On January 8th we proceeded further south, buddy-boating with another sailboat, Oasis (which had bypassed Ipala and joined the cruisers in Chamela. This was the same boat where we had celebrated New Year’s Eve). Rich and Debbie are young parents with the two boys, Ryan and Kyle, whom I mentioned in an earlier blog. This was a day with little or no wind; so we ended up motoring all the way.
We first stopped by Careyes, which is a beautiful little bay with gorgeous expensive homes built up on the cliffs and an abandoned hotel on a palm-fringed beach that used to house a Club Med resort. We had to tiptoe our way in very carefully, since there are several spots with rocks just under the surface. The cruising guides give a range mark onshore and a direction of 053° to the marker, which means you are supposed to turn toward the mark when it is 053° from you, and stay on that bearing into shore to miss the submerged rocks. I can tell you that flying such an approach in an airplane is a lot easier than doing it on a sailboat with swells and wind constantly affecting the boat, and a compass that is hardly stable. We made it in, nevertheless, but found several boats already anchored there and no room for us; so we continued on to Tenacatita after grabbing a few snapshots of Careyes so we can say that “we’ve been there, done that.”
Two pictures of the homes at Careyes
Tenacatita is a large bay with three major lobes, each with its own beach. We are in the center lobe, and very well protected along with several other sailboats, some cruising trawlers, and a couple of very large luxury yachts. A self-guided jungle cruise is one of the attractions here; so we arranged to go on it with the two families of young boys that we have gotten to know. I have described the Oasis family in the previous blog. The second family has three sons on a ketch (two-masted sailboat) that is called Ketchin’ Up. Knoll and Ashley are another young couple who interrupted their careers at Intel for a two-year cruise with their three sons Griffin, Wils, and Cooper (ages 10 through about 6). These two cruisers had a friend die at a young age and began to realize that it was more important to spend time with their boys at this stage than continue in the high stress work they were doing. They sold off their home in Oregon and are using this trip to relocate the family to the East Coast by way of cruising down the Eastern Pacific, through the Panama Canal, and back up through the Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean.
The start of the “jungle cruise” is a river that exits into the bay here in this center lobe and originates behind the beach in the lobe of the bay to the West of us. Between the two points is a meandering river that starts out fairly wide at the mouth and is narrowed by mangrove trees to a fairly narrow tunnel before reaching the source. The trick is to start out at high tide (or just before), to let the tide carry the dinghies upstream for quite a bit. Then the second trick is to come back as the tide is going out, so the river can carry you back out into the bay.
We all had dinghies and threaded our way up the river over about an hour and a half to the source. We saw a lot of birds, a few crabs on the mangrove roots, some termite clusters up in the trees, and a tiny 18-inch crocodile at the very end of the trip on the beach – a kind of pet. The parents of the boys used the time to talk about jungles, birds, exploring, etc., while Sheilagh and I just enjoyed the relative quiet of the jungle itself. The river has its source in a spring that is just behind the westernmost beach, so we landed our dinghies and walked down to the beach for lunch and swimming.
The start of the “jungle cruise” is a river that exits into the bay here in this center lobe and originates behind the beach in the lobe of the bay to the West of us. Between the two points is a meandering river that starts out fairly wide at the mouth and is narrowed by mangrove trees to a fairly narrow tunnel before reaching the source. The trick is to start out at high tide (or just before), to let the tide carry the dinghies upstream for quite a bit. Then the second trick is to come back as the tide is going out, so the river can carry you back out into the bay.
We all had dinghies and threaded our way up the river over about an hour and a half to the source. We saw a lot of birds, a few crabs on the mangrove roots, some termite clusters up in the trees, and a tiny 18-inch crocodile at the very end of the trip on the beach – a kind of pet. The parents of the boys used the time to talk about jungles, birds, exploring, etc., while Sheilagh and I just enjoyed the relative quiet of the jungle itself. The river has its source in a spring that is just behind the westernmost beach, so we landed our dinghies and walked down to the beach for lunch and swimming.
