Sailing Chamela to Tenacatita, Mexico - a Super Yacht, Cruiser Culture, and Deja vu
2/17/2022 Tenacatita
We sailed overnight from Chamela to Tenacatita, a storied anchorage renowned for its warm, friendly and quirky cruising culture. The wind picked up in the afternoon to 18 knots, so we cruised into the bay at 6.5 knots. We left Chamela earlier than we originally planned because several days of high wind are coming, and we needed to get to Tenacatita’s well-protected anchorage. Isla Pajarera and Isla Cocinas are two beautiful islets in the Bay of Chamela. Unfortunately as I mentioned, a weather system moved in so we could only stay one night. In the one day that we had, though, we explored three secluded, beautiful beaches! All three with good snorkeling, and Heerman's Gulls laughing incessantly above and on the rocks. We definitely want to return under calmer conditions.
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| One of the three beaches we explored. |
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| Blue-footed booby perched on a cactus at Isla Pajarera. |
There are probably 30 boats anchored here at Tenacatita.
We arrived yesterday and it has been, and still is, very windy. This morning I worked on plumbing projects. Our shower lost pressure yesterday, so that event was the prime mover of my work. However,
after my “fix”, the shower pressure came back great, but the galley sink (the
most used water source on the boat) slowed to a trickle. Shit!
So, I
finally (meaning I've meant to do this for a while) disassembled the galley
faucet. I reassembled it and now it works fine. Since I don’t know exactly
what I did to fix it, I don't know how to replicate it if I need to.
The view
of boats at anchor against the backdrop of the haystack rocks of Tenacatitita hit me with the
strongest déjà vu I’ve felt in years. I
was standing at the bow, the sun shining brightly, the wind gusting. Do we ever know why déjà vu hits us? I have a theory on this one – Maybe it’s
because in the new 12 cd mix Jen put together, she found a Reggae compilation cd
that I bought 25 years ago in Monterey, CA, back when cruising on a sailboat would
have been a hair on a wisp of a cloud in the sky of a distant dream? The song “Pressure drop” is playing. Like most people, I’d long ago packed up my
cd collection in plastic bins and slid them under the bed, never expecting to
listen to them again. But we pulled them
out for cruising because Brightnest’s stereo system plays cds (no Bluetooth). So no wonder I occasionally get feelings of déjà
vu as I gaze upon new horizons, when the sound track playing is a musical tour of
my distant past.
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| Deja vu inducing view when accompanied by a soundtrack from a past life. |
The
number of boats in this anchorage makes me think of what the Caribbean will be
like. I expect it to be more crowded in
the Carib than most anchorages on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.
2/19/2022 Tenacatita
It was a wild night last night. A guy came by in a dinghy around 4:00 while I
was writing up on deck. “We’re inviting
people onboard for drinks tonight, want to come? We’re the blue-hulled boat out there.” “Sure,” I said, hardly looking at the area of
the anchorage to which he pointed.. He
said he’d pick me up at 7:00. Jen said
she wanted to rest, so when he came to get me I was solo. It was only after stepping into the dinghy
that I realized, damn, this is a really nice dinghy (could probably seat 8 or
10). He then ferried me to what I slowly realized was a super yacht – an
over 100ft ketch named Kaori! As I stepped
up to the transom, one of the hired crew introduced herself and asked what I
wanted to drink, rattling off available beers, wines, and cocktails. “A Pacifico please.” I then met the owners, Dan and Sheryl, and their family. They were so nice and friendly, and happy to give tours of the boat. Captain Rob, who’d brought me, ferried more
cruisers aboard from around the anchorage.
The ship's cook laid out a gourmet spread of hot wings, ribs, dips and
snacks, and sandwiches. All of us cruisers
were in awe – none of us expected anything like this! We ended the night dancing on deck while
lights spun. What a great example of the
extreme troughs and peaks in a day in the life of a cruiser. I’d started the day wrestling with a plumbing
project in the tropical heat, and ended it drinking cocktails and dancing on a
super yacht!
It was a truly great night, and I hope to see them again. Today, we are settling in, doing some exploring, and tackling a few boat projects, a couple of fun projects, and just improvements we want.
One of
the essential aspects of sailing is that you have to pay attention to
everything, every day, and make sure it’s OK.
This includes the people (crew) as well as the boat. Is everything on your vessel OK? Weird noise from the boom? Diesel engine, fridge? Are the crew doing
OK? Does your wife look green? You can’t be lazy. Any thought, however peripheral, that flits
through your mind in the form of a worry, any tiny tingling of your Spidey-sense, is something
that you must follow up on. If you don’t
you will be fucked down the line. You
develop a super-attentiveness to your boat, your surroundings, your crew.
I
think that’s a good practice for life in general.
Are you checking on your surroundings – are things OK? Are you checking on the people around you,
are they OK? Shouldn’t we wake up each
morning and live each day attuned to these things?
Tenacatita is one of those places in the world that you want
to tell people about, so that they know such a place exists. It’s a place in the world where an old hippy
couple is elected the “mayor” of the anchorage for the season, where activities
like group swims and bocce ball on the beach are daily occurrences, where the mayor
hosts a dinghy raft-up talent show once a month where everyone sings Sweet
Caroline (of course!), young folk play the violin even though it’s missing a
string and your raft-up neighbor’s dinghy is piled with driftwood for the beach
bonfire after. It’s a place where you
dinghy through mangrove tunnels, where you watch huge crocodiles sink into the
murk. Where margaritas flow, jokes
are told, songs are sung, and conchs sounded at sunset echo across the anchorage.
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| The Tenacatita talent show raft-up. |
Croc in nearby La Manzanilla sinking into the murk.
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| Cruisers wrapping up a bocce ball game at Tenacatita. |
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