Puerto Angel - Christmas

15 39.00 N 96 29.00 W
24th Dec 2009

Don and I left Acapulco early the next morning to sail the 212 miles to Puerto Angel – there are several bays along the way that we could pull into if we became too tired over the next few days.  I am beginning to wonder if we should insist the word “sail” has a new meaning entered into the English dictionary – the new meaning being “vessel under motor” – we seem to be doing very little sailing and lots of motoring – the continuous drone of the iron sail gets annoying after a while.

After me bribing, begging and pleading, Don reluctantly agreed to pull into a small bay for the night – the rate at which we were sailing (yes actually “sailing”) meant we would reach the bay in day light, sleep overnight and be able to reach the next bay before dark the following day – it would take us a lot longer to reach Huatulco this way but I hate overnight sailing !!!  I need my 8 hrs sleep every night.  

Upon approaching the bay the wind picked up and White Rose came to the occasion and picked up speed – we were honing along at a great rate of knots – too good to miss out on so I swallowed my pride and agreed to continue overnight – it was pleasant sailing with beautiful moonlight.  I decided to make a nice pudding to lift our spirits and give us some sugar to last through the night.  I made a fruit batter that had a golden syrup sauce – I put it in a very large container and reduced the amount of syrup to prevent any spillage as the boat keeled over – humm – for the first time ever the gibles on the oven stuck and would not allow the oven to swing freely with the boat – the boat leaned over and so did my pudding, firstly 2 cups of golden syrup and hot water hit the back of the oven, ran down to the base, across the bottom and when the boat leaned again it ran out the door onto the cupboard below down the front into the hatch and into the saucepan cupboard then onto the floor, down another hatch and I suppose eventually into the bilge – a wonderful sticky mess, not to mention the hissing, steam and wonderful burnt aroma which filled the boat.  I cleaned up the mess on the floor and left the rest for calmer weather.  Much to my disgust the batter was next to go – the oven smelled like burnt toffee.  We did eat the pudding – sailing is a bit like camping – most foods taste good even though you would not consider eating them at home – also is was very dark!!  

Later during the night the winds became stronger and seas lumpy – we were bashed about and wished we were anchored in a bay for the night.  We tried to enter a popular bay for cruisers – Escondido and almost made it but it is dangerous to enter any unknown bay in the dark, the depths showed deep water even though we were not too far off shore, the swell rolled in probably making it just as uncomfortable as out at sea.  We crept slowly towards shore with Don mumbling and grumbling every inch of the way – the final straw for Don was the pangas (fishing boats) laying down fishing nets in the bay – getting one of those wrapped around our propeller could spell disaster in the dark on a lee shore so we turned around and headed back out to sea for the second time.   Turning around was fun – the boat nearly did a “touch-down” (when the tip of the mast touches the water) – when I say nearly – Don would totally disagree and claim it was nowhere close!! The next bay was described as “peaceful and quiet anchorage” that interprets to no swell so that is where we headed.  To add insult to our horrendous night, we now had too much wind and arrived too early to go into the bay – the entrance is very narrow with outlying rocks – only approachable in daylight.  We rocked and rolled for hours waiting for daylight – the swell was large and winds coming from the opposite direction – real washing machine stuff – horrible – it was difficult to lie down as I was thrown off the bed.  All we could do was hang on and listen to the boat creaking and things falling with the winds howling at 25 knots plus.

Puerto Angel  (pronounced ankle in Spanish) is beautiful, it consists of two tiny bays lined with palapas (grass hut food stalls) and many pangas on the beach and anchored close in.  The only problem was it was still bit rolly – drnks spilt and stomachs heaved.

Don was horrified that I was determined to make a plum pudding for Xmas in a rolly boat.  Xmas morning I made the pudding and as it was half a recipe, cooked it for just over half the normal time – being very conscious of our depleted gas supply.  We went ashore and bought some pork (chicken and beef not being available or non recognizable when shown to us) – the port chops were dinner plate size – that should have been a warning – it obviously came from a huge pig – big, old and tuff!!

