Week 2, 8 – 14 January 2018 Bahia de Chamela – Manzanillo 70 nm

8 January Monday Bahia de Chamela – Bahia Tenacatita 28 nm
We pulled the anchor after breakfast and motored out of the bay. No wind s as usual.
But we had turtles, dolphins and whales close to the boat. Motor gives us electricity, hot water and fresh water, perfect excuse for doing some laundry under way. Suddenly, less than hundred meters in front of Moon, a spearfish jumped several times out of the water, in fact so many times that we had time to get the camera from below.
Some wind came just as we were to anchor.
We had time for a sundowner but not much more before the sun settled.

9 January Tuesday Bahia Tenacatita to next bay with the same name 2,8 nm
Again a morning with the deck soaked with condensation from the night. Wiped windows and painted surfaces before breakfast.
After breakfast we got a good south east wind cooling the air. Unusual direction and we got some wind waves, but not enough to prevent us from launching the dinghy an paddle ashore.

First we walked out to the western cape and then along the shore back to the dinghy. From there we used the paved road inside the western beach and walked as long as we could in the heat. Luckily we had the wind in our face on the way back to our bay.
Lots of empty hotels and houses. We don’t know why. Out of popularity? Not much people on the beaches and only one small “restaurant” among the abounded houses. We have seen similar situation in Tonga, Fiji and the Philippines and it feels ghost like!
Back in Moon we had lunch and then moved around the corner to a Bahia more protected from the swell. We didn’t need the centre board to keep Moon stabile in the new cove.
The beach restaurant we had planned to visit closed early, obviously due to lots of sand fly’s.
A swim and then dinner in Moon.

10 January Wednesday Bahai Tenacatita – Barra de Navidad 14 nm
Warm night in the almost too well protected bay. Weigh anchor after an early breakfast and left the humid and hot part of the bay. Half way out of the bay we got some refreshing air.
Motored to Barra de Navidad and under way we saw several humpbacks where the bottom falls steep to several hundred meters depth.
Anchored already before lunch in Laguna de Navidad after having navigated a shallow partly not marked channel into the lagoon. The lagoon seems to be big enough to give some breeze.
Quiet afternoon when we finished the English weekly blog and explored our thoughts about the route ahead of us. We are really not fond of the heat anymore! If we cruise south to Patagonia it will be cool down there, but to come back to the northern hemisphere we have to pass hot climate at least one extra time compared to do the Panama Canal and up the US coast to Canada. We do understand that the Canal will be hot, humid and with lots of mosquitoes, but only for two days! The Atlantic side of Central America is much windier compared to the Pacific coast, so hopefully cooler.
Our insurance cover North America and we have now to get a new sailing area for the next couple of months. Piece by piece the facts for a final decision comes in place.
Dinner in Moon.

11 January Thursday Laguna de Navidad
Warm night but not as much condensation as yesterday. Used all our mosquito meshes over open hatches and kept the mosquito burner running the whole night. Worked fine – the ones that come into the boat dies! We have used this burner for more than twenty years now, and we are still alive? But as supposed to malaria and dengue it’s probably worth the risk?
Five in the morning we got some fishermen close to the boat, chatting all the time until daybreak. They have not heard that you should keep quit if you want to catch some fish?.
After breakfast came the “French Baker” in his dinghy and sold us a baguette. We had heard about the frech bread delivery and it was in fact true. There are two marinas and this lagoon with ten anchored boats, so he has some clients?
We took the dinghy across to our neighbours to ask about the infrastructure; where to shop, get rid of trash, laundry and so on. We were invited to the cockpit and stayed well over noon and came back to Moon for a very late lunch. The plan was then to take the dinghy for a trip to town, but there were more exciting things to do at the anchorage.
A boat ran aground beside the channel in the lagoon. It was a friend of Tuamuto and Ian came and got Björn to help. Annika used our radar to with overlay to the plotter to establish their exact position. They where forty feet north of our track into the lagoon, stuck in the mud.
When we came to the boat we could confirm with our portable echo sounder that they had deep water only ten feet south of their position. There was a bit of wind pushing them towards even shallower water, so in fact a rising tide wouldn’t help if they could not turn the boat towards the deep.
Ian and Björn in the dinghy pushed the bow to south while the main engine in the boat tried to bring the boat off the mud. A wing keel that have come on top of mud/sand isn’t easy to push off the ground. Half a foot of rising tide helped to do the work after ten minutes of motoring, and another ten minutes later they were anchored in the lagoon next to Moon.
After this adventure there was little time for a visit to town, especially as Tuamuto invited Moon and Perfect Excuse, the boat that run aground, for dinner.
We managed to publish three English albums and a reversed future planning on our web.
Had a nice evening in Tuamuto, of course talking a lot about sailing.
Back in Moon after nine it was nice and cool at the fresh wind that started in the afternoon was still blowing.