The start of the jungle trip and one of the tour guides taking life easy
On the way back the current was with us, so we shut down the engines and used the oars to row and pole ourselves through the narrow channel and the dense growth all around. It worked fairly well until one of the pangas from the local hotel would come through and force us all to grab the mangrove roots at the side of the channel until they could pass. The real excitement was the end of the trip, when the river was flowing more swiftly and emptying into the bay over the bar (the strip of sand that piles up at the end of the river between the beach and the river). In fact the river is much shallower during the last several hundred yards near the mouth (since the tide is out) and it is critical to find the deepest channel to keep the boat moving. Sheilagh and I managed to stay in the channel and use the oars to keep us moving through the small rapids that flow over the bar; so we were able to let the river squirt us into the bay, rather than have to walk our dinghy over the bar. It was a very enjoyable trip.
The downside of the trip was the shrimp cocktail that Sheilagh had for lunch (I was still eating nothing but guacamole and chips). Either it disagreed with her or her with it, but the two parted ways about an hour after we got back. That evening I fixed some soup for myself, while Sheilagh suffered the stomach pains I had been having. We started the third season of “24” to ease our pain, and suffered together. The entire next day (Thursday) was spent recuperating by lying down and reading most of the day. A couple of the other cruisers called on the radio to see if we were alright; so it wasn’t as if we were alone in our misery. Almost everyone has had some of the same problems dining down here in Mexico. We just need to make sure we eat well-cooked food in the future.
Friday we joined several other sailing couples on the motor vessel, Aurora, at the invitation of Jesse and Charlene (the Canadian owners of the vessel), and used that to get across the bay to the Easternmost lobe, which is the town of Manzanilla. We towed a couple of dinghies behind to help us get onto the beach when we got there. Yes, Jesse and Charlene’s motor vessel happens to have the same name as our boat, Aurora; so we have had to get in the habit of using the term “motor vessel Aurora” or “sailing vessel Aurora” to keep the rest of the fleet from becoming confused when we report our statuses on the morning radio net.
This mode of transportation saved us about an hour or more of wet riding in the dinghy to go across and back, and it was fun to see how the “dark side” (the sailors’ name for motor vessels) works. I have to admit that leaning back in a lounge chair on a very stable flat deck with a cold drink in hand was a marked improvement over sitting on a cushion in the cockpit of a tipping sailboat while trying to keep one’s drink from spilling. We went over in the morning and everybody convened at the first internet café, only to find that the system there only supported three users at a time (we had some 5 laptops among the four couples). So we fanned out to find other internet cafes and rejoin the group for lunch.
Sheilagh and I each had about 100 messages that had piled up during the two weeks we had been away from any internet access; so we worked on messages and updated blogs for a couple of hours. There wasn’t enough time to add the pictures and movies to the blogs; so I’ll do that later. Sheilagh was able to contact three of our four daughters using the Skype computer-telephony capability (at .021 cents a minute) and I was able to contact a supplier who needed confirmation before shipping something we had ordered. As we rejoined the group for lunch, nearly everyone ordered the cheeseburger and fries, since this was the first chance most of us had to dine anywhere in the last two weeks that didn’t offer fish exclusively.
By the time lunch was over the wind had picked up considerably, blowing directly onto the beach from the bay. Normally this is a good thing because it causes good body-surfing waves, but in this case we needed to launch two dinghies with 9 people aboard to get back to the motor trawler. The tide had gone out since we had arrived, and now the beach was strewn with rocks that hadn’t been visible before. We all made it back to the motor yacht, but everyone was at least wet up to their waists. Thank goodness we all carry our computers in watertight bags that are used by kayakers to keep their spare underwear dry; so there was no concern for damaging them – only losing them overboard.
Friday evening we had a general dinghy raft-up of all the local cruisers at 5PM for a variety of purposes. The lead dinghy drops an anchor in a sheltered location in the bay, and all the other dinghies raft up to that one. If we were to meet on the beach, we would all have to land and then launch against the waves afterwards, and besides, this tends to be a bit more social. Everyone brought their own drinks along with an appetizer to share, books and movies to trade, and boat cards to exchange. Then we all met one another and started the food going in a counterclockwise direction around the raft-up.
