Adios Mexico....until......


The second part of the Bash was fairly normal except for  periodic high winds outside.  When the guys turned the corner at Cabo, Jeff called Robert up from below to see the strange sky.  There were  low, black, rounded, sort of swirling clouds with thunder and lightning, in a circle overhead, and an opening in front of them.  They got away as fast as they could, but then called me on the Sat phone and Robert's voice was shaking.  So Eileen and I shook for a couple hours after that.  I had been giving them weather reports via the Sat phone, and no where in any of the internet sites or forecasts had a cyclone been mentioned.



Magdalena Bay, which has been developing slowing over time.  We haven't seen the town grow, as we usually went into Bahia Santa Maria.  Our friend John had escaped from Mexico on his boat, (crazy new  inept tax organization in Mex.) and the sheriff had come out from the village here to ask if he could spare a flashlight.  As it was blowing like stink outside, the guys spent a couple days waiting for good weather here, and the sheriff did the same thing.  Must not have any power at night.  Later, when they went into Turtle Bay, they had to go on instruments as there was a wild dust storm.  No way to see if they were anchoring on top of anyone, but when it all cleared, they could see other boats had pulled in to escape the high winds outside.  Again I told them to stay put for a couple days - and they had flat weather and winds the rest of the trip up to San Diego.   They rescued, or effected a rescue of a 27footer six miles south of the border, at night, as the other boat had lost power and was drifting into shore.  Robert was able to find the boat and call both the Mexican Navy, who wanted to take the disable boat to Ensenada, and the Coast Guard, who sent the rescue boat who towed them in.  The guys were so tired, they spent a night in San Diego.  Then, in leaving the next day, all hell broke loose.  The engine kept cutting out, and they met huge seas of 12 -15' and decided to pull into Long Beach.
I rented a car, picked up the guys and we took the crew home to the Santa Cruz Mountains...beautiful and intriguing place with a sense of secret hollows.   Below is Marlin, butting up a Skipjack he caught.



Looking for the green flash which was covered by clouds.

Very tired guys at the end of the trip.  When we went back to Long Beach, Robert classily backed I'O into a fairway and gently took it down the channel and to Marina Del Rey by himself. I went back to Marina Del Rey by the PCH as I am chicken on the 405, the 10, etc.  So we are on our old dock, clearing out the boat and getting ready for some land adventures.  I'O will go on the hard, up for sale, and we carry the memories of wonderful sunrises, sunsets and people forever.  The blog might continue once we get out of town and into the mountains later this summer.  Stay tuned.

The marina community

These lovely gentlemen keep the marian going:  Juan, the harbormaster, in organge shirt is  a calm, easygoing person who puts up with a lot.  This year the marina was full, and friends of our's had to anchor out in La Cruz, which isn't such hard duty, however we couldn't see them.  He has to deal with complaints, keeping the port captain happy, and shuffling boats around to keep the cruisers happy.  Mexican law has him stuck to his desk  90% of the time due to mounds of paperwork.  We will miss him.  The two shorter fellows are called "The Panchos" , yet one is Francisco ( we have yet to figure out which) and they can fix, fabricate, make, create anything that is need to keep this marina going. easygoing and very sweet people, all of them.

Pedro and Cooper having a love fest on board.  Pedro's wife is due any day now, his seventh with Rosa.

Tom and Emily from Girl Four and us at our favorite little restaurant.  They left for a trip to Barra and came back for just a few days, and now are off to head north.  We have met them in Cabo San Jose and here in Nuevo and figured out that they really were not in the witness protection program as they have a daughter in Santa Monica they will visit this summer.  We get to see them, too - fun for us.  The problem with cruisng communities is they are so fluid and it is bittesweet when we all sail off.  This time, we get to see T & E in Calif., unless of course they are hiding out somewhere.   

Red sky at morning.......

Every morning we hear the weed blower from deep in those trees Vallarta Adventures - and then the tourist boats go out around 8 am.  We wake up slowly and think we are blessed to have this to see.

