Voyage of the Sea Bear

We’ve been here a week, and I’ve been negligent in updating this web site. There are many reasons why, but in a nutshell, this is a neat town. We’ve anchored across from town for a couple of reasons.

Probably the biggest reason is that Z-town, like most Mexican smaller cities, discharges sewage straight into the bay, and moving across the bay gets us away from the smell. Over here the water is clean enough to swim in, and much clearer if you are snorkeling.

Anchoring on the far side, off of La Ropa, puts us directly across from the mouth of the bay. The wind often changes direction, but the ocean swells always come from the mouth of the bay. To keep the boat from swinging broadside to the swells, we put out two anchors, one from the bow and one from the stern. This way we always point into the swells, regardless of the current wind direction. It takes longer to get underway, or to set the anchors, but the end result is much more comfortable.

We made some new friends, preparing for the Sailfest. The Sailfest is the main reason we came down here,  it is a neat fund raiser for local schools. You can see more information on the Sailfest here . Anyway, between visiting, shopping, swimming, snorkeling, and laying about, we’ve had a pretty good time.

Next week we will be hosting visitors on board the Sea Bear, doing some racing, and helping behind the scenes to make Sailfest successful. Once or twice a week a cruise ship pulls in, and town gets over run with tourists.

It seems the prices go up at the same time, but maybe that’s just my imagination.

Last week a pair of Grey Whales swam into the bay, and the “whale watching boats”  followed them around for a few hours. I didn’t take any pictures, bu JC got a good one of a dolphin jumping completely out of the water.  You cannot believe how many times you have to snap the shutter before you can actually get a picture like this. I think they can hear the camera turn on, because they usually vanish as soon as we pick up the digital camera.  Another tricky shot to get is a good night view of town from the boat. Each evening we watch the sunset, and the lights in town come on. Zihuatenajo  covers several hills and is quite lovely at night. However, the boat moves, and when you combine that movement with the longer exposure time needed to capture a low light night shot, you get something like this:

 It’s pretty, but not quite what we see. Unless we’ve had a few too many  margaritas. Which does happen, but not often.

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