We waited until the cool of the night then cooked our Xmas dinner – the pork was like boot leather – the bbq gas ran out half way through the cooking process.  The pork would have made excellent soles for shoes, the potatoes had a ¼ inch black bottom – canned peas were good though!!  We couldn’t believe it when the main gas cylinder also ran out in the middle of the second cooking of the pork on the stove.  The wine helped the dinner taste better – it was the last bottle of wine from Adelaide – Janet’s sister Roz makes the wine from their own grapes – it was wonderful !!  

The plum pudding looked rather raw so I covered it with a strong brandy sauce and
Don was non the wiser – as it was physically impossible to eat most of the pork we had 2 helpings of dessert to fill us up, then went to bed resembling big fat balloons.  Oh I did get a Christmas present and felt very guilty because I had not found a hammock, which is what I wanted to get Don – but on inspecting my present I quickly stopped feeling guilty – it was a can of oven cleaner he had bought that morning!!

We knew we were heading into turtle country but had not sighted any until we heard a thump, then a bump, bump, bump along the underneath of the hull – then much to our horror a large turtle came propelling out from the back of the boat – spinning out of control.  Once he straightened himself up he popped his head up – obviously wondering what on earth he had bumped into and then proceeded along his way.  It was very funny.  We see a few turtles every day now – appearing as large algae covered disc floating in the water

Acapulco

16 50.00 N 99 54.00 W
20th Dec 2009

Well it is now 14 hours later (since leaving Zihuantanejo) and Don and I are exhausted – shortly after writing the above I went below for my 9pm til midnight rest while Don kept a lookout.  Within minutes of actually falling asleep Don woke me for a hand to lower the mainsail.  He said there was a thunderhead approaching.  I was dopey to say the least, stumbled up to the cockpit and took ages to get my brain to link the cogs and workout what was going on – the sky was lit up every few seconds by a blinding light that covered as far as we could see.  I thought Don had the strobe light on and for some reason it was brighter than usual.  It was lightning – massive forked bolts came down next to us blinding us with their intensity. There were 3 large thunderheads all sending off bolts of lightening and constantly showed us the huge thunderheads – it was like being in a discothèque with a strobe ball only many times brighter.  I put all our mobile electronics in the oven – I know that sounds strange but having listened to other sailors, it appears that is what one must do when facing a lightning hit.  If hit, the electrical charge will most likely destroy all our communication equipment.  Not only would it mean we would have difficulty navigating but we would not have any emergency radios etc.  It would take us months and many thousands of dollars to replace those pieces of equipment.  It does happen – we have talked to people who have been hit by lightning – an aluminum mast sticking up straight and tall in a sea is a great conductor.  I mentally pictured where all our fire extinguishers were (thought maybe if the deck were hit the teak may catch alight) and wondered if I could get the thing up and squirting quickly in the dark.  I did do a course on extinguishers 6 years ago !!!  

Don secured all the sails and bits and pieces around the deck – whilst I held my breath.  I have never known him to take longer to down the mainsail and tuck it securely away – all the time I was picturing him being thrown on the deck by an electrical charge running down the mast.  The winds grew from nothing to 20 knots and the seas grew from flat to monstrous and bumpy – well rough anyway !!  All we could do is sit and watch the spectacle hoping that it did not come any closer.  We huddled together in the cockpit – both exhausted but too worried to go to sleep.  The show went on for over 3 hours – all the time we had the engine racing trying to outrun the show whilst tracking the storm cells on the radar. We also had a 2 knot current against us so progress was slow.  

We arrived safely in Acapulco at 8am.  We have caught up on some lost sleep and plan to take it easy on the boat for the rest of the day.  

The next day and we were anxious to get off the boat and go sightseeing.  The Puerto de Capitana was first to check our yacht in, next the Fort San Diego which was closed, we found an airconditioned restaurant and plopped our hot sweaty bodies there and drank our fill of coffee.  We visited the local Church then on to the cliff divers.  They were amazing – I was more fascinated by watching them scale up the cliff without any structured feet or handholds – they took a different path each time.  I had been looking forward to watching them and I wasn’t disappointed. 

