Gold Coast Cruising
It’s a small world, or so it can be at times. Sitting on deck while anchored in Bahia de Manzanillo, a dingy motors over to our boat. Greg Baillie from Lion’s Paw could not pass up meeting the people on a boat with Telluride on its stern. There are not many boats that can claim Telluride as home. It turns out that Deb and Greg Baillie are from Telluride and also have Telluride written on their Lion’s Paw.
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Their home in Mountain Village is rented, and they are 1 1/2 years into traveling the oceans on Lion’s Paw. Our paths had never crossed in Telluride; yet here we meet crossing sails, so to speak, in a bay in Mexico! Small world, it is indeed.
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We now know of six beautiful sailboats hailing from Telluride out here sailing the seas. When people question us about being from Telluride, The Captain always comments that, for Avante, the first 1,000 miles out was the hardest part!
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Sunday, February 8th – After 2 Savor Days in Manzanillo, we head to Bahia de Navidad. Motoring out of Bahia de Manzanillo, we decide to detour a bit to check out Bahia de Santiago which is on the other side of Bahia de Manzanillo. What a surprise! Where Bahia de Manzanillo was magical, Bahia de Santiago is ordinary, dominated by one large modern hotel building. Granted, it is white, but it just doesn’t have the poetry of Las Hadas.
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We motor out of the bay and along the coastline. Contrary to the tropical setting we expected along this Gold Coast, what we see is a rocky, dry landscape much like what one sees all along this Pacific Coast. Palm trees do exist here and there, seemingly planted for effect, and we are coming to believe they are about as native to this area as the palm trees in Florida are. This coastline is rock, scrub and cactus!
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Heading out to sea to avoid some nasty rocks strung out from the coast, we raise sail as winds pick up and keep picking up. Afternoon winds do that down here, but these are early. We are sailing upwind in 15 – 20 knots. The First Mate stays at the helm until the sun is too much for her. She is never going to fully learn to sail if we keep turning on the autopilot! It was a glorious sail, but a little less wind or less turbulent seas would have been more comfortable.
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Dropping sails, we motor into Bahia de Navidad to anchor in the north end of the bay. The anchor keeps skipping along the gravel and rocky bottom and will not grab. After 5 attempts, it finally bites with a reassuring tug and continues to hold as we back down on it. However, with rocks not far from us, we are very glad to have the anchor alarm.
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Monday, February 9th – We are now on Central Time in this part of Mexico. It is hard for The First Mate to comprehend that until she looks at a map. We really have traveled that far east! Since we are on the western edge of this time zone, sunrise comes late here. It is still dark at 0700. Being one who tends to wake with sunlight, The First Mate finds she is sleeping later until 0730 or even 0800.
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Not so The Captain. He has a different internal clock. Up before the sun, he looks around outside and sees a sailboat anchored behind us that must have come in at some point during the night. It certainly was not there when we went to bed. It is a beautiful boat and a beautiful sight set off against the rising sun.
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This boat is one of the most beautiful we have ever seen. About 75 feet long, it is all wood and shines in the sunlight. It is sleek and classic, made to sail the seas. As we head out of the bay, we circle near to see if we can pick up its name and identify from where it hails. We can do neither, but The First Mate decides to capture a few pictures of this elegant beauty. She is sure she is not the first person to be drawn to do so.
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Needing a fax machine, we are heading into Grand Bay Marina which is at the end of a narrow dredged channel at the other end of the bay. As it is again the time of a full moon, low low tides are running super low. The Captain tries to raise the marina to verify the depth of the channel, but no one answers. We decide to trust the published data and inch our way through the channel. With relief, it poses no problem.
The marina is another matter. We are assigned a slip that at first we cannot locate and when we do, from what we can see, it looks like our slip is in a corner without sufficient turning radius to maneuver the boat around and into the slip. This marina does not send anyone out to guide or help us as other marinas have done. A man who turns out to be the “French Baker” is out in his panga making his morning deliveries and offers to check it out for us. He tells us that there really is room though we cannot see it from our angle. Slowly, more slowly than when we inched down that channel, The First Mate moves Avante down the fairway. Sure enough, there is room, but it is close.
