Log 7 - Cabo San Lucas to Zihuatanejo See Photos Here We had originally intended on departing Cabo San Lucas immediately after Mike and Diane Quiriconi arrived. However, we ended up spending a few added days, including Thanksgiving, in Cabo while we waited for strong northerly winds to lie down. We ended up having a great time in Cabo, despite the constant barrage of jet skis, banana boats, cruise ships, pangas and water skiers. When we finally weighed anchor and headed toward Puerto Vallarta, we motored for the first 4 hours in rolly seas, due to the strong winds that had blown earlier in the week. But the further out we got, the smoother the seas became and the wind settled in to a nice 15-18 knots from the North. This put us on a fast beam reach and we were off to the races! The Monitor self-steering vane took over steering chores so the crew was left to watch the water go by, adjust sails and eat. It turned out to be one of the nicest sails we've ever had on Gumbo Ya-Ya and if this didn't convince Mike and Diane to buy a cruising sailboat, nothing will. After two days and nights of sailing, we arrived in Banderas Bay early in the morning. We sailed past the Tres Marietas islands and dropped anchor off the beach at Punta de Mita, the small anchorage and town at the northwest edge of Banderas Bay. After the launching the dinghy, we motored through the mild surf to the beach and had ice cold beers and, later that evening, a wonderful meal at one of the beachfront palapa restaurants. $5 got the skipper a huge plate of spicy octopus, rice, salad and tortillas. We enjoyed the town and anchorage at Punta de Mita so much that we stayed an additional day before motoring the final 13 miles to Nuevo Vallarta. Nuevo Vallarta is the marina area located about 8 miles west of Puerto Vallarta. We tied Gumbo to the dock at the fabulous Paradise Village Marina. This marina didn't exist the last time we visited this area. Dick Markie, the gringo who was the harbor master at Marina Mazatlan back in 1996 is now the harbor master at Paradise Village. He remembered Gumbo Ya-Ya and its musical crew and it was nice catching up with what has happened marina-wise since we were last in Mexico. Because we mistakenly thought that a repair person would be flying from Seattle to meet us and fix our autopilot, we stayed at Paradise Village for about 5 days. It was here that Mike and Diane left us to fly back to Seattle and, after they left, we were forced to sit by the pool, wander the beautiful resort grounds, and tour downtown Puerto Vallarta. This is also the marina from which most of the boats heading to the South Pacific will leave from. We also planned on heading back here after Christmas to prepare for the Pacific crossing. After finding out that we would NOT be visited by the Seattle autopilot repairman, we did a "Chinese Firedrill" trying to get out of the marina before the low tide shut down the entrance. This meant checking out with the Port Captain, going to the bank, checking out of the marina and buying last minute provisions. We managed to depart Nuevo Vallarta at 1:00 pm (just beating the tide) and did an overnight passage around the often turbulent Cabo Corientes to Bahia Tenacatita. We had to motor for about 6 hours to get out of Banderas Bay, but then the wind filled in and we had a great night time sail. We arrived at Tenacatita the following morning and dropped the anchor amidst about 18 other boats. Tenacatita hasn't changed at all since our last visit and we still LOVE the place. The anchorage is well-protected, the scenery is beautiful, and, once the small "river" bar has been crossed in the dinghy, there is the 3-4 mile "jungle trip" to take. This trip starts as a 20-yard wide estuary that slowly closes down in to a water way that is just wide enough to let our inflatable pass through. The mangroves also close up overhead to create a dark passage that must be what the jungles of Viet Nam look like. But, unlike Viet Nam, after you exit the jungle area, you arrive at another beach that is lined with palapas that serve wonderful meals at very cheap prices. Kurt, once again, had octopus. And, after your meal, the proprietors bring out free shots of mescal (a local drink that is like a mix of tequila and gasoline). After spending far too little time at Tenacatita, we decided we'd better get moving toward Zihuatanejo, as we had to make sure to get our boat to a place we could leave it while we flew back to Seattle for the grandson delivery. So, we weighed anchor and motored south for the short hop to Barra de Navidad. "Barra" is a nice little town with a lagoon anchorage and an expensive marina (part of a large resort). We had spent some time here during our last trip but, this time, we stopped in just long enough to take on