Zihautanejo, Mexico
Saturday March 1, 2008
Most of today was spent stripping paint off the hatch. It leaked pretty badly on the way down so the boys stripped the workings out and we all started chipping away at the paint to get it ready for epoxying. Mel and Aaron lasted about 1hour 30 mins then got a call from Sweet Loraine who were heading into shore. They jumped at the offer to get off the boat and decided to head over to Playa Las Gatos and do some snorkelling. No stamina for work the youth of today! No they´ve earned a day off. Tonight Jimmy Mamou is playing at Rick´s Bar so that´s where we can be found. Jimmy is always such a pleasure to watch let alone being skilled in numerous instruments and having a great voice. So much talent in one bundle.
Sunday March 2, 2008
Continued work on the Hatch. Mel and Aaron cleaned the bottom of the boat, a challenging job in the five foot swell we have coming through the anchorage at the moment. We have enormous waves breaking about 500 meters behind us onto the shore. We´ve been fine through the days though as the wind holds us facing into the swell. Still five foot waves makes for continuous movement, especially when added to the refraction from the shore, which doesn´t make a pleasant working environment. Robin endures like a trooper. Tonight we have the first day of Guitar Fest which is what we stayed the two extra days for. We are just doing the opening event as we need to get underway. The evening starts at 6pm and showcases all the artists who will be playing over the next 10days. Should be a very entertaining evening especially since Michelle´s favorite performer from last year will be there. San Luis Cabo will also be playing and we enjoy him immensely. We even have his CD which we purchased last year when we were here. We´ve been in Mexico so long we know the local talent.
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| Zihuatanejo Shoreline right behind the boat! |
Monday March 3, 2008
This morning we are finishing up the hatch, provisioning the boat and checking out with the port captain. It´s the usual cleaning, stowing, preparing day, getting ready to sail tomorrow. Mel and Aaron present Michelle with a new camera as the old one has been playing up recently so she has a new toy to play with now. Stand by for some interesting pics in the weeks to come. We made Aaron pose for this shot. Should we sell this pic?
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| Aaron striking a pose |
We said goodbye to Aaron this evening. He caught the bus back to Puerto Vallarta and back to work. We will miss him as he´s been a ton of fun, not to mention a great help. No doubt Mel will miss him too as they were of an age to get up to much mischief together. We leave for Acapulco tomorrow. Finally the next leg of our adventure is about to begin. From now on we get to see new sights. The last time we saw something new was San Carlos/Guymas area last September after we returned from Australia. Since then all we´ve done is retrace our steps and done boat maintenance. So as you can imagine we´re pretty excited to get going again.
Tuesday March 4, 2008
We finally got going around midday today. We got the hatch cover reassembled, and got prepared to head on out. Robin ran ashore quickly to pick up some muriatic acid which was supposed to be delivered this morning but when he got there of course they said those famous mexican words, "manana". We dropped some DVDs off at Sweet Loraine, said our goodbyes and lifted the anchor. We were finally off. We motored out of the bay, raised the mainsail, aimed at Roca Negra and recalibrated the radar as we´d noticed it was about 10 degrees out on our sail down from Puerto Vallarta. With that done we set our sights for Rocas Potosi, a group of islands six miles south which span a mile west off the coast. There´s deep water on all sides so we opted to pass between the first one and the mainland, a small pleasant diversion, even though there was considerable haze. The rest of the trip down to Acapulco was fairly uneventful. There was very little wind the entire trip, and I think we managed to sail about 10 hours of the 20 hours total voyage. Sealife was abundant with numerous turtles, dolphins, boobies, and a new bird we hadn´t seen before, a White Tailed Tropic Bird with a gorgeous long tail which, when floating on the water arches up like a roosters tail. There was still quite a considerable swell although being out on the ocean it wasn´t too noticeable. The waves breaking on the shore though were spectacular, bursting many meters into the air. We were able to travel just two miles offshore along this stretch of sandy beach coast, as there were no hazards, so the shore break provided quite the show for miles on end.
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| Potosi Rocks through the haze - nice wave break! |
We all did three hour shifts overnight, Robin taking the first shift 9pm to midnight although Michelle actually let him sleep till 10pm, Mel took over at midnight til 3am and then Michelle did 3am till 6am. The extra person for night duty really makes a difference. We weren´t nearly as tired the next day.
Acapulco, Mexico
Wednesday March 5, 2008
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| Fancy Garden Light |
Such excitement today although we could seriously do with a bit less of it in our lives. We arrived outside of Acapulco Bay around 2:30pm this afternoon, enjoying the view of urban sprawl up the sides of the mountains, the numerous hotels and freeways crisscrossing across the hills which line the shore. We entered Boca Chica, a small channel between Isla Rogueta and the shore on the North East side of the Bay. We came around the corner, watching a cliff diver jump and suddenly our transmission totally died. We now had no engine YET AGAIN. Sigh. So Robin reefs the mainsail down unfurls the jib and sails across the bay towards the cruise ship terminal, tacks back further into the anchorage area, around moored boats and anchored vessels, furls the jib, Michelle drops the anchor and calls back the mainsail. Robin looks at Melissa and goes, ummm, I dunno what that means but suddenly he figures it out and we fall backwards and the anchor grabs and we´d done our first perfect anchor under sail in the middle of a busy harbor. We were in 75 feet of water, and it was about as good as we could get as the rest of the anchorage is taken up with mooring balls. We just hope the anchor holds as a good 15knot breeze, that very wind we were chasing all the way down the coast and never caught, has arrived in the anchorage now that we have no engine. There shall be no dragging allowed.
