Banderas Bay to Zihuatanejo

We see a lot of spectacular sunsets on passages, but

this one on our passage from Cabeza Negra to

Caleta de Campos was one of the best!

Heading south from Banderas Bay

We left La Cruz at 9PM on January 10^th in the company of two other boats – “Salish Sea” and “Hotel California”. The plan was to round Cabo Corrientes at slack tide, making it a smoother ride. Who knows what it would have been like at peak flood tide, but it was anything but smooth. We motor sailed in very lumpy and confused seas – making it a long passage - and arrived in Chamela at 2:45 on January 11^th.

Although Chamela is fairly close to Puerto Vallarta, it remains a sleepy and typical Mexican village.  We enjoyed four days here and were able to brush up on our “big surf dinghy landings” without getting swamped – something that happened to several other cruisers who lost glasses, flip flops…..and dinghy engines!

Pam and Jeanne buying jewelry
 at a beach palapa restaurant

Pam's aunt had a house with a pool in Chamela and
we were invited over for the afternoon

Chamela has a new store!

This is a buoy for a live bait pen. Overkill?

Dinghying up the estuary:

Going up the estuary where the fishermen keep their pangas

Heading back out

A look back at the beach palapa restaurants

Next stop Tenacatita – a season destination for many cruisers. We arrived here in the afternoon of January 15 and stayed until the 26^th. 

Tenacatita has an interesting recent history. 

It used to be a thriving little town that cruisers could reach by dinghy through the estuary and lagoon, but in 2010 there was a “land-grab” by a wealthy Mexican landowner who wanted to develop the area.  Armed guards came in and forced all the businesses and homeowners to leave and immediately leveled the town. When we arrived in 2011 it was possible to go up the estuary to the town, but it was guarded by full time armed guards.  They let us look around, but followed us and allowed us to only take pictures from the beach out to the bay – no pictures of the bulldozed town.  There were pangas still tied up on the beach half buried in sand and dozens of plastic chairs and other items on the beach also half buried by the surf.

The dispute ended up in court and from what we’ve heard, the people who were forced out may be winning. There are still a couple of guards, but they are not visibly armed.  There are no barriers, and everyone can come and go as they please. There are people camping along the beach and the estuary is being cleared to once again open up the canal through the mangroves to reach what once was the town of Tenacatita.

There is a dinghy raft up every Friday at 5PM.
Everyone brings an appetizer to share.

We paddled up the Tenacatita estuary.
No crocodiles spotted! 

Looking out at the anchorage from the palapa restaurant

A tie-dye workshop at the Palapa on the beach.

It was calm enough to go over to the "Aquarium" and anchor
 in front of what used to be the town of Tenacatita.
We joined our friends on "Mija", "Salish Sea", and
"Bella Via".

This is our GPS and our track over to the Aquarium (Bay).
The yellow is the Mexican chart. Notice the difference 
between the chart and the Google Earth overlay.
Needless to say we go by the overlay and our own waypoints.

The first day we walked 1.5K to the little town of Rebalcito:

There is actually a Raicilla distillery there!

........and it was GOOD!

A Dad and his sons selling jewelry.

Lunch on the way back to the beach/dinghy

The next day was Sunday and most of the town came
 to the Tenacatita beach for the day.

A friendly soccer game

We went for a long walk down to the end of the bay.

Hermit Crabs devouring some sea creature

 that washed up on the beach

We left Tenacatita, stopped in Cuastacomate for one night, 

and then anchored in the Barra de Navidad lagoon for

a two nights to get water, fuel and re-provision.

Some friends were staying in the marina there and
we spent an afternoon with them at the pool.

View of the lagoon from the Hotel above the marina

After a trip down a series of water slides

On our way from Barra to Manzanillo we saw
 this beached freighter - 
a casualty of Hurricane Patricia 

and the Colima volcano going off

In Manzanillo we anchored in front of Las Hadas

Resort (where the 1979 film "10" with Bo Derek
 and Dudley Moore was filmed).

We joined our friends on "Three Hour Tour" 

and "40Love" who were going to buddy boat

with us down to Zihuatanejo.

View of Las Hadas Resort from the cockpit

View of the Las Hadas anchorage from a 

restaurant above.

On January 30^th at 3AM we left Las Hadas headed

 toward Cabeza Negra (potential next anchorage) 

and eventually Zihuatanejo (190 miles).

We had good sailing/motorsailing

 all the way with wind building to 

18 kts. and the swell getting bigger.

When we arrived at Cabeza Negra at 4PM, 

huge swells were rolling into the anchorage.

We all decided to continue on to 

Caleta de Campos which meant an overnight.

Three Hour Tour heading back out to continue on toward 

Caleta de Campos

There are usually nice sunsets on our passages,

 but this one was exceptional which partially made up for

the uncomfortable ride.

                                   

   It was fast down-wind sailing – a steady 20-22 kts. 

with higher gusts and a big NW swell. 

It smoothed out after turning east at Punta San Telmo.  

Great sailing until about 2AM when the wind

 lightened up. We needed to slow down anyway 

in order to get there after the sun came up.

   

40Love behind us

I was wedged into the cockpit with the camera on the rail to 

shoot this so the motion is the boat, not the photographer.

We found this flying fish on the bow in the morning.

View of Caleta de Campos from the breakwall

A typical Mexican small town with not much "tourist influence".

Ice Cream!

Apparently there is good surfing here in the summer. 

A mural on the wall outside of the school.
"Take care of your world"

Lunch at a beach palapa

We left Caleta de Campos at 3AM and arrived at 

Isla Grande (ten miles north of Zihuatanejo) 

at 3:30 PM. Great sailing!!!!!

View from the cockpit at Isla Grande.
We stayed here for a couple of days.

Water temp:85

A walk across the island to good snorkeling

Lunch on the beach

We then headed to Zihua where we anchored off of 

Playa la Ropa until we went into Marina Ixtapa to clean

 up the boat and get ready for our  air and land trip

 to New Orleans, Morelia and Lake Patzcuaro.

Heading into Zihuatanejo

View from the cockpit: Playa la Ropa

The town beach

 
                                      

Sitting down for Nachos and Margaritas on the Malecon

Street Party and Dance to benefit the Red Cross

Burgers on the Square

We've never seen so many flip-flops in one place1

Marina Ixtapa:

Getting into the marina: big surge and a shallow/very narrow channel

                                        

We think there is only one other transient boat besides us.
It's a huge marina, but a little tired.

We are now in New Orleans!