Puerto Angel, Acapulco, Zihuatanejo, Manzanillo, Bahia Navidad

Puerto Angel to Acapulco

This 212 mile journey should have been easy. We staged it by first sailing 37 miles to Escondito and anchored for the night. Not a lot of anchoring room and the bottom was a series of deep canyons. Finally found a suitable depth of 30 ft., but the wind switched during the night so that the waves were hitting us on the side with a lot of banging – not great sleeping. Then off at 4 AM for a planned 175 mi. overnight sail to Acapulco. Wind soon got up over 22 knots – directly on the nose. We are a sailboat, so we put up full main and ½ Jib and sailed tight to windward – smashing and bashing into the waves. That seems to have lasted days and days. Actually only 2 days. Not possible to catch any sleep. Finally reached Acapulco at about 4 AM and waited around outside the bay entrance along with a big cruise ship, to enter the harbor in daylight. We found an empty mooring and are now tied to it. – we expect someone to come by for a rental fee. After 3 nights of little sleep, we looked at each other and asked “ How many night were we out?” The weather reports along this coast aren’t so reliable. This 212 mile trip took us about 300 miles at about 5 M/hr.

Had a nice lunch ashore, and a nap. We are surrounded by a really big city. At night one could turn 360 degrees and be totally surrounded by lights. Ashore, it appears to have had better days, but we are enjoying ourselves and they have Costco and Walmart shops cross the bay. Vinciente came by for the mooring fee, and offered water taxi & other services, so we are in good hands. Had lunch at a small seaside local restaurant.

Apacapulco to Zihuatanejo

Next day, off again for the 112 mile run to Zihuatanejo. Same story – smash and bash. Tried sailing, but finally took down the sail and listened to the motor drone as we smashed and bashed into the oncoming waves. 112 miles/26 hr =4.3m/hr

Nice bay with many anchored sailboats. We have seen very few sailboats in the last few weeks and now feel like we are not outcasts. Zihuatanejo has a small village feeling. The local market is a maze of small shops where one can watch the butcher do his thing with a full cow and buy local produce. Nice to see a whole pickup full of coconuts, melons or pineapples being sold. Several blocks with no cars. We did a lot of local shopping and had another nice lunch, then back to the boat for a sundowner. Laundry, ice and diesel delivered. Nice! But ya don’t wanna swim in this bay! Headed out tomorrow for Manzanillo.

Zihuatanejo to Manzanillo - Really nice stop. Anchored next to Las Hadas resort and marina. Really nice! First day we rode a local bus into town for shopping. Next day we took the hotel up on their day use offer. For a fee, you can use all facilities – they have 3 swimming pools, including a spectacular buffet breakfast, lunch and any drinks you wanted delivered to the pool all day. We ate well!

Next day - motored to Bahia Navidad and anchored in the lagoon. This 25 mile trip was very pleasant with very little wind or seas.