LAS HADAS AND MANZANILLO

LAS HADAS AND MANZANILLO

Amber the cat has been a very good guest. But we feel we should get her to owners.
We pulled up anchor from Carrizal around 8:30 it looked a little gray but nothing to concern us. Even listening to the weather there was nothing out there. Wrong !!!!!!

We have now experienced our first Mexican squall. I always thought a squall was over in 10 minutes we had about 1 ½ hours of dark skies, building seas and winds. In fact we even took a greene right through the cockpit with Lynn taking a great amount of it all over him at the wheel. Winds of 32 knots and at on point we thought the dingy was going to be airborne.

We managed to get in to Las Hadas right behind the breakwater and very close to the swimming floats meaning we are protected from the swells no matter which way the wind blows. All around the bay are hotels, condos and timeshares, but no hawkers. Most of the Hotels will let you use their pools and internet (if it is working) as long as you are purchasing food or alcohol. It's like staying at a full service hotel with out the cost of the room.

We attended a circus in Manzanillo with Bill and Janet from Optical Illusion This circus was more of a Las Vegas dinner show, lots of show girls, sexual dances and men in loin clothes. We saw more male butt then we needed to and some of the ladies must have been thinking this is the worst wedgies I have had in a long time. We both agreed that the circus in Mazatlan was aimed more at families this one just kept us laughing.

We also attended a Botanas Bar. This is a bar that is only opened from 3:00pm to 8:00pm you purchase your drinks and they supply you with all the appies you can eat. Soup, tacos, tostadas, totopos, and fresh veggies, way to much food. , There was an 11 piece band plus 2 singers and was very loud , but this is Mexico. To pay the band they sold numbers for $1.00 with the prize being $100 (Mexican money), to pick a winner they throw a dart at moving wheel with 20 numbers on it. Janet from Optical Illusion won three in a row and donated the winnings to an animal spay clinic

TO PUNTA CARRIZO

TO PUNTA CARRIZO

We headed over to Melaque by bus for all of 50 cents to catch a taxi ($5.00) to the secret beach, just outside of Melaque here we spent the day with Annie and Glen. The secret beach and anchorage is really Playa Custecomate it is just about enclosed by the craggy mountains and rock formations at the entrance. There were 8 boats tucked in there and all said the snorkelling was wonderful and the bay was not to rolly but you have to be very careful coming in as there is a big reef that you skirt coming in. We think we may try this place on our way back north.

When we left to go back to Barra Annie's friend offered us a ride. Little did we know we would be traveling Mexican style, yes, we had 4 people in the box of the truck and 6 in the cab. Good thing there were no police, cause we are sure that being white we might have got a ticket.

Murray Grey decided that they wanted to leave a day before us so they pulled out only to have engine trouble before they even reach the mouth of the lagoon. It was a Chinese fire drill as only 2 or 3 boats had there dinghy's and motors in the water. In all 7 dinghies brought the Murray Grey back in to anchor. See what happens when they try to leave with out that 36ft Dolphin Tales trailing behind them.

We just about had the anchor up when we got a call from another boat asking us to make a deliver to Optical Illusion. It seems they were in Manzanillo and would like their Kitten Amber back. We went in circles till they packed her up and we loaded her on board

Well time to get the boat ready to leave and to head for our last southern stop before we head back north to Mazatlan. We had a nice sail from Bara all the way down to Punta Carrizo where we stern anchored for the night. Bonnie on Murray Grey had been fishing all day I think it was 4 caught and only one saved. So we had our first meal of Dorado, it was very good.    We spotted this rare bird we will have to ask Bonnie what it is 

TO JAN 1 2010

Well Christmas day has come and gone. We awoke to find Santa had left both of us necklaces, and some bakery goods. We went over to a motor boat called Sirens Call from Alaska with Gail and John on it. John is the king of latté coffees while Gail had baked up a numerous bakery items. We then all headed to the beach for Shrimp and Blacken fish with each boat bringing in a potluck item. We had so much food that we really had no room to go back to Sirens Call for smoked turkey and all the fixings but we managed.

We headed back to Barra De Navidad to see if we could find some land based friends that were here for a few days. Now the Lagoon at Barra is very large but has numerous shallows and mud flats so if you want to go to town at night you must hire a panaga, for 2.50 (pasos) round trip. Boy do they travel. We finally made a connection with Anne and Glen on Dec 31st; we made plans to meet up again in 2 days.

New Years Eve was spent at two different locations: the first was supper over at the Grand Bay Golf course with 12 other couples; we were the token Canadians for the evening. One of the other boats brought hats and noise makers so at the Cruisers Midnight 9:00pm some of us put on hats and blew the noise makers. Then it was back to the boats where some went straight to bed others to other boats to party. We went to town and enjoyed the people festivities and the fireworks. The fireworks were about 15 minutes long and were great.