November 5 to November 15
Well we have settled back into life on the sea. We have had dolphins join us several times. We even had several birds catch a ride with us. The first was a little sparrow like bird that somehow wondered about five miles off the coast. We provided it with a much needed place to rest. It stayed perched on the our lines for about a half hour then took off again. Then several days later we had a white egret join us when we were 10 miles off the coast. He landed right next to Vaughn just before dawn. After looking eyeball to eyeball with Vaughn for several minutes it decided it was a little to close to a human for comfort. It took off but then must have remembered how tired of flying it was and circled the boat for several minutes trying several different perches. Finally landed on the bow of the boat and stayed there resting for almost an hour.
After leaving Puerto Vallarta we sailed to Impala then to Chamela. Sharon was back at it, she caught a beautiful 4ft Dorodo (Mahi Mahi). It put up a great fight jumping several feet out of the water many times. We ate well for several days.
While sailing from Chamela to our next stop Tenacatita we had a new experience. We were boarded by the Mexican Navy for a routiine inspection. It's quite different from the U.S. Coast Guard inspections. The Coast Guard inspection focuses on legal paperwork and saftey equipment. The Mexican Navy didn't care about these at all, instead they spent over an hour going through every single drawer, cupboard, floorboard and compartment on the boat. They even inspected inside the refrigerator and freezer. They were very courteous but quite serious and business like, they left no spot uncovered. They were looking for illegal substances...thank goodness we don't have any. I wouldn't want to know what would happen if you did.
Tenacatita was a beautiful bay. It had a river that we were able to take the dingy up into for about 4 miles. It ended in a fresh water lagoon. The river was generally about 50 feet wide and had lots of birds. In some spots the mangroves were so thick the river was just as wide as the dingy!
Our sail to Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo was several hundered miles non-stop, it took us several days. The first night we ended up right in the middle of this huge 9 mile rain squall. We were off a point and the squall just formed around us it started off small then just blossomed in minutes to a huge thunderhead. We got the sails down before the 25 knot winds hit. The torrential rains made visibilty non-existant but it was the constant lighten and thunder that really worried us. We felt like sitting ducks with huge lighten beams hitting all around us. We quickly disconnected most of the electronics and tired to find the quickest way out from underneath the mess. It was a very long hour and a half. We escaped without been hit by lighten, thank god!
We will arrive in Zihuatanejo in the morning.
Zihuatenejo was a great town. It had a lovely blend of elegant tourism mixed with the local charm of beach front fish markets and cental produce markets. It also had a lot of local artist. You could watch the artist paint colorful designs on potter, many of them were quite talented. We spent a week in the Zihuatenejo/Ixtapa area. Ixpata which is right next to Zihuatenejo has all the mega resort hotels. Ixpata spans a large beautiful beach, resort row, we did not spend much time there. Our friends Jim and Kim came to Zihuatenejo and spent a long weekend with us. We enjoyed sailing the Bay. We archored out at Isla Grande which is near Ixtapa. We had a wonderful time visiting and getting the lastest updates on what's going on back home in Silicon Valley.
We had a beautiful over night sail from Zihuatenejo to Acapulco under a full moon and nice winds. We could see the lights of Acapulco from 25 miles away! Acapulco isn't a town it is a city with over a million people. It is a beautiful city. The bay is 3 miles across and surrounded by steep mountains. The city sprawls up the steep hills with lots of huge homes perched on cliffs over looking the ocean. The homes are of the rich and famous from all over the world, Hollywood stars and all. The beach is full of high rise Mega Resort Hotels. It reminded us a lot of San Francisco only insted of a business district it was a Hotel Zone. We enjoyed the hussle bussel of a city for a change. We ate out at some great restaurants. We went to see the "World Famous" Acapulco Cliff Divers.
Acapulco is a nighttime town, there are more people at the night clubs than on the beaches. The clubs just start to get rolling at midnight and they go all night. We jumped in and enjoyed some of the night life Salsa Dancing until 3 in the morning at the locals hangout the "Copacabana". We were the only "gringos" in the place. The Mexicans took us in like their children. They encouraged us to join in the dancing. One family invited us to join their table. (By the way notice I said family. It was wonderful to see people of all ages grandma's to young couple all together dancing at the same place. It appears to be part of the culture that single girls go out with their parents as their chaparone. The single girls will dance with their mother or father or several girls will dance together. The single guys seem to come together in groups. If a guy is interested he goes up to the dance floor and just joins in with mom and daughter. If mom approves she may go sit down and let her daughter continue danceing. Where in the U.S.A would young kids even be seen with their parents...that alone go out and party with them. The Mexicans have a great family culture.) Anyway we had a ball. We were asked to dance with several other couples. All the ladies wanted to dance with Vaughn. There was a "show" that started at 1:00am and yes Vaughn was even asked to dance with the show queen. What a treat! We had a wonderful time!
Leaving Acapulco we had a two day sail to reach Huatulco. Winds were light we sailed most the days averaging only about 4 knots, but who cares. It is so peaceful. We will check out of the country in Huatulco (10 bays and 36 beaches), fill up on diesel and supplies, wait for a good weather window and then take off to go straight to Costa Rica 700 miles. This one will take about 5 days.