Huatulco to El Salvador

It wasn’t to long ago when we hated the thought of doing an overnighter, but now we’re doing at least 4 nights out! Oh well me and Katie are really excited to be leaving Mexico now though, we’re a little Mexico’d out now, the thought of seeing a new country is getting us through the thought of spending ages out to sea! Don’t get me wrong though we love Mexico and we will definitely be coming back at some stage!

Like I said in the last post, we all had dock showers before we left the marina at Huatulco, it’s getting really hot and humid now, day and night, it wouldn’t be too bad if we have cool nights at least! To make it worse the air conditioning is playing up now and is very temperamental!

The Tuanepec is proving to be an amazing fishing ground, in the first morning we had no less then 5 fish take the lures, one of them was definitely Dorado, most of them the hook pulled, but one of them pulled at the knot! I was not impressed with that one! To top it off they were all really big, nearly slicing my hand with the 200lb line! I was completely gutted for the rest of the day because of how many fish I had missed!

The first night was fine and we didn’t run into any difficulties, it was after that when the s@#t started hitting the fan! Silver Lining started getting problems with their engine, which meant they had to slow down a little, to cut a long story short, there were ups and downs along the way, one minute it was going great the next minute it wasn’t. All the time this was happening in the infamous Tuanepec! Eventually their engine packed up and threw a rod through the block (not good). This means they can’t use the engine anymore, now they are under the mercy of the winds, but like Ashley said, the reason we were out in the Tuanepec at that time is because there was no wind! If you don’t have wind or an engine you don’t make any progress! In effect they were drifting, and drifting is what we also did, we were not ready to leave them to it out in the Tuanepec! We stuck by them as much as we could, but even on the lowest RPM we took away from them, we actually had to anchor up one morning for them to catch up! We let them overtake us until we set off again!, the nearest place they could get in was a marina in Chiapas, which is still in Mexico! We can’t really go back into Mexico after we have checked out, but at least we can put the 15 horses in our outboard to work, maybe by towing them into the marina, it’s the least we can do! Anyway we finally made it to Chiapas, at the end of the leg we managed to run into some wind, that’s great for Silver Lining! But not too great for launching the dingy, the swell was big and the outcome was that the outboard broke! We couldn’t give a monkeys about the outboard, the main thing is that we have in effect lured Silver Lining closer into shore, that’s not really the best place to be when you don’t have an engine in bumpy seas! Silver Lining launched their dingy along side to get themselves into the marina, all we could do was stand by and make sure they were ok! Ashley did an amazing job of controlling the dingy while Élan took control of the helm! It was our last goodbye, it’s such a shame we couldn’t do it person but we’re sure we will bump into them soon enough, me and Katie were just glad they were somewhere where they could rest after such a tiring experience!

We carried on and entered Guatemala, we’re not planning on stopping here because it’s apparently too expensive to check in! When we entered I brought the Mexican courtesy flag down, it was a bit of an uplifting, private moment to myself, we had successfully sailed through a whole country together! It was in Guatemala where we experienced our first ‘squall’, it had to be on my morning shift, all night it had been lightening in the distance, I could see these large blobs on the radar. ( In the picture below, the radar screen is on the right and the chart is on the left, on the radar screen you can see the land on the left hand side, you can see how it coincides with the chart, every ring on the radar screen is 4 nautical miles. Ahead and to the right of us is the storm forming, most of it is around 16 miles away)

This must be weather showing up, it can’t be anything else! It was gradually getting worse and worse, it was when the sun came up when I could actually see this ahead! Time to wake Katie up, who was sleeping on deck through my watch.

Within the next 3 minutes the wind picked up from virtually zero to 20 knts, 20 knts isnt that bad to sail in but when it comes at you that quick its a bit scary! Again it wasn’t the nicest way to wake lee up to. It pelted it down so hard I couldn’t look over or around the dodger the rain hurt my face so badly! I suppose that’s why it’s called a dodger! The winds then got up to 32 knts, Katie really wasn’t happy about all this and was getting quite upset, she rode it out curled up in bed, I wish I could of just done that! As soon as the storm hit it was gone, this is pretty characteristic of storms out here! It is now officially rainy season in El Salvador so we should be seeing more of these squalls along the way. After everything died down Katie was fine, she actually slept through the end, it couldn’t of been that bad then! This must of been Guatemala’s way of welcoming us in!

Infact on my night watch the next night I could see the same thing on radar, big blobs forming and joining together, this time it was overland! I came to the idea that we needed to speed up to try and out run this mess, I don’t really fancy being in two storms in the same 24hrs!

We were all starting to get really tired of this trip now, instead of 3-4 nights it was 6 nights until we made it El Salvador, you can tell how unimpressed Katie was in this photo.

Bahia del Sol in El Salvador is the marina we’re looking to get into, it’s the only one with actual pontoons to tie onto, the others are all mooring buoys, the only difference is that we have to get over a pretty big sand bar to get into the esturary. Theres a pilot Rogehilo that comes out on his jet ski to guide you in over the massive breakers, because there’s the El Salvador Cruisers Rally there at the moment, Bill comes out with Rogehilo to tell you what to do in English. We spoke With the hotel there and they let us know what was going to happen, it looks like we’re going to have to wait till high tide to get over the sand bar. During the VHF call to the hotel, a lady called Jean told a little more information, she went on to tell us that we need to have everything loose strapped down, all the hatches need to be shut, if we have any pets or children on board to have them safely stowed away and if you have any cameras point them to the stern because that’s where all the action will be…. Right, is this lady being over cautious? It can’t be that bad right? We’ve navigated over sand bars before! Jean also told us what co-ordinates to anchor up on in wait for high tide. We anchored up, had a snooze, got bored of waiting and had an infestation of little fly’s annoying us for hours! We couldn’t wait for the go ahead call on the VHF. While we were anchored up we couldn’t help guessing where the entrance to the marina could be, all we could see on towards the shore were huge waves rolling then crashing, we could hear the roar from a few miles away! There must be some sort of snicket we’re going to find. A few hours later we hear…..’Solent, Solent, Solent, this is Bahia del Sol’ Yes! This is it, 6 long days at sea and now we’re finally getting into a marina! Bill talked is through getting to the entrance, he must of been able to see our mast over the big breakers, but we couldn’t see him at all on the poxy little jet ski! Katie said wouldn’t it be funny if we saw a little jet ski pop out over those waves, well sure enough that was exactly what happened!

