Heading into an anchorage

I have heard from many of our friends that they love all the pictures so I am going to give you the feeling of heading into a strange anchorage just a Rog and I experience it. Unfortunately you can not hear the discussions that are taking place--are you sure this is the right bay??? The chart plotter isn't matching up!!! Chartplotter shows us anchored 3 miles ashore!!! Di, take the boat into 20 ft of water and head up into the wind. No--that is not where I want the boat--too close to other boats-- too close to shore--- no no no!! Anchor is down just where Rog requested but not necessarily where I want it. He has never been wrong yet so I will have to go with it.


So here we are, going into Manzanillo Bay, about two miles out. We will be going around the second headland to set anchor in Santiago Bay which is inside Manzanillo Bay. Make sense

We are beginning to make out a bit of civilization so we must be headed in the right direction. We need to keep the rocks 25 meters to port to miss submerged rocks. As usual, Rog and I disagree on how close 25 meters appears--I want to be at least a mile off!!! Just in case but why go that far off course.

We can see a bit more but still not sure exactly where we are going. I think we will be heading 30 degrees to port soon

There it is --Santiago and what a beautiful spot to anchor. Rog and I should have plenty of room to swing. Just need to head in to shore.

Palapas!!! Never fear we will be able to eat. You can tell I did not have Rog drop anchor quite as close to shore as he would have liked but what you can not see is the shore just off our starboard side. It is close enough!

We have made great friends with Steve on this beautiful Slookum 43. With any luck she will be returning to the bay area for us to sell.

Next closest boat in the anchorage is a steel hull boat built down in New Zealand. Ken and Judy have been our cruising buddies since the day we arrived in Tenacatita Jun 3rd. Lots of fun and another beautiful boat we hope to sell.

We go ashore for a road trip and where do we find ourselves--Tiburon! I think we will be able to tell the cab where to bring us back to after a day of exploring Manzanillo

This residential development in Santiago Bay is really nice. Best looking streets we have seen in quite awhile

We were off the boats by 10 am and did not return until dusk. We met two wonderful Mexican builders who showed us the town and the condos they are selling for 150,000 US dollars. That is a story for another day.

Tomorrow we move the boat to Las Hadas

Day trip to Bara de Navidad

Bara de Navidad, aka Bara, is just a short two hour trip from Tenacatita so we decided to motor over early in the morning to get fuel and beer. I also wanted to use the Internet so I could keep everyone posted on our adventures so off we go.





Just past the jetty entranced on the right hand side there is the most beautiful hotel called Grand Bay Hotel at Isla Grande. My pictures do not do it justice at all. Yes the marina entrance looks a little tricky with all the mega yachts at the entrance.





On the left side is the little town of Bara with so many colorful restaurants and shops.

Color everywhere you look in Bara

It is a little tricky getting into the fuel dock when there is a 125ft motor yacht like Fighting Irish temporally moored since the marina at grand bay is full. Rog was able to bring our boat into the dock after sitting peacefully at anchorage for two weeks. Just like riding a horse there are some things you never forget how to do We were surprised to learn that there was a tax for using the fuel dock and a credit card fee added to the price of the fuel. All said, we still got away for around $2.70 a gallon. After running the genset several hours daily since PV it only cost us $28 US, Far less than the cost of adding solar panels.

After lunch at Fortino’s we decided a walk around the town of Bara was in order. Thrifty Ice Cream—of if only was back to the old days before Rite Aid bought us out. We had to have a cone and yes the ice cream was just like home.

Mexico has Thrifty Ice Cream stores all over!

Sand’s is a local hotel that welcomes the cruisers. We are allowed to tie our dinghies to their sea wall and come ashore to enjoy the pool and bar. I may bring my computer back later to use the wifi connection, only $2 per day.

After a little too much play time we have decided to stay anchored in the lagoon tonight. The tide has gone out and there are some real low spots to navigate. We have heard too many horror stories to even try. Also we need to experience the French Baker delivering fresh breads to our boat first thing in the morning. Maybe two nights here sound even better.

Tenacatita Jungle Ride

Something went wrong with my last posting and half is gone so I need to start over sorry!

