Category Archives: Cruisers

Bahia Tenacatita memories: Jan – Mar 2016

Tenacatita is a lovely anchorage situated south of Puerto Vallarta and about 10 miles north of Barra de Navidad, Mexico at WPT 19 17.9’N 104 50.3’W.  This particular spot draws cruisers in for multiple days and for some, becomes an annual home for months during the winter season. 

A few of the long term transient occupants have made Tenacatita into its own unique sailing community. Daily swims to the beach at 1:30, followed by bocci ball on the beach or a stroll  to one end of the beach and back. Afterward a beverage and/or meal at the one and only palapa near the river mouth. Every Friday at 5:30 the “Mayor’s Raft Up”, organized by Robert Gleser aboard SV Harmony, provides the community opportunity to meet each other and learn about one another when otherwise you might not get the chance to. Plus a chance to taste what other cruisers eat. Everyone brings a dish and it gets passed around from dinghy to dinghy!

Provisions are nil at Tenacatita, so one must either land taxi, sail, or take a skiff 2 miles over to La Manzanilla or sail to Barra Navidad. The seclusion is part of what draws cruisers here. It’s worth the extra effort to get supplies.

We hopped in and out of Tenacatita during a two month span. Our first visit was shortly after the New Year and our last was during the second week of March. Our days consisted mostly of a morning 45 ish minute swim for me, a kayak or free dive/spear fishing for Christian, beach going, and mangrove adventures for the kids. We had lots of people to visit including kids boats. At one point we counted 46 boats in the anchorage! 

I put together a little video to show the expierience that we had while we were there. See below.

Here is a list of some of the boats we saw in Tenacatita. If you were there and don’t see your name on the list, or if I misspelled your name, please contact us so we can add you to it!  Also, send me a link for your blog if you’d like me to link you. 

SV Adagio, SV Agamère, SV Banyan (misspelled in the video, sorry!), SV Believe, SV Cake, SV Cadenza, SV Carmanah, SV Chae Mi, SV Cielo Grande, SV Dazzler, SV Finte, SV Flight, SV Fools Gold,  SV, Fukngivr, SV Gitana, SV Gene Butler, SV Gia, SV Harmony, SV Komaru, SV Kiwi III, SV Overheated, SV Magic Lady, SV Mambo, SV Mango Mango, SV Moonshadow, SV Nalu 4, SV Penelope, SV Putachieside, SV Ravens Dance, SV Seychelles, SV Sea Boa, SV Speakeasy, SV St. Leger, SV Tigress, SV Voila,  MV Voyager, SV Wild Rumpus, SV Woody, SV Worth Waiting For

Ship Shape #6

Sorry, I’ve dropped the ball on this weekly ship shape post. I’ve found that when we are anchored somewhere that we can go to shore and be active, my posts would be on a full workout and not just one pose. Maybe I’ll start posting clips of my yoga routine or something, but for now here is a snippet of another core exercise that you can hopefully find space to do in your galley or main cabin area.

For this weeks ship shape try doing BOAT Pose. Maybe start with knees bent and hold for 30 seconds. Take a 15 second break and go at it again. Do this three times. As you get stronger, hold for 45 seconds and then maybe 60 seconds. Also work on going from bent legs to straight legs. Don’t forget to smile while you are doing this! 🙂
 

  
Maybe take the knife off the counter before doing this underway. Yikes!

  

6 months out tally count/costs 

Just a quick post of a running tally we have on days anchored, days moored, days docked, and how much we’ve spent on each of those. 

158 days anchored (all free except the days spent in Morro Bay)

4 days moored 

17 days Docked (proud to say, still only 17, all free except for Ensenada) 

Paid $: Mooring $40 (Morro Bay YC)

              Docked $105 (Ensenada’s Baja Naval Marina)

              Dingy Dock $15 (Cabo San Lucas)

              Anchored $159 (Morro Bay Guest Anchorge) 

Fuel consumption for 6 months (60 gal diesel). 

Mexico check in expenses in Ensenada: $105 for passport/tourists cards, $256 for Port Captain fees, $60 for TIP card, and $45 for fishing license.

I haven’t been too good with figuring how much we spend on food. I’m guessing we spend around $500 a month. We’re not eating out all the time, but we aren’t living on beans and rice either. 
Big ticket items that were not anticipated: 

replacing our windvane with a new hydrovane. Let’s just say >$5,000 (yikes!). 

And just recently, replacing our windlass. Another $2500! Our manual “triple nickel” finally had its last days. Rods sheered, springs broke. Basically, our manual windlass had reached its final day. Unfortunately you can’t find a new manual windlass for a boat larger than 32 feet anymore. Since we are in this for the long haul, we chose to go with a new windlass that is electric with a manual override. Shawnigan had previously had an electric on her, but we wanted manual. At least she’s pretty much all set to install a new electric windlass. Hopefully that’s it, for big ticket purchases this first year of cruising. 
Overall a very inexpensive way of living! We’ve noticed that we are one of very few kid boats that anchor instead of docking at a marina if one if available. I’m not sure why this is, but we wished more kid boats anchored out too. I know it can be more of a challenge in ways, but to us, it’s worth it.  By not going in to Marinas we basically extend our cruising time by at least 3 months without having to refil the cruising kitty.  Or another way to look at it, a month in the Marina at Barra Navidad is about 3 months of food for our family of five! Plus we enjoy our time being  more than 10 feet away from the boat next to us. It give us time to focus on each other or school without interruption. It does take more time management to be anchored, and maybe more meal planning, but again, it’s worth it. I enjoy the 15 minutes it takes us to get from our boat to town with our little 5 hp tahatsu outboard. And in more situations, the extra time to row in and out (a little exercise never hurts). 

If you’re a kid boat reading this, come anchor with us!

   
 
Here’s our pile of chain prepping for windlass change!