Heres Rogehilo and Bill on the jet ski coming to guide us through the waves!

Rogehilo knows this bar like the back of his hand, it always admires me when I meet someone who has such a great ‘watercraft’, it comes second nature to them and I take my hat off to guys like Rogehilo! Bill was nice and calm on the radio to us guiding us through, but first we have to wait for Rogehilo to study the ‘sets’. Them out of nowhere we get a ‘GO GO GO’ and Lee floors it, I’ve never heard Solent sound the way she did that day!

Successfully through the first breaker! These photos don’t really do justice to how fun and nerve racking it actually was, it’s just not natural to use a 40ft sailboat as a surfboard!

We made 11knts on the second wave but it was a lot faster surfing the first one, none of us were paying attention to the instruments to be honest!

Our first proper view of El Salvador!

Still buzzing from surfing in we got Solent ready for docking up, when we got closer to the docks we could see a handful of people waiting to help on the dock, we made it in with no problems and before all the lines were tied we were welcomed into El Salvador with a cocktail each! I could get used to this! The port authorities and immigration were there to meet us to check in, everything was so easy, everyone was so helpfull, jean gave us a few information packs of El Salvador which was super handy!

But enough of all the boring stuff me and Kate quickly found the pool! There’s no cash onsite, everything’s signed for, beers are a dollar and the food is cheap, I don’t even have to go to the bar 30m away from the pool, everythings looked after for us!

By the sounds of it we have a nice little break here of 4 nights, that should be enough time to relax, I’m just worried of the credit card bill at the end! Oh well I’ll worry about that when the time comes!

Acapulco to Huatulco

The best thing about leaving late at night is that one night is already nearly over! We actually left Huatulco a bit to late, we should of left before dark because there’s quite a few mooring buoys dotted around, anyhow both boats made it out without problems. The night was pretty uneventful, just the way we like it, we’re still seeing the odd tanker here and there but other then that nada! Its 235 miles to Huatulco. I was on the last watch, 5am till 8am, we made it to Huatulco pretty early so, we were hanging around outside the marina, this time we contacted them before hand, so we had a confirmation! Me and Élan were chatting on the VHF when I noticed a blob on the radar, we have a thing called AIS receiver onboard, basically all the big boats have to broadcast their information, things like their length, beam and draft, their speed, name, whether they are powered by engines or sail, their name and destination. It’s really useful to us, the radar will get a fix on bigger boats out there, but when your bouncing and rolling about, it confuses it and doesn’t tell you the correct speed or heading. But with the AIS it’s a separate signal so it’s as good as it gets in terms of heading and speed, although the captain has to physically change the status, name and destination etc, which is what had happened that morning, I was chatting to Élan first thing in the morning, I see the radar return for the tanker, check the AIS and it’s telling me that his current status is ‘at anchor’! We should be fine on our heading as it is, if he’s not moving, so I carry on nattering to Élan, look at the radar a few mins later and this blob has covered 2 miles closer to us! So I checked the AIS again and it’s now telling me that the current speed is 18 knts, and his heading is straight for us! He was still stating he was at anchor though! You really do have to check, check and double check! We turned the boat around at that point to get out of this guys way and he passed us at a safe distance. Lee was up at that point and he could smell a dodgey smell coming from downstairs, so he rinsed the sink and thought maybe it was the bin, I could smell it aswel, it smelt like an eggy sulphur sort of smell, it was getting worse, Katie even woke up because of it! Then we found out it was the batteries! The floor was getting hot, so I killed the engine and quickly got some tools down to Lee

To say the least Lee wasn’t very happy, the battery was only 5 months old and cost an arm and a leg, it could of been something to do with turning the air conditioning on while we’re underway, it’s amazing how hot the battery got, we chucked it onto the swim platform at the back incase it decided to keep melting and creating heat. I made sure Katie was alright and not poisoned by the gas, opened the hatches to let some air in, then got back underway!

There wasn’t anyone at the marina that spoke English, so we had to ask Ashley to ring them instead, as she is really good at the lingo, I do believe this was the maiden voyage for their new dingy! It must of been put together ok because it didn’t sink! Ashley worked her magic and communicated with the marina, they told us to just come and pick what you want! Lee and Élan weren’t really up for that so we went in from the anchorage by dingy, had a look around, they picked out the slips, job done!

The marina in Huatulco is the only marina there, Huatulco is the place to stop off before leaving Mexico, this is the reason we’re here, it’s somewhere to check out of with customs and immigration.

The first night all the over guys went out for dinner, while me and Katie stayed behind, we fancied pizza so we knicked Silver Linings recipie and had a go ourselves.

It wasn’t as good as Silver Linings, but Katie did a great job as you can see, it’s so much better then eating out we think!

The next day Élan asked if anyone fancies a bike ride into town, because he needed to go to a bank, they have a pair of fold up bikes aboard their boat, I was well up for some of that! It felt like the old days at the half pipe!