Tuesday the cruisers in Tenacatita decided on a group ride up through the mangroves. We had studied the tides for several days and learned that Tuesday morning there would be a tide high enough to go over the berm at the mouth of the river. After carefully navigating through rocks that were no longer apparent and we all met on the beach where McHale’s Navy was filmed years ago. The area no longer resembles the movie but at our age who even remembers the movie!! It makes a great story.

Off we went with seven dinghies and a very happy dog that barked a greeting at every curve in the river. The lead dingy had to keep an eye out for oncoming pongas as they travel at a high rate of speed and tend to be reckless
Some even felt brave enough to stand up-- this would not last for very long as the river gets very narrow and the overhang gets lower.

As I mentioned we had studied the tides closely before making the trip, however we forgot to take into consideration that with a high tide-very high- would mean less room between the mangroves and us!! It also meant that the pangas would not be traveling until the tide went down.

There is a small dingy dock at the end of the ride. Always nice to find a place to safely secure our valuable mode of transportation. Rog had been struggling with the outboard engine for days and finally had it running beautifully. All it took was for him to read the manual and change one setting—starts first time every time now.

This beautiful rooster was strutting his stuff by the side of the road.

At the point we enjoyed a moment looking at the bay and the ocean.

While we were enjoying lunch a local ponga brought his daily catch right up on the beach. The net had caught all types of fish which were quickly sorted and taken away. It was possible to buy fish right there but we decided we liked to buy it after it had been gutted and fillet. Maybe someday I will learn how to do it but I am just not ready yet.


These guys really hustled to take the catch to the waiting trucks!

We returned to the boat before the tide was too low to get over the berm. Another busy day. Almost forgot, we have a dinner party on a power boat tonight so I better get going

Tuesday the cruisers in Tenacatita decided on a group ride up through the mangroves. We had studied the tides for several days and learned that Tuesday morning there would be a tide high enough to go over the berm at the mouth of the river. After carefully navigating through rocks that were no longer apparent and we all met on the beach where McHale’s Navy was filmed years ago. The area no longer resembles the movie but at our age who even remembers the movie!! It makes a great story.

Off we went with seven dinghies and a very happy dog that barked a greeting at every curve in the river. The lead dingy had to keep an eye out for oncoming pongas as they travel at a high rate of speed and tend to be reckless.

What do we do

I am sure you are asking yourselves what we do to keep busy everyday, and we do keep busy. First thing every morning, 9am being first thing!, we have a net over the vhf radio with the other boats in the anchorage. We discuss the weather, tides and currents, request mail service from friends heading back to the states and trade items no longer needed on boats. Other boaters are trading charts of areas they are no longer needing, kayaks that take up too much space and other supposed treasures of the bilge.


Boat projects come right after breakfast. Today we took the watermaker apart and rinsed the filters. That was a rather major project and I forgot to take a picture of Rog upside down trying to re-install the filters. He wasn’t in the best of moods, they were not going back on easily, so it was probably for the best that I didn’t take snap a shot. Next on the list was replacing batteries in our solar lights. Terry from Coastal Passage had to come over to help Rog do that. Meanwhile I have been cleaning up after breakfast and making the bed. Can’t do wash today, not enough water so that can wait until tomorrow.

Sometimes you even have to change batteries on solar lights!

I always do my internet right here at the nav station. Computer is great for checking tides, waypoints, and routes just we are alarmed by coastline charting which is generally less than accurate.

Lunch time is always up for debate, do we go ashore early and eat at the palapa or should I mess up the galley again. What we do usually depends on Rog’s projects and when he will finish. Today I think it will be lunch on the beach. Beers cost $1.50 and we are running short on the boat. Galley is clean --off to the beach we go to play

Mexican train is on the agenda for 2pm today, on the beach and in the shade. There may be a volleyball game but we are not sure if there are enough people wanting to get that much exercise. Lifting beers appears to be more what the guys have in mind.

We usually leave the beach around 5pm to avoid mosiquitoes and no see ums. The bugs love Rog and leave me alone but I am not pushing my luck.

The day is over and lots has been accomplished. Tomorrow we head to the beach to change the oil and spark plugs on the outbaord. She didn't start right up as we were leaving the beach today so we had to row out past the surfline before we got very wet. I will head off to the local hotel to snag an internet connection so I can post these blogs. Off to Bara Navidad on Wed for fuel and the French Baker.


