Manzanillo to Zihuatanejo



Judy's 50th dinner party




Launching the transport boat, our little dinghy.

 Las Hadas is in Manzanillo, and is a cute little area with many beautiful hotels, one in particular has a Moorish design and is stunning with many turrets or towers.  We anchored out in the little bay with about 20 others, instead of the marina, and dinghied in to shore.  The Las Hadas resort has a swim up bar at it's pool, finally I get to swim in one, as our fee to use the dinghy dock includes pool usage.  Alas, the pool was quite cold, so we swam, but not long, with no bar usage, and hiked all around the local area.  We hope to stop for a longer stay upon our trip back northward.  Once again we hiked into town to provision and then hopped in a cab back to the boat.  I have never used taxi's so much in my life, and after shopping for groceries they come in very handy.  The fare is usually around $5. or $6 one way, which helps with getting our fresh produce back in one piece.  The buses are fun and crowded, so carrying loads of groceries isn't a popular thing to do. 
   Our friends, Tom and MaryEllen on their boat Equinox were also anchored in the bay.  We spent some fun times with them, shopping, and finishing our game of Mexican Train that had been started in La Cruz.  They are staying in Las Hadas for awhile then heading back north from there.  We hope to catch up with them again as they're good friends and such fun to be with. 
   We left Manzanillo at around 4 p.m. bound for Zihuatanejo on Feb. 10th.  The wind was at 20 knots, and we had the main sail up and no jib.  As we turned the corner of the bay we hoisted the jib and sailed downwind for hours until the wind eventually died down, and we turned on the "iron jib".  We spent two nights, and one day at sea, in lovely conditions, trolling for awhile, and not catching anything.  This was fine as I really didn't want to clean any fish during this trip.  We did catch one jack crevalle on an earlier trip, but let it go after a good fight. 

Tom and MaryEllen on their way to Equinox.

View of Las Hadas bay, & HonchoSail from Manzanillo

   We held 3 hour watches again, with Leif doing most of the work during his watches, and me maintaining our course and sail trim that he set up.  There were several small anchorages that we passed, but we needed to move along towards our destination for Judy's 50th birthday party.  Passing Lazaro Cardenas at night was not my favorite event, as it's one of the west coast's largest ports for cargo ships.  It was fairly busy, with ships anchored out as well as arriving and leaving, creating an interesting challenge to sail through.  I wimped out and let Leif do the driving as I couldn't figure out what was moving and what wasn't and which were lights onshore and, well you can see my frustration.  He sailed through with no trouble at all while I slept.  Then, after we were safely away from there, I got up and stood my watch.  We continued on until around 6 a.m. when we arrived at the entrance to Ixtapa Marina, and so we motored up the coast and down the coast until daylight, which here is around 7:30.  It's not prudent to enter an unknown anchorage or marina in the dark, so we usually don't.  This marina has an interesting entrance, with the swell travelling through it, and a shallow depth, it can be a bit dangerous.  Boats with 7' of draft are not advised to enter, and we have 6', so it's eye opening when the depth gauge says 3' under our keel, and a swell has pushed us like a surfboard towards the shore.  Alas, we made it, called the harbor master and dove into our slip quickly, ran up to check in and back to the boat for a well deserved nap prior to evening festivities.  After all, the birthday party did begin the previous night and we needed to catch up.