Leg VIII Barra to Huatulco…In Progress
Note: Most recent entries are first. To read in order, scroll down to the beginning.
Huatulco - at Chahue Marina
4/10- 4/17
Today is my birthday so to make it start extra special, Jo and I bike into the small nearby town of La Crucecita (little cross) for my birthday breakfast at a place serving some of the best French Toast (a personal favorite) I’ve ever had anywhere - thick slices of sweetened whole-wheat bread stuffed with cream cheese and Contreau! After breakfast, to use some of our new energy, we take an extended bike tour in and around the town checking out the many neat restaurants for a possible candidate for my BD dinner.
We decide on an upstairs/upscale restaurant with a view of the plaza called Onix and return by taxis at 7PM with Les & Rose for their outstanding international cuisine. Here, over a delightful dinner, plans are made for a weekend road-trip to the inland colonial city of Oaxaca. And the next day finds us loaded into our rented car and on our way into the mountains of Southern Mexico.
While it is hard to leave our boats unattended it is a very safe marina and we all admit it feels good, for a change of pace, to be seeing more of the dry land that is the interior of the local countryside. Oaxaca has been an important cultural community since before the Aztecs and today it still has the colonial charm more common to the cities of South America. We stay in a small hotel, a bed & breakfast, dine at the great local restaurants, visit the museums and ruins, and of course, shop everywhere including the largest Saturday - street market I have ever seem.
Spices of every kind in abundance!
By Sunday, we are ready to get back to the boats by way of the 200+ kilometer, windy mountain road that takes us most of the day to navigate but well worth the extra time for the spectacular scenery.
Mountain top lunch stop in San Jose del Pacifico
Once back on board, it’s adding fuel, water and boat chores a plenty for the rest of the week as we get ready to leave Mexico for El Salvador…
Fuel Notes:
Added 151 gallons at $2.28/gallon
To date fuel used at filling: 2,798 at 1056 engine hours.
Traveled: 349nm using 142 gal = 2.42 MPG
Engine hours: 54 hours = 2.8gal/hr.
Usable on board 750 gallons. Average =2.6 gal/hour
Acapulco to Huatulco
4/8 - 4/9 Tuesday/Wednesday
Latitude: 15:45.62 N Longitude: 096:07.21 W
Weather: Clear Wind: 325 at 6-10 kts. Barometer: 1010
Engine Hours: 1055 Fuel on Board:740/2304
Trip Distance/Total: 238/6771
We left Acapulco in the dark at 0400 so that we would have plenty of daylight for our arrival in Huatulco. It will take us 33 hours to travel the 238 miles depending on a push from the current most of the way. The sea is still fairly calm and with the SSW swell off our stern quarter where it is most comfortable.
It’s amazingly quiet this far down the coast. Not even local fishing boats to cause us concern as we amble on southeast about 5-mles offshore. The water is finally getting a nice deep blue color and the air feels more tropical with each passing day. Voyager takes up a position off our starboard beam about a mile further out to sea and the day and night pass without incident.
Daybreak has us positioned 25-miles from our destination and the surise is a welcome sight after another dark, moonless night at sea. We swing towards out final waypoint inside the rocks of Piedra Blanca that guard the entrance to both the small local marina at Bahia Santa Cruz and Bahia Chahue where we easily find our marina entrance.
We slip behind Voyager as we pass into the narrow entrance just as the wind and waves begin to pick up substantially. Harbormaster Enrique and his crew are there to meet us and help us secure to our dock in this quaint, 80-slip marina. Lacking only a fuel dock, it has everything else including ample shorepower to run the air-conditioning if it becomes hot and still. Immediately checking on the weather with Enrique, we find that we will have a week here before the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantepec is safe to cross so we settle for some rest and relaxation.
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Acapulco
4/7 Monday
On Monday, we had a cab/guide pick the four of us up for a day of sightseeing around Acapulco. We did the Old Town section with its 1930’s hotels, central plaza, and fort, then headed around the bay towards the newer resorts.
Old town section of Acapulco
We even stopped at a remarkably beautiful chapel on the top of the highest hill overlooking the harbor from the south before stopping for lunch and a visit to the last Costco till Panama finally heading back to our boats in the late afternoon.
