Tropical Sailing Adventures

4/22/11
Arrived at Tenacatita today and we were pleasantly surprised at how few other yachts are in the tranquil anchorage. This is one of the top destinations in this area and is typically packed with many cruisers. I guess it is another good reason we are at the tail end of the season. Most boats seem to be heading up to La Paz or into the sea to summer over. Tenacatita has a famous "jungle cruise" that you can take your dinghy up approximately 2 miles into a mangrove laden river. We dropped the hook and settled in. Len busted out the binoculars to inspect the goings on with this infamous river. It isn't an obvious entry from the anchorage but after watching several boats (from a ¼ mile away) easily access in and out of the river mouth Len felt pretty confident as where to go. We hopped in the dinghy with excitement to experience our first land based voyage in a week. Upon approaching the beach there was quite a bit of surf and lots of Mexican families enjoying the waters of the river mouth. After a brief inspection we gunned the throttle on the back of an incoming wave and before you knew it we were meeting the propeller with a scattered rock bottom. Startled; we shut down the motor and jumped out of the dinghy to direct ourselves as not to get pooped in the surf. In true Mexican hospitality a nice senor came over to help us drag out of the sand and graciously showed us the correct in and out area. We returned back to Maestro humbled and feeling like rooky cruisers. The damage assessment was half the propeller blades severely damaged.
Well - it took us several hours to reconsider our operations but we eventually headed back to the river and successfully navigated through the channel. That was a lesson we won't forget!
We met a couple on a 32 ft cruiser who downloaded us some information on Navy secured anchorages in Pacific Columbia, an Ecuador Guide and an interesting cruiser compendium on the South Pacific islands: Tuamotos.

4/25/11
Barra De Navidad marina is one of the finest on the West Coast because of the lovely facilities they offer to their guests. We pulled in and had a wonderful slip with a view of the 5 star resort. When we check into the marina office the quoted us for a two day stay which totaled ½ of which we paid for an entire month that last time we came through 10 years ago. OUCH. We bartered a bit (that's putting it nicely) and we agreed on a rate that was more reasonable. When we signed the papers the nice lady passed me a slip that said: Facilidad no hay pase. Hey? (More like.. What the $%@) I looked at her and I looked at Len and she quickly told us that a group of Jewish people had rented the entire hotel for 10 days and no one was allowed to use the pool, tennis courts, walk on the grounds and that we were restricted to the marina area only. The tropical cascading pool was only a fantacy in my thoughts! And it was so damn hot! Determined not to let it get us down we carried on and enjoyed the marina. After all we were there to get the propeller fixed - not laze around the pool! (Oh, I still had my visions!)
Mission Propeller in a small Mexican town can be a problem and all intellectual resources must be used. We asked around a bit and most said "No.. No" go to the larger ciudad 40 miles away in Manzanillo. Finally we found a guy who would give us the right answer and we found the Yamaha dealer in Barra. Wow - we weren't sure how this was going to go but we put our propeller on the back of his brand new pickup truck and stumbled through our Spanglish. He told us he would return and off he went through the maze of parts and half build walls of his shop. About 15 minutes later he returned with a brand new still in the box propeller for our 25 hp Yamaha. Success! We love days like these.
4/28/11
We have been motoring our way most of the last 24 hours with an intermittent 4 hour sail sometime yesterday. There isn't a breath of air. And someone has turned on the heat. Again - there are turtles everywhere! The water temperature has increased 10 degrees since we left PV - it is now 85 degrees. Summer is coming. We don't expect to get much wind this time of year as we are right between the changing of seasons. It should be to our benefit crossing the infamous gale force Teuanepec. All literature suggests the first of May is one of the best times to cross.
5/1/11 -
Wonderful marina stop in Ixtapa and we took a taxi visit to Zihuatanejo. We washed down the salty decks, filled up the water tanks, did a load of laundry and headed across town looking for another propeller. Come to find out that the Barra Propeller did not have adequate pitch and was our lagging hull speed and we think setting off the motor alarm. (To be continued?) We found our way to a somewhat organized Yamaha shop in Z-Town and they directed us to his Uncle's place up steep winding roads. The taxi parked outside this bright pink casa and we bartered through a large open living room window for our new propeller. I didn't get any pictures of this exchange but it was in true Mexican fashion with children running around, dogs barking, men laying on the front porch and of course a picture of the virgin Mary hanging on the wall overseeing all.
After we took care of boat business we headed about town viewing the sights, walking the beach and boardwalk and then found a little café to lounge at. We met a nice man from Mexico City there who recommended a great restaurant. Great is an understatement actually. High in the hills of Zihuatanejo is a restaurant called La Casa Que Canta (www.lacasaquecanta.com) where we sat high over the bay and watched the sunset over scallops and palm heart salad, etc. - great cap to a wonderful day. If you go to Z-Town this restaurant and atmosphere is a MUST!