Usually, red sky at morning means sailor take warning.  Here, it might mean 15 - 20 mph winds out of the bay.  Wind is a scarce commodity out on the ocean, in Mexico, and we motor more than sail.  But thank heaven we are at the head of Bahia Banderas and manage to get any breeze just to keep cool, from those mountains and later in the day, from the ocean.  We don't need no stinkin' air conditioning.....we can just go over to Starbucks if necessary.

 

Back in Banderas......

These photos were taken before our southing trip - but worth posting:  Lisa and Ailsa at a potluck on our boat. We borrowed the table from the Muelle Grille.

Lisa, Jon and Rodrigo.  Rodrigo sold his boat once he and his girl arrived here and it seems he may be part of selling I"O in San Diego.  Lisa and Jon are our parttime boat buddies in the past and we went south with them.  The continued on to Zihuatenejo and are having a great time at the Guitar Festival.

We call these African Tulip trees in Hawaii. Spring has sprung here in the bay.

Who knows if these dreams are  dead or just a cheap place for storage outside of La Cruz.  We wondered how the boat got here.

Return to Tenacatita

 

 

At the very top of the hotel is the "secret" pool - we are sad to leave, but want to get back to Nuevo so Alan does not get stranded on the highway waiting for a bus.  The harbor master's office is to the extreme right, and he spent quite a bit of time telling Robert how he wants to attract more cruisers.  Why they have such high rates in the winter season is a mystery.  Summer rates are $8.50/.ft - which would be about $400 for I'O.  Given the buggy atmosphere in the late afternoon, it would not be a happy surpise to come back in the fall.

Robert is getting ready to take the dogs to their favorite beach.  The water is so clear and warm, in comparison to Nuevo we don't really want to leave.  The morning we left we heard more than one monkey chattering up a storm in the trees.

Good dog beach is to the right of Robert.  These last two photos were taken by a special camera by Jon on Molly J.

Not the greatest trip north

Leaving Tenacatita Bay for the slog north.  As we are going to sell the boat, this is a good memory of a magic place.  The water was clear and warm, lots of good friends here, and dolphins come to visit.  Good Dog Beach taught Cooper to swim and us about beach landings with the dinghy wheels.  We were greeted by SnapDragon -  Russ came up to the boat and surprised us.  Raymond had run out of water, cigarettes and beer - we know what he considered important.  Ahhh.  We will miss this place and remember it when in awful traffic and dealing with tension of life in the US.

 

 

Back in our slip in Nuevo, tired and happy.   The dogs had their bunk in the main salon fixed so that they would be protected:  pillows all around.  I slept with them for a bit and then Alan and I relieved Robert while we were off Cabo Corriented.  Robert said that at one point he was making two knots north, but when we turned towards the Bay, we managed four plus.
Both Alan and I felt we were seeing things( hoping to, really) as it was to be another six hours to get to our slip.  Cold fifteen knots blew out of the Bay up until 100 knots off the breakwater.  Then Robert rebuilt the head.  Three bad things happened in the last 24 hours, perhaps to balance the benificence of Barra/Tenacatita:  the head crapped out (no pun intended), the safety rail (freshly redone) broke, and the freezer gave up the ghost.

Home are the sailors or home at Tacos Muelle.  Hooray.  Too tired to deal withe cooking all the food in the freezer, and celebrating that the head is working again.  Robert is a miracle worker.

More Barra.....

Color is everywhere and when you add in the myriad colors of the ocean, the clouds and the people, it is exhilirating.

The rugs are woven in Oaxaca and seem to be everywhere.  We even own a few, but the rugs collect dog hair and in our house, they are out of sight.  We enjoy them in the markets.  What seems very much capitalism is the influx of fabrics from Bali, India and such. 

The dome is ubiquitous - and seems to be more  Arab than Spanish.  Moorish influence?  The plants are very much the same as Hawaii and often make me homesick.

The secret pool at the top of the Isla Grande Hotel.  The governor's suite is behind us.  The lower pools are full of crazy gringos, brains melted in the heat and fried by the potent margaritas.  We go here to get cool and find the hidden towels and dream of the governor's visit.  Nah.  We head back to our hot boats and swish off with the hose.

