0930. 18-Dec-14 Anchor up, wind on our nose. It is a hazy morning and the seas are flat calm. Fresh squeezed orange juice being served in the cockpit.
Destination is Bahias Huatulco. This area is comprised of a rocky shoreline with 9 beautiful bays and 39 sandy beaches. It is a welcome haven for boaters waiting for a weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepac. It is our second last coastal destination before leaving Mexico.
This is a special area of Mexico that has found a balance between unspoiled natural splendor and all grades of accommodations and modern roads and facilities. It is an area where visitors can enjoy the beauty of nature in the daytime and then retreat to comfort by night. Or in the case of cruisers, to go back and forth between isolated pristine bays and busy interesting towns.
This entire area was part of an ambitious project by FONATUR, a branch of Mexico's Tourist Development arm. It did not take off as did Cancun but I am glad it did not. The 21000 hectares of land was expropriated and the original small local communities were relocated to Crucecita. They were given a panga ( fishing boat) or a taxi. The cruise ship dock was built at Santa Cruz. And the nearby town of Crucecita has good shopping and restaurants and several less expensive hotels. When they were developing the area they built a wonderful network of highways between the bay's and updated the water system. Our Marina is one of the few in Mexico where we have potable water on the dock!
1250 abeam of Bahia San Agustin.
1320 abeam Bahia Chachacual. We can actually see the masts of three sailboats in the bay. We contemplated going in and checking out who's who but we had just turned the motor off and had the sails up, cruising along at 4.2 knots. So we decided to just enjoy the sailing - after all this is a sailboat and we are sailors!
1430 We poked our nose into Bahia Maguey and liked what we saw.
1445 The anchor has been dropped in 15 feet of water. The water is so clear we can see our anchor. It did not take me long to get into the water. Beautiful!
This is a typical Mexican beach with palapas ( thatched roof semi- permanent beach restaurants). The floor is sand and the tables are plastic. Most of them serve fresh fish many different ways and tacos and of course, cerveza (beer) and other refreshments. During the day the beach is full of tourists - mostly Mexican - and banana boats and sea-dos and people swimming. But at 1700 the tour boats take all the people away and it is just us!
The shoreline entering these small bays is quite rocky which makes for great snorkeling and the head of the bays are sandy. They look like miniature Batchewana's ( a beautiful Bay on Lake Superior) and are great for swimming.
Friday morning we got up and I made up a batter for pancakes with grated Apple and cinnamon. I turned on the solenoid and went to light the stove but nothing happened. I noticed that the solenoid light was not on. Oh yeh! Another thing to go wrong. Dave, from Pacifico had given us an old spare so David decided to replace it. The only problem - one end fit perfectly but the other end required an adaptor which we did not have. Why can't they make these things universal? So another thing to add to our parts list.
But what about my pancake batter? And good thing we had already had our coffee! Well, my brother, Paul, cooks lots of things in a frying pan on his barbeque. So how about barbequed pancakes? I put my fish grate on top of the barbeque grate and then put the frying pan on that. It actually worked really well and the pancakes, complete with St. Joe's Island maple syrup, were wonderful.
About an hour later, as we were preparing to leave, David went to turn on the starter battery switch. He noticed that the AFT cabin breaker was off. Now we never turn this breaker off as it also gives power to our propane solenoid and wouldn't have even thought to check it. So why was it off? The only thing we can think of is that is is next to the breaker for the Nav lights. Maybe we hit it when we were turning the Nav lights off. Who knows?
So we turned it on and the solenoid was fine and we were back being able to use the stove. We did manage to laugh about this one. And for those who do not know - a solenoid is an electronic shut off switch built in as part of the safety requirements for our propane. If we lose power it will automatically shut off the flow of propane to the stove.
By the time we finish this adventure, I may not know how to fix most of these things but at least I will know what they are called and their function. And if you are paying attention you will too!
This exercise got me thinking though. Our barbeque is on it's last legs and under certain conditions we would not be able to use it. So what would we do if our stove was also out of commission? What do I have on board that does not require cooking? I must keep this in mind as I provision for the big crossing.
The next couple of days were spent at the next bay - Santa Cruz. The Port Captain is located here along with the cruise ship terminal.
Thank goodness it does not arrive until the 29th as I imagine this area would be quite busy when it is in port. This town is a busy tourist area so it was not as quiet - Mexicans start the music around 2100 hours just as we are going to bed and continue on til 0300 or so! But the town is clean, lots of good restaurants and shops and the water is wonderful.
We spent 3 nights at this bay and then went back to Maguey for another night - for some peace and quiet. It is only 3 nm away. Then we went into the marina at Bahia Chahue for Christmas.
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