Melaque, 24 years later

By Rob

In my 3rd year of engineering school I took a semester off to go sailing in Mexico.  I had met the owners of the Formosa 50 named Climax at Avalon harbor in the Channel Islands as they were making their way South.  We hit it off and when the opportunity to join them came up I jumped on it.

Mom and Dad were a bit freaked out and thought I may never return and complete my last year of school.  They were cautiously supportive and we kept in regular contact via the Ham radio.

During the 5 months aboard I traveled from Cabo to LaPaz then across to Mazatlan and as far South as Zihuatanejo.

One of the places where we spent a lot of time and I have fond memories of is the town of  Melaque.
This town is just north, across the bay of Barra de Navidad.  In the last 24 year Barra has become a  destination for vacationers and boaters .   Melaque has changed some but remains a quaint working class town on the beach.

What has changed:

• Bungalows - All the hotels in town call themselves Bungalows.  I haven't seen this anywhere else in Mexico but in Melaque there is a Bungalow for rent on every block.
• Expats everywhere - You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Canadian.
• Beach square moved - There used to be a town square right on the beach.  I think this prime spot became a Bungalow.

What hasn't changed

• Soccer teams training on the beach - The soccer teams are very active in Melaque and they train on the beach every day.
• School kids play in the waves - After school lets out the teachers bring the kids to the beach to play in the wave and goof off.
• Fishing from shore - The local fisherman throw cast nets from the beach.  There is skill required!
• Massage and Nail places - Not happening in 1988
• Victoria Beer - The local brew is called Victoria.   I bought a few yesterday and honestly didn't like it that much.

BTW, I did return to school and aced my last year of engineering school.  I lost track of the S/V Climax and wonder how far they got down the coast.

Now I feel some sort role reversal, with Nancy and I on Shindig, I see a little bit of myself in some of the young crew that came down on the Baja Haha.

Skilled fisherman throw cast nets

I think is where the beach square was back in
1988.

Margarita time in Melaque

Canadians enjoying the beach.  Shindig in the anchorage.

A view of the anchorage from a palapa restaurant.

I don't remember massages in town (1988) - but Nancy is happy about this

Crazy awesome ribs at Tacos Scooby.  I love Scooby Snacks.

On the Melaque bus

Fire in Barra.  Never did find out if this was a controlled fire at the dump or not.... We could see the flames from 3 miles away in Melaque

Tenacatita and Cuestecomate

Tenacatita was an overnight sail/motor from LaCruz.  We are early in the season for this anchorage and there were only 2 other boats.  One of them by chance was also from Sausalito.  We had a great visit with  "Good Karma".  Lunch was enjoyed ashore with Harry and Lina and wine was consumed in the anchorage.

We look forward to exploring more of Tenacatita when Bryan comes to town.

Cuestecomate is a small "secret" anchorage just 12 miles South of Tenacatita.  We were the only boat there for two days and the clear water invited great snorkeling.

Our crew: Spot and Piggy (an egg timer) that keeps us company and awake when alone on overnight passages.

Street view one block up from Cuestecomate beach

Colorful paintings on the wall of an artists home

Shindig, the only boat in anchorage

Giant Pufferfish - we saw Yellow ones, too

La Cruz

We had a fun, productive visit within Banderas Bay last week.  We only had time to visit La Cruz, a sleepy fishing village with a live music scene, as their marina was our destination. But we plan to make Banderas Bay our "home base" for early 2013, and will have more time visiting Yelapa, Puerto and Nuevo Vallarta, Bucerias, Sayulita, and Punta de Mita.   We passed by Punta de Mita on the north, and headed straight for La Cruz.  We planned to stay 2-3 days to mostly take care of Shindig maintenance, with some local cuisine, provisioning and laundry to be done.  As we arrived, we admired the gleaming boats in the marina as well as thatched hut roof of the Sky Bar on top of La Cruz Yacht club.  Rob was approached within 5 minutes by different boat resources, asking how they could help.  The marina staff, especially Blanco, was super accommodating, helping with hair appointments, directions, and even programming our Mexican phone to English menus.  Below is Rob's update on some of the maintenance work.  Nancy was happy to have clean laundry, find some good taco stands, and chat with locals who have made La Cruz their winter home.  La Cruz is known for its live music scene, and she was invited to play honky-tonk piano with a pick up band on Monday.  She has not accepted, yet.   

Marina La Cruz - great place to stand up paddleboard

Pretty view of marina boats.  Shindig is 2nd boat on left, with the bow in.



Nancy(very happy) with bag of clean, folded laundry
(Mostly Towels!)

 
The engine oil change went smoothy.  Shindig had motored 157 hours since we left San Francisco Bay on 9/15/2012.

2216 hours

The fuel filter change didn't go as smoothy.  The swap of the primary and secondary filter went fine but I didn't adequately prime the secondary filter and got air into the injector lines.  I now know how to bleed the entire system from one end to the other.  I call it, "polishing your engine with diesel fuel".  It is a mess.  The clean up was a pain but everything went back together fine and "Perky" is purring.

Transmission oil changed.  Check.

Our refrigeration system has been working overtime on this trip.  We have a fridge and freezer that is kept cool with an 1/2 HP DC motor belted to compressor.  In El Cid, Mazatlan, I found a freon leak and added 1 kilo of refrigerant.    In La Cruz we ran out again.  Fortunately I was able to locate more refrigerant 10 kilometers away in Bucerias.  The system is recharged and I have ordered a diagnostic tool (sniffer) to help find the leak.  Stay tuned......  There could be a cold beer emergency.

