Ixtapa
27 January 2012 | Ixtapa marina
Connie, warm and humid
We left Barra in the late morning heading for Ixtapa. We had had a fun 2 days in Barra meeting up with friends, relaxing around the pool, going to dinner at Sambuca, the treehouse restaurant, watching the 2 playoff football games, and taking a bus to nearby Melaque to see it. The anchorage in Barra is in a lagoon, so it's flat, calm water, which is very nice to have especially for sleeping at night. We bought some wonderful croissants and bread from the French Baker, who comes around the anchorage in a boat selling his pastries. What a wonderful service he provides!
We've had calm, warm weather with little wind, so we were happy when the wind came up and we sailed all afternoon on flat seas. The wind died around dinner time, then came up later and we were able to sail all night. During my night watch dolphins came to entertain me. There was phosphorescence in the water and the dolphins looked like torpedoes coming at the boat making white streaks in the water. I could hear them come up to breath and there was a little extra burst of light on the surface when they did. Sometimes there were 2 streaks of white as they swam parallel to the boat, then turned left, then back towards the boat, perfectly choreographed together. All the time we were sailing at about 7 knots on flat seas; it couldn't have been better.
We arrived at Ixtapa in the morning, fortunately the weather was calm because the entrance is only about wide enough for 1 boat at a time and doesn't have a breakwater. We got fuel, then went to the dock. We used this time to wash the boat and get out other sails that might be needed in the near future. Then in the evening, Larry and Karen took us to a really nice restaurant they've been telling us about for weeks called Bogarts. The walls in the entrance and bar area were covered with pictures of Humphrey Bogart in many different movies, then as we turned to enter the dining room we came into an oasis with fountains, pools, and plants in a very elegant setting reminiscent of Casa Blanca in Morrocco. The food was outstanding, with the waiter cooking much of it at our table.
In the morning we'll motor over to Zihuatanejo, about 6 miles away, and spend a day there.
The blue boat in the marina is Panta Rhei.