Category Archives: Cruisers

cruising blogs

Helpful sailors

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The other day I was on the boat alone with Taj, who had a 104.9 fever, when I happened to poke my head outside. The afternoon winds out of the west in La Cruz had picked up as is normal for this time of year. Boats are known to drag with these winds and recently SV Rage sadly found itself on the reef just outside of the Marina La Cruz, so I thought it might be wise to take a peak every so often to make sure we weren’t dragging or anyone near us. Sure enough, our new neighbors, SV Ensueño was dancing around quite irradically. I watched it for a while noticing that the angle on the anchor line and the snubber line didn’t seem quite right.  The wind waves were bouncing the boat about and the swell picked her up as well. I saw the moment Ensueño broke loose. I watched for a few minutes to make sure. It didn’t take long to realize that they were indeed dragging as she slowly started to drift back and dance closer to us. 

The couple had left in their dinghy about 45 minutes prior to all of this.  I immediately called out on the local hailing channel (22) on the vhf. “Attention Fleet, attention fleet, this is Josie on SV Shawnigan. The boat next to us, SV Ensueño is dragging.” Immediately Ron, on SV Sundancer responded asking for details of boat location and if anyone was on board. Not two seconds later, Ron, Jose on SV Cartago and Nick on SV Cielo Grande hopped in their dinghies to assist. Within 5 minutes we had 6 hands on deck, including Christian, who heard me hailing for assistance from shore. Together, they started the engine and pulled up the anchor. With the help of nearby people on their boats, Ensueño was safely re-anchored in a new location. 

Later that afternoon, Christian ran into the owners of Ensueño on shore. The very nice older couple had no idea this all had happened. Both are very expierienced sailors and were surprised this happened to them. They felt lucky and thankful so many people came to help. The next day on “the net” Ensueño extended their gratitude to the entire fleet, knowing that it wasn’t just the six people onboard helping, but that the entire community. The sailing community is always willing and able to help, even though we might have never met. 

   
 

Bahia Tenacatita memories: Jan – Mar 2016

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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

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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!