On a sad note, our outboard motor broke down while motoring into the marina at Las Hadas on Wednesday, and so it is now back to rowing everywhere. Thank goodness this didn�t happen on our �jungle cruise� in Tenacatita. It would have been a long, long row back to the boat.
On Friday, May 2, we departed Manzanillo at 7:30 p.m. heading next to Zihuatanejo, about 190 miles further south. During this leg, we sailed only about three hours and motored the rest, arriving in Bahia de Zihuatanejo around 9 a.m. on Sunday, May 4. We anchored right in front of the town and behind the local boats as we didn�t want to have to row too far.
Zihuatanejo is by far most cruisers� favorite spot in Mexico, and we can definitely see why. It is quite picturesque and charming while still maintaining its local Mexican village atmosphere. There are many conveniently located services, and the town has a wonderful market. Every Sunday evening there is free entertainment at the Town Square. Many families come in for the evening and lots of little food booths are set up for the event. Fishing is still one of the town�s industries and many fishing pangas line the beach. During the week many will go out at night and return in the morning with their catch and sell to the fishing vendors located on the beach. While we were there, the fishing pangas became our local alarm clock as they would pass right by our boat about 6:30 a.m. each morning on their way to shore.
Unfortunately, Zihuatanejo was an open anchorage, and the swells in the bay at times were very noticeable. After five days in Zihuatanejo we had two days of 8 to 10 foot swells and larger than normal surf. It made for a very uncomfortable anchorage plus also very tricky landings on the beach. On Saturday we swamped the dinghy. The wave came straight into the dinghy just as we were arriving at shore. Naturally we got wet, but luckily all items of value were doubly wrapped and so nothing was lost. This was definitely a first for us!
We had planned to linger in Zihuatanejo for two to three weeks, but we realized soon after our arrival that the hurricane season was arriving faster than originally predicted. Thus, we have decided to cut short our stay in Zihuatanejo and plan to depart tomorrow, Monday, May 12, for Acapulco. The present plan is to be south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec before the last week in May. It is in the Gulf of Tehuantepec that the hurricanes spawn, and we are concerned about pushing the time limit. If an early depression occurs and we are north of the Gulf of Tehuantepec, there is really no good place to weather out the storm. |