Hill top interfaith chapel
An early departure kept us from having much excitement in the evening but we all did take a long, sunset walk around the entire north bay past all of the older sections of the city before going back to our own boats, having dinner on board, and turning in for the evening.
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Zihautanejo to Acapulco
4/5 - 4/6 Saturday/Sunday
Latitude: 16:50.30 N Longitude: 099:35.49 W
Weather: Clear Wind: 290 at 6 kts. Barometer: 1010
Engine Hours: 1006 Fuel on Board: 797/2659
Trip Distance/Total: 111/6533
Our last day in Zihautanejo was spent on boat chores after we saw Mystic Moon weigh anchor and depart North at 0800.
Always lots to do getting ready for sea. Stowing gear, closing the ports, checking the engine and then getting the dinghy on board and stowed after the last trip ashore and finally we are ready to pull up the stern anchor for our 4 PM departure and the overnight run to Acapulco.
It is a beautiful and quiet night once the sun sets with only the stars out to light our way. Boat traffic has definitely thinned out as we pass no other boats or ships on the entire16- hour passage south. Jo retired early, still tired from the farewell activities so I take the first, 4pm to midnight watch and then get some sleep from 12 to 5AM. I’m back on duty at the first hint of daybreak and the last of the evening lights of Acapulco spread out across the pilot house windows ahead.
Daybreak over Acapulco
Voyager has been on our starboard quarter all night but are a couple mile further out to sea. They elect to approach Acapulco through the main harbor entrance while I take WS through the narrow, Boca Chica channel which passes the famous cliffs where divers have braved the 136′ plunge to entertain tourists for decades. We’ll be back later tonight to have diner and enjoy the show ourselves.
In the meanwhile, we hug the port shore around the headland all the way to the Acapulco Club de Yachtes, the oldest yacht club in Mexico. Their docks are always quite full of member boats but they provide mooring balls for guests similar to Newport Yacht Club back home so we pick out a likely spot with plenty of swinging room and grab a ball.
No sooner do we get to shore to check in only to discover everyone we need to see is out on the water seeing off the four-masted tall ship the Mexican Navy uses to train their young officers. She is just leaving this morning on a 8-month circumnavigation cruise around the world. So we dash back to WS, drop our mooring ball, and head out into the harbor to join the parade of boats saying farewell to this beautiful ship as she leaves port with all sails set and the new complement of fresh cadets lined up in uniform on the foredeck. Quite a sight indeed!
Mexico’s navy Officer training ship leaves for 8 months at sea
Evening finds both crews having dinner together while watching the cliff divers from our restaurant’s table side vantage point where we stay for two dive shows, sunset and after dark to get the full effect.
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Zihuatanejo at anchor
4/1 to 4/4
Lazy days at anchor waiting for the forecast waves/swell/winds to back off a bit before bidding farewell to our friends on Mystic Moon, who will head back north from here.
Time was spent with trips ashore for lunch/dinner as well as shared dinners on board each others boats playing Mexican Train (a local’s favorite dominoes game), catching up on our correspondence or just laying about in the wonderful sunshine.
Carnival Cruise ship with 2,000+ passengers arrived in our little town on Wednesday. Prices automatically go up by about a 1/3rd and the whole town turns out to maximize any possible way to make a peso while the getting’s good.
Wandering Star from the beach of Z-town
To avoid the crowds, Jo and I take a long walk from just North of the main town, all the way the three-miles to the beach resort area of La Ropa on the South end. With stops for lunch and a taxis trip after the super market, we manage to spend most of the day out and about. Late afternoon finds us over on Mystic Moon playing a rousing game of Mexican train that last for five hours.
Dinner on our boat tonight for the whole gang - always a challenge with food shopping all over town, the dinghy trips to shore and back, and cooking all afternoon in the cozy galley. But Jo does a great job of putting on a dinner party for the six of us as usual. Tonight’s fair was a Chile Tomatillo Pork Stew over wild rice with a wedge blue-cheese salad to start and assorted local pastries for a finish…of course, all with fresh fruit sangria to complement the appetizers and a selection of fine local wines to set off the repast.
Tonight, our last night together, the three crews are off to il Mare for dinner. A fine dining restaurant, set high on the hill overlooking Zihuatanejo Harbor (and of course a view of our three boats below), it should be a memorable event as well before we back up and leave tomorrow afternoon for the overnight voyage to Acapulco.
