dance floor in the town square later that night to celebrate Mardi Gras. Wishing you all well and fair weather.

Manana time

30 December 2015
Geeze - just checked our blog and realized that we haven't updated it since mid-November! Lot's has happened. So La Paz was a blast. We met up with tons of friends from the Ha Ha, and made tons more. We had a great surprise one afternoon. We were sitting down (not all that common with the list of projects we've been dealing with) when a couple walked by and with big smiles, greeted us as if they knew us. I was in a complete panic as we've met so many people in such a short time, and I was sure I didn't know their names. They looked a lot like our friends Charlie and Suzie from our Corsair Yacht Club in California, but heck, we were in La Paz...but it was them! What a fabulous surprise. They had just come in on the Cubar - the motor boat equivalent to the Baja Ha Ha, and they were on a gangway over when they recognized a boat flying the Corsair Yacht Club flag. What a great surprise. We were lucky to get to spend several fun evenings with them. Charlie was gracious enough to give John a hand on a few of the projects we were dealing with including the disiel venting problem and a bow light rewire. Great seeing friends from home! After several weeks in La Paz, we headed out to explore some of the islands. Just a big "WOW!" can describe that! We went to Islas Ispiritu Santos and Partitis. I'm recalling this without log in hand, so my dates and spelling may be off here, but hopefully you'll get the idea. We buddy boated a bit with our pals on Atsa, and then we headed off for our trek across the Sea to the mainland. We rounded the north end of Partitis early in the morning only to face more steep waves and northly winds - getting tired of that, for sure! Good thing was that we were able to uncover more leaks - oh joy! More projects! All good, though, and we had a great run south after we rounded the north end to Los Muertos. We were able to help another sailor who had a problem with his headsail furler. He was a pretty old guy on a similarly old boat sailing solo. John and I were just about to sit back and relax with a much deserved glass of wine after a pretty rough passage, but couldn't help but want to lend hand. Good thing we did, as it took all three of us to get it under control. This while fighting an angrily flapping sail in 35+ knots of wind swinging here and there on anchor. Fun times! We were glad we could lend a hand, and as it turns out, about 5 harbors later, we ran into him again...roving yet again that the sailing community is a small and wonderfully helpful group. We saw some other Ha Ha boats and we were all crossing over about the same time that next day. Makes it nice to have a voice in the distance, but that didn't last too long as our pace and their destinations changed. Yep, our little Myla is a rocket ship for a cruiser. We had that ol' gal busting out at 9-11 knots. This was our first overnight passage with just John and me, and while I'd like to say I was sure I'd come down with the flu, I'm afraid I was just as sea sick as a gal can get. Took the stuffing out of me, for sure. John was amazing and I was able to bounce back and stand my watches. The fact that we were going fast was good, but it also got us into our next port of call, Isla Isabella, during night time. It isn't good practice to ever enter a port at night, but especially this one. We approached it with extreme caution and plans to just continue on if it wasn't safe. As it turned out, there were two boats on anchor already there, and we just followed them in and dropped the hook right behind them.Paper charts, Navionics on our iPad, and our Garmin Chartplotter were spot on, too. Not something we plan to do often, but worked out well this time. We awoke the next morning only to find that we'd landed in Jurrasic Park! Isla Isabella is amazing! We also met new friends - quite the trend on this whole adventure. We went on hikes and saw blue, green, tan, brown, etc., etc., etc. footed boobies (birds!!!) nesting all over. Even though I was eaten alive by bugs, it was a great adventure. We bought some fish from the local fishermen and proceeded to have the entire cove's cruiser population join us for a communical dinner aboard Myla. Fun times! We left the next day and headed to San Blas. This was our first port of call on the mainland, and after La Paz, we were shocked at how different it was - far more tropical than the Baja. We went back into the marina after filling our gas tanks. We met new friends and got some great sage cruiser tips (the pinnapple Christmas tree was one!), and we ran into our pal John from Pipedream, again. He was one of the boats that joined us in Isla Isabella, and then again in San Blas. San Blas is just what I imagined Mexico would be like. The night we were there, the whole town was out marching in a parade around the town square and ended at the church celebrating Our Lady of Guadalupe. The bells of San Blas (check it out - awesome poem and one I wish I'd known to have taught my students in a cross curricular lesson with history and literature - check it out Keri Gorsage - you'll love it!) were ringing - kind of magical. We ended up in the San Blas Social Club - very American place, but the only place that was open given that the town was busy doing the parade. The owner was a Bogart reincarnation both in looks and in every other way. Great hamburgers and beverages, but even better was starting a conversation with a group at the bar, only to find out that they were THE Sean and Heather of the amazing guide book fame - very cool! We left San Blas for Chacala. What a cool place. We met new friends there, too! We brought our dinghy ashore and ran into a couple we thought were other vacationers only to find out they had come ten years ago, fell in love with the place, and owned one of the huge homes we'd been admiring up on the hill. They proceeded to join us for a margarita on the beach, and then gave us a tour of the town that was to die for! We went back to our boat to get more money with plans to head to shore for dinner, particularly since our provisions were getting quite low. However, it started to rain like no other! We ended up taking showers in the rain that night! We decided to head off to La Cruz the next morning and promised to meet our Chacala friends on our trip back North in April. It was a chilly ride with drizzle, but smooth. We anchored in La Cruz and wandered the town in our foulies, and when we got back to the boat, the skies opened up. If we thought we had a like in our forward hatch, we were mistaken...we have leaks in our forward, center, and aft hatches, and every single port. Every rag and dishtowel was used with changes throughout the night. The boat soon looked like a laundaria as everything got hung out on the rail to dry the next day. We got picked up to race a 3 day race (they call then rallies here in Mexico) on Tallion, so we brought our boat into the marina and had three days of some fun diversion from the boat and her many projects. Great times! Best time ever was our daughter Lauren visiting us for Christmas. She's been working really hard and under a lot of stress, so its been wonderful to see her relax. We even managed to get her to get out on the dance floor with us more than a few times. Christmas Eve consisted of a lovely dinner of rib eye steaks grilled to perfection. Santa was able to find us on board and Lauren received a lovely Hello Kitty water dispenser - a gift every 26 year old legal analyst wants! We've had some nice adventures, and she's been a trooper with both her father and me coning down with the stomach bug. La Cruz has been good to us! We've been here in La Cruz over 3 weeks now, and had planned to head out maybe the 2nd only to hear from John's sister, Molly, about coming out here on the 4th. So we're going to stick around a little longer - we sure have more projects to tend to, and then head south with guests in tow to ports of call down south. They'll take the bus back to Puerto Vallarta when they have to head back, so another adventure is at hand soon.
Comments
Myla's Photos - Main
Year 2
4 Photos
Created 28 July 2017
5 Photos
Created 15 January 2016
Christmas in Mexico!
7 Photos
Created 30 December 2015
Michael Lawler, Larry Sharpless, Jacques Lorch, and Gene Pizer help John take the boat to Ensenada. Between all these seasoned salts, there are more ocean crossings than imaginable. This should be a great shakedown cruise!
7 Photos
Created 28 September 2015
4 Photos
Created 26 August 2015
Champagne was soon followed by prep for keel bolt replacement. Let the "fun" begin!
1 Photo
Created 26 August 2015

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