02/06/2003 - 03/05/2003
Barra de Navidad's beach is another beautiful Gold Coast beach
All Ears
Somewhere between Chamela and Tenacatita, Duncan developed an issue with his ear. No matter how many concoted home remedies or International Ship's Medical Guide treatments of warm oil we put in his ear, the problem did not go away. With reports of other cruisers discovering tiny crabs and other things in their ears, we both started to envision an alien crawling out of Duncan's ear at some inappropriate time.
Besides wanting to visit Barra de Navidad, a primary purpose for leaving Tenacatita and heading to Barra de Navidad was to investigate the need for an alien extraction from Duncan's ear.
Unlike our arrival in Bahia Tenacatita, the bay delivered a calm and windless morning for our departure to Barra de Navidad. Avoiding long lines deployed by fisherman proved to be the biggest challenge of the day. Twelve miles later and long line free, Whisper and crew arrived in Barra de Navidad. With caution, we entered the narrow, shallow channel. To the right, the splendid Grand Bay Hotel peeked through the palm trees. On the left, the town of Barra de Navidad looked like an oasis after several weeks in anchorages with only tiny villages. Upon entering the marina, we realized that this is where the mega-yachts come to play. Given our propensity to enjoy fancy places, the Grand Bay resort looks like it may live up to its reputation.
Overlooking Barra from Grand Bay resort
One of Barra's many charming streets
First visit to a doctor in Mexico
The first order of business was Duncan's ear issue. Several folks recommended an English speaking doctor named Dr. Linda Rubio. With directions in hand, the water taxi transported us from the marina across the lagoon to the town of Barra de Navidad. The door next to the Farmacia Rubio was both the entrance to the doctor's office as well as the entrance to her house. In perfect English, Dr. Rubio asked Duncan a few questions about his ear problem and inspected both ears with the ear-looker-in thingie. Then, she drew a picture of an ear on a piece of paper. The diagram included markings indicating where Duncan's ear was infected. Happily, no alien like objects or crab figurines appeared on the drawing. Dr. Rubio prescribed antibiotics, ear drops and ear steroids for the infection. Robin relished in the advice of the doctor on Q-tips after years of nagging about the negative effects of using Q-tips. As Dr. Rubio convinced Duncan of the issues with using Q-tips, Robin grinned smugly.
Bob and Cheryl are now on their way to Central America
Going To Town
With drugs in hand, we trundled off to a restaurant to meet Bob and Cheryl from the boat New Passage. With fears of crabs or aliens waylaid, we enjoyed a fun lunch with friends. Wandering around town wet our appetite for the many restaurants, groceries and shops offered by Barra de Navidad (aka Barra). Relative to many Mexico towns, Barra is clean and quaint. No timeshare salesman accost visitors walking on the beach or street side. During the month in Barra, we sampled several tasty Mexican restaurants as well as Italian, French and American Burger joint. The diversity allowed us to thankfully break away from our diet of chips, salsa, tortillas, cheese and chicken.
Burgers, shakes and fries. Oh My!
Bueno! Something other than Mexican food
Christ of the Cyclone
As in all of Mexico, churches play a huge role in the community. The San Antonio church is in the main square in town. As a result of damage from the earthquake, church services were held in the square. According to Lonely Planet, this church has a very powerful history. The primary symbol is the the Christ figure hanging on the cross over the altar. Christ's arms are not outstretched as most figures of Christ on the cross. " On September 1, 1971, when Hurricane Lily hit Barra de Navidad and the surrounding area with full force, the statue's arms came down from the cross without falling to the ground. Locals believe that when Christ's arms fell, it calmed the hurricane and saved the town. Ever since, they have believed that el Cristo del Ciclon has miraculous powers."
We visited the town just north of Barra called San Patricio-Melaque (aka Melaque). The patron saint of the town is St. Patrick which explains why the town is famous for its week long St. Patrick's Day celebration. The Fiesta de San Patricio sounds like a blast with parties, rodeos, carnival, music, dances and fireworks.
Surfin' the Web on Mexico Time
After several weeks without internet access, both Robin and Duncan started feeling geekdom withdrawals. We quickly discovered several internet cafes in Barra. Our favorite internet cafe was Alice's Restaurant. On a couple of occasions, the town of Barra's phone system was down furthering the symptoms of withdrawals. At the rip roaring speed of somewhere between 28K and 56K, we surfed the web and updated this website.
You can get anything you want (on the web) at Alice's Restaurant
Your trusty computer geeks
Elegance abounds at the Grand Bay Resort
Livin' In Luxury
From the moment we entered the Grand Bay Resort marina, we felt fortunate to be staying at a luxury resort for only $55 US a night. The Spanish colonial architecture gave a Mediterranian feel to the resort. The amenities including restaurants, pools, country clubs and abridged New York Times newspaper received our full attention. On the night of our arrival, we attended the "Manager's Cocktail Party" in the Lobby Bar. At first, we wondered if low-life cruisers such as ourselves were welcome at the event. Amazingly to us, everyone from the marina and hotel was welcome to hors d'ouevres and drinks on the house.
What a marina!
Mega yachts filled the marina. The 205 foot yacht Lady Lola took honors as the biggest yacht with the largest crew. A crew of nineteen people sworn to secrecy on the identity of the owners supported Lady Lola. Another yacht not only wanted the option to travel by water but also by air. Check out the helicopter taking off from this boat.