Our impression of Acapulco was of a tired old city, hot and very busy and none too clean. It doesn’t cater very well for cruisers with very limited anchoring room and excessively expensive marina fees at the yacht club. The other marina – La Marina is a wreck with some evidence of gradual refurbishment. Even there they charged us 80 pesos  to tie the dinghy to a sinking dock for 3 hours and no other facilities available.

We didn’t explore very far a field, as it was hot.  I am embarrassed to say we found an air-conditioned restaurant and plopped ourselves down for morning tea.  It was lovely to drink coffee and talk in a cool clean atmosphere.  After that we went by the local church then up the hill to the cliff divers –they were spectacular and very difficult to take a decent photo of. 

Zihuatanejo

17 38.00 N 101 33.00 W
17th Dec 2009

Our next stop was Zihuatanejo.  

I am happy, very happy, extremely happy and very very relaxed – I presume it is the result of the billows of smoke filling our cabins – the secondhand smoke arrives with compliments from the yacht in front of us and smells suspiciously like marijuana!!!   I wonder if the headache the next morning had anything to do with it. 

This is a larger town than Navidad and caters a little more to the tourist trade.  Everyone was friendly, the market was great and gross at the same time – we gawked like tourists (and not the seasoned travellers that we are) at the orange chooks with their legs spread wide, the beef heart and liver hanging from a hook and bleeding on the pathway, the miles of thin beef that resembles jerky and some strange vegetables and fruits that we had not come across before.  I usually like to find out how to cook them and try some but no one spoke our language and our limited Spanish just did not cut it.  

We were excited to read about a concert on a stage right in front of our boat – how lucky was that!!!  There was a nativity scene in front of the stage and we presumed the concert was a Christmas one with small children dressed up and singing carols - it turned out to be a very loud noisy rock concert – hatches closed and earplugs in and we still couldn’t hear ourselves think!!!  I was happy to leave.  The anchorage was rolly and a little uncomfortable.  Don and I were surprised as the number of guards/police carrying machine guns – we don’t know anything about guns but they looked serious and they seem to be on most street corners always walking in pairs.  

We are moving quickly now – one of Don’s friends, Richard, is meeting us in El Salvador on 14th January.  Although we have approx. 1000 miles still to go there is plenty of time unless …….

San Blas - Bahia De Chamela

19 31.70 N 105 05.50W
We were sad to leave San Blas – we would have liked to stay longer and explore the town.  We did one trip into town with the dinghy – hummm 4 miles out and around the bluff to the estuary that leads into the township – a very long wet sloppy trip but worth it.  The town was simply fascinating – cobblestone streets, burnt orange, yellow, orange, red and various shades of blue buildings next to each other – some only a few feet wide – everyone selling something to try and earn a dollar.  We went on a jungle cruise – it took over 4 hrs and we enjoyed every minute of it.  Miles along a river estuary watching baby and large crocodiles sun bake, we saw numerous turtles all piled on top of each other and many varieties of birds.  We stopped for lunch at the half way stop – the owners had fenced off a small area for visitors to swim before continuing their trip – I could just imagine hungry crocodiles on the other side of the ringlock wire fence!!!

Unfortunately San Blas is infested with a variety of bugs – you name it and they have it – especially “no see ums” (American for horrible biting bugs that are very very small).  In order to avoid bugs infesting your boat you need to stay at least 1 mile off shore – this was the rolly area so we went closer to the beach and paid dearly for it – I was spotty red for a few days and quickly learnt to paint myself liberally with the highest concentration DEET lotion I could find. 

