Points south...finally!

  In January, after 2 years, we finally made it south out of the bay again as far as Barra de Navidad.  I had made a spur of the moment, surprise trip home for a week over the Christmas holidays and returned the afternoon of December 31st.  Since Rob had to fly out on the 24th of February to go home for a week of work and this was the longest stretch of time we would have this winter between his trips home, we decided to make the most of it.  We forewent the parties and fireworks, and rang in the new year by leaving the dock at 4am on January 1st.

  For those of us slow boats who travel 7-1/2 to 8 knots, Nuevo to Barra is a 17-20 hour trip.  In the past we've done overnight passages but this year decided to travel during the day, which put us in Chameyla, our first anchorage on the way south, at about 5pm that afternoon.  The water was great our whole trip south-long slow swells, very little wind...but we pushed the current the whole way of this first leg.  The coastline is beautiful and from 3-5 miles out we were able to enjoy all of the sights we remembered from earlier trips.  Everyone who has travelled this part of the coast will recognize these two landmark homes....

 

     






  We dropped the anchor in Chameyla, had a quick swim and finished off the first of the new year with a bottle of champagne on the back deck and a hot-tub under the stars....  Normally, we love to spend a couple of days in Chameyla snorkelling off of the near-by islands, but this year the jellyfish in the water drove us away.  We didn't notice them at first, but once we'd been stung we took a second look and realized the water was full of them.  By Wednesday we had given up, and did the 5 hour trip to Tenacatita.

  We had bets on as to how many boats would be in the anchorage when we arrived as there seemed to be far less in Chameyla and enroute than we were used to seeing.  When we got in there were 15 other boats there, only 2 of them power.  The anchorage was as calm as we've ever experienced there, totally flat-so no need for the long, involved process of deploying the flopper-stoppers (which is also often an entertaining gong-show for everyone around...).  We had our own personal aquarium next to the boat every time we anchored, but surprisingly we didn't see the usual resident dolphins this year.  We spent 3 nights at anchor there and had fabulous swimming, did our first kayak beach-landings and saw my first American Oystercatchers on shore...but alas, no camera. 

   It's always entertaining sitting in the one beach-side restaurant and watching dinghies and pangas doing beach landings or trying to get over the shoal into the river.  To be honest, we've provided some of the entertainment ourselves over the years.  This year was no different...at low tide, this panga tried to get into the river and managed to get well and truly grounded.  First the two burly young men tried to help the driver get it loose, then Mom and Dad joined in (Mom none too happy about the whole situation).  When we left to kayak back to the boat they were all sitting in the restaurant waiting for the tide to come in.

Oh, and as a point of interest...there were 12 boats at anchor when we left, 6 of which were actually showing anchor lights.  Some people enjoy living on the edge....

  We arrived at the Grand Bay Hotel marina in Barra on January 7th, and spent a week revisiting all of our  favorite places....the Sunset Bar, Alcatraz, Ambar's and Mexico Lindo's restaurants.  The ocean side of the town took a hit from the hurricane in November and lost much of its beach along with parts of some buildings, but they're working hard at getting things rebuilt and the experience is very much the same...charming.  

view over Grand Bay Hotel, marina, and Barra de Navidad

...and the moon setting over the hotel

the sun rising over the marina ... 

  We spent a couple of enjoyable evenings listening to our friends from Saltspring, Trish and Gord, who entertain in the lounge of the hotel, played some fun tennis and made a trip to one of our favorite places, Secret Beach.  It's secret because only the dedicated will climb all of those stairs to get to the other side....

Not sure if a film clip can do it justice, but this place is majestic......

  I celebrated a landmark birthday in Barra on the 12th (if you have to ask....) and can't think of a nicer way to spend one.  Rob had pre-ordered breakfast pastries from the French Baker who delivers to the marina, then we went to town where we browsed the weekly market, I had a fantastic massage, and we had a great lunch at Besame.  In the evening we had dinner at the Thai restaurant in the hotel, where I was personally serenaded by a wonderful young man who had been to the beach with us, then went to the lounge and had the whole "happy birthday" thing again with Trish and Gord.  All in all a great day, even if it meant I had to turn 40 again....

  Left Barra on the 13th thinking we would spend a night in Tenacatita then head for home.  As it turned out, shortly after we dropped anchor we saw friends on Di's Dream pulling in so had to kayak over to say hi and ended up spending a great evening  and dinner aboard with them and their friends.  Turns out their friends, like many sailboat owners, saw us in the anchorage as they were coming in and told Roger and Di they didn't want to anchor next to any powerboat with a loud generator.  To which Roger replied, "it's okay, we know them....and they have an ice-maker!"  We ended up spending one more night there too because, well, we also have satellite TV-and there was a 49'ers game on.  In the midst of the game, the Mexican navy dropped anchor and we all waited with baited breath to see what would happen.  Sure enough, we got boarded.  Five guys with machine guns strapped to their sides climbed into the cockpit-I actually had the audacity to ask one of them if he was old enough to carry one and if he really knew how to use it....he laughed while Rob cringed.  They were very polite while they looked over all of our paperwork but declined to have their picture taken with me (damn!)  We asked if they were boarding everyone in the anchorage, but they said only the power boats.  At that point, Roger piped up "well, you guys are the ones who carry the drugs"!  (There was a heavy silence while I quietly kicked him and reminded him of the things you DON'T joke about a) when going through US airport security or b) while being boarded by kids holding machine guns).  Good fun had by all....!

  Hauled anchor at 4am on the 15th and bashed our way north-the usual pounding waves on the nose up to 6 feet most of the way.  At Cabo Corrientes, we said "well, are we going into the marina at dark or dropping anchor in La Cruz at dark and going to the Black Forest for dinner?".  The Black Forest won-we had the anchor set, the dingy in the water and were sitting at a table within an hour.  A fitting end to a great trip...and a few random closing pictures....

Arriving in Banderas Bay...

a very cool fish...

a Mexican squirrel...

oohhh, and what not to wear....anywhere!!!!