Location: Ixtapa,
Mexico
We’re still in Mexico, continuing to work our way west and
north. We stayed in Chiapas for almost a
week after Dave got back from his trip, waiting on weather, doing some
re-provisioning and waiting for our new shelving to delivered and
installed. It turned out very nice and
has more than doubled our shelf space in the lazarette. We will re-install the original shelves in
the steering flat for stuff that we must carry but seldom need. |
| New aft lazarette shelves, sitting on the dock waiting to be installed |
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| New lazarette shelves being carried down the dock |
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| Fernando (the carpenter) and his son-in-law installing the shelves |
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| Lazarette shelves installed and stocked |
After being inspected by the Navy, we left the marina in
Chiapas on the morning of April 3rd, for a 32-hour trip (237 miles) across the Gulf of Tehuantepec. The weather window looked good for the voyage
with very little wind and some swell, but no rough seas. We traveled about 10 miles off the coast and
arrived at Bahia Tangolunda on April 4th at a little after 3:00
p.m.
We dropped the hook and settled in
for a couple of cold beers and a good night’s sleep. Bahia Tangolunda is one of seven small bays
near the town of Huatulco. There are
plenty of large resort hotels in the area with lots of people vacationing,
riding jet skis, kayaking, wind surfing, etc.
We decided not to go ashore, but we did jump off the swim platform to
cool off. We stayed another night on
Saturday and then Sunday morning left for another overnight journey to Acapulco
(241 miles, 33 hours).
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| Resort hotels at Bahia Tangolunda |
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| Acapulco |
We dropped our anchor in the bay near the Acapulco yacht
club at about 4:00 p.m. on the 7th.
We decided again not to go ashore.
We didn’t need any provisions and we were both tired, so we hung around
on the boat and did some light chores and voyage planning for the next
day. On the 9th we left
Acapulco early morning before the sun came up and traveled to an anchorage
called Papanoa. On the way there, we
spotted a huge group of spinner dolphins, jumping, playing and spinning in the
water. They are named spinner dolphins
because they spin on their longitudinal axis, sometimes doing up to four
rotations in one leap.
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| Group of spinner dolphins |
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| Spinner dolphin spinning in the air |
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| Spinner dolphin riding the bow wake |
We arrived at Papanoa and made our way inside the breakwater
before dropping the anchor, in time to watch the sunset while drinking a few
cold beers before dinner. The next day
was a short run (38 miles, 5 hours) to Zihuatanejo, where we planned to stay
for a few days to explore the town.
Zihuatanejo (or Z-town) is a mid-size coastal town, with
nice shops and restaurants and it is easy to walk. They have a large fishing fleet of pangas
that takes up much of the beach but have an area set aside where people can
park their dinghies. Someone is always
there to help you come into shore and to launch again and for 20 pesos a day
(about $1.50 US) they watch your dinghy for you. We stayed for five nights and went to town
almost every day for either lunch or dinner, to buy fresh fruits and vegetables
from the market and to wander around and see the sights. We met a guy from
Jamaica Plain, MA (near Boston) who drives 3000+miles each way to spend the
winters down here. He gave us a few good tips on where to eat nearby.
On the 15th, we left Z-town and moved the boat
about 5 miles north into the Ixtapa Marina.
This is a huge marina, with space for over 500 boats. It was the week before Easter (Semana Santa)
which is a major holiday week for Mexicans.
The marina was very busy with boats going on day trips out to the nearby
islands, going fishing and just cruising around. One day we took a bus back to Z-town to shop
for some small boat rugs that are hand made by indigenous Indians.
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| Marina walkway after the earthquake |
Friday morning, as we were eating our
breakfast on the 2nd floor of the golf club, a 7.2 earthquake rattled
the area. The epicenter was between
Ixtapa and Acapulco. In Ixtapa there was
no major damage, but there was a lot of settling around the marina area, some
broken glass in nearby stores and other minor damage.
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| Marina walkway after the earthquake |
Dave and I both headed for the airport mid-day Sunday for a
quick trip to Houston. Dave to get his
passport renewed and me to get a visa for a trip to Angola. We ran a few errands, picked up some parts
for boat maintenance and made a quick trip to Austin to see the kids and
grandkids while waiting for all the paperwork to come through. We carried back enough Buna-N gasket material
to replace the gaskets on the rest of our fuel tank manhole covers so that will
be the chore when we get back to the boat.
Then we’re headed north again with Puerto Vallarta as the next major
stop.
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| View from the back of a "collectivo", a small mini-bus. This is an alternative to taking the taxi into town, cost 20 pesos per person ($1.50 each) versus 200 pesos ($15.00) for a taxi |