Farewell dinner for the Voyager, Mistic Moon and WS crews
Next stop…Acapulco
Ixtapa Marina to Zihautanejo
3/31 Monday
Latitude: 17:38.06 N Longitude: 101:33.29 W
Weather: Clear Wind: 920 at 6 kts. Barometer: 1013
Engine Hours: 1005 Fuel on Board: 800/797
Trip Distance/Total: 6/6422
Docklines off by 0830 for the short, 6-mile trip around the point to the large Zihuatanejo Bay. By 10AM we were anchored in 30′ along with a dozen sailboats just off the municipal pier and ashore by dinghy in the early afternoon. Again we decide to use the small dink since we will need to carry it 50-yards up on the waveless beach in absence of any sort of dinghy dock. We chain it to a tree just to be sure even though security does not seem to be a problem here.
Jo and I spend a nice day exploring the local streets of this small town in depth, far off the usual tourist/cruiseship trail. We find the local’s centro market, a couple of small marine store before picking up a whole BBQ chicken and head back to WS for a quiet night of watching a movie on our new “Caribbean” Direct TV.
As I may have mentioned, we were able to install this system in place of US Direct TV when we returned to Barra last week. It gets 80-channels, all regular US channels plus HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime most in English with Spanish commercials. Their coverage includes the large area from CA to Florida and all the way to South America for $500/year - less that $42/month. With our “locked on” satellite tracking system, we get a good signal even at sea or in a rolling anchorage.
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Ixtapa Marina
3/27 to 3/31
Ixtapa welcoming committee
The first day locked in the now closed harbor (10′ waves breaking across the entrance) is spent on boat chores…changing engine oil, replacing masthead light, filling tanks as well as cleaning up inside, doing laundry, etc. A very busy day in spite of the warm 80+ degree temperature we are finally enjoying.
Dock party tonight is on the schedule loosely sponsored by we three Selener’s with fellow cruisers invited by us from around the marina. A couple dozen old and new friends show up for a nice evening of catching up with each others adventures. Getting to know more folks heading south now as most of the north bounders have already started back to the sea of Cortez. Our new friend the rather unnerving local 12′ crocodile even joined the party and as always was looking for a hand out just like the Disney Jungle Cruise. He became a regular showing up around happy hour each evening and has been know to pick on small dogs right off the dock.
Dock party getting started
The next couple of days passed with working on the boats and trips into Zihuatanejo mostly to party. The highlight was the last Saturday night at Rick’s, one of the most world renown cruiser’s in the Pacific. It was literally the last night under ownership of Rick who after six years of providing good times for yachties, including the huge Z-fest party weekend each spring, he is hanging it up and turning the club over for good to his Mexican partner. Local R & R legend Bob Memo, formerly with Ray Charles and Chuck Berry, provided the tunes for some dancing and lots of drinking.
The kitchen was closed so we boys headed out for some pizza later in the evening that lead to shooters at the Jungle Bar while waiting for the pizza to be ready and the evenings sobriety took a serious turn for the worse. We wound up closing a dimly remembered place called Coconuts in the wee hours and managing to loose my cell phone in the taxi home which lead to another whole adventure getting it back the next day.
We took on fuel Saturday Morning and had time to even polish it (clean it by running it through filters) down to 2 microns which is always wise to do down here. Finally, by Monday morning, the waves backed down enough for us to leave for Zihuatanejo.
Fuel Notes:
Added 339 gallons at $2.76/gallon
To date fuel used at filling: 2,656 gallons over 1002 engine hours.
Traveled: 618nm using 291 gal = 2.12 MPG
Engine hours: 96 hours = 3.0gal/hr.
Usable on board 750 gallons using 2.6 gal/hour @ 7 knots = 2,000 nautical miles.
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Isla Grande to Ixtapa Marina
3/26 Wednesday
Latitude: 19:39.74 N Longitude: 101:37.22 W
Weather: Clear Wind: 2120 at 6 kts. Barometer: 1015
Engine Hours: 1002 Fuel on Board: 391/388
Trip Distance/Total: 6/6415
A nice night on board just having a quiet dinner and watching a couple new episodes of Boston Legal finishes off the nice day. By morning the ciaos of jet skies, banana boats, and shore taxis has resumed so when our panga driver fails to show up on time to take us ashore for massages, the easy decision is made to up anchor and head for the quiet promise of Ixtapa marina just around the point.