Ex New Yorkers Norm Goldie and his wife Jan have lived in San Blas for many years and he now devotes his time to monitoring HF radio over night and assisting any sailors and fisherman that run into trouble. He runs a cruiser’s net at 8am and shortly thereafter goes to bed for several hours. He is a wonderful source of information and quite a chatterbox - he will give you a 20 min spiel on his qualifications and resume - repeatedly !!  Each morning Norm asks about your plans for the day and instructs on the best way to carry them out.  Norm knew we were going to take our dinghy up the estuary to look for animals and birds. Norm asked Don to go from VHF to HF so he could relay some details in private. Norm warned Don not to go ashore once out of the town area, especially where there were people or houses as a few years ago a mentally retarded Mexican had taken a shot at a dinghy that got too close - after Norm signed off we listened on the same channel to someone in the Pacific relaying our warning without accuracy - he was warning all cruisers that there was an insane man shooting at all cruisers in San Blas so don't go there !!! What a terrible thing to do to such a wonderful city and its people. 

We met a couple at San Blas from a yacht named “About Time”.  Jeff and Sharon are very generous, friendly, outgoing people and we thoroughly enjoyed their company on the jungle tour and later followed them to Chacala Bay.  We spent a day on the beach there under the cover of a palapa (grass hut café).  We talked with a Canadian couple who had 2 children – a baby boy and a little girl who only spoke French.  Sharon played with the girl for hours, much to her mothers delight – the little girl chatting away in French, Sharon in her bad Spanish and excited English.  Unfortunately Sharon and Jeff had their dinghy stolen when tied to the side of their boat overnight – this is a common occurrence and using a wire cable tie does not inhibit the thieves.  The only semi secure way to protect your dinghy is to bring it aboard each night.  We hear of so many dinghies that have presumably been stolen that I wonder what they do with them all – there must be a good market for them somewhere but the locals all use pangas – fiberglass 16ft skiffs and an inflatable would look severely out of place and very noticeable.

From Chacala we sailed to Punta de Mita and anchored for the night – this is at the top end of Banderas Bay. We left early the next morning to check out one of the Tres Marietas islands.  Supposedly excellent snorkeling (not just good but excellent according to our guide).  There was a very large swell and a lot of wind, the anchorage was pocket size and taken up with 2 power boats.  Needless to say we anchored, swam, couldn’t find the “excellent” snorkeling site but did see some colourful fish and packed up and left.  We arrived in La Cruz that afternoon and were greeted by our long lost traveling companions Jeff and Sharon.  We spent the next few days fixing our windlass – a clump of chain had knotted and when pulled up it pushed the pipe that the chain threads though (spurling pipe for mariners) to the side which bent a screw and dislodged the helicoil thread insert.  In order to fix it we had to replace the screw and helicoil – well that entailed a very long hot dusty sweaty hike through the back streets of Puerto Vallarta to find a helicoil (which is like a spring that threads into the screw hole that you put the screw in). You can imagine the fun we had trying to explain in 3 or 4 word Spanish vocabulary what a helicoil is to the the bewildered Mexican shopkeepers. Such a simple job took forever – as usual on a boat.  Whilst at an internet café (which more often than not the internet does not work) we met a man named Don who is escaping the winter in his home town which at present is minus 30 somewhere in Canada  Don spent the afternoon driving the four of us around Porta Vallarta to all the big box stores (American for supermarkets and bulk shopping) – he was great and such a help to us.  Before leaving La Cruz we attended a seminar on El Salvador – a couple are organizing a rally in March.  The talk was excellent and we were given an information package with maps etc.  I am really looking forward to visiting this place now – we had intended to sail right past the only port in Guatemala (it is very expensive and not friendly towards cruisers) and onto El Salvador – from there it is easy to catch a local bus to Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua – the visa which will be issued when we arrive covers all those countries and costs $10 per person.  Sounds like we may be there for a while – especially as there is a beautiful hotel where we will either tie up at their marina or anchor and use their facilities – 2 swimming pools, 2 restaurants etc etc – wonderful !!!

I am writing this at 9pm – whilst sailing overnight to Bahia De Chamela.  Don is having the first sleep while I do the 3 hr watch.  It is a very dark night with a warm breeze – so far the wind has behaved itself and we are making excellent ground with very little boat movement – perfect !!!  Lots of stars – a good time for making wishes and making plans.  There is a lot of phosphoresce in the water making it look surreal.  I hear a snort – is that how you would describe the noise a dolphin or whale makes ???  anyway it is whale season here and babies are being born – I just hope that one does not fall in love with the hull of our boat, make all the right moves only to be jilted and become enraged – I don’t want any bumps in the night !!!

