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Places To Go Things To See

Monthly Archives: January 2016

Manzanillo, Mexico

29 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by Cindy in Uncategorized

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Las Hadas, Long Lines, Manzanillo

After we left Barra, we had a quick 4 hour sail down to Bahia Manzanillo where we anchored in front of the Las Hadas hotel. If you followed our blog last year, you might remember that we left Sereno in Barra and took a road trip to Manzanillo and stayed overnight at this hotel where the movie 10 with Bo Derek was filmed.

We had a great Italian dinner on shore and headed out the next morning on an overnight sail to Ixtapa. This part of the coast is very remote with small villages scattered here and there. All of these villages have fishermen whose idea of fishing is stretching long lines with coke bottles or small buoy’s tied on every 100 yards or so out in the ocean. The lines have hooks to catch the fish and a single line goes for miles. In most cases, the lines are watched by a panga (small boat with outboard). So upon seeing a panga, we slow the boat down while the panga races towards us. As we put her in neutral to stop the prop (no wind that day) we glide over the line. If it is shallow enough to snag the keel, we keep stretching the line out until it finally slides down over the keel and comes free behind the boat. With a wave to the fishermen, we are on our way again. We encountered eight lines and saw two or three others that were not in our way. This all happened ten to thirteen miles off shore. There is no way to see any of these in the dark and we are thinking the fishermen haul them in by dusk. I do hope that is the case. Getting in the water day or night with a pitching sea to cut a line off our prop would be very dangerous.

We also encountered a lot of tankers and cargo ships. Bahia Manzanillo contains a large port and on the way we passed Puerto Lazaro Cardenas, which is Mexico’s largest commercial port in the Pacific. Our AIS, which allows other vessels to see us on their chart plotter, was money well spent. The ships could easily see us both day and night and we saw several maintain a course a half mile off us and then cross behind our stern for deeper water.

We typically do not see other sailboats on our passages. This time as we were leaving Bahia Manzanillo, we met up with another boat going our way. It is nice to have a buddy boat that you can talk to on the radio. And we were going about the same speed so we arrived in Ixtapa at the same time.

Fair winds,
Cindy

Barra Navidad, Mexico

28 Thursday Jan 2016

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This is as far as we took the boat last year before turning around.  The hotel at this marina is by far one of the prettiest we have ever seen.  Built in to a hillside overlooking the marina and town it is just a perfect setting.  Rustic gardens, a meandering pool and the massive artwork and beautiful architecture is breathtaking.  And of course we had the french baker delivering pastries to our boat again.  Despite a lovely setting, the hotel is not very full.  They just don’t seem to draw in the people even though there is an airport close by and from what we hear a really nice golf course.  So Lou, you might check this place out!  If you want to see our pictures from last year, click here.

When we arrived in the Chamela and Barra area, we were very happy to see not much damage from Hurricane Patricia.  The strongest on record at a Category 5, we feared for the small towns and the landscape.  With the exception of some roofs, we see little damage.  This stretch of coast is not very populated.  Had it gone in closer to Puerto Vallarta it would be a different story.  There was one tanker that got caught in the hurricane.  We took this picture just as we were leaving Barra Navidad heading south.  They ended up against the cliffs, luckily no one was injured.  Apparently they haven’t developed a plan for getting it out of there.  You can’t see from this picture but there is a huge rock off the bow.

Hurricane Patricia

Looking forward to some new adventures as we head into the lower latitudes!

Happy Birthday to my Captain, best friend and love!  I wouldn’t be having these amazing experiences if it were not for you!

Fair winds,

Cindy

 

Bahia Careyes, Jalisco, Mexico

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

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Bahia Careyes

We had every intention of stopping here for the night but after doing a float by, we decided it was just too small and cramped.  We did get some awesome pictures though.  Careyes is an exclusive lifestyle community and a luxury resort per their website.  While you can anchor and take your dinghy and kayak out, you can not go on shore.  Apparently the rich and famous vacation here and the grounds are patrolled.  So after we took our pictures, we moved on.

Careyes1
Careyes2

Careyes3

Careyes4a.jpg

Careyes5a.jpg

Fair winds,

Cindy

Bahia Chamela, Mexico

20 Wednesday Jan 2016

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Bahia Chamela

With the last bit of daylight we dropped our anchor in this beautiful bay, which is totally surrounded by mountains. People really like the desert in the Sea of Cortez, but give me the lush green mountains any day.

DSC_0276

We were anchored off Punta Perula, which is a beach resort town with about 1,200 full time residents.

Beach

Fisherman

You can tell this is a fishing panga!

We spent an afternoon in the dinghy checking out the islands (or I should say rocks) scattered around the bay. A bit too rough to snorkel but pretty none the less.

Island

We didn’t have any good sunsets here but this one is from our last night in La Cruz.

Sunset La Cruz

Fair winds,
Cindy

La Cruz

10 Sunday Jan 2016

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La Cruz

Today is our last day here as tomorrow we start heading further south.  Since it is Sunday, we find ourselves at the farmers market drooling over all the goodies.  I’m proud to say we resisted all those calories.  We are saving ourselves for great fajitas for dinner tonight at a little cafe up the street.  

Here are some pictures from today’s market. 

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Fair winds

Cindy

Happy New Year

01 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by Cindy in Uncategorized

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After a 50 hour sail we pulled in to Marina La Cruz in Banderas Bay the morning of New Year’s Eve.  Our original plan was to do one overnight to Mazatlan but the sea state was so uncomfortable in that direction we fell off to the east and headed down here.  That smoothed things out a bit but it was still bumpy all the way until just a few miles before the marina.   After two nights with no sleep there was no partying for us on New Years Eve!

In our minds the only good thing about a night passage is the sky.  Many years ago when we were in high school and starting our junior year, the school we were attending closed and a new one was opened.  During the planning phase the parents in the school district were asked to vote on whether the school should have a swimming pool or planetarium.  Us kids had visions of becoming the next Mark Spitz and our parents…… hmmmm what the heck were they thinking?   Another Carl Sagan??   Yes, we had the only school in the entire state of New Jersey or maybe east of the Mississippi with a planetarium.  It probably was used by less than a quarter of the student body but of course now I wish I had taken the class.  The sky is mesmerizing at night. Shooting stars and bright planets. An orange moon rising on the horizon, which actually startled me because it was a half moon and I thought it was a ship appearing out of nowhere.  I pass the time trying to identify the stars I know and love having a moon to light the ocean.  When our nephew Mickey was born in the early 80’s we had a star named after him because that seemed like a cool thing to do at the time.  I wonder if it is still out there.  Yes, I should have taken that science class and a Spanish class as well 🙂

Thank you to all who have read our blog this past year.  In 2015 we had visitors from 49 countries.  Gary and I wish everyone good health and much laughter in 2016.

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Marina La Cruz is surrounded by beautiful mountains

Fair winds,

Cindy

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