Beautiful Barra

Years ago we wandered into Barra on Molly J and Robert drove the van down.  We asked what the cost of the marina was for Molly J and turned away in disgust as it was $180/night.  The world has turned, Isla Marina now does deals - as we were part of the Baja ralley we are here at .60/ft/night.  And it is magic.  The hotel above the marina climbs a steep hill and three pools with slides climb right alongside.  The hotel is full of tour groups that seem to be yacht and country club escapees who  don't realize the effects of sun and margaritas.  What happens in Mexico stays in Mexico?

The giant yachts have food delivered in rolling carts and we see the uniformed crews polishing, rubbing, swabbing most of the day.  On I'O, we leave for one of the four pools.  I'O is in front of the the black and white yacht in the far right corner:  dog hair, sand, and such......but we are having fun.

Barra shares the bay with Melaque, (not shown)..  Both towns suffered great losses in last year's hurricane and giant chunks of buildings litter the beach front.  The town has several canals that we explored by dink, with many for sale signs  on the houses with fun and strange architecture.,.  We feel lucky not to be in the Lagoon, as we know those twelve boats out there are fighting the Noseeums like mad. As is, we throw a camp net over the hatch and hang out below with our noxious bug spray. 

A glorious tree.

Typical house on one of the canals.  The sailboat had to back down the canal to get to it's berth.

A water taxi takes  usfrom the elegant marina to the town - this is from inside the lagoon.



Why not have a lavendar door, turquoise wall?  The fishing fleet is made up of pangas who line one of the canals.  There was a festival this past weekend and it looked more like a riot on the beachfront, and with dueling musicians, the noise came across the channel to us like jungle drums.

 

Tenacatita dreaming.....

Almost as soon as we had the anchor down, a very intense,man rowed over and said that it had bounced several times and we were not holding. His boat was parallel to us and probably thought we should get the hell away from him.  We reset the anchor and swung in tandem with him, smiling every time we were close.  Then a heavily bearded, sort of officious man came by to tell us the "rules" of Tenacatita.  Pick up your dinghy and motor as "we do not want to be know as the Bay where dinghys are stolen." Too late, buddy - but we normally put away the dinks anyway.  Social hour was after a loooooooong swim to the beach, where bocce ball is played.  Um. No.  We napped.  It had been an overnight  through flat calm weather and water to get here.  The water is blissfully clear and warm, and the dolphins visit.  We later reanchored two more times, finding out that a Fortress anchor will skip on a hard sand bottom.  Me, too.

The lagoon we motored up three years ago is silting in and the panga drivers have to pull the tourists through the waves like Huphrey Bogart and then they rip upstream.  Upstream has grown in so that any damn tourists who try to cut throught the mangroves get the bum's rush at the new resort.   Evidently about four years ago, the small village was cleared out by the new owners who plan a destination resort.  What with the magicapeace of the inner bay, we don't bother with trying to find paradise.  The channel is good for kayak muscles at low tide, though.

Looking towards the beach, and what the cruisers call Good Dog beach....we have another less elegant  name for it.  Robert said there was a monkey on the beach.  Right.  I never saw it.  At least 25 boats were anchored in the Bay and a lot of socializing goes on at the palapa.  We found out the least attractive part of this heavenly place notwithstanding the bossy types who were telling us how to be here, and that is the noseeums attack at sunset.  Can't sit out and ooh and ahhh for fear of the measle look and the bugs seem to like the Off spray.

We trained the dogs to  leap into the dink for trips to their potty place.  Getting back on the boat is easy for Cooper, but Koa has to have help, to go along with his sad sack whimpers.  Then he takes a bit eout of Cooper as if to tell him to quit showing off.

Molly J at anchor in Tenacatita.  We took the dinks to La Manzanilla for some fresh fruit and veggies - and breakfast with the haoles.  Great food and fresh berries at the market.  Now, what is happening to Mexico?  A few years ago we found that the Kitsap Peninsula, (Bremerton north) for pete's sake, had gone yuppified.  Now we buy berries that have prob ably been shipped in from New Zealand to here.   Want to bet that not a complaint is heard in town?