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Lines tied, engine off, boat secure …both Captain and First Mate are relieved. We now take the time to look around. What a beautiful marina and what a great hotel above it all! Another neat place – this one with palm trees in abundance!
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We take care of what business we can and then decide to explore the little town of Barra. To get there, one takes a water taxi across the channel. What fun!
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Approaching Barra, it reminds us of a tropical island version of Venice. Imagine a gondola instead of a panga with an engine. All we need is a gondolier with a Pavarotti voice!
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Back at the The Grand Bay Hotel by our marina, we enjoy a late afternoon swim in the pool. Refreshed and spruced up, we take the water taxi back to Barra and then a land taxi to Melaque, the town at the north end of the bay near where we had anchored the previous night. Having had such a miserable dinner at that restaurant in Manzanillo, we are feeling a little gun shy, but the concierge at the hotel assures us that this restaurant in Melaque is very good. Our taxi driver also approves. We are feeling better. We arrive at the restaurant. There is not a light on. Monday night – it is closed! Now what to do? We ask the driver for a recommendation. Should we go back to Barra? No, there are no good restaurants there. Melaque has the best. He points to one across the street and says that it is very good. What else to do? Off we go, and we have a very good dinner with a delightful waiter accompanied by live music. It is amazing how one bad experience can have such a negative impact, but with this one very good experience, we are now feeling much better about dining out “on the economy”, as we used to say when we lived in Spain and Italy.
Tuesday, February 10th – The First Mate is up and ready. It is “French Baker” time. Finally, she hears him announce his arrival on the radio. Making contact, she requests that he stop at slip A-11. Avante is the name of the boat. He motors over with a panga filled with bakery goods, French bakery goods. She buys 2 croissants (chocolate for her, almond for him), 2 baguettes and a strawberry tart for tonight. Over our cappuccinos, we savor those croissants.
We depart the marina in late morning and motor Avante out the channel. Looking back we get a last look at the Grand Bay Hotel rising above the small beach at its base. Avante is really quite an elegant boat to be living and cruising upon, but every once in a while, it is nice to be in a really nice spot with luxurious appointments and facilities.
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Our destination today is Bahia de Tenacatita or Ten Bay in cruiser-speak. Ten Bay is slightly over 15 miles up the road, and then we will have 3 Savor Days. (“That’s 5 so far!” thinks a happy First Mate.) Winds are light when we depart Bahia Navidad and start motoring along the coast, and they have barely crept above 5 knots by the time we motor into Ten Bay. This is a large bay, but it is a quiet one with little development. We find a nice easy anchorage with good holding and clear blue water in the northeast corner of the bay.
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Securely anchored, we set forth in The Dingbat to explore. One of the most favorite activities for cruisers here is a self-guided jungle river trip which runs through a mangrove marsh. Turn off your engine and drift with the current. Listen to the wildlife. Search out the bright red crabs on the mangrove roots. Hunt for the birds among the foliage. We find the river mouth and enter the mangrove-lined course.
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We are soon drifting under a mangrove canopy through shade and dappled sunlight.
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Pelicans actually roost in trees! We did not know this and are curious to see how they can wrap their webbed feet around a branch. We sit quietly in The Dingbat as we drift silently under this fellow’s perch.
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Ever watchful and alert even in sleep, he senses our presence. He opens his eyes, looks down on us and stirs himself to leave. “No sleep for the weary,” he mutters to himself and off he flies.
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We so enjoyed our trip that we went twice. Once in the evening and again in the morning. Feeling a spurt of confidence on this quiet river, The First Mate even takes over the controls on The Dingbat.
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Ten Bay turns out to be one of our favorite anchorages. We walk the beach and stop for breakfast in one of the palapa restaurants. We snorkel on a nearby reef. We explore the Jungle River. “What perfect ‘Savor Days’”, thinks The First Mate. “Not bad for ‘Do Nothing Days’”, thinks The Captain.
