Isle Grande

We are now on our way North back up into the sea.  We stopped here to snorkel and enjoy this small island paradise.  There is a Club Med over on the main shoreline,  so I guess this is one of those places you might see in a brochure.  Soft white sand beaches accentuate the island's shore along with a host of colorful palapa restaurants serving cold adulto beverages and fresh seafood.  That's where lunch is today anyway!

Our next stop, after an all night sail is Las Hadas in Bahia de Manzanillo.  We will meet up again with Leo, our crew since last November in Las Hadas.  Leo has been in Guadalajara picking up his new passport and ATM card.  We will also met up with our buddy boat SV Blue Dolphin.

We will take a little road trip back to Zihuatanejo to drop Clark off at the airport and send Leo South on board SV Precious Metal.

International Guitar Festival 2011 in Zihuatanejo

Enjoying the music of guitar fest 2011

Eric McFadden and Omar Torrez jamming at Paccolos

www.zihuafest.info or www.youtube.com/zguitarfest

We were in the right place at the right time to catch this years International Guitar Festival 2011 in Zihuatanejo.  Amazing! Outstanding! are just a few words I can think of the say about the festival.  It was very well put together and the price was right.  The cost to attend a session was 100 pesos, plus your dinner and drinks.  The venues all held varying amounts of people.  We went to two shows a Paccolos with SV Zeppelin and there where only about 60 other people there. 

The opening concert was held in Ixtapa, Plaza Ixpamar the cost was $500 pesos with dinner and all you can drink.  We did not attend however I heard it turned out to be a very nice evening.

We did attend the closing concert on March 12 at the Zihuatanejo Centro.  The cost was $250 pesos plus dinner, drinks and a taxi ride. Total for the evening was about $360 pesos per person. This was probably the highlight for us.  It was a jam session that included all the artist that performed at the festival.  Wow, you would never no these people only just met this week.  The talent up there on the stage was staggering.  My hats off the the women artist!  They BELTED out the song lyrics and played those guitars with all their hearts.  I couldn't say I had a favorite as they all had such different styles.  They were all wonderful.

Adrian Raso & Nick Johnston the Canadian contingent

Tsunami

Our morning started out at approx. 5:45 am with a phone call from our friend Ernesto in Mazatlan.  He wanted to give us a heads up.  The tsunami event happened here in Zihuatanejo at about 4:00 pm.  We had moved the boat over to Las Gatas beach area and anchored in 40 feet of water, we had been anchored in about 15ft. near the pier in town.  The port was closed and a big red flag was flying at the end of the pier.  The bay was usually quiet all day long.  Typically there are boats, parasailers etc., buzzing around the bay.  We spent most of the day anchored at Las Gatas beach waiting for an event that was predicted at approx. 1:00/2:00 PM...., A guy in a panga boat came out and invited us over to a restaurant but we declined not really wanting to leave the boat.

Finally at about 4:00 pm I said I thought we should head back over to the anchorage since we have tickets for tonight's guitar fest.  We hoisted anchor and headed back to the main anchorage and the bay proceeded to empty.... the level went from about 20.5 to 10.5 FEET in about 10 min. It was all very exciting.  There is a small natural breakwater just off Las Gatas beach and Doug said he was looking at it and thinking he could see a lot more of it then usual, but was already concentrating on moving the boat.  He headed towards the anchorage.  The water in the bay became very violent with lot's of conflicting currents and waves.  Upon getting closer the the anchorage they noticed that a disabled sailboat here in the anchorage (Blythe Spirit) was already beached on it's side, since all the water resided past it.  It went back and forth in the waves but held anchors (bow and stern).   All the other sailboats at anchor were dancing around on their anchors as we were moving around looking for a spot to anchor.  The water literally rushed out like someone pulled a plug in the bay then swooshed back in.  The small river near the pier looked like the Truckee River in Tahoe.  In the river was washing a ton of debris being into the bay.
Doug was at the helm, Clark was on the anchor and me, well I was below resting after having made breakfast, lunch, bread, did dishes, washed the deck....., they said they called me up to have a look but they guess I didn't here them.  When they finally got the boat anchored and turned off the engine I popped my head up and they said wow that was freaking amazing!  I was like what?  Oh you missed it.
Well it turned out I only missed the first wave.  There were many, many more wave events.

