Smooth sailing

Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico

We had to say goodbye to Barra de Navidad and the daily visits from the French Baker who delivers to the boats at anchor, 6 days a week.  Sometimes it seems we are on a very hurried schedule now, to get to the south end of Mexico by the end of January.  This is a very long coast and we have not gone all that far yet - it is over 1000 miles from La Cruz to the last port in Mexico at Chiapas.

Before we left, we were invited for lunch again with our friends Iwo and Joanna at their home on the canal.  We had a lot to talk about since they too had sailed Sine Timore to Mexico.

Yesterday's cruise took us only 29 miles, from anchor up to anchor down, to the city of Manzanillo in the state of Colima.  The predicted north winds never showed up - what wind we saw came from the south and never exceeded 5 knots.  In fact, for much of the trip there was virtually no wind at all.  We encountered some moderate NW swells as we left Bahia de Navidad and they bounced us around a bit for the first hour or so.  Once we turned onto our SE course, they had much less affect and as the day progressed they died down.  We motored the entire distance and never even put up a sail.  No one was sick and it was altogether a very pleasant journey.  The autopilot behaved itself and steered the entire way.

Manzanillo is a very busy shipping port and it was a little intimidating dodging the huge freighters and container ships on the way into Bahia de Manzanillo.  We found anchorage just outside of the Las Hadas Resort and Marina in fairly tight conditions, although again it seems as though there are less boats here than in previous years.

This place really lives up the "Mexican Riviera" title, with colorful homes and resorts lining the beaches and surrounding hills.  Very pretty place to spend a few days.  We will have to pay a fee to the resort to allow us to tie up our dinghy at their dock, but it also allows us to use their pool and other facilities - could be a good time.

We had a bit of excitement shortly after getting the anchor down.  We heard a boom but did not immediately see what caused it as we were facing the wrong way at the time.  A few minutes later we saw the smoke of a small speedboat that had apparently blown up just outside the anchorage.  We don't know if anyone was on board at the time.  It burned and drifted across the bay until it was almost on the beach, at which point it finally sank.  The Mexican navy came out and towed it into some deeper water but its nose was still visible - we are not sure if they wanted to tow it somewhere or sink it completely - it was still there as night fell.

 



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