TimeLine
made for an easy day. Again, winds were light in the morning, but slowly built during the
day so we had nice sailing throughout the afternoon. We pulled into the more protected
anchorage to the east, with a beautiful long beach leading to a large hotel that rumor
suggested was not cruiser friendly. After anchoring, David and Maureen took Duke for
his initial beach landing at our new location (he loves conquering new shores). Later we
were to discover that the small preferred landing beach (no breakers) is known as "good
dog beach". Duke naturally thought this very appropriate! Maureen had wanted to get to
Barra de Navidad for David's birthday - alas here we were in paradise, with no open
restaurant to cook for us! On our way to the shore with Duke, we passed some dinghy's
floating about, and it was the friday night "dinghy raft-up". We returned to the boat
after Duke's walk, whipped up some salsa and headed back over to the remains of the
party.
The following day David and Maureen managed to get some snorkeling in on the reef, but
it was very murky (we didn't manage to get into the water until the tide was going out).
Eventually we were able to make out rays about every 3 feet on the bottom (which then
made Maureen afraid to put her feet down until well up onto the beach, and fins were
not removed until well out of the water). We were then right in the surf in front of the
beach restaurant (where a small creek comes out into the bay). Justin braved the
crashing surf in his kayak, David returned to Tenacious in the dinghy to pick up Katherine,
and a fine lunch was had (can you say pescado rolo?). We met the folks from Genesis
there (Cecil, Paula and Nancy) - on their way to Chile! Originally they were going to sail
non-stop from L.A. to the Galapagos Islands, but alas, they are on a sailboat and it
seemed necessary for them to come ashore for some repair project. It seemed both of
us were planning our entry to the lagoon in Barra de Navidad for the following day. We
were planning a 5:30 am departure in order to arrive to Barra at 8:30 am (it's important
to plan your entry at high tide, and the low following this particular high was an extreme
low, so we didn't want to be running against the tide at any point after the high).
While our plan of arriving promptly in the next bay the following morning went well, it
didn't stop us from another "First" for our crew and Tenacious. We followed the well
marked portion of the channel into the lagoon in Barra de Navidad, then we had nearly
negotiated the next portion of the channel (keep the tall palm 2 miles away on your nose,
and the last red can of the marked channel on your fanny) when splot, there was the
bottom. Ahk falling tide coming up soon, sticky muddy bottom, oh oh, but fortunately we
quickly spun around and got out. We were to hit the muddy bottom 3 times in this channel
over the next week before we really were able to identify the correct palm tree, and
pay attention to directions.
Barra where we stayed for about ten days, then came back to
Tenacatita for five more days. Since it has been a month of no
updates on the web, we are putting all of Tenacatita on this one
page (to help M keep her sanity). As you can see from the photos,
colorful sunsets were the norm. Also a pod of 5-6 bottlenose
dolphins spent every day cruising around the anchorage, but were
not conducive to photo ops. One day we finally braved the
breakers into the stream and took the dinghy up the mangroves to
the lagoon in Ravelcita (outer anchorage of Tenacatita bay). After
a few nights at the inner anchorage we moved out to Ravelcita
closer to the point. One afternoon David and Maureen decided to
try the Ceviche de Cameron Aguachile (so how hot could it be?).
Without a doubt, this was the hottest food ever to pass thru our
burning lips (I'll bet my life there were habanero's in this). Of
course we ate almost all of it (with occasional breaks to ingest
saltines) , and immediately upon returning to the boat began
emergency tactics. The bottle of Tums was opened and we each
consumed at least 8 of the chalky little fellows. (NOTE: this really
did the trick, as no negative repercussions were experienced the
following day). Hmmm, the editor would like to note that this is a
food story and really belongs on the long forgotten food page, and
that maybe 8 Tums is a slight exaggeration ;)
below
16MB !!!!
Barra de Navidad
to Tenacatita