12 January Friday Laguna de Navidad
Nice temperature the whole night and we had good rest. No noisy fishermen in the early morning!
After breakfast we took the dinghy to the nearby marina, but they wanted 100 pesos only to tie the dinghy. We drove back to Moon where the panga came ant picked us up together with Ian and Pat from Tuamuto for 30 pesos per person including a return ticket.
We looked around in the village for a bit and then walked on the beach two miles to the next village that supposedly had more to chose between.
Had lunch together on a beach restaurant and then bought some groceries before catching the bus back to Barra.
Back in Moon we did some cleaning up before our new friends came over for a sundowner and more. Sailors midnight is as you probably know nine o’clock and shortly after that our friends took their dinghy back to Tuamuto.

13 January Saturday Laguna de Navidad.
French Baker came with our ordered ray bread. A tiny piece for 80 pesos! OK we had ordered and he had showed us the size with his hands and the approx weight. It was less than half that size as we had understood. But a good tasting ray bread.?
Yet another warm and humid morning with no wind. We have to include the stainless in the morning condensation wiping up. Seems that the condensation during the night solves the salt and create an electrolyte on the stainless with lots of stain as result. The high temperature is also contributing to the speed of the corrosion
Annika downloaded Google Earth satellite photos covering the places we eventually will visit on rout south. The charts are sometimes very wrong and misplaced, hence the need of Google photos.
We took the dinghy to shore after lunch and tied it to the closest restaurant, promising to have dinner there later.
Walked uphill on the stone paved streets, reminding us of Funchal Madeira, only the wooden sledge was missing.
Didn’t find anyone attending the fuel station where we wanted to investigate opening hours and price at the fuel dock for diesel.
Continued to the marina and the hotel, a very special hotel with separate buildings connected with arcades and lots of pools scattered in the park like environment. Lots of shading trees in the “park”. Very nice, fancy and probably expensive.
The fuel station is situated within the walls of the hotel and the price was adjusted to that! The “road” fuel station was not that expensive, but the fuel dock was 30 % higher. It was not allowed to use jerry cans carried to the fuel station to save those 30%!!!
We are again lucky to have our big tanks and are able to wait for lower prices further south where ther are less wealthy cruisers.
Back in the restaurant (not connected to the hotel!) we got a well prepared fish . hot shrips and two local beers before we took the dinghy out in the lagoon to Moon just as the sun set.

14 January Sunday Laguna Navidad – Manzanillo 24 nm
Some wind and no condensation on deck in the morning. Completely different weather compared with the days before.
Our Swedish friends in Liv called and told us they have just tied up in Manzatlán marina and decided to have a three week of vacation with their grand child in Hongkong leaving Liv in the marina. We sailed together from San Diego to Bahia Magdalena where we spent a week while they continued south and up to La Paz.
After breakfast we decided to go to Manzanillo for shopping and eventually fueling up.
Tied the dinghy on deck and pulled the anchor. Went by our neighbor to say good bye and then out of the lagoon. As the tide was going out it was nice to be able to use our track coming in.
Out at sea we started the water maker and the bread maker. After several days in not so nice water it was time for more fresh water. Again we are happy not only to have big diesel tanks, our water tanks are even bigger, giving us the opportunity to almost use water as normal even if we can’t make water for several days, up to ten days.
We saw birds and only one whale on route.
Manzanillo has a big harbor and we had five big cargo ships anchored 2 nm south of us when we anchor in a “swimming bay” north of town. We didn’t anchor of town because we had heard rumors about the noisy night life in town. Better go in early morning to do shopping and more.
Dinner in Moon as we didn’t fancy the beach and its overcrowded restaurants.

Annika & Björn