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Friday, February 13th – Though we have been told that anchoring in Bahia Careyes may not be easy for our size boat, we are determined to give it a try. If nothing else, we want to see this up and coming “Mexican Riviera” with its many multi-colored homes climbing up the rocky shore.
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Conditions are fairly calm when we head out of Ten Bay, but by later in the morning, winds have increased to 8 – 9 knots. Raising sails, The First Mate decides to stay at the helm and sail for a while. Wind continues to build, and soon we are enjoying some great sailing in 10 – 15 knots.
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A criticism she has about the J/160 is that it was not designed for a 5’5” person. Everything is about 3” too big, too tall or too wide for her. She chalks all the stretching and reaching up to good exercise, but it would be nice to see over the dodger without standing on tiptoe!
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Arriving at the bay entrance, we take down the sails and motor on in. Bahia Carayes is prime real estate on this section of the coast, and looking up into the hills, the many luxury homes in a multitude of bright colors attest to that.
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We motor between two rocky outcroppings into the bay. It is small, and though it actually comprises 3 bays in a clover shape, none of the more sheltered bays have room for us due to other boats. We anchor out in the middle to take in the view, but with the wind blowing down on us at 15 knots, considerable swell and a huge rocky coast behind us, this is not a smart anchorage for the night. After all, It is Friday the 13th!
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As we were told, it is a very pretty spot. What a fantastic beach ringed with palm trees! The nearby hotel looks interesting, and having heard that they welcome cruisers, it would be great to visit. We plan to return here sometime.
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These rocks, just about 200 feet behind Avante’s stern, are a good reason why we must leave. If our anchor slips, we would have very little time to get up on deck, start the engine and get the heck out of here.
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Going forward to raise the anchor, The Captain enjoys one last look back at the resort before we reluctantly pull anchor and head 10 miles up the coast to Bahia de Chamela.
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By the time we are out of the bay and into open water, winds are blowing at 18 knots, and the seas are quite turbulent. The Captain decides that we will motor rather than raise sail and tack back and forth for the 10 miles we have to go. It proves a good decision, for within 15 minutes of raising sail, we would have been going through a first reef maneuver as the winds climbed over 20 knots. Within a half hour of that, the second reef would have had to be put in with winds gusting at 28 to 30 knots. It is not that we could not have sailed. It is just that it would have taken so much longer to tack those 10 miles, and it would have been a good deal more uncomfortable than the wave bouncing we were currently receiving. Even with our motor running at a high power setting, it takes almost two hours to bash our way into the wind and waves for those 10nm.
As we finally motor into Bahia de Chamela, we expect the winds to drop within the shelter of the headland. They do drop but only to a mere 20 – 22 knots. Anchoring in such winds in rolling seas is always a challenge. At the helm, it becomes a matter of putting just enough power on to hold the boat in place until the anchor hits the bottom. Too much power, and you overrun the anchor. Too little, and you end up way down from your intended anchor spot and thus possibly too close to boats behind you. It is a bit of a dance out there, made worse by the anchor refusing to set firmly and skipping over either rocks or gravel down there. Twice we back down on the anchor. It grabs briefly before pulling loose. On the third attempt, it catches. We’re done. With the wind still howling and barreling down on the anchorage, it is a relief to be secured. The wind continues strong well into the evening, and we are both glad that we did not stay at Carayes. For right now, though, we have planned 3 Savor Days here in Bahia de Chamela. (That’s now 8 and counting.)
Saturday, February 14th – We spend the morning involved in various projects and interests. After lunch just as we are about to launch The Dingbat for some exploration ashore, those afternoon winds pick up again. We are soon being blasted by 20+ knot winds just like yesterday’s and decide that launching The Dingbat in these winds is just not necessary. Even though we know we are securely anchored, there is always a nagging concern about leaving the boat when winds are this high. Added to this concern is the presence of a new boat that anchored much closer to us than we would have liked, especially in this wind and with the way both boats are swinging differently at anchor. We are not too pleased with this and decide that remaining on Avante to monitor the situation is a good decision. So, we go for a swim of the rear of the boat. It’s a Savor Day!
