01/23/2003 - 02/06/2003
Hungry crocodiles await unsuspecting cruisers that swim in these waters. Just Kidding. These guys were bagged, tagged, and relocated to this lagoon in La Manzanilla -- they're fed daily.
Tenacatita (Tenna-ka-tee-ta)
I think we have the pronunciation right! We do get a kick out of the various ways people say the name of this wonderful place. We have been keeping a running list: Tentacatata, Tennacatata, Tennacatica, Tenniecatiti, Tennacatati, Tenkatatita, Tennatasita, Tennacasita... It's just Tenna-ca-tee-ta!
We did so much here, we just can't begin to cover everything (and keep our reader's attention), so we'll just hit the highlights. In Tenacatita, we started to realize just how little time (5 weeks!!!) we had left to get ready for the South Pacific passage. Tic-Tock, time's-a-wasting in Tenacatita! More on our major change of plans later in this log.
First off, this place (and the surrounding areas) does live up to the “Gold Coast” label. The four anchorages around Tenacatita bay are each beautiful in their own right, and the bay itself reminds us of a miniature Banderas bay – as Banderas bay might have been 40 years ago. There is a significant amount of sea-life, the water is beautiful, clear, and a warm 83 degrees (we were lucky, a recent algae bloom and 72 degree cold current have changed that), and there is plenty to do and explore.
Passage from Careyes to Tenacatita
A benign start out of Careyes -- this should be an easy day sail! Not.
How bad could a quick 20 mile run down the coast to Tenacatita be? We should make easy work of this and be there in no time, right?! Wrong!
The winds were calm as we motored out of Careyes. After only one hour, we saw the conditions completely change. The wind increased to 15-20 knots out of the southeast (right on the nose), so if we stayed on course, we were head into the wind. A fairly large 4-6' swell continued out of the northwest, and the steep choppy seas began to build.
We had quite a 5-hour motor-sailing bash to Tenacatita, snagging a fisherman's long-line on our rudder, and avoiding long-line floats the entire trip. We were quite happy to be there when we (finally) arrived!
Unfortunately, even though the bow hatch was closed and covered by an upside-down dinghy, Duncan mistakenly left the hatch on "vent" mode.
The morning after our arrival in Tenacatita, he discovered the mess -- three hours of boarding seas the day before had taken their toll on the v-berth. The gennaker was soaked, the cushions turned into giant saltwater sponges, the sails and gear under the bunks were wet, and the cabinets sparkled with saltwater mist . Not good. With various pieces and parts strewn on the deck, the warm sun quickly dried everything and by sundown the v-berth was back in order.
Reunited Again!
During our two weeks in Tenacatita, we visited with many old friends and made a few new ones. Mermaid, Tavana, and Sobre El Mar (from the Baja Ha-Ha) were there when we arrived. Over the subsequent week, friends on New Passage, MR Destiny, Emerald, and Island Sonata arrived. Mermaid and Tavana headed south toward Zihuatanejo before our second week in Tenacatita.
We met some new folks we had seen around, but had not spent any time with -- this included Spirit Wind, True Love, Citation, The Kirawan, Fiddler's Green, and several other boats. This extremely social life-style easily leads to social events every night of the week! We occasionally need to "take a day off" to relax and work around the boat.
Mayor's Night Out
The bag of books gets passed around at the "Mayor's Night Out".
Robert on Harmony (hailing port of Alameda) acts as mayor of the cruising fleet in the Tenacatita area. He organizes the "Mayor's Night Out" dinghy raft-up and book exchange at 5 PM every Friday.
People bring hors d'oeuvres to share and their beverage of choice via dinghy. Then, the dinghies raft-up to the anchor dinghy. This was our first introduction to the social life of the Tenacatita fleet.
Every morning, a VHF radio net keeps everyone apprised of the activities available that day (or week).
Blue Bay Beach, near Los Angeles Locos
Ashore at Blue Bay Beach on Tenacatita Bay. Shout's "dinghy wheels" allow us to easily roll our dinghy out of the tidal zone.
The north anchorage of Bahia Tenacatita is the most popular anchorage for the "Gold Coast" cruisers. At one point, over 50 boats filled the anchorage, and the social-life drums beat non-stop.
Each day there is a "swim and walk", where folks meet at one boat, swim to shore, then walk a mile or so down the beach and back.
Each afternoon, the palapa on shore serves modest fare with cheap cerveza. The palapa's tables are used for cruiser "activities". The most popular activity seemed to be "Mexican Train" dominoes, but cribbage and cards fit in there somewhere too.
Usually, the women play dominoes, while the men play bocci ball or horseshoes on the beach. This seemed a tad sexist to us, but that was our observation.
The McHale's Navy movie set on Blue Bay Beach.
McHale's Navy
In 1997, someone made an "updated" version of McHales's navy starring our favorite leading men -- Tom Arnold and Tim Curry. The movie was filmed in the Tenacatita area, and most of the original set is still on shore in Blue Bay.
The VHS tape circulates the anchorage, and no one tells the next boat requesting the tape how terrible the movie is. Very funny!
