2965 hours on the engine
Isla Grande is a beautiful island with 3 Sandy beaches and a collection of palapa restaurants serving a variety of fresh seafood specialties. This place comes alive in the daytime with a steady stream of panga's bringing tourists from the Mainland for a day of swimming and snorkeling and eating. It is interesting to see the first boats arrive carrying the staff and food supplies for the day. But by nightfall the bay completely empties out and all the tourists and workers are transported off.
We had a lovely relaxed day just watching the activity from the boat. We reset the take up line for the Genoa. David took a look at the water maker, replaced the prefilters and got it working again. He had originally put in a 10 and 5 micron filter to increase the purity of the water but this made the water make work too hard. So these were replaced with a 20 and 30 filter. Thank goodness it had tripped the breaker before it burnt out.
The water here is beautiful so it gets 3 stars from me. I got in the water and spent some time cleaning the water line and Doing laps around the boat. There is a lot of boat traffic in and around the bay so I did not want to venture to shore until my captain to motor beside me in the dinghy.
There are no bugs here, which is a treat, so we were able to dine outside in the cockpit. We had a Canadian dinner with steak and garlic mashed potatoes and pepper, onion,mushroom gravy. Then it was early to bed where we enjoyed a full night of uninterrupted sleep. The temperature had dropped, yes I said dropped, to a pleasant 25C and there was a slight breeze coming through the foreword hatch. Very pleasant!
Woke up to fresh coffee and toast and peanut butter and homemade raspberry jam. The captain does not cook many of the meals but I do not mind as having coffee delivered to the v-berth every morning is good enough for me!
Took a few pictures of the anchorage before the tourists arrived.
Early morning swim. We decided to stay another day as the swimming was too perfect. We took the dinghy to shore and walked over to Coral Beach where Gervasio guided us around the cliffs and through the woods to a few vistas. The beach is a natural reserve known for snorkeling. We had a wonderful prawn and Dorado ceviche, cerveza and lemonada and David got to practice his spanish.
I swam back to the boat with David close by. We checked out the marina in Ixtapa. The rates were a little high at $39 per day but it would not have mattered anyway as they have not been dredging the channel and it was reported to be only 5 feet. And our boat needs more than 6. We found out later that the marina has been allowed to get run down a bit so it is probably a good thing that we did not waste our time or money. We may take the bus there from Zihuatanjo to at least check out the Chandlery.
So we decided to stay anchored another day which pleased me as that meant another day of swimming! We went into the Playa Veradara for lunch. It was a bit pricey but it was one of the best fish tacos and shrimp tacos that we have had in Mexico so far. I had also checked out some of the vendors the day before and wanted a second look. The Onyx carver was back so we bought two tortugas (turtles) - two souvenirs or one souvenir and one present. And I bought 2 bathing suits for about $30 as one of my new ones from Victoria is already almost worn out - many hours in a chlorinated pool or salt water or sun every day - as I pretty well live in them - guess they are just not made for that kind of wear and tear. Anyway I was happy and the price was right!
Iztapa across the bay.
I swam back to the boat. We secured everything and lifted the anchor at 1445.
1600: noticed a burning electical odor coming from inside the boat. The alternator had gone into AC overload and had shut down. David will have to investigate when we get to Zihuatanejo.
1653: dropped the anchor in Zihuat. We chose the anchorage closer to town, even though it is not the most favorable of the anchorages, to get out of the swell and exposure to the southerly winds.
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