Little Apollo came for the ride, he ran along side all the way there and all the way back, it must of been 4 miles in total in over 30 celcius heat! Bless him! He kept pulling over and pretending to cock his leg, but all he was really doing was just trying to get a quick rest! The next day me and Katie went to the beach, as we were leaving Élan told us to take the bikes, Katie’s always wanted a fold up bike so how’s the time to try one out!

Because we hadn’t eaten out for a while we thought we would join the others and pop into town, the food was definately different in this state, the others spent the last day eating grasshoppers, a local delicacy apparently, we were interested in what we would be eating that evening! Theres lots of hotels around here, but it seems it’s a place the locals go on holiday, thats why we were told the best places to eat are the hotels, because of the turnover i expect, its a shame because it this reason the independent restaurants don’t do too well, the street food looked great though! We went to a hotel downtown, the service was great and the beer was cold but the menu was average, the dish me and Katie ordered wasn’t anything special at all, I would much rather our handmade pizza! But the tortilla soup was really good, I have them mostly every time we go out to eat, and this one was up there with the best! Tortilla soup is a tomatoe based soup with shredded tortilla, a kind of mozzarella melted in, onion, peppers and chilli hmmmmm! After that we went to an ‘Irish bar’ that the other guys had scoped out, a nice pint of Guinness wouldn’t go a miss, but I haven’t got high hopes! It was relatively pub looking, Guinness posters plastered over the wall, Bono and George best portraits and……bottled Guinness

And a dart board!……with only 2 darts

The barman was really welcoming, he was from Mexico City and has lived in Huatulco for several year, apparently the original owners were Irish, now a Canadian owns it, he was explaining how he loves English rock and roll, The Rolling Stones etc, he even brought out a drink of Huatulco, Mezcal, it’s different from Tequila, het old us it’s different because there’s a high demand for Tequila around the world, for this reason it’s mass produced to satisfy demand, Mezcal is not in as much demand as Tequila so they can afford to take their time ‘handcrafting’ it. They extract the heart (piña) of the agave plant, which can weigh upto 40kg, they then cook them for 3 days in a earthen oven, this underground roasting gives the Mezcal it’s signature smokey flavour. After the Piñas have been cooked they mash them up and put them in big vats and barrels to ferment and age! We got these pretty good shots ‘on the house’ with salt and lime. Personally I thinks it’s a load different from Tequila, mainly because of the smoked flavour, but apparently it should be the other way round, Tequila is twice distilled where as Mezcal is only distilled once! It was a good night out and a great way to try and get rid of our pesos because the next stop is another country!

The customs and immigration came over to the boats that day, we all got new stamps in our passports, everything was honky dory! We were officially checked out of Mexico! It was funny because the immigration bloke told us he didn’t like the feeling of the boat moving so he had to get off, we were docked up and weren’t moving at all!

We had to get some more food and water so me, Katie, Serena and Ashley went to the shop to sort all that out! The dock cart had seen better days, it was in bits when I dropped it back off to them!

While we’re here I want to get some more fishing gear because we’re getting dangerously low! We was in town and I went to the Yamaha shop to have a look around, the lures are expensive, but if their going to catch food for us it’s a done deal, I’ve tried making lures while we’re out, their good but we’re yet to catch on it! I picked out the lures and got the price, it was going to go on the credit card, I got it out for the bloke and he asked me for ID to go with the card, I haven’t had my ID since back in San Jose Del Cabo when I lost my wallet, what a bummer! The most generous guy I have met, Élan, stepped in with his card and ID, don’t worry mate I haven’t forgotten and will get it back to you soon! On our last night in Huatulco we planned on leaving late in the evening to get to the start of the Tuanepec at sunrise! I’ll give you a little insight to the Tuanepec, it’s the last stretch of sea in southern Mexico, the reason it can get extremely windy out there is because there is no high land protecting it from wind coming from the Carribean and the Gulf of Mexico, the guides say to keep in close to the shore so there’s less chance of the seas building up further out, apparently there’s either no wind out there or there’s gale force winds daring you to cross, there’s no happy medium basically! But there seems to be a great weather window for at least 5 days out there! Just what we need! That’s the reason we want to cross it during daylight hours quickly to get out of the danger zone come the night! We went out to a cheap pizza place the evening we are leaving, just so no ones cooking and we still have pesos to get rid of! It was great pizza and a pretty cool place to eat, we then grabbed a taxi back to the marina to get the boats ready for the get go! Rushing around in the heat instantly brings a sweat on so after filling the water tanks up and getting her ready we all had a shower, when you have water on tap you really want to make the most of it! Especially when we have at least 4 nights at sea to get to El Salvador!

 

Zihuatanejo to Acapulco

‘Going loco down in Acapulco!’ know that one? Well that’s were we’re going to next, it’s 112 miles away so it’s an over nighter, but we’re getting used to them now and their not that bad! On the over nighters you get a good chance of catching fish, you get two of the best times for catching, dusk and dawn. The lines are out, I’m afraid we lost another couple of lures, the favourites from Ensenada, we also had something bend the hook out straight on the ceader plug, I didn’t see what it was but it must of been massive to bend a size 10/0 hook! We didn’t have anything on the way down to Acapulco, it’s probably mother natures way of telling us not to be so greedy, we only had a couple of brilliant Dorado the other day! On my night shift I did have the ‘green’ Dolphins make an appearance for me! We do the night watches on our own now and their only 3 hours long, we have 8 hours of darkness, which means everyone gets a good amount of hours to sleep/rest in between shifts.

We got into Acapulco bay quite early, as we were coming in a little old man was slowing going past us in his panga, I waved and shouted good morning to him, as soon as I acknoledged him he bombed it over to us, he was telling us that he has a mooring ball we can hook up on, when asked for a price he said we decide! His mooring was slightly better then some of them around us!

