Goodbye Tenacatita
We had a packed few days in Tenacatita. Tuesday we had a great dinner on Toketie, Wednesday, we left David on Toketie to install the new antenna tuner and I took Cathy, Linda and David's daughter Phoebe up the river to the outer anchorage. The jungle cruise is always lots of fun. The swell was running pretty good so getting in was fun, surfing with 4 of us in the dinghy. We all stayed dry and other than pushing a lot of current that was flowing out of the river we made it in. Our friends Barry and Sandra from Passatt II followed us in. No worries. The trip up the river was fun, except for the yahoos who think that they can scream through there at full throttle despite the fact that it is only basically wide enough for one boat in a number of places. The panga drivers were MUCH more considerate. Coming out was a bit more of a challenge. We couldn't get all the way out of the last bend in the river so we hauled the dinghy up on shore, put the wheels down and walked it along the beach until we reached the outside. There was more swell than we had ever dealt with coupled with the fact that we had four of us in the dingy. However, we were all prepared, everyone was wearing their bathing suits. Linda and Phoebe volunteered to swim out past the breakers once Cathy and I got the dinghy out. We walked out into the surf and waited for the right combination of waves and got out just fine, in fact Cathy barely got wet at all. Linda and Phoebe had a good swim and we ended up with a nice dry dinghy and motor Barry and Sandra however did not get off so easily. The took one wave over the bow while waiting and then Barry ended up leaving Sandra standing in the surf when he got in the dinghy and started rowing out. Sandra stood for a short time in the waves and then decided that standing in breaking waves was not a lot of fun and walked back to shore. The waves calmed down and she swam out, no problem except for bent glasses. The really good news was that when we got back, David had the tuner installed and it worked so they are back on HF again. A big worry off their minds.
Yesterday was supposed to be a day of rest but after fixing the compass light, changing the oil in the gearbox and spending 2 hours in the water scrubbing the crap off the bottom of the hull, I was pretty much exhausted. The bottom cleaning was tough this time. I did it three weeks ago but after spending two weeks in the "nutrient rich waters of Puerto Vallarta" (a nice way of saying it is basically an open sewer), everything underwater was pretty bad. I didn't realize how cold I was getting until I got out. I used our new solar shower to rinse off then sat in the sun in the cockpit out of the wind as was shivering. Maybe next time I'll remember that I bought a new 3 mil wetsuit for just these sorts of jobs! We had Barry and Sandra over for dinner as well as Eric and Emmy off Nataraja, a couple who we fist met on Catalina Island. We keep running into them so took advantage of the fact that we were in the same anchorage. A great dinner. The pressure was on me though when I found out after Eric and Emmy arrived that Eric was a professional chef. I was making curry. It all turned out fine.
We upped anchor this morning and are slowly working our way down to Melaque, a small village outside Bara de Navidad. There is a lagoon at Bara but it has at least 50 boats at anchor and according to reliable sources it is worse than Puerto Vallarta for water quality. We will spend a few days in Melaque then head further south to Manzaillo.
One last word on Tenacatita. I think that if we had stayed there much longer, I would have led a revolt against all the attempts at organizing the anchorage that the RBer's are constantly doing. When you hear comments on the beach when you are standing looking at the waves like "why are you just standing there?", you know that they don't understand the sheer beauty of the ocean. Standing looking at the waves, gazing up at the night sky, watching the sun go down, lazing around with a good book in the afternoon, these are some of the enjoyments that sailors get. RBer's are constantly trying to impose their RULES on us, well, that won't work, I am not here to follow their rules. RBer's want to be doing something with other people all the time. Luckily, most RB'ers don't cross oceans, ever, so we will likely see less of that mentality in the south pacific.
Yesterday was supposed to be a day of rest but after fixing the compass light, changing the oil in the gearbox and spending 2 hours in the water scrubbing the crap off the bottom of the hull, I was pretty much exhausted. The bottom cleaning was tough this time. I did it three weeks ago but after spending two weeks in the "nutrient rich waters of Puerto Vallarta" (a nice way of saying it is basically an open sewer), everything underwater was pretty bad. I didn't realize how cold I was getting until I got out. I used our new solar shower to rinse off then sat in the sun in the cockpit out of the wind as was shivering. Maybe next time I'll remember that I bought a new 3 mil wetsuit for just these sorts of jobs! We had Barry and Sandra over for dinner as well as Eric and Emmy off Nataraja, a couple who we fist met on Catalina Island. We keep running into them so took advantage of the fact that we were in the same anchorage. A great dinner. The pressure was on me though when I found out after Eric and Emmy arrived that Eric was a professional chef. I was making curry. It all turned out fine.
We upped anchor this morning and are slowly working our way down to Melaque, a small village outside Bara de Navidad. There is a lagoon at Bara but it has at least 50 boats at anchor and according to reliable sources it is worse than Puerto Vallarta for water quality. We will spend a few days in Melaque then head further south to Manzaillo.
One last word on Tenacatita. I think that if we had stayed there much longer, I would have led a revolt against all the attempts at organizing the anchorage that the RBer's are constantly doing. When you hear comments on the beach when you are standing looking at the waves like "why are you just standing there?", you know that they don't understand the sheer beauty of the ocean. Standing looking at the waves, gazing up at the night sky, watching the sun go down, lazing around with a good book in the afternoon, these are some of the enjoyments that sailors get. RBer's are constantly trying to impose their RULES on us, well, that won't work, I am not here to follow their rules. RBer's want to be doing something with other people all the time. Luckily, most RB'ers don't cross oceans, ever, so we will likely see less of that mentality in the south pacific.
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