fuel. We pulled up to the fuel dock where a mega yacht was also tied up, having just taken on 5,000 gallons of diesel. Luckily, they had left some for us. After filling up, we immediately took off for the next short hop to Manzanillo. In the past we had anchored off the Las Hadas resort but decided that this time we would try the cheaper (free) anchorage at Bahia Santiago. This turned out to be a great little anchorage where we tucked in behind a point and anchored in flat water right off the beach. After spending a relaxing evening, swimming off the boat and listening to the disco music at the palapa on shore, we hit the sack in order to rest up for the final overnighter we would need to do to get to Zihuatanejo. The next morning, we sailed out of Manzanillo Bay, catching the early morning land breeze. As the wind died, we fired up the diesel and motored all day, night and the next day until reaching the port of Lazaro Cardenas. This harbor is a large industrial port that has no facilities, or attractions, for yachts. But it does have a very nice "bullet proof" anchorage in slough just off the entrance channel. As we approached the anchorage, we noticed a dredge working at one side of the channel. We motored past it and dropped anchor in the deserted slough. This anchorage reminded us of the Sacramento River Delta in California, where we had lived for three years. The next morning, we got up at 5:30 am in order to have enough time to reach Zihuatanejo before dark. The first problem we had was that the anchor chain seemed to be fouled on something, causing the electric windlass to blow a circuit breaker. It seemed like the chain must have just been stuck in really dense mud expelled from the dredge because we WERE able to SLOWLY bring in the chain about one foot at a time until we finally got the anchor up. The second problem manifested itself as we motored toward the entrance of the slough. Apparently, during the night, the dredge had moved to the opposite side of the channel, dragging its exhaust tubing across the channel, effectively closing off our exit. It was a little hard to tell in the early morning darkness, but it seemed like there was still about a 20 foot gap close to shore and, as we motored slowly toward it, the dredge moved slightly toward center channel, allowing us to pass through. After finally getting out of the harbor, we set sail to take advantage of the early morning land breeze, and headed southeast toward Zihuatanejo. We had been led to believe that there would be upwards of 100 boats in Zihuatanejo for the Christmas holidays. But, as we entered the harbor, there were only about 8 boats anchored (two of which were our friends Gary, Sue and Amy on "Pegasus" from Bainbridge Island and Gary and Dayle on "Forever & Ever" from Victoria. We dropped anchor next to "Pegasus" and rowed out a stern anchor to keep Gumbo aligned to the swell. Zihuatanejo is still the wonderful little town we remembered from past visits. Even with the tourists visiting from nearby Ixtapa and coming ashore from the cruise ships that visit once a week, it still retains its small town charm. There are no high-rise resorts but there are cobble-stone streets, cheap places to eat and friendly people to meet. We spent our holiday time swimming off the boat and at the La Ropa and Las Gatas beaches, shopping for Christmas presents at the local vendor shops and galleries, shopping for groceries at the mercado (6 avocados for $1 and 4 baguettes for 60 cents!), visiting with the crews of other boats, eating dinners at the wonderful local restaurants and going into town to watch the nightly fiestas in the town square. Kurt also spent each Friday evening playing drums for the weekly "jam night" at Rick's Bar. On January 6, we moved the boat 6 miles to the East to tie her up at Marina Ixtapa. On January 7, we flew back to Seattle to await the arrival of our first grandchild. We'll be up in the freezing Northwest until January 30th (or later if the grandchild is delayed). After returning to Zihuatanejo, we'll start getting Gumbo ready for the passage to the South Pacific (installing new refrigeration, repairing autopilot and wind vane, and provisioning for the approximately 26-day crossing). We've pretty much decided NOT to move back up to Puerto Vallarta before departing (as originally planned) and will stay in Zihuatanejo until shoving off for the Marquesas in early March. Stay tuned for reports from the middle of the Pacific ocean (and pictures of the grandson!). FLASH!!! NEWS UPDATE!!! Our first grandchild, Calder Atlas Olsen Bischoff, was born at 11:30am on Tuesday, January 20th, 2004. At birth, he weighed 6lbs., 15ozs. and was 20" long. Mother, child, father and grandparents are all doing fine. Please see our photos of the little dude.