15 December 2005
Tenacatita
We enjoyed our time in Bahia Chamela, and this time spent most nights anchored off of the village of Punta Perula (aka La Fortuna). One windy day put us on a lee shore so we moved out to the islands for a night, and visited our second favorite deserted beach. The water temp is in the high 70's so we're swimming every day again, which is practically a necessity given the much higher humidity. Unfortunately the two things I most wanted to do in Punta Perula didn't work out this visit. The panaderia (normally open only on the weekends) was closed because the baker was in Guadalajara, and our favorite taco place (again open only on Saturday and Sunday nights) didn't open until 8 PM which was just too late for us to bother with by ourselves. The only reason we even discovered it last year is because we got to drinking margaritas on Maggie Drum and went in to town so late that it was about the only thing still open!
The best thing about our visit occurred by pure chance on Sunday night. First we decided not to go in to town for tacos. Then we turned down a dinner invitation from Secret O' Life (that's how tired we were from the long hike we took with them in the afternoon). Long after sunset we were hailed by them on the VHF to turn on our Christmas lights, which we'd forgotten to do, so there was some chit-chat on the radio with them about how everyone's lights looked. If it hadn't been for all of the above we never would have received a hail from Finisterre letting us know that they had arrived in the anchorage after dark (so they didn't know we were there until they heard us on the radio) and were leaving before dawn the next morning! Their dinghy was stowed on deck so we rowed over for a visit and got to see the "new" Finisterre, glowing white in the moonlight. Yes, since they're headed for Central America Mike convinced Kay to give up their hot dark blue hull for the coolness of white. It looks great and they had only good things to say about the work done by Opequimar in Puerto Vallarta. It was a bittersweet visit since we know we won't be seeing them for some time, but I would have been so disappointed to have missed them. Talk about almost passing ships in the night!
From Chamela we sailed to Careyes on Tuesday and spotted five turtles along the way, two of which appeared to be very attached to each other, we hope on purpose. Careyes is a beautiful spot but the sound and sight of surf pounding on the surrounding rocks (which are lit by spotlights at night!) is unnerving to say the least. We anchored in front of the deserted Club Med where there is only a little sand covering the coral. Our stern anchor drug a bit during the night which put us sideways to the large swell. We ferried 50 gallons of water from the hose at the cement pad near the base of the center palm tree on Playa Rosa. This was accomplished by anchoring the dinghy outside the surf at high tide. I jumped in the surf and waded to shore to fetch the hose and wade it back out to John in the dinghy, where he filled our five garrafons. During our second trip we watched the photo shoot in the corner of the beach. Everyone was fully clothed so guess it wasn't a swimsuit shoot!
After clearing the anchorage we set sail at 11 AM from Careyes bound for Tenacatita. Had a lovely slow sail with our big jib until it got really light and John set the spinnaker. Saw whales, rays, bill fish, and dolphins, but no turtles (attached or otherwise). Unfortunately the breeze was too light by the time we rounded the corner into the bay and we had to motor the last 45 minutes to the anchorage. We are set bow and stern anchor close against the western shore (Dragonfly's spot last year) with seven other boats. We'll probably stay here until Overheated arrives from La Paz with our goodies, and then go into Barra de Navida a few days before Christmas.
Linda and John