The cobblestone highway to La Manzanilla from Los Angeles Locos. Five kilometers of winding cobblestone road is impressive.
Off to "Civilization"
The north anchorage on Tenacatita Bay lies about 25 kilometers from the nearest "town" of any size. La Manzanilla is on the south eastern shore on the inside of the bay. Although it is accessible by dinghy, the strong afternoon winds usually prevent all but the large, fast dinghy's from making the trip.
The easiest way to get to La Manzanilla is to share a taxi and pay the 220 pesos (~$22US) for the round-trip fare to and from town.
The first few miles of the trip are on a harrowing cobblestone road (that one of our taxi drivers considered a suitable race course).
Just up the road from the Blue Bay Resort -- the view of the Tenacatita north anchorage.
The trip into town takes us past the large "all inclusive" Blue Bay Resort on Los Angeles Locos. Since the resort is "all inclusive", cruisers with cash are apparently not welcome to use the resort's facilities. Up the hill, there is a spa and several condos -- with a great view of Bahia Tenacatita.
After the cobblestone road turns to concrete, it is a quick 20 KM into town.
We made the trip into town several times to have laundry done, to pick up groceries, and/or to have lunch/dinner at one of the restaurants.
There is also a lagoon in town where almost all of the local North American Saltwater Crocodiles have been "relocated".
Sleepy La Manzanilla
La Manzanilla. Dirt streets, old cars, strolling gringos -- a typical Mexican coastal town.
La Manzanilla is a cute, dusty, Mexican coastal village. The streets are packed clay and dirt, and the local merchants wet the street several times a day in an effort to keep the dust down.
In addition to cruisers, several gringo residences, restaurants, and local RV trailer parks keep the town hopping with gringos.
Two Internet cafes, one ferretería (hardware store), several grocery tiendas (small stores), and a veggie truck fulfilled most cruiser needs. We explored this town several times and it is bustling compared to the small village of Tenacatita on the northwest corner of the bay.
A PRI (Mexican political party) candidate for a local election. This guy's mug appeared on every post and doorway in town.
The pretty beach at La Manzanilla. Although this was a calm day, most days would make dinghy landing a challenge.
Hola Crocodillos. This guy (an 8-10 footer) hovers in the shallows near the feeding area.
Most of his friends preferred a cool dip in the center of the lagoon.
The spirited adventurers from Tavana, Citation, Mermaid and Whisper.
Super Bowl!
One of our trips into town was to catch the Super Bowl on Mexican television. We found a TV with the appropriate channel at Palapa Joe's Restaurant in La Manzanilla.
Although the place was packed with primarily gringos, we had a great time and watched the Raiders get a good pummeling. The only group rooting for the Bucs were happy to point out that the Bucs defense scored more than the Raiders offense. Whatever. Go Niners!
Unfortunately, the great US commercials were replaced by Mexican commercials. Bummer, that is Duncan's favorite part of the Super Bowl.
A bottlenose dolphin family plays in the Tenacatita anchorage.
The Sea Life
Beside our bottom turning into a coral reef, there were plenty of other critters to keep us company. We were blessed with almost daily visits by a family of bottlenose dolphin -- mom, dad, and baby dolphin.
Small schooling fish use boats for shelter. The larger fish figure this out and hoard the fish under the boats, then attack the group of confused fish with great amounts of splashing and an occasional "wham!" against the hull. Crevalle Jacks up to 2 ft. long would feed all morning on their gathered prey.
The bottlenose dolphin hangs around Whisper. The large "bite" out his dorsal fin allows us to identify him on several trips through the anchorage.
Large Crevalle Jacks hoard fish under our hull in the morning and the evening. Too bad the big ones are described to have dark, poor tasting meat!
The Jungle Cruise
One of the big activities in Tenacatita is to take the dinghy up the river that spills into Blue Bay, then head through the mangrove swamp to Tenacatita Village and the beach at Tenacatita.
Off we go into the mangrove swamp, and Robin is still smiling!
We took two trips up the jungle river. The first trip was to get veggies from the weekly "veggie truck" and to enjoy lunch in a beachside palapa. Our second trip enlisted a squadron of friends and their dinghies to snorkel at "The Aquarium" as well as eat lunch at a palapa.
The snorkeling was excellent. It was our first example of entire "carpets" of what was once live coral (maybe some still is?) -- heading 100 yards in every direction. Although Duncan still suffered from an ear infection -- he couldn't resist snorkeling after Robin's review indicated it was the best snorkeling in Mexico -- so far. After a half-hour spin over the reef, he agreed it was worth the trip. Dozens of fish species were represented, with thousands of fish tooling around -- in all stages of development (juvenile, adult, breeding adult).
Whisper's dinghy Shout is followed by Richard and Marianne from MR Destiny (left), Rick and Corby from Emerald (center) and Bob and Cheryl from New Passage (right).
At some points along the river, it is not clear whether the way ahead is clear. Dozens of dinghies and pangas a day help keep the way clear.
Heading into the low overhang areas. Spiders, crabs, and mud-wasps own these over-hanging mangroves.
