Author: Neil Scheuerlein

We got up on time (7 am) and had coffee and breakfast then got it together and called the water taxi to take us into town and so we could get to church. While waiting for the water taxi we met the French baker, he delivers fresh backed pastries to your boat in the morning! Guess what we are having tomorrow?

Renee’ plugged the address of the church into her phone and we started walking as we were talking to one of the other cruisers who was headed off to something else. After a few minutes walk she figured out that the 10 minute estimate for arrival was if you were driving a car, but we were walking and it would take 54 minutes from where we were to get there, so we got a cab instead!

The church is called Coastalegrae community church. There was 40+ people in church today. They said the numbers are down as many of the Canadians have gone home. This is an interesting church, it is a multi-denominational church with many different backgrounds. It was interesting to be in a church with a liturgy for the first time in ages, the entire congregation is made of ex-pats. Many of these people have dual citizenship and own property here in Mexico. They might be Canadian or US ex-pats but they all meet together in this church. After church we went to lunch with about 7 other people from the church. When we got to the restaurant, they said they come here often, and the menu we got was for breakfast. The orders were being given and Renee’ asked for a lunch menu, so she and I had lunch, we had several comments from the others “How did you get lunch?” I am ordering lunch next time etc. It was fun!

After lunch we were given a ride back into town by the pastor and his wife and then we walked around town for a bit, and did some shopping and had ice cream, while at the ice cream shop we met a couple who were also enjoying their ice cream. As it turned out, they have moved from Hawaii to Mexico to enjoy a change of culture, they run a YouTube channel (I have not checked it out yet, so I am not listing it here yet) and we talked about blogging and video channels and the difficulty, and amount of time it takes. Then back to the boat, changed our clothes and headed back to the pool.

We woke up early, listened and then took our sweet time getting together. The night had not been as good as we hoped. Just as we were getting into bed the anchor alarm went off, and we checked, yes we were dragging our anchor. We were in about 7 feet (or less water) with our great anchor (Rocna) on the bottom, with about 50 feet of chain out, even counting the level from the surface of the water to the bow roller (5 feet) we should have had plenty of anchor chain out, as I usually count the length of chain at the end of the snubber to the anchor. So, we had to reset the anchor and put out more chain before going to bed. So, when we reset the anchor we put 75 feet of chain, Then went to bed. I stayed awake for about a half hour watching to see if we were dragging.  In the morning it did not look like we had moved (MUCH!) so, we asked about it on the net in the morning, and after the net someone suggested more chain, as in 100 + feet. So, we put out almost 150 feet of chain, and watched for an hour or so, then went ashore, and played in the pool.

When we got back to the boat, we checked and decided, yes we had drug again. Okay so let’s talk about this, we are in very shallow water, with a mud bottom with clay under the mud, we have a great anchor that when it comes up is filled with mud. So, it is sort of like trying to stand on ice. While there was no wind blowing, there was a tidal current (not huge but still there) and I think that was what was moving us. After discussing this, we decided to suck it up and pay for a slip in the marina. As we pulled the anchor up, I used the wash down system to wash the mud off the chain and then the anchor. What a mess! We tied up and felt much better about the boat not moving!  This is the first time/place our anchor has not held.  We took a walk into town and finally calling it a day played a game and went to bed.

We woke up to the coffee making at 7 am, and slowly got ourselves together and underway by 8 am. Then spent the day motoring (no wind) to Barra de Navidad. This is an interesting location, there is a lagoon to anchor in, somewhat shallow (as in we draw 5 feet, and much of the lagoon is less than 6 feet. We are anchored now and our depth gauge showed 2.3 feet. We are floating, so I think that means 2.3 feet below the keel. In any case, all the wind we did not see today is here, 25 knots through the anchorage. We arrived and had our anchor down by 2:30 or so.

Pérula (town)

We got a better night’s sleep than the last two rolly anchorages (Punta de Mita and Impala).  Of course, we slept in too…staying two nights here.  Neil woke up with his sinuses blocked and that developed into a migraine.  He doesn’t get these often.  He took a morning nap while I enjoyed watching the world around our boat from the cockpit.  After lunch we dropped the anchor and headed for the beach.  There was wind and waves but we timed it right and landed on the beach nicely.  We used the handles attached to rope and threaded through the bow rings to pull the dinghy up on the beach.

Next, we did some restaurant hopping and some walking (along the river Malecon that was beside the town).  We had some beers, a margarita, coffee, and a shrimp cocktail.  We also did some shopping – avocados and a hairbrush.  We spoke with a man on the beach (a Mexican) who lived in Michigan and retired from General Motors.  Next came the fun part…getting the dinghy off the beach…yes…we got wet!

We got up at 6:30, and I pushed the button for the coffee maker and we went back to bed. About 20 minutes later, the machine beeped and we got up. It was a pretty rolly night. Not great for sleeping. We got underway by shortly after 7 am.

There was a hint of wind for a little bit then it went away for about 3 hours, so the sails were up, but not really helping. Then about 10:30 or so, the wind was at 10+ knots apparent from directly behind us and we put the sails out as far as we could using a preventer for the main and the staysail, and just putting the jib out on the other side. The wind was blowing from the same direction very consistently and built up over the day to probably 20-25 knots apparent with us doing as much as 8.5 knots! This was a pretty fast sail.

We arrived and had our anchor down and engine off by 4:30. The wind is blowing in the anchorage, but at least there are no waves. We plan to stay here for 3 days. So tomorrow we will get the dinghy down and go in and see what there is to see.

The membrane that we ordered for the water maker has arrived in La Cruz and will be there when we get back, in about 2 weeks.