Sheilagh and I contributed several books that we had both read, and picked up a couple of books and a DVD that we will exchange at another raft-up in the future. The boat cards are the size of business cards and ours contains our boat name, our names, our email addresses, our Sailmail and HAM radio call signs, and our pictures. This way, when we get to a new anchorage, we can consult the boat cards we have against the boat names in the anchorage and remind ourselves of peoples’ names and their faces before we have to hem and haw and apologize for not remembering. This getting old and forgetful doesn’t mean we aren’t smart enough to figure out ways to minimize our handicaps! More later . . .
The downside of the trip was the shrimp cocktail that Sheilagh had for lunch (I was still eating nothing but guacamole and chips). Either it disagreed with her or her with it, but the two parted ways about an hour after we got back. That evening I fixed some soup for myself, while Sheilagh suffered the stomach pains I had been having. We started the third season of “24” to ease our pain, and suffered together. The entire next day (Thursday) was spent recuperating by lying down and reading most of the day. A couple of the other cruisers called on the radio to see if we were alright; so it wasn’t as if we were alone in our misery. Almost everyone has had some of the same problems dining down here in Mexico. We just need to make sure we eat well-cooked food in the future.
Friday we joined several other sailing couples on the motor vessel, Aurora, at the invitation of Jesse and Charlene (the Canadian owners of the vessel), and used that to get across the bay to the Easternmost lobe, which is the town of Manzanilla. We towed a couple of dinghies behind to help us get onto the beach when we got there. Yes, Jesse and Charlene’s motor vessel happens to have the same name as our boat, Aurora; so we have had to get in the habit of using the term “motor vessel Aurora” or “sailing vessel Aurora” to keep the rest of the fleet from becoming confused when we report our statuses on the morning radio net.
This mode of transportation saved us about an hour or more of wet riding in the dinghy to go across and back, and it was fun to see how the “dark side” (the sailors’ name for motor vessels) works. I have to admit that leaning back in a lounge chair on a very stable flat deck with a cold drink in hand was a marked improvement over sitting on a cushion in the cockpit of a tipping sailboat while trying to keep one’s drink from spilling. We went over in the morning and everybody convened at the first internet café, only to find that the system there only supported three users at a time (we had some 5 laptops among the four couples). So we fanned out to find other internet cafes and rejoin the group for lunch.
Sheilagh and I each had about 100 messages that had piled up during the two weeks we had been away from any internet access; so we worked on messages and updated blogs for a couple of hours. There wasn’t enough time to add the pictures and movies to the blogs; so I’ll do that later. Sheilagh was able to contact three of our four daughters using the Skype computer-telephony capability (at .021 cents a minute) and I was able to contact a supplier who needed confirmation before shipping something we had ordered. As we rejoined the group for lunch, nearly everyone ordered the cheeseburger and fries, since this was the first chance most of us had to dine anywhere in the last two weeks that didn’t offer fish exclusively.
By the time lunch was over the wind had picked up considerably, blowing directly onto the beach from the bay. Normally this is a good thing because it causes good body-surfing waves, but in this case we needed to launch two dinghies with 9 people aboard to get back to the motor trawler. The tide had gone out since we had arrived, and now the beach was strewn with rocks that hadn’t been visible before. We all made it back to the motor yacht, but everyone was at least wet up to their waists. Thank goodness we all carry our computers in watertight bags that are used by kayakers to keep their spare underwear dry; so there was no concern for damaging them – only losing them overboard.
Friday evening we had a general dinghy raft-up of all the local cruisers at 5PM for a variety of purposes. The lead dinghy drops an anchor in a sheltered location in the bay, and all the other dinghies raft up to that one. If we were to meet on the beach, we would all have to land and then launch against the waves afterwards, and besides, this tends to be a bit more social. Everyone brought their own drinks along with an appetizer to share, books and movies to trade, and boat cards to exchange. Then we all met one another and started the food going in a counterclockwise direction around the raft-up.
Sheilagh and I contributed several books that we had both read, and picked up a couple of books and a DVD that we will exchange at another raft-up in the future. The boat cards are the size of business cards and ours contains our boat name, our names, our email addresses, our Sailmail and HAM radio call signs, and our pictures. This way, when we get to a new anchorage, we can consult the boat cards we have against the boat names in the anchorage and remind ourselves of peoples’ names and their faces before we have to hem and haw and apologize for not remembering. This getting old and forgetful doesn’t mean we aren’t smart enough to figure out ways to minimize our handicaps! More later . . .
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