Zihautanejo to Manzanillo    

2-13-06
Las Hadas, Manzanillo Bay

Our time in Zihau sadly had to come to an end, as we had other adventures and Greg and I 
were itching to explore some new places. It was also very hot, to give you a reference 
point - it was a good day if the temps stayed below 90 degrees.

We had a fantastic time while there. Betty and Gordon from the BYC flew in to visit 
Stardancer.  StarDancer is Dave and Mary Ann also from the BYC and used to be on the same 
dock as us before they left to go cruising 3 years ago - we also met up with them in 
Mazatlan. It was great to see Betty and Gordon, they are such wonderful people and a ton 
of fun to be around. I only wish I had my camera when we were all out at a benefit 
concert at a local jazz club and Betty jumped up to dance around like a sixteen year old 
to LaBamba to be joined quickly by Gordon. 

  The BYC gang.  Gordon, Greg, Me (Melissa), Betty, Mary Ann, and Dave.

We spent all except for the first few days anchored in La Ropa with a bow and stern 
anchor. We started off near Playa Madera close to the beach, but the water was pretty 
dirty and when the swell picked up a bit, we were shallow enough that the motion of the 
boat became a little 'disturbing'. Over in La Ropa we anchored next to Peter and Ginger (from s/v Marcy) who we first met in Cabo but had always been a few stops ahead of us. Fortunately we were able to keep in touch because we were meeting mutual friends along the way and had joined an informal group of boats on a twice weekly SSB net. We really enjoyed meeting them and hanging out with them while in Zihau. They will be heading to 
the South Pacific in March and beyond and we will be following their progress closely.

   There were a fair amount of cruise ships - maybe 2-3 a week.  We would wake to them anchored in the bay like this and they would be gone by 1 or 3 pm.  So, we would just avoid doing anything around the center of town until they left.

  Ultra expensive vacation accomodations.

   Water and Fuel delivered.  There is no fuel dock at Zihau, so it all had to be delivered by a Panga.

  Don't tell Matey, but we felt really sorry for this puppy and couldn't pass up giving him some pets.

   Fisherman fishing.

  Pelican scarecrow

   Pangas on the beach

   Marcy all ready for the sail parade in her nautical flags.

   Pacifica heading off after the parade.

  Pacifica flying her spinny just after the parade (it was a free sail back to Zihautanejo.

  Our guests getting into the dinghy to come out on Pacifica. (picture care of the sailfest photo album)

  Two of Pacifica's parade guests.

  The whole gang - minus the two most important: Matey and I.  Our guests were the best.  And for the reason they chose to come on Pacifica - yep, our little sailing pup, Matey!!!!  You gotta love dog lovers!!!!!  And Matey even handed out kisses to them....

Besides for the games of Sailfest and hanging out with good friends we didn't do much 
else but swim and try to stay cool.

Oh, we did have a very cool experience buying a 2 Liter bottle of Mescal from a guy who lives up in the hills of Zihau.  Supposedly he made it in his home.  Marcy split it with us, but it was really drinkable, but not nearly as drinkable as Sailor Jerry's Rum....

    From the one of the beach parties. 

   The silent auction at Rick's Bar - this is also the cruiser hangout.  Rick has music nightly and is also a sort of 'home base' to find out information.  

    My favorite chili from the cook-off.  There were all sorts of condiments and even a little shot of tequila (but that's not why I liked it). 

     Greg and I at the dinghy treasure hunt.  It was really hard but we got all the clues (but didn't win a prize).  Basically all the boats who were clues had orange scarfs to fly, we motored to one of them and tried to figure out which clue was them.  I don't know why we didn't bring Matey - please don't tell her. 

        Dave, Mary Ann and Betty from the Dinghy treasure Hunt.  They won a fantastic dinner out and had a wonderful time. 

     There was a flare shoot off.  Beautiful show from the bow of the boat while having margaritas.

      Another cruiser dog getting a little bit of a margarita. 

     We had to drive through these pelicans every time we went to or left shore.  You would think Matey would freak, but she couldn't care less - she was just looking for fish. 