The boats weren’t any better

 

We stayed on it for a little while before deciding it’s probably not the best idea to stay on it, we anchored up right next to the main beach, in the shadows of all the skyrise hotels, where theres hotels there’s banana boats, jet skis and para sailers! The water here is probably the worst looking colour we’ve seen, infested with rubbish, scum and jellyfish, it was so bad you couldn’t see the last step of the 3 step swim ladder, but I feel as bad as the water here so out came the bucket for bath time! At least i could see if there were any jellyfish in the bucket. Fingers crossed we’re in the marina soon to get some water!

That night was interesting on the anchor, every so often the hotels would let of a handful of really loud fireworks, they didn’t half make me jump! With the dishes piling up it was decided we were going into the marina! But it was Sunday and everything comes to a stand still, it’s family day, no one really works, which didn’t go in our favour trying to get hold of the marina, we got hold of someone in the end and it was confirmed we were docking up in there. Me and Katie couldn’t of been happier, it’s the only time we can just jump if the boat and have a wander around.

Solent and Silver Lining

And wandering around is what we done, and blagged our way into the ‘private members only’ yacht club ha!

 

At first me and Katie didn’t really know what to do, we had the two bar tenders running around after us making sure everything’s ok, I should stop saying that I know a little Spanish, because when I say that they always go off on one and I don’t have a clue what they are saying, he could of been telling us that we’re not aloud to be there and me and Katie are just nodding and asking for beer and lemonade! It all worked out though and the two bar tenders were actually quite a laugh! The marina has a lighthouse that’s basically their mascot, but your not aloud up there, it has stairs and a balcony at the top, en route to the little boys room I found the gate that leads up the lighthouse, open!

I shouted Katie up and we were hiding from the bar tenders incase they told us off, i think it was a case of what the don’t see doesn’t harm!

Theres a Costco in Acapulco, it’s a great place to go to get provisions for a boat because everything’s in bulk! The main mode of transport here are the taxis, Beetles! Mexico is crawling with them!

It was a bit tricky to get two boats worth of food, water and beer in one little beetle so he called his mate with a bigger car for back up!

Incase your wondering Katie didn’t have chilli the night before!

We fancied some good old sight seeing, there’s a fort near the marina, so we bundled up all our laundry and grabbed a taxi to the laundrette, dropped that off and walked to the fort. We like a good old museum, especially around here because of all the Spanish invasion and all the old trade runs, and of course pirates!

One of the many cannons looking out into the bay of Acapulco

While Serena was researching places to see around here, she came across a place where people cliff dive every night on the hour, sounds interesting, we grabbed a cab and instructed the driver to take us to this place, he knew straight away and was telling us loads of handy stuff for around there! There’s a restaurant up there where you can eat dinner and have the perfect view of the cliffs, it was 400 pesos (£20) that’s for a 3 course meal and 2 drinks of choice! Not bad really! In between the dives there was Mexican dancing on a little stage which was brilliant, they were dressed in animal costumes etc, the meal wasn’t great to be honest, but I suppose your paying for the location! I don’t have any photos of the diving, only videos, I know I keep saying it but Ive still gotta get round to putting them on! The cliff divers boomed in the 1950s and there’s a wall in the restaurant with lots of famous peoples signatures on, along with the old photos of them.

Lee and Serena went out for a meal alone one night, so we stayed in for dinner, its cheaper! Anyway we get a knock on the boat, I go out and see who it is, it’s Élan with a plate of pizza! They made it all in a pan, the base consists of wholemeal flour, water and a pinch of baking soda, cook that in the pan until its nice and crispy, add the toppings and whack the lid on to melt it all! Incredible! A nice cheeky little starter!

The last night was a rush again, we didn’t end up leaving until around 10pm, we managed to get everything sorted, including re assembling Silver Linings dingy! We’re off to Huatulco after this place a few over nighters but it’s cool! We had fun in Acapulco even though all the hotels make it feel like its just out of the 80s!

Leaving Acapulco at night

 

Isla Grande to Zihuatanejo

We had a good night at Isla Grande, although we did have to have a ‘jelly watch’ while we took it in turns to have a sea bath, every now and then a jellyfish would swim past the boat! Luckily no one managed to get stung! We’ve had to start having sea baths because our water makers have decided to break themselves, one of them went back in Mazatalan, then the other went more recently, we tried to cut and shut them into at least one and it worked for a while but it wasn’t enough! So now we’re having baths in the sea, then rinsing off under the little outside shower, it’s actually quite nice and I think I prefer it to the proper showers on Solent! Anyway we were once again spoilt with our view that evening, I personally won’t be getting bored of the sunsets out here anytime soon.

Zihuatanejo is literally down the road 10 miles away so we got a good lay in, before getting out of Isla Grande at 11am. Zihuatanejo is meant to be quite a cruiser friendly town with good anchorages, even though there is supposed to be crocodiles swimming around them, we might have to put together a ‘Croc watch’ for tonight’s communal bath!

You always get a vision in your minds eye about how you imagine somewheres going to look like, in most cases it’s not the same, as was Zihuatanejo as we came in, check out all the cliff side villas.

