A SWELL TIME IN TENACATITA

Today is March 17, St. Patrick's Day, and the village of Melaque  here in the state of Jalisco, Mexico is having a big parade and party to celebrate their patron saints day. I had planned on being there for the party but it is too nice to leave Tenacatita where I'm currently anchored,  the forecast is for very large swells to start rolling into the Melaque anchorage tomorrow,  and the anchorage in the lagoon at Barra de Navidad, three miles from Melaque,  is crowded.  So Mirador is going to keep the hook down here.

Yesterday when it was time to leave on the seven mile trip to Melaque I decided I'd rather make the 200 yard trip to the Tenacatita beach for the afternoon cribbage and volleyball game. 

The palapas, volleyball court, and small restaurant are all under the palm trees with white painted trunks just to the right of Corey Doone, which is the sailboat in the picture to the left.

The mouth to a small stream is just in front of Corey Doone. Many of the cruising dinghies use the stream entrance as their beach landing area.  The other dinghies land on the beach just past  the right side of the picture.

The dinghy landing spots have been rather important in the last five days because a large WSW swell started rolling into the Tenacatita anchorage last Wednesday evening.  Since then; three dinghies have been flipped in the surf and one cruiser has been cut badly by an out of control outboard.

The big surf started late Wednesday afternoon when the dinghies from about 20 of the 35 cruising boats were on the beach for the afternoon social activities.  Everyone got soaked when those folks tried to get back to back to their boats.

Several of the dinghies that mis-timed their exits quickly found themselves upside down in the surf.   The problem with getting off the beach was that most of the big waves broke about 50 yards off the beach but some of the smaller ones would get to within about 10 yards of the beach before breaking.  The smaller waves would be almost hidden by the larger ones so the poor dinghy operator would be lulled into trying to get out while they saw no big swell coming in.  Just as they would get into waist deep water the small wave would lift them and over they would go.  At least the air was warm and the water is not too cold.

The swell was serious enough that almost  no one, except your favorite photographer,  came ashore all day Thursday and Friday morning.  Our Portabote is a great surf boat and will ride the swells in fine fashion, as long as I can get in far enough up the beach before the next wave breaks over the transom and fills the dinghy with water.

When coming in I accelerate over the wave crest and try to keep the bow in the air off the top of the wave. As the wave slows I lift the engine and steer the boat by leaning from side to side.  When the boat grounds on the sand, after the wave dies, I jump out and try to drag in up the beach before the next wave. So far that technique has worked well.  The most important characteristic of the Portabote is it's indestructible bottom.  I do not have to worry about hitting rocks, coral, or even the beach.  The bottom can not be damaged so I just power it in thru the surf.

My problems with the surf starts when I try to get out thru the breaking waves.  The good news is that the Portabote has a lot of buoyancy in the bow and will climb very steep, and even breaking waves, if I apply enough power.  Several times the bow has been pointed upward at 30° but it stays straight and will keep climbing if I can keep the throttle open.  I usually get soaked by splashing water but the dinghy stays upright.

Another surf hazard has been the sting rays that seem to get washed in with the big breaking waves.  Three days in a row I stepped out of the dinghy after the bow stopped on the sand and had to move my foot to another spot when I spotted a ray exactly where I was going to step.  I even found a ray about 50 yards up what I thought was a fresh water stream.  A cruiser, here in Tenacatita, was stung by a ray several weeks ago just as she stepped out of her dinghy in the stream mouth. 

Unfortunately the cruisers that attended to her wound thought it was a broken ankle, apparently she did not see the ray and thought she had stepped on the side of a rock, and sutured the wound closed. She subsequently spent eight days in the hospital as they tried to control the infection caused by sealing the wound shut. 

Tenacatita Bay is about 2 miles wide and a mile deep and offers good protection from the prevailing NW wind and swell.  There is a neat little village, La Manzanilla, on the ENE corner of the bay, about 2 ½ miles from where Mirador is anchored.  La Manzanilla has a great bakery and coffee shop, good produce shops, a great internet site, and several nice restaurants.  The beach landing in the constant surf can be a challenge but there are no rocks or obstructions.   Last week I went over to Manzanilla with Dwight from In the Mood.  On the way over there we had a great fast, flat ride.  On the way back we got real wet as we pounded into 3' wind chop.

Our departure from the beach was quite wet since Dwight's new 15 HP Mercury outboard died just as we tried to power over a 3' wave that was just starting to break.  The wave did break, right over my head, and I had to jump out into chest deep surf to keep the dinghy from spinning sideways and then flipping.  Dwight did get the outboard running three waves later and I was able to climb back in as we climbed over the fourth breaking wave.

When I arrived here last Sunday, just after dark, I anchored Mirador to the NE part of the anchorage, about 100 yards from the closest cruiser and 400 yards off the beach.  That was a good spot for several days.  But, after the swell started building on Wednesday evening the surf line started moving off the beach and getting closer to Mirador.  By mid-morning Thursday some of the biggest waves were starting to break about 20 yards beyond Mirador. 

I pulled up anchor and moved Mirador to the west side of the bay, snug up under some rocks where we were pretty well protected from the persistent swell.

Don, the western Mexico weather expert who broadcasts from Ventura California, is warning all the boats in this area about increasing winds and swells.  He is forecasting 20 to 25 knots from the WNW by tomorrow and 6' to 8' swells that will probably wrap around the points and get into this, and the other anchorages. 

So, I'll be sitting here for a while, hoping for enough wind to take out my sailboard.  Last week I had a nice boardsail off the beach and out about ½ mile where the wind died.  I then had a nice swim back to the beach and a pleasant ½ mile run up the beach to where the dinghy was parked.

The weather is still just about perfect.  The day time temperatures get into the upper 80s with a consistent afternoon sea breeze.  The sun is hot enough that we can't play volleyball in the sand in bare feet until after 5 PM because the sand is hot.  The night time temps get down to the mid-60s so a blanket on the bed is important.  However, the water temperature just keeps dropping.  It is now in the low 70s and is quite murky so snorkeling is not a daily activity.

So now I'm off to La Manzanilla for fresh baked goods, coffee, produce, and a session at the internet site as I try to file my 2002 Federal Income taxes via the internet.