- Port of departure: Bahia Tenacatita
- Departure date and time: Saturday, May 4th at 10:00am
- Port of arrival: Manzanillo
- Arrival date and time: Saturday, May 4th at 8:30pm
- Total travel time: 10.5 hours
- Miles traveled: 38.1
- Engine hours: 1035.1 – 1036.1 – 1 hour
- Forecast: Light winds from the S/SW with 1-2 meter swell from the S/SW. I’m glad the forecast happened to be wrong!
We were originally intending to go to Barra Navidad, on the recommendation of many cruisers (and because there is a french baker who apparently delivers pastries to your boat in the morning!) but we had a solid 12-15 knots of wind coming out of the W, which would make for a nearly perfect day of sailing and allow us to cover some miles on our long journey south. These days, with the winds generally being so light and variable, we’ve got to make progress while we can so that we don’t have to rely so heavily on our engine (which can be costly in terms of upkeep and fuel).
The coastline here is beautiful – it reminds us of the Oregon coast, with many rock outcroppings and mountains abutting the sea. Fortunately, however, the water is a lot warmer than up north. As we were exiting the bay, we sailed through a dense band of red algae. It was a dramatic color set against the otherwise cobalt blue ocean. We could see a clear dividing line between the two colors.
For the majority of the morning we sailed on a broad reach with our working jib and full main. As the day progressed, the wind mellowed to around 8 knots and shifted more to the NW, enabling us to go wing on wing. Eventually we changed out our working jib for our Genoa, giving us a bit of a boost. Despite the increase in sail area our progress slowed with the wind, but we were making around 3 knots.
We sailed right to the anchorage at Las Hadas resort, surrounded by dolphins, and dropped Bruce in 24 feet of water just as the sun was setting. If only every day could be this beautiful and productive!
If you haven’t noticed…my standards for what constitutes speed and progress have diminished dramatically since we started sailing more. A necessary and pleasant adjustment. I consider anything more than 2.5 knots to be fast now. around 2.5 miles per hour people!). On this trip we enjoyed a 3.8 knot average? I’ll gladly take it.