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| If you look closely you can see the cliff diver about to jump |
We sat on the boat for a good hour making sure we were securely set. Robin dinghied over to a few boats to ask questions and mechanics, mooring balls etc and finally we decided the boat wasn´t going anywhere and we could head ashore for a bit. As we climbed in the dinghy, a sailboat arrived which was having trouble picking up their mooring so we stopped by to give them a helping hand and then headed on in for a refreshing margherita and some information gathering. We had a couple of drinks ashore, questioning the barman who spoke vary little english and a mechanic arrived who made an appointment to see us in the morning. That having been settled, we decided to head back to the boat, cook dinner and promptly fell into bed. Looks like we´ll be in Acapulco a little longer than we planned. Life is never dull.
Thursday March 6, 2008
We went ashore this morning to the Yacht Club to see if we could arrange a mooring ball, some showers and internet access. We got a very unpleasant surprise at the cost. They wanted 50 US dollars per day (that was discounted down from 75) for the mooring ball, another 30 US dollars a day for the dinghy dock, which did include use of showers and swimming pool, and another 10 US dollars per day for internet. Robin looked at Michelle and said we´ll stay anchored thank you very much. They must think you are insane to pay those kind of prices. A dock in Puerto Vallarta, complete with electricity and water, showers and swimming pool access was only 25 US dollars per day. There´s no way in hell we´d pay 90 US dollars a day for a mooring ball.
We arrived back at the boat to find Vincente waiting for us, a local Mexican with some of his own mooring balls. He could give us a mooring for 10 US dollars per day, free dinghy access, a ton of local information and a cheery smile. How could we resist such an offer. So we lifted the anchor, Robin and Vincente in two dinghies guided us towards the mooring which wasn´t far, Melissa steered and Michelle picked up the mooring. It all went without a hitch. So now we feel a little safer and can relax without worrying about dragging. It was nice to note when we lifted the anchor that it had dug in nicely. So there probably wasn´t much to worry about anyway.
Robin stayed on the boat for the rest of the day working on the Transmission. He figured he´d better check the strainer to see if it was blocked as that could possibly cause a loss of fluid to the hydraulics. It was not to be the problem so tomorrow we have a mechanic coming out to remove it and pull it apart and see what is wrong. Michelle and Melissa dropped the laundry off and went exploring the lay of the land. We discovered the biggest market we´ve yet seen in Mexico. There were fruit stalls in amongst hardware shops, clothes shops, kitchenware, flower stalls, cheese and dairy, and hot food stalls. The only place that was separate was the meat section. It was quite the voyage of discovery trying to work out where everything was as there seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to the place. It was just simply amazing. We spent about an hour wandering the market then headed back down to the waterfront to find an information booth. We then hiked all the way from the cruiseship terminal around the bay to a tiny bay opposite Isla Roqueta called Bahia Caleta. It is lined with palapa restaurants and as it was 3pm we decided a couple of refreshing ales and a quick snack was in order. We caught the bus back to where we´d left the dinghy and headed back to Warrior where we collapsed for the evening. Michelle cooked a chicken curry, we cracked a bottle of red and relaxed outside gazing on the millions of lights ringing the bay.
Friday March 7, 2008
Michelle and Mel went ashore first thing this morning to clear in with the port captain who is also the harbor master for the Yacht Club Marina. He was not at all impressed that we managed to score a mooring ball for 10 dollars a day. Tough! We cleared in, then headed back to the boat in time for the mechanic to arrive and the boys began removing the Transmission. Two and a half hours later the verdict was the Vibration Damper had gone. It was a mangled mess actually. After this little chore was achieved we all headed in for much needed and much welcomed showers. How enjoyable are the simple things in life, those things you take for granted as a landlubber.
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| The mangled parts of the Vibration Damper |
Tonight we hiked over to La Quebrada to watch the cliff divers (clavadistas). There were seven clavadistas in total, all of various skill, some as young as 14 by the looks of it, and they jumped from spotlit ledges at various heights on the cliffs into the swirling surf below. We may go back again and sit in the restuarant overlooking the dive sit as they were truly skillful to watch. After the performance we wandered down the hill into the city centro, visited the Moorish-looking cathedral, complete with onion-shaped blue bulb and yellow spires that dominates the main plaza (Plaza Alvarez). The guide book says that the cathedral was actually constructed from parts of an uncompleted movie theatre. The fig-tree shaded main square was packed with activity, dramas, clowns performing and a Mayan refugee from the past popped his head in for the show. There was life music, mariachi, people sitting watching people, a very happening place. We found a restaurant upstairs overlooking the plaza, the cruiseship terminal and the part of the Bay of Acapulco and spent the remainder of the evening watching the festivities.