It looks like the sea swell is building to the point we would not have been able to get into the marina at all if we had waited even a few hours as the swells were already breaking across the entrance by the time be arrived at 1130 AM. WS is lead boat as first to set up for the surf ride into the breakwater entrance. We time it the best we can and manage to miss the largest waves with just a three footer to push us down the exposed channel. There is nothing quite like trying to surf a 54 ton boat so it’s tequila shooter all around as soon as all three boats are safely inside at the dock. A hour later the marina was closed, the red flag was up and no more boats could come in or go out for the next five days.
Elsie, the marina manager is very nice and her crew makes us welcome in short order. Boats Boys are soon on board giving WS a complete wash down and by dark all three crews are off to an Italian marina restaurant for some vino and dinner.
Friend of Nemo heading south too…
Las Hadas to Isla Grande (Ixtapa)
3/24 - 3/25 Monday/Tuesday
Latitude: 19:41.0 N Longitude: 101:39.5 W
Weather: Party Cloudy Wind: 3550 at 7 kts. Barometer: 1012
Engine Hours: 974 Fuel on Board: 602/391
Trip Distance/Total: 183/6410
Anchor up and underway by 0730 for the all day plus overnight run to Ixtapa area. Not much in the way of tempting way stop anchorages along this entire coast all the way to Acapulco. With a good comfortable following sea, it’s an easy decision to just keep going till the next resort area.
Boats running good on her first real passage for over a month and it feels good to be back in the daily ship board routine split between watches and leisure time. We are still traveling with our sister boats and position WS in the middle of the larger Selene’s for the overnight passage. Mystic Moon tries her luck at fishing along the way but does not even get a hit so we don’t even bother getting the poles out today. We begin to notice a strong current against us right from the beginning - from a ½ knot up to a know and a hlf at times which will really slow us down if it persists.
Not much to worry about down here except for the occasional coastal freighter traveling north or south (really more East & West given the way the coast cuts to the East in these Latitudes). WS has developed a small pinhole in a weld in the engine exhaust manifold and leaks a few drops of rusty sea water onto the engine room floor per hour - not cause for alarm at this point but something that will need attention when a properly equipped boat yard is available which may not be until Florida.
The night passes quietly enough. Masthead forward white bulb has burned out and will need to be replaced in our next port. We use engine room exhaust blowers to keep WS running cool and give the refrigerator a chance at efficient operation too. With a almost full moon rising overhead most of the night, we can see better than we have on most previous night time passages thus far. By day break we have past the active Port of and are heading in to the Isla Grande playground by 11AM. This is a fairly open anchorage just of a island beach known for it’s palapa food, massages and snorkeling in a reef protected cove.
Once the anchor is set, we hail a passing panga for a ride ashore. The diver is related to one of the palapa owners and soon we are being encouraged to have lunch in there shore side tables with “Tony Macaroni” as our affable host. Lots of fun, beer and laughs later we head back to our boats for a rather rocky afternoon and evening in the very busy cove. I reposition WS closer to the shore once the big day boats have moved on to try to get her out of the prevailing swell and while still not calm, it does help a great deal.
Sunset off of Isla Grande Rock
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Santiago Bay to Las Hadas
3/22 Friday
Latitude: 19:06.12 N Longitude: 104:20.69 W
Weather: clear, sunny Wind: 3400 at 5 kts. Barometer: 1012
Engine Hours: 973 Fuel on Board: 606/604
Trip Distance/Total: 4/6226
This is one of the shortest legs yet, 1.7 miles in all. We up anchor in Santiago Bay at 10:30 and dropped it again around the other side of a small peninsula called Punta Santiago just North of Manzanillo by 11:15. Here, tucked into a corner of a small cove, is the stately Moorish looking hotel of Las Hadas, with its very small anchorage in front just large enough for 8 to 10 yachts. We find a likely spot inside several sailboats and just off the hotel swim beach. While much quieter and not as crowded as Santiago, we still have the occasional jet-ski or water-ski boat to make us rock and roll a bit but a whole different experience in general.
