Tuesday, 1/31/23 Tenacatita Bay

Listening to the wind “singing” loudly on our bow as we stretch our anchor and ground tackle to its limits, feeling slightly uncomfortably closer to the beach. Thankfully we have great faith in our spade anchor and even more confidence in our anchor alarm apps!

We just had a near miss as another boat must have slipped their anchor and come dangerously close to Starfire. I was so thankful to dash out from the galley and see that someone was at the helm at least and maneuvering away from us as they were trying to get their anchor the rest of the way up!

This southern wind is supposed to eventually die down today, but so far it has made for some open ocean conditions in the bay as well as hardcore paddling back to the boat after my beach walk with a friend when it snuck up on us!

We’ve been back in Tenacatita now for two glorious days! We forgot how beautiful this little bay is- so tranquil without any panga boats buzzing through. The shore is lined with majestic coconut palms, the beach is ( mostly) east to access without large swells and we’ve already run into multiple people we know and super friendly cruisers we are just meeting. Crazy to witness the 50+ boats currently anchored in here!

Onshore, there is a great little restaurant, and trying to order something not picante, I find myself staring at the head and eyes of a whole fried fish placed before me! Yikes! New experiences!! I carefully navigate below the gills, then flip it over to eat from the other side. Quite tasty, actually! A friend challenges me to the “I will if you will” invitation to eat the eyes! That would be a hard pass, but assured him he was welcome to them!

Earlier, we once again trekked up the estuary in our dinghies, with the Mazu crew, taking pictures of graceful birds in the mangroves and searching unsuccessfully for crocodiles. Probably just as well. On this trip we went a bit further into the “jungle” as the estuary narrowed, and we were surrounded by the overhead canopy and close reeds, “joking” about snakes that might decide to drop down on us any minute!
We decided not to go another mile to the next lagoon. We’ve seen it!