  We didn't see this in person, but thought it was a fabulous sculpture - we're guessing this didn't happen at the kids beach party, but you never know, it is Mexico.

  We didn't see a crocodile in the lagoon, but did hear that they were there.

After almost 3 weeks in Zihautanejo, it was getting time to say goodbye and start making 
our way back North. After all we still had places to see that we missed on the way down 
and places we wanted to visit again.

Peter and Ginger on s/v Marcy accompanied us on the morning we left to anchor out at Isla 
Grande and have a wonderful goodbye dinner. StarDancer also left that day and greeted us 
as we pulled into Isla Grande. 

   Marcy about to anchor in Isla Grande, like true sailors - they do it under sail.

   Peter and Ginger rowing over with fresh baked bread for us before we left to go to Las Hadas.

The next morning after a radio check with Marcy and another boat in the Sea of Cortez we 
headed off for an overnight to Manzanillo Bay. 

   Dolphins...  Here is a video: 

   That first day out, we took some time to drop sails for a swim.  And to Greg's dismay, I propped the camera up on our slightly rolling boat for a picture.  Why worry, I had it propped on suntan lotion bottles - what's the big deal?

   Matey hard at work watching the fishing lines.  I think the way she is sitting is so cute - I love the stretched out leg pose!  I guess it works with the heel of the boat.

The first day out started off motor sailing, but did fill in the afternoon for a nice 
sail. Then night fell...and no moon....and the wind and chop picked up... We still 
motor sailed because it was more direct. But into the night as the wind grew more steady, 
we started to sail a bit. Then it died off by morning and we were back to motorsailing. 
As the second day grew on, the wind started to fill in again, so we started sailing 
again. This was beautiful as we heeled over, the sun was shining, then within a VERY 
short amount of time the wind picked up a bit, but the seas, oh the seas. They 
drastically grew and became very steep and choppy and BIG. We pulled in the fishing 
lines just as we were crossing the end of a long line which was being quickly hauled up by 
fishermen. They eventually built to about 6-8 feet at 4 seconds with occasionally ones 
as big as 10-12 feet. Now we are just guessing at these numbers, but Greg (nor I) have 
ever seen anything so choppy. We (ahh...Greg) had to hand steer since we had to hit 
these waves at just the right angle so that the boat would not be stopped by the wave and 
we would minimize the amount of green water rushing over the deck. Greg was my hero - 
letting me stay safely standing below hanging on to handholds with all my might, while he 
steered and took the frequent drenching the sea had to give us. 

We were also beating ourselves up for "messing around with all that F***ing sailing 
stuff". If we had just hauled butt motor-sailing we would be safely at anchor. But 
instead we were clawing our way to get into the protection of Manzanillo Bay.

Matey at this point was confined to her room. She was a little scared and wanted to come 
on deck - or at least plaster herself next to my leg. But really, she was safer in her 
room. Oh, she also took to crawling into my veggie basket for a snuggly place to sleep. 
This is just a cheapie laundry basket that I keep potatoes, onions, garlic and sometimes 
other not refrigerator stuff like EGGS in. So, you guessed it, we had cracked eggs, even 
though they were in a plastic case.

Finally after beating our way for about 3 hours, we were anchored in Las Hadas. We had 
planned to go to Santiago, but Greg was done with the drenching and starting to shiver - 
so heading downwind to Las Hadas was preferable over continuing to beat across the Bay.

We were happily greeted by the sight of Synchrony our BYC friends Juliette and Herb. 

This morning we woke to a pleasant 66 degree morning after a cozy calm night under 
blankets. We discovered Star Dancer kept the petal to the medal and didn't fool around 
with that pure sailing stuff and therefore made it into Santiago Bay in the morning well 
before things got nasty. We introduced Star Dancer to Synchrony (over the radio) and are 
planning a BYC event over in Santiago Bay in a day or two where we will all fly our club 
burgees and relax together.

There is a big weather system causing lots of wind (and therefore big seas) over much of 
the coast, so we are staying put till the weekend when we will probably head to Barra de 
Navidad.

   Goodnight from Greg, Melissa and Matey.  This was just taken in Las Hadas as we were enjoying the last hours of the day.


Melissa, Greg, and Matey

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