Someone ahead is stuck on this one-way street, so we must slow down -- but we eventually pass them.
A "two panga garage" at the head of the Tenacatita Lagoon.
The pay-off at the end of the Jungle Cruise. Clear turquoise water. Great beachfront palapas. Ice cold cerveza.
Relaxing in Fiesta Mexicana, the popular beachfront palapa.
The trip up the river takes an hour or so to get up the river. The best time to go is at high tide, or just before to ride the current up, then to return just after high tide, to ride the ebb out. Although the ride up is fun, the ride back can be a blast!
While we finished our lunch at the Fiesta Mexicana, we also learned that we could purchase provisions from the palapa, and they could be delivered to our boat out in Blue Bay.
The ride back through the jungle on a 2-knot ebb current, requires the dinghy to be traveling at an additional two knots through the water to maintain steerage. Clipping through the jungle canopy at 4 knots with only a few feet between the boat and the jagged edges of machete hacked mangroves -- yep, a blast!
Kayak Attack
Someone in the anchorage decided it would be cool to gather up all the anchorage kayakers in a circle, take their picture, and send it into Latitude 38 (magazine). We tooled around in Shout and captured a few pictures for us. By the end of our time in Tenacatita, we are fairly certain that we want to get an inflatable tandem kayak.
Some of this is due to discussions that we may not be ready to go to the South Pacific this year. A kayak in the Sea of Cortez can have some great advantages. Hmmm...
Danice and Larry from Ladara Star enjoy their Sterns inflatable kayaks.
Susan from Tavana with pooch Phoebe. Several larger boats can carry real "sit-on-top" sea kayaks.
The gang assembles. About 6-7 (big) boats are represented here.
Duncan takes delivery from the Fiesta Mexicana panga. Beer, ice, rum, limes -- the essentials
SOCA Night on Whisper
During a "percussion party" on Emerald one evening, we decided to host a SOCA party on Whisper. Emerald has a an entire stash of great percussion instruments, but we were having trouble playing along with old rock songs and suggested that we needed music with a real percussion section (noise snobs). For this, we suggested that SOCA might fit the bill, and an evening aboard Whisper (with Emerald and their instruments) was scheduled.
SOCA is "Soul-Calypso" out of Trinidad, and is primarily "Party music for Carnival". We couldn't wait until Carnival, so we had our SOCA night in January! Whisper may have been the first boat in Tenacatita to have a conga line around the decks! We were considerate, however, and the boat was "whisper quiet" by 8PM.
Robin, with Corby (Emerald), and Richard and Marianne (MR Destiny).
John and MJ from Island Sonata. Our first "music night" cruising was hosted by Island Sonata when we were in Mazatlán.
Chris (Spirit Wind), Rick (Emerald), and Christine (Spirit Wind).
Corby, Rick, and our new favorite clown -- Chris from Spirit Wind.
MR Destiny at anchor in Tenacatita.
Make up your mind already!
Somewhere into our second week of enjoying Tenacatita, we realized we were getting extremely short on time for South Pacific preparations.
We still did not have charts, cruising guides, or insurance for a trip to the South Pacific. We needed a weather routing plan/service, a course mapped out, a provisioning plan, and more importantly -- our French visas.
We wanted to acquire several spares and replacements (a pain to get in Mexico) before departing. The genset is still misbehaving -- and although closer to a solution, we don't have the parts or a fix yet. We also need our life-raft re-packed.
With just about five weeks to get everything ready to go, the plan to get to Zihuatanejo leaves us a few weeks to get ready. Hmmmm, shift back in to preparation mode or keep playing on the Gold Coast?
In typical Robin & Duncan behavior, we decided to put together a spreadsheet with possible revisions to our plans, budgets for each, and impacts on the overall cruising plan.
Bottom line. After crunching the numbers, searching our souls and evaluating the options, we decided to push the South Pacific (or Caribbean as a more serious possibility) out one year -- and we will go see the Sea of Cortez this year instead. This took a huge pressure off of us! As newbie cruisers, we don't deal well with schedule pressure. Now we are officially back to goofing off and enjoying it thoroughly.
Actually, we are very much enjoying our planning for both the Sea of Cortez and a long car trip back to the USA this summer (July & August). Stay tuned for more on this in our next update.
Robin getting her dental cleaning and inspection. Duncan is the "light", but he's taking the picture.
Robin's Semi-annual Dental Check-up
Well, if you can't get back to the USA to see your usual dentist, let a dentist come to you! We first met Rick (and Corby) from Emerald in Morro Bay -- he sold his dental practice and was getting ready to go cruising.
Seven months later, here we are in Tenacatita with Emerald. Rick offered his services to Robin -- and she took him up on it. A basic scaling, cleaning, flossing, and inspection.
It looks great, and she's good to go for another 6 months!
Off to Barra!
With the big decisions out the way for now, where should we go next? Barra de Navidad is just 12 nautical miles south of there. The reports on Barra are onstanding. We are looking forward to sitting in the marina there for a spell while we wash the boat, catch up on laundry, do some projects, and explore Barra de Navidad.