CAN I EVER  LEAVE TENACATITA?

I think I've found a new home for Mirador. I like it here so much that I think  I am going to stay in Tenacatita permanently.  This area has just about everything a lazy cruiser could want.

The anchorage is quiet and secure with a good beach on which to land the dinghy.  There are many nice hikes and places to cruise in the dinghy within a ½ mile of here. 

The village of La Manzanilla which has good shopping, internet, and restaurants is just 15 minutes by dinghy or ½ hour by taxi.  And, of course, the beach socializing is active every day. 

The palapa, where beer, sodas, and cheap food is available, is the site of dominoes and cribbage most afternoons from about 2 PM to around sunset.  Volleyball is a regular afternoon activity and always includes five to 15 of the good local players.

The weather has returned to it's usual perfection.  Night time temps are in the high 60s and low 70s.  The day time temperatures reach the mid to upper 80s with a light breeze beginning around noon.  The sun is hot but the water is nice and cool.

The much larger towns of Melaque and Barra de Navidad are just eight miles from here by boat.  We can also get there by taking a taxi to La Manzanilla and then a bus to Melaque and on to Barra. The two small towns have great restaurants, shops, and stores that can sell us anything needed for long term supplies on the boats.  There is a good, albeit very expensive, marina in Barra and diesel is available. 

On Thursday; five of us hired a taxi for $27 to take us round trip to La Manzanilla.  The taxi would only seat four so the fifth person had to ride in the cargo area behind the rear seat which was already  half filled with a huge speaker for the taxis major sound system.

It is only 2 miles in a straight line across the bay to La Manzanilla but it was about 10 miles by road, half of which was very rough cobblestone. 

The road from Highway 200 to our palapa is private since the entire NW part of Bahia Tenacatita is privately owned.  Someone spent a lot of time building about 10 kilometers of this cobblestone road from the main highway to the resort.

Here is a look at the western half of the bay.   You can see the cruising fleet anchored in the far distance.  All the land you see in this picture is private.

The first thing we did upon arrival in La Manzanilla was eat at the excellent beach side palapa.

The stars of this photo are clockwise for the far left, our waitress, Jaye, Lisa, Mike, and Paul who is closest to the camera with the beard, glasses, and no hat. 

We ate five large lunches, drank four beers and spent $24. 

After lunch we wandered around La Manzanilla looking for the internet site, Milora's Bakery and coffee shop, and a small grocery store.

La Manzanilla is a very quiet and sometimes dusty Mexican village.

 Sometimes our wandering took a strange twist.

We found Milora's Bakery where we planned to have a nice espresso or lattee.  But, as is typical in Mexico, they had decided to close for the day. 

The new town square is just across the street from the bakery.  A local American artist designed and built a nice bandstand for the square.

I found the internet site again and was able to complete my online Federal IRS tax filing.  Today I am going to head back over there to verify that the IRS accepted the form I submitted. 

Here is another picture of La Manzanilla from the road above Bahia Tenacatita.

And finally, there is still occasional surf that leads to some interesting dinghy action.  This is Dwight and Donna from SV In the Mood trying to gracefully exit the beach in a little bit of surf.

Several days ago; Jim and Christine from SV Kula, and I were headed into the beach at about 3:30 PM for the afternoon volleyball game. We were all in the Portabote.

The surf had been large at times but with long intervals of almost no waves. We were about 20 yards outside the surfline, maybe 60 yards off the beach, watching the breaking waves to see how many big ones were in each set and how long between the sets. A 2 foot wave broke inside of us. I then started to head to shore when Jim said something to the effect of "look out behind you." I had looked about 5 seconds earlier and had seen perfectly flat water out to the big rock.

I turned my head and saw a breaking wave start to form about 40 yards outside of us. I spun the Portabote as I gassed the engine and headed straight out. We climbed up and over the three foot breaking wave while taking some white water over the bow. I was shocked to see another, bigger, wave starting to curl another 30 yards OUTSIDE of where we were which was at least 100 yards off the beach. I tried to accelerate more to get over the new wave before it broke.

Within a moment it was obvious we were not going to get over the 5' wall of white water that was bearing down on us. I tried to run toward the hotel to get around the break but  it continued to grow in that direction. So, I spun the boat toward shore and gave it full throttle.

The wave quickly caught us and threw us, I mean literally picked us up and threw us, forward toward the beach. I had managed to get the Portabote headed straight into shore so the transom was headed straight into the white water. As I sat there I was looking up about 3' to the top of the wave. The white foam was just a foot or so behind the transom and we were flying thru the water with the stern just below the foaming crest of the wave.

When I looked forward I could see that the bow of the Portabote was bowed upward, about a foot above the center section of the boat. I guess that was happening because the stern of the boat was up so high on the breaking part of the wave.

The ride seemed to last forever but I was able to steer a little as the boat tried to yaw.

When it was all over and the wave had receded; we were high and dry on the beach with almost no water in the boat. We had surfed for at least 120 yards at a speed I didn't think the Portabote was capable of attaining.

I was pretty shaken when we got out of the boat. Jim and Chris could hardly talk. When they did all they could say was "I didn't think a dinghy could make a landing like that without flipping."

The folks on the beach that saw the whole thing were speechless. The experienced cruisers just couldn't believe we had come in straight and dry. Most of them said the wave was over 6' and had started breaking a couple hundreds yards off shore.

As we stood on the beach we saw another big one come in. They were really odd because you couldn't see the swell outside in the deeper water. There was just no indication that a wave was coming in and then all of sudden it would start breaking and get bigger and bigger.

What fun!

My current plans are to start north to Caryes, Chemala, and then Punta de Mita early next week.  But, I am enjoying Tenacatita so much that I may stay another week or so.  Hurricane season is still almost eight weeks away so I am in no big rush.