We went in one anchorage first, it was absolutely swamped in every kind of anchored boat possible, we gave that one a miss because it was just too busy, so we rounded the corner in the bay to the other anchorage, there was hardly anyone there…perfect! The first thing I spotted was these little beauty’s…. Beach bars

We got a ride into the town on Silver Linings dingy after getting things sorted, there’s a dingy landing area that the guide book tells us about, on the beach next to all the fishing , so that’s where we headed. Landing the dingy was one of the easier ones we have accomplished together. We went into town a little and I came across a little shop selling guitars, I’m so gutted I didn’t pack the ukulele in my bag before coming here, its the reason I got it in the first place! These guitars were a good price, but upon taking a closer look they were not worth the asking price, I could of got them down I’m sure, but Katie wasn’t keen on the idea that the only place we could keep it was in the bed…… I can’t see the problem to be honest! We got a bite to eat at a pretty cool place down the road, it was there when I tried my first Philly Cheese Steak, it’s a sub roll, in it are strips of steak, cheese and cooked onions and it had flavour of a beef stock, it was out of this world! We went to a few hardware shops, where Serena purchased the most peculiar thing you would find in a hardware store…. A dried bulls ball bag!!! Aparently people use them for putting their nuts in…excuse the pun! We found a few indoor food markets, fabric stores just general wandering around really!

 

We were walking along when i noticed these to chilling out watching the world go by!

After that we went to another little bar with a couple playing the sax and the piano, that was pretty cool! On the way back we went passed the little shop with the guitars, I failed on the one last try at convincing Katie, it was worth a shot!

The next day me and Katie stayed behind on the boat while the others went ashore, it’s nice to get some time on our own from time to time. We saw a huge catamaran out to sea flying it’s spinnaker, we watched it sail around out there for a while before they came into the anchorage next to us, Katie asked me why they were getting their spinnaker out while they are anchored, i promptly told her she must be wrong, no one would do that, but infact I was wrong because someone jumped in, the spinnaker went in the water, just as I was about to say that something’s going wrong over there, the kite went back up with someone attached to it

Later on that day we had a radio call from Élan from the guys on shore, he asked us if we could come and pick them up because someone’s cut their dingy, Katie and me got Solent’s dingy in the water and went over there completely not expecting what we would see! It wasn’t simply a cut how Élan explained it to us, we was expecting to see a little slice, but the whole length of one side of the dingy was slashed, it was really disheartening to see it in that state, we brought some puncture repair kits, luckily lee had a huge strip which was long enough to look useable, we spent the day with them on the beach trying to make some sence of the mess, they informed the port captain but what could anyone do really? We was gutted for them guys, but later that night we had them over on Solent to use the Internet and Élan got in contact with Walker Bay, the dingy manufacturer and explained what had happened. Then out came ‘Salad Fingers’ on the ipad! It was the first time Élan had seen an episode, you can tell what he’s thinking by looking at his face!

Walker Bay got back to Élan by the morning with an email telling him that they will get a new set of inflatable tubes out to them, half price! What a great outcome! We can’t wait to get out of Zihuatanejo now after what happened to the dingy, it’s such a shame because me and Katie really liked it there, the people were really nice and welcoming, a total contrast to what you might expect after hearing about the dingy. It wouldn’t stop us going back though. Because the port captain was informed about the incident, we had to check in/out with him before leaving, it wasn’t that difficult though and he wished us on our way as we were leaving through the bay.

 

Bahia Navidad to Isla Grande

It’s daybreak and time to leave for Isla Grande, i was on the bow enjoying the sunrise and waiting for the call to haul the anchor, watching Silver Lining I could see them bringing their anchor up then dropping it back in, wondering what they were playing at I watched them do this several times, we then got a radio call from Ashley advising us to take a bucket up front with me and to be prepared, it wasn’t long before I found out what she was going on about, as I hauled the anchor the chain was absolutely covered in black smelly mud! No wonder you couldn’t see the bottom in 6ft of water, the anchor was even worse, it acted like a shovel and brought me up a present, chucking buckets of water over it didn’t work, that gunk was stuck fast, I had to get the boat hook and get it off that way, I got covered, a perfect way to start the day! I suppose I can’t whinge too much, after all we are waking up to this everyday!

 

The tide was high when we left, which gave us a little more room to play with while getting out! It wasn’t long before we were truly on our way to Grande.

Offshore we started noticing things in the water that looked like partly submerged buoys, getting ready to steer clear of them, we gradually got close enough to see that they weren’t actually buoys or rubbish, but infact they were Turtles! All around us we were surrounded by huge Turtles, it’s funny because they poke their heads up to see what we are, then when they see us they quickly dunk their heads under, probably thinking that when they do that we cant see them, someone should tell them they leave their shells sticking out, so we can still see where they are! Mainly because the sea birds sit on top of them.

 

The sea has started to get a bit scummy the last few days, it’s just a sea foam, but I noticed in the scum there have always been little jelly fish, I think the scum may have something to do with these little guys and other things like algae decomposing on the surface, you can see it in the pictures sometimes, maybe I’m wrong.

A couple of hours and hundreds of Turtles later I was on watch, looking over the edge as far as I could see, they were millions of jellyfish hanging out, ‘Katie quick get the camera!’ Katie zoomed up with the camera in hand and managed to get some pretty cool shots of the little critters. I wouldn’t like to fall in with these around would you? Judging by the length of the tentacles I reckon they wouldn’t tickle! Also I don’t really fancy being urinated on by any of my shipmates!

 

We got 2 new fishing lures in Vallarta, one is a cedar plug and the other is a ‘Dorado catcher’, the fishings been that good out here that we have started to loose quite a few lures, so we desperately needed to get a few more! Eventually we got round to our night shift, me and Katie are on first, the lines have been out all day without much luck, but the sea temperature has shot up to 80 Fahrenheit so here’s hoping! Lee and Serena have gone to bed and the suns just setting, I quickly glance and the lines and see that the ‘Dorado catcher’ is taught and moving around out the back, I jump up higher to have a look, I see flashes of colour, not like the silver from Bonito, but green, yellow and blues, like a Dorado! I pulled it in and it was Dorado, a very sort after game fish, for it’s game qualities and food value, it’s supposedly the best! It was a good sized fish, we didn’t have any fresh meat left so we took it for the plate, while we were sorting the first fish out the line went again and to our surprise it was another Dorado! I couldn’t believe it. Katie breadcrumbed them and we had good old fish and chips the next night as we already had dinner before watch, it was pretty special!