For starters, the hotel has a dinghy dock for cruisers and for a small daily fee, hotel pool privileges are also available. We all pile into Voyager’s dingy and head to shore and the town of Santiago again for lunch, a Saturday farmers market,and a good supple of open pit BBQ ribs and chicken for our group dinner later. And what a great dinner it is…by 6PM we are gathered on Mystic Moon to share an evening of great food and drink.
Old fashioned BBQ
Easter Sunday starts with everyone aboard WS for Mimosas to begin the festivities followed by a dinghy ride ashore to the hotel for a late breakfast together. To make it extra special, our new friends John & Vicky drove down from Barra to join us for the breakfast and stay for drinks by the pool in the early afternoon too. The rest of the day was spent with final preparations and provisioning for the next long leg of our voyage, the 177- miles overnight to Ixtapa.
Hotel at Las Hadas
Bahia de Navidad to Santiago Bay
3/20 Thursday
Latitude: 19: 06.41 N Longitude: 104:24.23 W
Weather: clear, sunny Wind: 100 at 5 kts. Barometer: 1015
Engine Hours: 969 Fuel on Board: 634/6606
Trip Distance/Total: 26/622
Leaving here with truly mixed emotions - we have to continuing our move south but this place is so comfortable, you could stay here a long, long time. With all of our excuses for staying used up it finally came down to it’s now or never so off we go in a rather leisurely and unusual 11AM departure.
Les & Rose on Voyager lead the way out of the marina with WS second and Mystic Moon with John & Lynda bringing up the rear. Mid-channel, a radio call from a friend on shore has us lining up all three boats for a farewell photos then it’s out past the entrance, around Punta Graham and onto the high seas again at last,
He swell runs basically from behind WS consistently on this part of the coast and with light winds, it is a calm ride the three hours to Bahia de Santiago. The approach is straight forward with only one patch of clearly visible rocks as a concern. Since Manzanillo a few miles to the south is a major commercial port with lots of big ships, so a detailed and accurate chart has been patched into the next to useless regular charts so navigation is much easier and accurate.
This is Easter week, the biggest holiday of the years for the local folks and they have turned out in force around the beautiful Bay of Santiago. I’m talking about thousands of families so thick in places you can not even find the sand, all with tents or at least pop-ups, four and five layers deep for miles around the bay. A small fleet of perhaps a dozen cruisers have anchored behind a hill on the western edge of the lagoon leaving the rest of the bay (and sometimes even between the yachts) as the playground for jet skies, water skiers, kayaks, catamarans and anything else that floats driven by wild eyed natives out to have the time of their lives.
We settle on our hook in about 30′ of water and set about blowing up the new 2nd dinghy (brought down with us last week at great trouble & expense). We specifically wanted it for wet, through the surf beach landings, like we will be doing a lot of from now on. This little 7′inflatable weighs only 60 pounds so Jo & I can literally pick it up and run up the beach between sets of pounding waves.
It’s dinner for all on WS tonight including our friends on Kalinga, George and Joanne, who have been down here cruising since we first met in San Diego 7-years ago. With their encouragement, we Selener’s all quickly decide to stay an extra day to be given thier up close and personal tour of the town of Santiago to see first hand why then think it is the best cruising hangout in south-western Mexico.
The next day’s tour consists of a visit to a real marine store (the first since PV), the central market, a great Mexican lunch spot and even a corner tieneda (small market) that sells 75 cent beers to the ex-pat gringos who sit out front under a tree and watch the world go by. For a finish, we walked on the beach most of the way back around the bay to where the dingys are parked so we can enjoy the multitude of family festivities up close. They sure know how to have a good time. Usually, three generations are all hanging together drinking beers under their awning or standing knee deep in the surf.
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Bahia de Navidad
3/16 to 3/20
Back on board, good to be home! Much as we hate to leave our family and friends, Wandering Star really is our home now. We feel out of place everywhere else and are anxious to resume our voyage south to the canal.
WS was in good shape upon our return, clean and well cared for by the staff and friends in our marina. A couple of days of routine maintenance, engine room checks, propane on board and we are ready to go at last. Friends, John and Kathy on Mystic Moon have joined us along with Les and Rose on Voyager for the next leg of the journey south to Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo. It is just under 200 miles with not a lot of possible stops along the way so an overnight passage seems like the way to go but first we decided to get our sea legs back with a short hop to Santiago Bay just 20 miles to the south.
Voyager leaving Bahia de Navidad
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