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| Cliffside Statue! | Dive Site! | Dude! |
Saturday March 8, 2008
Mel dragged Robin to the Mercado Central this afternoon as he wanted to visit the Ferreteria´s there. The wandered around generally getting up to mischief and arrived back with 2kilos of the freshest prawns we´ve seen in quite a while. Not a stitch of Meta nor blackleg in them. So it was garlic prawns, white wine and a wonderful relaxing evening spent on the boat. Ah life can be so good.
Sunday March 9, 2008
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| Acapulco Bay |
We decided to play tourist again today. We got up early this morning, Mel made us all coffee and we headed off to the zocolo for a quick bite to eat, before hiking up to the old Fuerte de San Diego, a fully restored five-sided fort originally built in 1616 atop a hill to protect the trade galleons from pirates. One of those pirates was the reknowned Sir Francis Drake. The fort had to be rebuilt after the 1776 earthquake, which damaged most of Acapulco. Apparently it remains basically unchanged today for the most part although I can´t imagine the posh doors and white-wash and yellow-wash paint was part of the original structure.
The fort also houses the Museo Historico de Acapulco which just happened to have free entry on Sundays. Bonus. We wandered around the 15 rooms, learning about the Yopes and Tepuztecos, the native inhabitants at the time of the Spanish arrival in the early 16th Century. Then there was a history lesson on Acapulco´s historical importance as a port, with exhibits explaining the tornavuelta (the fastest return route from Manilla to Nueva Espana), exhibits of the galleons and the treasure they carried and a bit of history concerning the famous buccaneers and pirates who tried and often succeeded in robbing the ships. Overall an hour and a half well spent.
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| One of the Natives | Galleon San Pedro de Cardena | Food Storage Cave |
Next we hiked a few hundred steps back downhill and dropped in at the Casa de las Mascaras, a mask museum. They had quite a variety of masks, some most unusual but Michelle was diasppointed they didn´t have many based on the Mayan civilizations which were heavily into silver. Nevertheless it was interesting.
Our next stop was the Mercado de Artesenias but mostly it was just tourist stalls with very little in the way of local handcrafts which were the basis of the stalls in Zihuatanejo. We thought since we were drawing closer to the state of Oaxaca they´re would be more in the way of handmade goods. Feeling defeated we trundled off back to the Zocolo where we sat at Cafe Astoria, watched a Mexican version of the Punch and Judy show, complete with puppets weilding baseball bats and knives, and enjoyed a local drink called horchata, a cold sweetened rice water drink. It was delicious. A very enjoyable morning and time to head back to the boat for the afternoon siesta.
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| Animal inspired masks | Mel conversing with the dead |
Monday March 10, 2008
Señor mechanico arrived at lunchtime today and Robin still wasn´t quite ready for him. He was slightly cursing the girls for having sidetracked him yesterday, even though we all know he enjoyed himself. The new vibration damper was shown around and appropriate ooohs and aaaahs were given. It looks like nice work. I guess time will tell if it works or not. It never ceases to amaze us what Mexico can fabricate. Can you imagine walking into a lathe shop in Australia or America these days and asking someone to make you a vibration damper? It just wouldn´t happen. A couple of hours later all was reinstalled, the engine turned on, the gearbox engaged and hey presto it works. Hopefully it will stay fixed.
Michelle has spent the last week or so working hard on the logs. She figured it was about time the site got back on track. So with new gusto she got to work and redesigned everything, swapping it all over to cascading style sheets instead of the old fashioned coding and voila it´s getting there. We hope you like the new look. It certainly makes it much easier to manage the overall site.
Tuesday March 10, 2008
Mel finally got a dose of Montezuma´s Revenge. The poor girl vomited with such force she almost hit the boat on the next mooring ball beside us. After a few bouts of clearing out the top end, the bottom end kicked in and the rest of the night and early morning was spent on the ship´s head. She has perked up tonight though so all she needed was a good 24hr cleansing. This reminds us we must seriously examine our medical supply kit before venturing too far off the beaten track.
Robin decided since he had the raw water intake for the engine pulled apart anyway yesterday that he may as well reroute the refrigerator intake over to the watermaker as the continuous flushing of the water intake allows barnacles to grow in the pipe (read previous history back in September last year) and thus being one of the causes of engine overheating, something to be avoided at all cost. So today he began that little chore which of course necessitated half the floorboards in the boat to be pulled up, work tools everywhere and well you can imagine, basically mess from one end of the boat to the other. He assures us he´ll have it finished for an early morning departure tomorrow but looking at it one wonders how it could be possible. By 3pm Michelle still had her doubts but figured he must know what he´s talking about so off she goes to clear out from the Port Captain, then off to do some provisioning so we have some food for the next 275nm jump down the coast. She arrives back from the supermercado to find Robin yelling and screaming and throwing a mild tantrum. It appears the water pump impeller for the fridge decided to quit right then so he had to pull the other half of the boat apart to get to the spare one which was buried somewhere in the nether regions. Maybe we´ll put of leaving for another day.