Acapulco seeing the "Cliff Divers"

Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Thu 25 Mar 2010 04:06
Location: Acapulco
Location: (16:50.462N 99:54.435W)
It is still 2 hours before dawn, we have 12 hour daylight here, but I can
already see the lights of Acapulco directly off our bow 20+ miles ahead. To
my right (starboard) I can see a large ship of some kind 4 miles out, we
have just weaved our way through a fleet of fishing boats (suspect shrimp
boats) these are always heard to deal with as there are a number, they do
appear on AIS, and barely show up on radar until you are on top of them, and
you are never sure if they have nets out which would not be nice wrapped
around our prop.
I have opened the top of the cockpit as the wind has died off and the sea is
laying down, so I hope Tracy is getting some sleep (I will sleeping this
morning after we anchor. When I look up the milkyway shows all its 1000s of
stars, and to my delight just above the horizon I can see the "Southern
Cross" like an old friend from home. I double checked the sighting by doing
the old boy scout trick of dividing the pointers and the long access of the
Southern Cross to join and point to South, which it did.
As you look down on the black sea you find Gijima riding over the back of
these endless black mountains that glide under her, the odd one we surf
down, and veil of white gushes from the bow wave and glows from our
navigation lights.
We now have full tanks of water, which will last a week if we want, we use a
lot of water with showers etc, but we are not wanting to restrict. The
watermaker has been a key feature of the boat making 24 gallons and hour
driven off the generator directly, this is simple to use, and we have
cascading tanks so we always fill our drinking water tank first then the
house tank. Many people out here have 5 to 6 gallon hour water makers which
is way too small they can never get the tanks full, and they use too much
power. Other people no water makers and then you see them lugging Jerry cans
of water in the dinghy and then back and forth. It is madness to go without
a Water Maker, and the bigger the better you must be able to make water
while under way and at anchor. It must be simple to use and easy to change
filters etc.
The morning haze faded and the cliffs of Acapulco were presented to us, and
the heads opened up before us, with the city sky scrapers in the distance
back of the bay. The strange thing is that there was only one large ship
here, basically the bay was empty as we entered, but this is more of a
symbolic harbor not for commercial. We arrived and negotiated a mooring from
a local (Hugo) for $25 a night, which is a relief when the depth is 50 feet
and cables etc on the bottom. We entered the famous Acapulco harbor, made of
sandstone (similar to Sydney) with big cliffs and houses hanging on the edge
same as Sydney Harbor. The location we have is in front of the Acapulco
Yacht Club, surrounded by boats in very different states of repair. We went
ashore with Endurance team, visiting the old town, and markets, As we
wandered the city the VW Beetle is out in the 100s as taxis, and we start to
see the very colorful south American busses, we jumped on buses to go down
town, which the boys loved. The city is big and busy, bustling along, it
does not feel safe and looks run down from the ideas I had. We then went up
to the cliffs to see the famous Cliff Jumpers/ Divers. This was quiet
remarkable different from what I had expected, the place they jump is very
narrow the water is turbulent and they jumping high and out far.
As we waited two young Australians chatted next to us so we started up a
discussion, the world is a small place they went to school at Canberra
Grammar same as I did graduating in 2004, one of them received my brother's
outdoor award (which he uses as part of resume, which is a compliment), and
one has a grandmother who has a house 4 doors from my mother in Lilli Pilli.
It was nice to discuss with them, they travelling Mexico for 6 weeks, and
have just started.
But how small is the world!!
Acapulco is a magnificent bay, and now the lights have come up with the
mountains hugging the bay, and houses all the way up the hills. A nice cool
breeze and a calm anchorage tonight which will be nice for the family (all
tiered from a rolly trip down last night). But the strange thing is the lack
of on water activity, the city seems to centred on the bay, so life is
happening around the restaurants, but not on the water???