In Acapulco; Thanks for Asking! - March 17, 2014

Greetings From Beautiful Bahia de Acapulco.    

Dinner View From Restaurante Abracadabra

We are spending this St. Patrick's Day and Dia Festivo Benito Juarez at anchor in the eastern portion of the Bahia in sight of an active base of the Armada Mexicana and a very large oil tanker, the Centenario.  How can anchoring this close to a active naval vessels be okay?  It's Mexico?  [Molly once was threatened with violence by U.S. naval personnel when she sailed a J-World J-24 too close to an active U.S. naval vessel . . . ]

SUP Rider Taking Refuge In The Shadow Of The Tanker

Because today is a national holiday we are being entertained by a noisy ballet of banana boat riders, novice water skiers and (apparently totally insane) jet skiers.  They are enjoying creating wakes for each other -- and for Abracadabra.  We exchange the occasional sympathetic greeting with SUP riders and kayakers wobbling by, and tell ourselves that tomorrow the long weekenders will have returned to work and it will be much quieter . . . .  

The houses and condominiums on the hillside at this end of the Bahia are impressive . . .

Breakfast View From Restaurante Abracadabra

but we can't say much more about Acapulco yet as we haven't gone ashore.  We arrived last night and we're spending today being lazy after our 120 mile trip from Ixtapa.  It was a fabulous sail.  Once we caught a breeze outside of Bahia Ixtapa we were able to sail the entire way to Bahia Acapulco.  Well, for a couple of hours near dawn the verb "to sail" applies in a mostly theoretical sense - we spent our time bobbing along with a one knot current assist with sails flapping due to the very low wind.  But for most of the trip we had beautiful breeze and were able to sail pretty close to on course; we flew the spinnaker through most of the daylight hours.  

This tranquil trip probably made arriving in the very busy Bahia Acapulco even more jarring.  We had made reservations at the one public marina, only to find -- after threading our way through a mooring mine-field and weaving in and out of other boats doing the same -- that the only docks available were "Mediterranean-style".  That's where the boat backs in between two other boats and ties its stern to the dock.  The boat's bow is kept forward by tying it to a mooring ball.  While we have "med-moored" before, it has always been in a newer style rental boat that was insured and that drove, both forward and back, like the Buicks Molly's Granddaddy Arnold preferred.  Abracadabra is not a Buick, and she doesn't back straight worth a . . . diddly squat.  Plus Molly's arms aren't long enough to qualify as standard mooring ball grabbing equipment.  And there was a side-wind.  So we declined the "slip".  We also declined the subsequently offered mooring ball because the mooring field was really crowded, and looked a bit dicey due to the crowds threading in and out among the moored boats.  
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We motored off across the Bahia as the sun was heading down, toward this anchoring area, which had been recommended to us by our friends on Lanikai.  And while it's noisy and active here, it has good holding and very good surge and wind protection.  And it's free.  [Did we mention we're cheap . . . ?]

So Where Have We Been Since La Cruz?

Muchas Gracias to all of you that have written to ask how we are doing.  We're so happy to hear that you are following our travels!  And, yes, they have continued - some 450 nautical miles of them since La Cruz.  Unfortunately, we have had to restrain our blogging in order to focus our internet connectivity and personal mental connectivity toward getting our . . . da, da, da, dum . . . . taxes filed.  Molly decided that this is the year to wean ourselves from the services of a CPA and to learn to do our taxes on our own - or at least with the assistance of TurboTax.  We're so confident in her abilities that we've purchased the audit protection package TurboTax offers.

And now that our filing date is in sight, we're going to resume blogging and fill in the six week, 450-ish nautical mile gap.  Just not all at once, as that would tax not only our patience but yours, not to mention our electrical capacity, internet capacity and all sorts of capacities.  

Again, thanks for checking in.  We hope you are looking forward to our "catch up" postings over the next week or so and that you continue to check in from time-to-time.  We enjoy hearing from you, too!