 

The next morning me and Katie were on watch again and we had a bit of traffic, we were in between two big boats, one behind over to our starboard (right) and one infront of us over to our port (left), which leaves us in a bit of a predicament, if we move either way we will be crossing either one of their paths, after a while the tanker behind us changed her course so we were able to move offshore to get out the way of this boat who’s heading straight for us, we kept moving over and over, and so did the boat, what’s he playing at? He even can’t see us or someone’s not doing a proper watch! This boat finally came into decent enough view, we could see it was a Navy ship, great!

Then the radio started going, the were calling us in Spanish and broken English, so we basically ignored them and carried on trying to get out of their way, then Katie thought it would be a good idea to get the Spanish book and see what they were actually saying, rather then just guessing, it turns out they were calling the ‘white sailboat’ which is obviously us! Hence to say lee had a surprising wake up call, being told the Mexican Navy want to talk to him!

They ordered us to kill the engine and to prepare for a boarding, they asked how many people are on board etc. We could then see the big Navy Frigate no further then 300 feet from the boat, start to lower their RIB (Rigid Inflatable) into the sea, fully loaded with camouflaged and balaclava clad blokes with fully automatic weapons, we had the fenders out over the side ready for them to come alongside. They finally made it over and about 7 of them poured over the side, falling over, banging their guns against the boat, it was quite amusing to be honest! There was one guy who must of been the radio man, he had the biggest radio I’ve seen, strapped to his back along with the longest arial, he almost had mine and Katie’s eye out with it a few times, it was getting caught in the curtains and everything, I couldn’t help thinking of Frank Spencer from ‘some mothers do ave em’ all through the experience, it was pleasant enough for everyone I think, they just wanted to see that we weren’t carrying any guns, drugs or people! They didn’t even check our passports, they seemed more interested in all the boat instruments and they forgot to bring some of the documents we were supposed to sign, so they had to get the dingy back to the ship to get them! But they made sure they took a ‘family style’ photo of us before they went! It was definitely an experience put it that way! Obviously it probably wasn’t a great idea to snap a load of photos off of them, so unfortunately we dont have any while they were on the boat.

 

It was 7pm by the time we made it to Isla Grande, if we didn’t get held up by the Navy we would of made it in better time, but the sun doesn’t set now until at least 8pm, Silver Lining ran into the Navy as well, so we went in and plotted some waypoints for them to get safely in if it got dark before they were in, but they too made it in with plenty of light, all’s well that ends well

 

Tenicatita to Bahia Navidad

When we got the engine starting problems out of the way, we were off! It’s starting to get really hot out here now, the water temperature is never under 25 degrees celsius, even jumping into the sea isn’t enough to cool you down anymore, even the anchor chain is warm when it comes out now…..don’t get me wrong though I’m not complaining!

It was a really short run at 14 miles, we were at Navidad before we knew it.

Getting into the anchorage there is a bit tricky, it’s really shallow and has a few sand bars chucked in for good measure, we found our way in without too much trouble, it was quite easy to see where the designated anchorage was, there were about 10 boats in there! We circled around for a while to try and find the best spot, everywhere was 6ft or less, that gives us a foot under our keel to play around with, its low tide though so it shouldn’t get any shallow. The anchor was dropped, as soon as it hit the water it was on the bottom in a flash, it then proceeded to drag straight away, so much so you could actually see us moving through the water! So up it came and we did another circuit of the anchorage before dropping it again, this one held! It’s the shallowest we’ve anchored in, but you can’t see the slightest bit of the bottom, God knows what’s down there to make it so unclear. In places like Isla San Francisco in the Sea of Cortez,we could see the bottom clear as day in 20 plus feet!

While we were anchoring I saw Silver Lining coming up through the bars in the distance, I could see a dingy next to them, I presumed it was the dingy that came over to us, asking if we wanted to go to their blender party on their boat later that evening, we found out later that the dingy was actually helping push them off the bar they run onto.

There’s a water taxi service, running you into shore from the anchorage, which sounds ideal, I’d rather jump in one of them then drop the dingy, take the cover off it, put the engine on it, then reversing that process when we get back! Over he came in his Panga and we jumped in, it cost a quid for the return ride into town, bargain compared to the 10 bucks a piece in Cabo San Lucas!

We had a little walk around the town, on the hunt for somewhere to eat, after not seeing much and begining to get hungry now we eventually bumped into a tout, he quickly told us the place to go, infact he even walked us there pretty much, without trying to sell us anything along the way! We arrived at this little place which was overlooking the bay, we even had the whole place to ourselves! The food, service and price were excellent!

Later on in the night we had some little guy come in with his guitar and mic, played a few songs, came over for a chat, went and played a few more tunes then came over, bearing gifts…a handful of his CDs he’s trying to flog to us!

After the meal me and Katie fancied going back to the boat, while the others stayed out. We grabbed the taxi back to the anchorage, it was pitch black except the water, the luminescents were glowing really brightly, the brightest we have ever seen, I think it was probably something to do with the way the taxi was hacking it! When me and Katie got back we just flunked out for the rest of the evening….bliss!

We’re off to Isla Grande tomorrow morning, early start with 226 miles to look forward to, which will be our furthest so far on this trip, sadly we miss the French pastry bloke who comes round the anchorage in his panga every morning.

