Saturday, December 10, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo

Written by Jack van Ommen on December 10th, 2016

I arrived near the coast at sunrise. First I sailed into the bay of Z-town. But turned around and arrived in the marina of X-town before noon. This is part of a very nice condo/hotel resort. My charts and cruising books on Mexico are outdated, the marina that was to be built in “Z” never happened. “Z” is much bigger and established than the newer resort town of Ixtapa. I would have considered anchoring in “Z” bay but I am up the beach with just the one oar and a leaky dinghy. and I need to refill my tiny propane tank, which was last done in Alameda. This is much more tropical again, lush green, hot. It reminds me of S.E. Asia in smells, foliage, colors, etc. I shall take a local bus tomorrow to the major church in Z-town. Another Holy Mary of Guadeloupe.

Below is what I started writing aboard from Melaque:

I am about 10 miles from entering the bay of Z-town. It is just before 8 a.m. The haze over the hills made for a spectacular sun rise, an hour ago. The wind died around midnight. I had been sailing dead down wind with a poled out genoa and the main. I slept a good part of the night, in contrast to last night there is zero commercial traffic. Just after sunrise the wind from shore picked up enough and just the right angle to sail hard to the wind. The seas are flat and it is another great sail. I can smell the soil again and the haze is probably the result of left over forest fires, a familiar smell from my sail through South East Asia. Yesterday morning was also a great sail with full main and genoa hard on the wind making two tacks. This is so different from my trade wind sailing, which is all down wind and broad reach sailing. Sitting high above the ocean surface on the windward side of the boat, at a good heal, is a real treat.

I left Melaque at day break on Thursday the eighth. Melaque was a very pleasant stop. In particular to see Richard and Karen, my Canadian cruising friends and the town has a very relaxed, quiet atmosphere. The majority of the tourists are Canadian. The Volcan de Fuego near Colima is  spewing steam at regular intervals. I took these pictures at different angles from the water. The one shows the entry to the harbor of Manzanillo, a busy seaport.

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I experimented some more with the GoPro video camera. I suction cupped it to the solar panel for the video on how I handle my spinnaker. I have uploaded the following to You-Tube: A cockpit bath off the Mexican coast, and Dolphin Spectacle

I do not have a good wi-fi connection and will add the other videos later.

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