Sunday, February 15th – We get up early, launch The Dingbat and head ashore to enjoy a brisk morning walk to the near-by village. We purchase eggs, but on the way back, The First Mate convinces The Captain that breakfast in one of the beach restaurants would be preferable. We chose one with brightly colored checked tablecloths and order orange juice and omelets. Expecting reconstituted orange juice, we are surprised and delighted with soda fountain-sized glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice. The juice alone is a great breakfast. The omelets are delicious, too. With the total cost at $8.50, The First Mate declares the breakfast galley aboard Avante closed for the remainder of our stay here!
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Who can blame her? Fresh orange juice, beachside location, pelicans and other sea birds doing acrobatics out there, peaceful breezes – This is truly a Savor Day!
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On the way back to Avante, we stop to visit with Kate and Greg James whom we had met in Canoe Cove in Canada last summer. They had bought an old Baltic 52 and had been at the boat yard for well over a year, lovingly and beautifully restoring her. Sirius was almost ready, and they were planning to take off heading south to Mexico.
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Mexico is a small coastline, right? We knew we would meet up somewhere down here, and sure enough, here we are anchored almost side by side in Bahia de Chamela.
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While we are comparing adventures as cruisers do, a dingy motors up to tell us that a barbecue picnic is being planned on the beach of one of the islands in the bay. All cruisers in the “fleet” in Chamela Bay are invited. Bring whatever you want to eat and drink, snorkel gear for the near-by reefs and whatever else you want to add to the fun. Sounds like a great time. We’ll be there, but first The Captain wants to move Avante. His excuse is that he wants to get closer to the headlands to be less exposed to these strong afternoon winds, but the truth is we have had enough of swinging too close to the boat that anchored so near us. Dreading another round of skipping anchor sets, we move, drop anchor, and on the first try. it bites in securely. Feeling so much better about this spot, we change into bathing suits, grab our gear and head off to the island.
We meet a great group of fun people, but in particular there is a couple from California with whom we had exchanged weather information by radio on the trip south to Cabo. Ines and Kirk Nyby are tandem sailing on their schooner Pilot with their son and his wife on their catamaran. They are at the beginning of a yearlong cruise to the Pacific Islands with plans to return to Long Beach Harbor by way of Hawaii. This will be Ines and Kirk’s third ocean voyage. In the 1970’s, as a young couple, they were one of the first to circumnavigate on a catamaran. Then in the early 90’s after designing and building Pilot, they took their 3 children out of school for a year and, along with Ines’ parents sailing on their own boat, undertook a tandem cruise similar to the one they are doing now with their son and his wife.
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“What a great saga!” thinks The First Mate. Eager to learn more, she invites them to join us and the James for dinner the next evening at one of the beach restaurants. The James, as are we, are thinking about heading off to the Pacific Islands. This truly is a great Savor Day!
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Monday, February 16th – A robust beach hike followed by another fresh orange juice and omelet breakfast. Cannot get any better! Only problem is that The First Mate has 2 blisters on her toes that developed from sand getting into the sandals and abrading the baby-fine skin of her toes. The Captain shakes his head in disbelief and amazement. He knows for a fact that she hardly ever has the right shoes for the right place, but here she is with right shoes (Keen water and hiking sandals) in the right place (beach) and she still gets blisters! What to do with her and her feet? Undeterred, she plasters on Band-Aids. What’s a small inconvenience on another great Savor Day?
We all meet later that evening on Pilot for cocktails before heading ashore for dinner. As The First Mate had hoped, it is a convivial group with a lot of information flowing back and forth. We have dinner at Manuelitta’s on the beach. We are the only group in the restaurant, and they are delighted to have us. There are so many restaurants on the beach, and few have evening clientele on this Monday night.
The Formula for Cruising is working nicely. Though The Captain continues to grouse about Savor Days, these Savor Days are adding a further dimension to our cruising. We are exploring more, doing more, getting on land more and meeting interesting people whose stories, adventures and plans are fascinating and informative. All of this adds to the richness of the Cruising Life.