Arriving at Barra de Navidad

We are approaching the harbor and laguna at Barra de Navidad which is just south of the small town of Melaque. We spent the last two days at Bahia Tenacatita in the company of about 17 boats which changed often as boats came and went. Tenacatita is one of the favorite anchorages for cruisers in Mexico and some spend most of the winter season just hanging out here with occasional trips to Barra for provisions, fuel, water and anything else they need, or for just a change of pace. Tenacatita is home to the famous jungle river ride which we did last year with Megabyte. We only stayed a couple of nights there this time and went to the beach yesterday afternoon and played the card game "Oh Hell" with our friends John and Linda on Nakia and we also invited Dennis and John from the S/V Shilling from England to play. There is a rundown palapa restaurant there and we had cervezas or limonadas while laughing and playing under the palm-thatched palapa roof on the sand.

We left Chamela with heavy hearts as it was one of our most favorite spots from last year. We stayed a long time there with Nakia, Megabyte (Dave & Debbie) and many other friends from the Baja Ha-Ha group. We walked in to the little village and got provisions while reminiscing about when we were there before. We really like the peace and quiet of the bay and usually there aren't many rollers to rock you around but this time we had them. Sometimes you feel like you are going to be thrown out of your bunk when the boat rolls heavily. Nakia wanted to try anchoring out at the little islands in the middle of the big bay so we pulled up anchor and went out there. The islands are bird sanctuaries and there are hundreds and hundreds of gulls, boobies, pelicans and frigate birds nesting in the cactus and spiny trees there. We took a dinghy ride over to Isla Colorado and checked out the baby pelicans in the trees just in from a small beach. They were funny and loud, calling for their meals from the parents who would go out fishing and then bring in the fish pieces in their big pouches which the babies would pick out, none to gently but the parents were patient with their kiddies. There were also many buzzards hanging out near all the pelicans and if a baby were to drop out of a nest I am sure they would be recycled pretty quick.

Unfortunately it was even rollier in the islands so we left and headed for Tenacatita under sail. It was a great downwind run and we poled out our jib for the very first time which is quite a feat for us novice sailors. This is called going "wing-on-wing" for you landlubbers because you have your mainsail out on its boom on one side (port say) and you force the jib out on the other side (starboard if the main is to port) so you have a sail winged out on each side. It is the best way to sail straight downwind as the boat more or less steers itself although it will roll from side to side. It can be hazardous when the wind strengthens though, which it did. So then the next trick was to take the pole down which we finally did after some trial and error. John on Nakia shared some pointers later and it turns out we did it more or less the right way.

Last night we had a spaghetti feed with John and Linda on Maggie Drum and then taught them how to play Pinocle cards. It was a lot of fun but around nine we all got tired (cruisers go to be early) and so retired. Today is sunny and calm and we are looking forward to Barra which is another favorite haunt of sailors. Many boats left Tenacatita like we did to go to Barra to be able to go in to town and watch the Superbowl on Sunday - go Seahawks!! We also have more old friends there to look up which is always fun.

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