 

Puerto Vallarta to Tenacatita

We left Puerto Vallarta at 4pm as we have a night shift it didn’t really matter, we did want to leave earlier but there was too much to do before going! It was 75 miles away and was around a 13 hour cruise. Not a lot happened on the night shifts, except it being really dark, as we were motoring along we came into a smell of bonfire smoke, it’s pretty sketchy when you start smelling smoke on a boat, me and Kate quickly check over the boat and and came to the conclusion it must be a fire on the shore miles away and the smoke has wafted out to sea. It also got really foggy that night which again was a bit daunting, but we have the radar on our side to tell us where these guys are.

It was a long old night!

We had to travel through the night and the whole next day because we left Vallarta late, we managed to make it to Tenacatita by 5pm, we got out the sushi gear because we had some amazing smoked Marlin and sushi rice in the fridge, sushi’s always fun, it’s a social dinner, everyone has a go at making a roll and we see who makes the best roll! Katie usually amazes everyone by making the ones that have the rice outside….Show off! In our cruising guide it says there’s a mangrove run around the corner, mangroves are always fun in the dingy, so thats the plan for the morning!

The dingy came out the next morning and we went to pick up Ashley and Élan from Silver Lining, heading over to the entrance of the esturary we found out a bit too late that it’s really rough, before we had time to turn around we were already committed to surfing the dingy through the shallow water, it was a bit too shallow and we all got soaked by the waves crashing over the transom! At least it gave the locals on the beach something to giggle at! We managed to get really deep into the mangroves, to get some decent photos.

We spent most of the morning in the mangroves exploring before the water got too shallow and we had to turn back, we thought that the tide was going out, if that was the case then we will probably have to carry the dingy over the entrance, thankfully it wasn’t, but the boys had to get out as it was still shallow, as we were walking the dingy over the surf, Élan fell over in the current and I felt something nipping my ankles, so I cracked out the stupidest dance and ended up jumping into Katie’s arms for safety! I think the locals were thankful of the show we put on for them attempting to get out, if anything it put a smile on people’s faces!

We got Solent ready to leave for Bahia Navidad which is only 14 miles away, Lee went to start the engine, there was nothing there, just like the last problem something was wrong with the electrics again, but Lee managed to get it sorted without to much of a problem!

 

La Cruz to Puerto Vallarta

Needles to say after last night I woke up this morning with a thick head, lee banging on the door asking if we want to go to breakfast and Katie telling me it’s my own fault and that she has no sympathy! The last thing I fancied was a Mexican breakfast, Katie wasn’t up for it either so we stayed behind, I’ve found the best hangover cure on this trip, it’s jumping in the sea off the back and doing a few laps around the boat, if anything it wakes you up!

After the others came back from breakfast we hauled anchor and made our way to the marina, Katie has been to Vallarta before so we were trying to scope out the hotel she stayed in.

We got to the marina entrance and it was a bit hectic, with jet skis, pangas and para sailing boats bombing around overtaking us, which is a tad annoying, we had a space allocated for us so we knew where to go, it was a bit tigh but we made it in fine! We made it round this guy though!

The marina was part of a hotel complex called paradise village, and considering we had full access to everything it was reasonably priced! Behind the marina there’s a river lined with mangroves which is home to crocodiles apparently, so out came the dingy and we went in search for them!

We nearly ran aground a few times, it was then we realised we had came out into crocodile infested waters without any paddles, so if we ran aground someone had to jump in to push us off, luckily it didn’t come to that! We saw lots of Iguanas hanging around in the mangrove trees which looked quite amusing, this little guy was minding his own business, then we started sticking cameras in his face, he didn’t hang around that long! Can you spot him?

We could tell there was loads of crocs watching us, but we couldn’t see them in our inflatable dingy

We went past a little restaurant along the way, so when the dingy started hitting the bottom we thought it would be a good idea to turn back a grab a bite to eat, we landed the dingy and went in to this restaurant, there were quite a few people in it which was reassuring!

While we were sat down chatting amongst ourselves, we heard the biggest bang on the roof we were sat partly under, every one jumped out of their seats haha, we were only sat under coconut trees and bits were falling off them! After the meal we found the culprit! Couldn’t believe that something so small made the noise it did!

The other lot hired some scooters to go around town, me and Katie decided to just chill out around the boat, the wifi on the boat was really slow so we went into the hotel lobby to get better signal, while sat in there being the most unsociable couple there, heads buried in the iPad and iPhone downloading, we felt the ground moving backwards and forwards for around 20 seconds, through the middle of it we stopped what we were doing, looked at each other at the same time and realised we were having a small earthquake!!! I looked up and saw the chandeliers swinging around as we’re the plants scattered around us, we couldn’t believe it! It was the weirdest sensation, Katie only realised when she started feeling dizzy, that we were having an earthquake. It happened again at least another tremor, we instantly checked it out on the Internet, it seems there have been quite a few earthquakes happening around us, so I could of been the aftershock of numerous earthquakes! We didn’t feel scared at all but it was definately exciting!

On our supposedly last night in Vallarta the guys went to a new restaurant across the water, didn’t eat anything but just drank….a lot, me and Katie received a radio call to come over and join the party, the engine wasn’t on the dingy though, but Élan told us to splash theirs and come over, so we did, we arrived at the dock tied the dingy up and joined the party! They told the waiters that it was Katie’s birthday so out came the fireworks…..they weren’t real ones but one of the waiters does an incredible impression of a firework, it was pretty funny, then out came the pudding with a little sparkler in it, all the waiters formed up in a line to give the birthday girl a kiss, but sneakily they kept on re-forming to get more kisses, the cheeky sods!

 

Anyway it was someone else’s turn to have thick heads the following morning, so we ended up staying another night, because we were in for a long run when we leave Vallarta, so maybe it wasn’t a good idea to go hungover!