Another day in Paridise, before you know it, it is days end.

Cocodrilo aka crocodile

Across the bay from Tenacatita is the little village of La Manzanillo not to be confused with the larger town of Manzanillo further down the coast. It is a great outing in the dingy on a calm day, just about a 45 min. ride at full throttle with only two on board. It is best to invite friends to take their own dingy if they want to tag along otherwise you sit too low in the water and can not make any speed. When you sit low you can get very wet, however the main reason for two in a dingy is the ease and timing of getting into and out of the dingy. When those waves start breaking it is difficult to board four quickly, believe me I know.

La Manzanillo is going through a major grow period. There are more palapas than when we visited in 2002 and now there is even an internet café. The speed is good and I could even figure out how to convert the text to English. That was very important. As you walk through the town it is not hard to miss the road construction. Real streets are being installed, one brick at a time. Concrete is moved a wheel barrow at a time, no cement trucks down here.



Rog gets a kick out of visiting the pond at the end of town where the local cocodrilo hang out. The restaurants in town bring there food waste down daily to feed them so they appear quite tame. People walk close to these big guys – but not me. I don’t even feel safe with the chain link fence separating us.

This big guy decided to move as Rog started taking pictures. You can see that Rog quickly backed away from him as he left the pond. The guys from Canada were much braver and walked right down to him. I was high tailing it out of there as fast as I could.

Check out the teeth

Back to the boat for me!!!

Birds, firsh and other sea life

We actually left Paradise as we planned on Friday. The boat is now anchored in Tenacatita and Rog and I came over to Lla manazanillo by digny to use the internet. Currently I am very frustrated because I have done this posting four times and it keeps going away. So I will make this very short


Rog has learned a great deal since we came down on the

This is fish nomber one. Great fun and a tough fight. I couldn´t help at all--This guy was around 20lbs

This is fish number two and he weighed closer to 35lbs and took at least 40 minutes to bring into the boat. We still use catch and release so there was no fresh fish on the boat that night.

The next morning we were safely anchored in Tenacatita and I was ready for a swim, well maybe not. In PV is cost 130 us dollars to swim with the dolphins but not here in the anchorage, they are all over the place and you never know when one will pop up right next to you.

Goodbye Paradise

In the morning we will be leaving Paradise Village for warmer anchorages further south. We have decided after much thought that we will leave Paradise around 10am and head directly to Tenacatita. Originally we had planned to drop anchor in Chamela but that is a 90 mile trip and to make it before nightfall we would have to leave very early in the morning. After watching the Rose Bowl Game and a few beers we are now leaving mid morning and doing one overnight to Tenacatita. We don't have any boats traveling with us, they are already there or are leaving when then get some work done.

You all have heard the song Eye of The Tiger, well let me tell you that the teeth of the tiger are a bit more fearsome. We walk by this guy everyday as we head to the beach. Rog has seen the three baby tigers but I never did.

This is where we spent most days, under the palapas reading a book. This week Paradise is very busy and almost every palapa has been occupied by noon. Lots of little kids having fun in the sand or big boys going down the alligator slide. Rog did this with both of his boys just to show them both that he is still young at heart

That is Rob in the water trying to get out of Dad's way!

The grounds around Paradise Village are always spotless. There is never any trash and yet you never see anyone picking up after guests. The gardens---let me tell you they are spectacular.

Just yesterday we got a frantic call from our neighbor Penny in Bakersfield. She had just checked our mail and found a certified letter from the Alameda County Tax Assessor's Office indicating that we had not paid our property tax on the boat. We knew we had not because we never received a bill and we had contacted them about it. Well the letter stated that we were long overdue paying and there would be penalties etc. After a quick phone call from me I got it all straightened out and the bill was paid by phone. They still had a very old address on file and could see that all bills had been returned to sender. Don't know how they found the Bakersfield address but I am glad they did

I did mention to the tax collector that the boat was out of the country right now and would be for another month so I would not have to pay the 2009 property tax. She said to make sure I document that so here are pictures of Di's Dream in Puerta Vallarta on Jan 1, 2009. It is well documented now.

I don't think I would dressed like this in Alameda on Jan 1st this year!! Warm and sunny in PV.

Happy New Years to all