Manzanillo

We left Barra de Navidad on February 23rd at 11:00 with a fishing rod out, running the coast in very light winds. At first, we motored while making water. While passing through the mayhem of diving birds, Jordan caught a 16-lb Pacific Crevalle Jack - unfortunately this fish has very dark red meat and does not taste good. It's been awhile since Jordan has provided tasty fish for meals!

We both had solar showers under the shining sun with nothing on except a warm breeze. How refreshing and daring it felt!

Then with enough wind, as we hoisted the main sail and the Genoa poled to go dead downwind, a school of dolphins swam around us - they are always a welcome thrill to see.

Arriving at the busy industrial port of Manzanillo, we anchored at the NW end of the crescent beach at Las Hadas at 18:30 on February 23rd (N19°06.050' W104°20.602'). Manzanillo is in the state of Colima. Dotting the hillsides were a multitude of bright white buildings interspersed with only 1 or 2 of another colour. One stood out with such an abundance of vivid pink bougainvillea and palm trees in front of it.

We find Manzanillo to be an expensive port. They even charge 100 pesos per day to tie up your dinghy (that's about $8 Cdn). But that payment then allows you to dispose of your garbage, use their showers and laundry facilities, and the resort's swimming pool. It just seems to be a bit of a rip-off if you are not using any of their facilities that day other than the dinghy dock.

We hiked up the paved hill and caught a bus for 1 to 2 km to nearby Santiago. Jordan desperately needed new spark plugs for the outboard engine (the spares he had for the Merc don't fit the Evinrude that we recently purchased in Puerto Escondido). We also did a bit of provisioning as we will be leaving today.

We finally took advantage of the swimming pool today. This is quite a spectacular pool. It's about 30 metres long and has several great features:

• a bar along 1 edge that you can swim to and sit waist-high on the underwater stools
• 2 rock formations covered with beautiful plants and trees that you can swim around
• a suspension bridge that spans the width of the pool
• tiled forms that fit the curve of your body to lie on as though on a lawn chair while in the middle of the pool
• a ball and removable net for water games
• plus a separate wading pool for children

Las Hadas Resort swimming pool

And to top it all off, the water was the perfect temperature for me, not too cold and not too warm!

Once we could pull ourselves away from this luxury, we hoisted the anchor at 16:15 to head for a 2-day sail to Zihuatanejo. When we looked back at Manzanillo, we noticed the smog layer and were very glad to be escaping.

A huge school of dolphins of at least 100 joined us just as we rounded Point Campos outside of Manzanillo. So sleek and streamlined, leaping high into the air, and quickly skirting around Sea Turtle, and 2 were together (belly to belly, 1 on top, 1 below) swimming in perfect mirror image harmony. What happy playful creatures they must be!