Chacala to La Cruz

Bit of a bumpy night last night at anchorage but no where near as bad as Ensenada Grande, although when Silver Lining went to haul their anchor, they saw a float wrapped around it, but they managed to get it free and we were up and out of the bay for 8am, La Cruz is just around the corner from Puerto Vallarta, its apparently quite boat friendly, we’re hopefully going to fill the tanks back up with diesel in a marina there!

Leaving Chacala at sunrise

When we made it to La Cruz we went straight to the fuel dock in the marina there, the marina was very expensive and for that reason we will be anchoring in the anchorage outside it. Anyway when we got onto the dock, there was another boat being filled up so we had to wait, while waiting completely out of the blue we could hear this ‘Hellooo, Hellooo, Hellooo!’ what the? Some lady was rowing her little dingy towards us, she was asking if we were such and such off a cruisers forum…. When we told her we aren’t the people she’s looking for, she proceeded to describe the boat, and that they told her they were on their way to La Cruz that day, then the penny dropped, this crazy woman must be talking about Silver Lining! This lady carried on chatting to us and it turns out shes like one of the main posters on this cruisers forum, just as we were going she told unto come into town for a beer later, kindly she told us we could leave the dingy next to her boat….. So that we did!

This self proclaimed hippy lady took us under her wing that day and gave us the guided tour of the little town La Cruz, she told us where to get shopping from, boat parts and where the best free Internet is! After all that listening we asked the most important question, wheres the best place to get fed and watered? Within a second we were being led to a place called Ana Bananas, this place caters fro cruisers, serving cheap food, beers and Margaritas, they also have live music on, which is always interesting!

The drinks were flowing, as we’re the stories and it was turning out to be a good night! The wifi was pretty fast and I was able to update my phone and download a load of videos and pictures of little Jim which is always a treat! The band came on playing covers of classic rock covers, they were pretty tight to be honest!

Then my mobile phone got jacked by this lot when I weren’t looking! Weirdos

When we started making a move after last orders were called we all got a free beer, which is rather kind, and we were told to write our boat names on the wall, this wall was plastered with people’s names etc but I think we got the prime location, above the bar!

Thanks to Zeehag we had a brilliant night, unfortunately we’re leaving tomorrow morning for Puerto Vallarta, only 6 miles away, we’re checking into a marina there which Is always nice, we can just step off the boat without having to splash the dingy to get any where!

Mazatalan to Chacala

Again we have another big trip to get down to a little town called Chacala, we had a few options on this one, we could either go to Isla Isabel, which is meant to be like the Galapagos island of Mexico, there’s tonnes of wildlife there, but it’s too dangerous to anchor as its surrounded by rocks, plus there’s lots of fishing lines and pots all over the place, so after a discussion, it was decided we shouldnt go there, which is a massive shame, but it’s the right decision! Instead we have 145 miles to Chacala, but we don’t need to leave until 9am, if we leave then we can get though the night and get to Chacala first thing in the morning, which is a brilliant idea, as we have the day and night to recover, perfect!

Now we’re on the mainland, we’re starting to see more traffic, huge cargo ships are starting to show up around us more, I think their all going up to the Mexican ports and probably America. It means we need to be more aware of our surroundings, a tanker coming in your direction at 15-20 knots, can be on you in 15 minutes from miles away if your not paying too much attention!

The most amazing thing happened on both mine and Katie’s watches, there isn’t any moon light to help us see around the boat, but when there’s no moon the luminescents are so much brighter, as Solent is elegantly gliding through the water, it looks like there’s lights mounted underneath the water, like the pimped out cars you see with the neon lights, anyway Katie was sat down and in the distance she saw a big green glow in the water, it was gradually getting closer and closer to the side of the boat, it scared Katie a little because she thought it was a freak wave heading towards the boat, to the point where she quickly held on! But as she studied the strange glow she started making out shapes, it was only a pod of dolphins swimming towards the boat being lit up by the luminescents! So when I went up for my watch with Katie, she was so excited telling me about what she had just witnessed, I had only just woken up from a 3am alarm and wasn’t any where as excited as Katie was, but as the hours slowly ticked by I noticed something at the front of the boat, it took a few seconds to realise that what I was looking at was a green dolphin shaped glow, I could see every movement they made, as they traveled through the water they left a glowing trail behind them, we even saw one of the dolphins turn sharply to grab a fish and eat it, if I was to describe it to you, I would say it was like something that you would see in the film Avatar, Katie also likens the experience to a fairy tale! After seeing this we’ve decided to definately try and step up our amateur photography skills, because if we could of captured that on camera it would definately be a keeper!

8 am came, me and Katie had just come off our shifts so we were still asleep when I heard the anchor go down, may as well stay in bed for a while longer then. When we finally arose we thought it would be a good thing to check out Chacala town, surprise surprise their having another beach party, the sounds of trumpets and singing reassured that! Trying to land the dingy on the beach when you have hundreds of kids in the water is pretty tricky, but we managed to get in without some sort of bloodbath!

We had lunch on the beach at a little beach hut, the food was good and the beer was super cold, but there was a mariachi band at the table next to us, this wasn’t any old mariachi though, this was a supersize mariachi, with lots of trumpets, trombones and drums, we literally couldn’t hear ourselves next to one another so we decided to get a move on, we walked around a few little stalls selling the usual tat, then found some fresh oysters, 12 for 80 pesos, which is less then 4 quid. We then started feeling the night shifts and planned on getting back to Solent for a swim in the 76 degree sea!

We made the most of the exercise, the walk around town and swim provided, we’re going to be leaving for La Cruz tomorrow morning, at first light, which isn’t that bad at the moment, 8am