Over at Las Gatas beach a panga boat sunk, there were kids in the water having fun at first then very scared, water up to the palapa tables,  The water went out then back in within just a few minutes.  The panga driver who had come out to ask us if we wanted to go to shore for lunch was on the radio saying you are on your own, I'm heading to high ground!  The folks from SV Precious Metal were on shore over at Las Gatas having a cooking class at the restaurant.  They dropped everything and started grabbing kids, helping with the pangas.  They said it all happened so fast.  One minute they were enjoying the food from the cooking class then all hell broke loose.  They eventually got into their dinghy and headed back over to their boat in the anchorage.

All in all everyone faired very well, the waves continued well past midnight in the anchorage.  We took a water taxi into the guitar fest and only stayed on shore for the performance then hailed a fellow cruiser to come get us from the pier.  At 11:00 pm the water was still rising at the pier well over the walkway then residing below the walk in the course of 3 to 5 min. intervals.  We had to dodge our way through a debris field to get back to the boat in the darkness.  I stayed up on anchor watch until about 1:30 am when I felt that everything had seem to fall into a calm pattern.

We have company!

Clark Hemphill, Doug's cousin from Napa, California where the temperatures where in the 40's the morning he left.

Surf's up

This is as far South along the Pacific Mexico coast as we will go this season.

I have to take everyone on a Mexican bus ride!  That's just part of the tour.  Yes, the guy with the guitar was singing his heart out.

Clark is one of our original crew members from the 2009 Baja Ha Ha.

Crocodile warning

Lunch in las Gatas, Zihuatanejo

We had an invitation from Noyo and SV Precious Metal to join them and SV Sea Turtle over at las Gatas beach for the day to sample some fresh tuna dishes.  The chef made 3 or 4 dishes that were outstanding.  My favorite was desert!

las Gatas Beach, natural breakwater in the back ground

This beach is only accessible by small boat.  During the tsunami that occurred on March 11 the water level dropped beyond the breakwater, then came back in past where the tables, chairs and umbrellas were at an alarming rate.  The water level dropped by over 10 feet in 5 to 8 minutes.

Shopping in Zihuatanejo

The seafood section

Pan or Bread at the street market.

The shopping mall, Mexican style.  This is not really the tourist zone

The fruit and vegetable stall

The meat section

Zapatos or shoe section

Dry goods

Gift section

Shopping in the Mercado in Zihuatanejo is a must do if you are ever in town.  It is huge!  There is the indoor area, an outdoor area on Mango Street and every inch of real estate on the surrounding streets.  It literally takes up whole blocks.  It is quite an adventure to provision the boat here.  I did go up to the Comericial Mexicana (Mega) and was not very impressed with it at all.  A good place to buy wine is at the MERZA on Mango Street.  They have a nice wine selection, the more you buy the cheaper it is by the bottle.  When I'm provisioning the boat I like to go have a look see at what is available first and shop on another day so I have more of a game plan to get the provisions back to the boat.  Just try and carry the contents of your Safeway shopping cart more than a mile, then pack it into a dinghy on a shore where there is surf!

First night out in Zihuatanejo

We went out the Corner Bar for Michaladas

Leo and Lucero at the Corner Bar.  Some kids borrow the car to take a girl out on a date, Leo borrows our dinghy!

Florie all packed up for the dinghy ride to shore.  She was heading back to France via Mexico City and Costa Rica

Leo sold the bike he bought in Berkeley, CA to a restaurant owner in Zihuatanejo.  His cruising kitty was getting very low.

Noyo, a local here, is always around to lend a hand.

Hilda has a panga service to delivery beer, water, soda, fuel, laundry, trash disposal etc.,  This is the only anchorage we have been in where this type of service is offer.