During the night we sailed through the Baja California, the stretch of water between the Mexican mainland and the Californian Peninsula. Further up the inlet it is called the Sea of Cortez but here at the entrance to the Pacific Ocean it is the Bay of California. On occasion it can blow considerably from the…   read more of “29 April 2103; At…”

Approaching Puerto Vallarta is in a way quite easy; you just put the brakes on 3 miles before the beach in the Far eastern part of the Bahia de Banderas: and there is the pilot station, one mile off the beach. The regular committee was waiting to receive us, erratic fishing boats, the navy protection…   read more of “28 April 2013;…”

Around 06.00 we entered the wide entrance to the bay of Manzanillo port. Although blessed with a natural bay it was for a long time a port of only minor importance. That changed in the 90’s. when it was decided that it should become one of the most important import and export ports on the…   read more of “27 April 2013;…”

The distance is between Hualtulco and Manzanillo is 537 miles and that means it is too far away to reach it overnight and too short a distance to go full speed. I am not familiar with the night life of Manzanillo but it seems more of an industrial port than a resort in the style of…   read more of “26 April 2013; At…”

Indeed the winds stayed away and we sailed through nearly flat seas towards the pilot station.  This morning we were called by somebody who called himself Port Control. That was a new one as we had never heard about Huatulco Port Control before. It became very quickly clear that this person had been planning this…   read more of “25 April 2013;…”

The rising of the sun was eagerly awaited by us on the bridge so that we could see the breakwaters and how the swell was affecting them. Sunrise was at 06.50 but we do not need the sunlight to have a good look. For the sailor sunrise exists in three stages. First there is Nautical…   read more of “24 April 2013:…”

 Puerto Quetzal is a fair distance away from Corinto so we put the pedal to the metal once clear of the shallows of Corinto. Luckily we found a nice bit of current that pushed us in the right direction and so during the night the bridge could easy off on the engines and still arrive…   read more of “23 April 2013;…”

Arrival in Corinto always worries me. And that is due to the long swell that can run into the port entrance. The closer we come the shallower the water gets and the more swell can build up. If the swell is in line with the approach course of 077o then it will catch the ship under…   read more of “22 April 2013;…”