When the current 3 hr watch is up Don and I used to take some time to bring the other up on the latest developments.  We would exchange wind strengths, predicted wind strengths for the next 3 hrs, current and future position, wave and swell height, any vessels sighted during the watch and a discussion on those still in sight or on radar, sail plan and predicted sail plan for the next 3 hrs, arrival time etc.  Now (being seasoned sailors) I go and poke him hard and lie down next to him and fall instantly asleep, then what seems a few minutes later he is doing the same to me (I think he changes the clocks during his watch to his advantage).  Well this time was no different – he was comatose on his side of the bed after waking me and assuring me it really was my turn.  I had just reawakened with a fright wondering how long I had fallen back to sleep for (it was only a minute but it could have been an hour).  I got up, used the bathroom, threw cold water on my face to help me stay awake at least until I climbed up into the cockpit then went into the galley and made a cup of tea.  I now had my cup of hot tea in one hand, computer in another and balancing a book negotiating our 5 steps in heavy swell.  Upon climbing up the companionway I glanced up and saw a white see-through apparition sitting near the control station blankly staring out to sea.  The whole demeanor of the ghost was placid as if from another world – the see through bit was a bit spooky though.  I was almost to the top stair and deciding whether to scream or silently go backwards when the “thing” turned slowly and spoke in monotone to me – I was too scared to realize what it said and after a period of sheer immobilizing terror I realized it was Don – oh boy I swore – words came out of my mouth that I didn’t know I knew.  I abused him, mentioned every fault he had ever displayed and every fault he may in the future display – I ranted and raved like a lunatic (I never exaggerate!!).  Did I mention that I had been reading a Dean Koontz book that was about a serial killer, the whole book took place within 24 hrs and was real sitting on the edge of your chair terrifying stuff – with that in the back of my mind Don’s silent visit was not appreciated.  He tried to appease me by telling me he wanted me to know that there was a ship about 20 miles out to sea and another about 15 miles – going in the opposite direction to us !!!!  I doubt he will ever be so thoughtful again.  God bless him. 

Barra Navidad

19 11.00 N 104 41.00 W
13th Dec 2009

We arrived in Bahia de la Navidad too late to enter the lagoon where we

hoped for a still, quiet anchorage – we require a slack high tide so we

wouldn't bottom out. We anchored in the rolly bay for the night. We were

a little concerned as our Cruising Guide says the holding in the lagoon

was mud and mosquitos – I could just picture millions of tiny mosquitos

hanging onto our anchor chain keeping us in position.

Early the following morning we entered the estuary/lagoon. Now that was
fun !!! The depth in the channel got down to 1.8mtrs going in – that is
the depth under the keel. The channel appears ok up to the marina
turnoff then it is questionable!! We continued onto the fuel dock to
find there is no fuel - maybe "manana" – everything here is "tomorrow".
Locals in a panga (small motor boat) explained how to get to the
anchorage - in distance only 1/2 mile from fuel dock but the channel
isn't marked. To cut a long story short we ran aground 3 times - the
first time we took a short cut - big mistake and after gunning in
reverse we managed to get free – the same locals in a panga shook their
heads and motioned us to follow them – I am sure they were thinking
stupid gringos why did they take a shortcut when we pointed out the
green ball !!! All was ok until they left with hand instructions to go
straight head towards the "big boats" - we did that and immediately ran
aground again. Windward Bound yacht guys came over in their dinghy and
offered to guide us in (at this stage we had turned around to go back
out and head off to Acapulco. Soon the tide would be running out and if
we were solidly grounded at that time, would stay fixed for 12 hours
until the tide came in and refloated us – very embarrassing!!!