With an upscale clientele, business opportunities abound for local entrepreneurs. Every morning, a transplanted French man delivers freshly baked croissants and baguettes to the marina. Water taxis provide transportation within the lagoon as well as snorkeling trips to Tenacatita. A local woman, Maria, established a great shopping service for boaters. We provide her with a big list of needed provisions such as food, wine and paper products. Her husband travels to Guadalajara a few times a week and acquires the requested items. Then, they deliver everything right to the boat. It is a fantastic version of Web Van without all the overhead.
Upscale digs for a couple of unemployed folks
Baked goods from the French Baker arrive every morning
After Robin's week long bout with a virus, the decision to stay in Barra for a month was made for us. There is a significant price break at the marina for staying a month. The break even point is at about two weeks. Oh well, staying here for a month must be done. Poor us. Besides the benefits of resort living, we managed to get to visit with several friends. Dinner at Fortinos with John and MJ from Island Sonata introduced us to the best shrimp tacos on the planet. Brunch at the Grand Bay Country club with Roger and Judy from Penn Station gave us a chance to check out the golf course. Movie night on the 69 foot Cheoy Lee powerboat, Lioness, allowed us to visit with friends Kate and Jim while sitting in air conditioning. What a treat!
After we weaseled huge qualities of Yellowfin tuna from a sportfishing boat, Marianne and Richard from MR Destiny joined us on Whisper for a sushi night. Marianne brought sushi rice, sushi fixins and rolling kit. Both sashimi and sushi rolls melted in our mouths.
No, No, the sauce goes in the roll not on Marianne
Rolling our own
Busy defining plans to change
The original plan to head south to Santiago Bay and Zihuatenejo from Barra de Navidad dissolved while sitting by the pool. The decision to stay in Mexico until next spring opened up a plethora of options for the next year. You should see the spreadsheet. Perhaps while sliding down the pool slide or sitting in the shallow pool fondly entitled by us as "Tourist on a Half Shell", we decided to save Santiago Bay and Zihuantenejo for next winter. Somewhere in Tenacatita, friends Chris and Chris on Spirit Wind mentioned their acquisition of a SportMobile for an upcoming road trip back in the US. Hmmmm, a road trip back in the US. Let's steal that idea and plan our own road trip. The plan-du-jour, as laid out by the pool in Barra with flowcharts and spreadsheets, is to sail in the Sea of Cortez until July. Then, Whisper will stay in San Carlos, Mexico while we return to the US for a two month road trip. In September, we will continue sailing in the Sea of Cortez until we head to Zihuantenejo in November. Of course, this is all subject to lots of change and wishy-washy-ness.
The obligatory picture of one of us while we are sailing
Migrating North
The time to migrate north finally arrived as the month in the marina drew to a close and the plans for friends, Todd & Lara, to visit in Puerto Vallarta solidified. Bashing north in to the prevailing northwest winds tends not to be the fun part of the trip. If the wind out of the north is light, the plan is go north as fast as possible around Cabo Corrientes into Banderas Bay. If the wind is really windy from the north, the plan is to tuck in to an anchorage until the wind calms down or switches to the south. According to the main weather forecaster, the window for heading north in light winds existed, but the window was small.
We left Barra and conditions were favorable for traveling north. As we neared our first potential anchorage, we decided to continue north and try to get around Cabo Corrientes. Around 3:30 pm, the wind picked up to 15 to 20 knots from the north. The swell from the north west was around 6 feet. The favorable current was around 1 knot. The combination of wind, swell and current caused a condition of steep waves that were very close together. In general, the motion is very uncomfortable. Typically, this calms down at sunset. At this point, we are bashing 15 miles north of Chamela.
What a difference eight hours makes
Anxiously, we awaited sunset to see whether the conditions would improve. Nope! Now we are over 20 miles north of Chamela and 20 miles south of the next anchorage, Ipala. Seven o'clock. Still bashing. Eight o'clock. Still bashing and even more wind. After listening to the evening weather on the SSB, it sounded like our favorable window shut, but the window would open for a small period of time between 6am and 12 noon. Decision time. Should we go in to Ipala and anchor in the dark or continue bashing?
With little prospect of sleep, we decided to perform our first night anchoring in Ipala. A couple of factors made us a little more comfortable. First, we anchored in Ipala on the way down the coast and still had the GPS coordinates for where we anchored. Secondly, our friends on Island Sonata were already in the anchorage. They offered, via VHF, to turn on their deck lights when we got close to the anchorage. Even with these positives, anchoring in the dark is scary proposition. Fortunately, we anchored without any issues even though the dark is very disorienting. Thanks for the lights, Island Sonata.
Home Sweet Home
The decision to anchor in the dark versus continue bashing in uncomfortable conditions proved to be a good decision. The morning greeted us with calm seas and little wind. As we motored around Cabo Corrientes, several whales spouted and tons of turtles welcomed us back to Bahia de Banderas. The plan for the day was to anchor out for a few days in La Cruz until the date of our reservation at Paradise Village. Robin chatted with several other boats while we powered into the bay. "Whisper, Whisper, this is Dick Markie at Paradise Village" blared the VHF. Dick, the harbormaster at the marina, eagerly asked us when we were getting to Paradise Village marina and welcomed us home. Before we knew it, we were back in a slip in Paradise Village.