I pulled the brushes out of the refrigeration motor to size up some spares and also cleaned out all the brush dust with a little shop vac I have onboard.

Refrigeration Brush (one of two)

Not Who Moved my Cheese...but.....

Dec 8^th

Not Who moved my Cheese, but …..

Who used MY brown towel?! I was reminded of the challenges and compromises of living on a sailboat recently when we were about 5 days from having clean laundry.  (No, there is not a front loading washer and dryer onboard.)  Many of the local villages have lavanderias, which will wash, dry and fold neatly one’s laundry for about 10 pesos (less than a dollar) a kilo.  Not bad!  However, we have been in “beach” mode lately, with swimming, short showers, sand etc.  Hard to keep a clean set of towels around.  I had brought out an old, but very clean, brown/white towel to reward myself after showering.  Rob was supposed to be using our blue towels.  I was reminiscing about clean towels as Rob went down below for his turn at the shower.

A few minutes later I saw my brown towel in a heap on the floor.  “Who used my brown towel?!”

That was a fun topic of conversation with friends under the palapa, as we all relate to the special things we appreciate on our sailboat lives.
If that is my chief complaint, I think we are doing very well!

And, the last stop in La Cruz included a lavanderia visit with 3-4 loads of laundry done and delivered to our sailboat.  Clean towel days are here again.

Bonita Chacala

We spent 4 or 5 days anchored outside an idyllic Mexican fishing village called Chacala.  It was a tiny town, with a couple of dirt and cobble roads on a hill behind the beach.  In addition to the pretty haciendas on the hill, the beach was lined with adjacent palapa restaurants beckoning our time with cool drinks and plentiful seafood.  There were about 8-10 boats in the harbor each day.  Shindig had planned to be there a few days, but our "plan" extended each afternoon as we played in the surf and chatted with our friends in the shade.  The sailboaters took over long tables and set up shop for the day, which included admiring the S/V Fluenta family doing home-schooling with their 2nd and 4th grade kids. Local vendors strolled through each restaurant with pretty handicrafts for sale.  Nancy was recognized for her volume discount requests and general negotiating skills.  "si compro tres, cuanto me cobra?"  (if I buy 3, how much?)
Our group of friends were pretty active.  We body surfed, walked the beach, went scuba and snorkeling, and dinghy exploring.  Other wiser couples hung out under the shade with cool limonadas and fast internet.  Each day the waves and surf break got a little bigger.  At first we could easily dinghy to shore, and help pull each other's dinghies up high on the beach.  Later the surf was so big that only the intrepid kayaker or Stand Up Paddler could try to make it ashore.  There were several fantastic dinghy landing and exits late at night.  Rob helped others make it back to their boats, as well as ferry others to and from their boats. 
Here are some photos from a week in paradise. It just keeps getting better!



Chacala Beach, looking south towards Wellness Retreat Center

Sue (S/V Wizard)  and Nancy with non alcoholic Pina Coladas

A Busy Day at Chacala Beach

Nancy Scuba Diving

Mexican style grilled fish - Sarandeado Style
Muy Bueno!

Los Hombres in lazy afternoon
Frankie, Phil, John and Rob under the palapa of knowledge.

John (S/V Wizard)  and Rob kayaking in the waves
Our sailboats in background

Wild beach party in Chacala
Just kidding!

Amphibious Shindig

Our electronic charts in Mexico are not that good.  They are based off US Navy mapping from the early 1900's.

As you can see in the photo below Shindig is anchored about 1 mile inland.

Knowing that the charts are crappy we take extra precautions.    For example, we'll use the radar during the day and compare the shoreline contour of the chart with the actual contour from the radar.

What we have found is that the charts are off in many places 1/2 to 2 nautical miles.

The Shindig are also GOAL oriented navigators. (Go Outside And Look) - Thanks David from Taj for the acronym

Galley Time

Galley Organization

5AM – Buenos Dias!

We are looking forward to Bryan’s visit in a few weeks after he finishes up his finals at Northeastern. Am sure we’ll spend most of our time sampling the restaurants in the marinas and resort hotels of Barra, but it’ll be fun to make some meals aboard Shindig as well.  Time to assess and to organize the galley!

I’ve learned that talking about our freezer is not a popular topic among our new friends, as many have the equivalent of small bread box.  Ours is separate from the ‘fridge and deep enough to have things lost in it.  We are very spoiled aboard Shindig.  When we left home, it was filled with homemade pasta dishes, meats and staples for our trip down to Cabo with Bert and Dan.  Now the supplies are dwindling, which is ok, as we have access to small “tiendas” (shops) in most places we visit.  I am always on the hunt for plump limes,  fresh white onions, green peppers and bananas wherever we go. 

Key items being saved for our family time with Bryan include jumbo camarones from Mazatlan, some nice rib eye steaks ,  one tray of green chicken enchiladas and banana bread from San Blas.  Should be a nice break from his dorm food.

This morning I also reorganized the two stacking plastic bins, which are now the ships pantry.   

There are still ingredients to make homemade cookies,blueberry sourcream coffee cake,  as well as energy bars, candy, trail mix and fiber sticks ready for future hikes or snorkeling trips. Our favorite snacks for entertaining, such as Trader Joes potato and lentil snack, mixed nuts, water crackers, are dwindling.  We’ll decide what to stock up on and lug down to Mexico in February, after visiting the Bay Area. In a separate blog post, I’ll visit a common cockpit topic, “Wine Strategies in the Tropics”.  

Now for my second cup of coffee.....