Unfortunately we ran aground again turning around - by this time Don is
really impressed (that is putting it politely) and getting annoyed with
an unmarked channel. We did make it the next few yards to the anchorage.
Part of the problem is the locals dive for oysters in the deepest part
of the channel – which appears to be only a few feet wide at the widest
point – we were trying to avoid running over divers and hitting pangas –

Windward Bound went up to each panga and asked them to move out of our way which they happily did. Half an hour later the French Baker arrived - yea !!! I bought a choc filled croissant, Danish and baguette. That put a smile back on our faces. The small town is typical Mexican without all the tourist traps - it is simply the most beautiful place - lovely
people. Clean and tidy with lots of very inexpensive eating places.

San Blas - Matenchen Bay

21 30.9 N 105 14.6 W

This morning we left for San Blas on the mainland. Two whales swam alongside to say goodbye.  We have always enjoyed watching the whales and for the first time motored away from them - after hearing the sad story about the yacht that was sunk by a whale in 7 minutes during the Baja Ha Ha Rally we didn't feel as safe as we used to. 

Delphis is the yacht anchored next to us in Mantanchen Bay, San Blas.  Whilst listening to the VHF radio we heard Delphis saying his boat had approximately 2 - 3000 honey bees looking to make a hive on his radar.  Officials offered to bring a party to his boat to spray the boat and kill the bees.  Having been a bee keeper in the past the owner of Delphis was totally against killing the bees and was happy for them to stay around until they decided his boat was not suitable for a home and move off.  The shore party suggested he pretend his anchor was faulty and raft up next to another boat, hoping the bees would jump ship.  Don and I were fascinated and immediately went up into the cockpit to look at the bees through the binoculars.  Don was horrified at the volume of bees and I was reluctant to tell him to check out his own radar - sure enough - bees !!!  We immediately closed up the boat - and are now sweltering in humid heat with all hatches closed and the cockpit shut tight.  Our dinghy is covered in bees so no trip ashore for us today.  A few minutes later Delphis was back on the radio reporting that the bees were slowly leaving - probably gone back to the land - hummm  !!!  There are lots of jokes going around about how many jars of honey others want.

We plan to spend a few days here to explore and to catch up on some boat jobs - the list is growing again !

So we will cover our explorations in the next post.

Isla Isabela

21 50.5 N 105 52.9 W

We had read about Mexico's Grand Canyon named Copper Canyon and had a printout of how to see the area using local transport and accommodation.  We were both looking forward to making the trip which included a 5 hour bus trip and 7 hour train ride with livestock- the bus we had already been on was like a very old school bus that was almost Fred Flintstone style - and had very hard seats !!  5 hours on a similar bus was not my idea of fun but you have to give it a go - the trip consists of long trips and local accommodation, often without electricity or water but clean. 

Unfortunately I got a stomach bug and couldn't manage the trip nor the aroma of the sewerage plant so we pulled up anchor and headed for Isla Isabela - a tiny island which is a bird sanctuary.  It has been featured in National Geographic and other documentaries.  We hiked over the island and watched in wonder at thousands and thousands of birds flying, nesting, feeding.  Frigate birds with wing spans of over 1 metre nesting in spindly branches of trees at our height.  The males have a red balloon (or that is what it resembled) which they could inflate to attract females - it reminded me of a bright red heart pulsating on the outside of their chest.  Yellow footed boobies were nesting along the cliff ledge - some with eggs others with large balls of cotton wool posing as a chick - totally helpless and so funny.  I was amazed that none of these birds thought of us as a threat - only one mum made a guttural noise in her throat as a warning that we were too close.  We were very careful to keep our distance and not disturb the birds. 

Along a track I was careful not to stand in what I thought was dog poo - on a closer inspection it was an iguana.  These poor things are muddy coloured (I believe they have the ability to change colour with their environment) and very old and wrinkled - I know how they feel !!!  I hoped that the scuttling and noises we heard whilst walking hip deep in grasses were iguanas moving out of our way although the ones we did see just stayed exactly where they were, presuming we noticed them and would not tread on them.  The local fisherman stayed in ramshackled tin lined huts whilst fishing and were quite happy to watch our dinghy escape from its rock anchor on shore and calmly make its way back to the boat without us.  Don had to jump in and go for a swim to retrieve it.