Relaxing at Anchor in Zihuatanejo harbor

Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Sat 20 Mar 2010 03:01
It's 2 pm, the boys and Tracy are sleeping like 90% of Mexico, and the
afternoon breeze has kicked in at 10 knots cooling down the boat. We left
Ixapta Marina at 11 am this morning on the outgoing tide actually tried to
catch as full as possible, and sure enough there was a 5 to 6 foot swell as
we departed the over the bar, some nice lumps to go over. As soon as we were
out we had dolphins swimming next to us, as we headed south for the long 7
mile trip to Zihuatanejo harbor (17:35.155N 101:33.278W) where we are to
meet up with "Endurance" with Matt , Paula and the girls on board, and sure
enough we were able to drop anchor in 20 feet of sand along side them. We
had spent the morning and last evening giving the washing machine on board a
very good work out, with lots of loads and then handing everything to dry,
in this heat does not take long (we were told off by the marina for looking
like a laundry but who cares we were leaving anyway). The Marina also
provided a good location for Sean and Alex to ride their bikes which they
did last night and this morning.
Zihuatanejo is a more Mexican beach town, hugging this lovely bay with hills
all around. As we came down we past a number of islands, and then entered
the bay we just down from the main town pier, and the houses rise all way up
the hills, with palm trees lining behind the yellow beaches and beach
restaurants behind these. I took a dinghy tour earlier and it is a lazy laid
back town, with a lot of Pangas going out for fishing, but now anchored off
the pier. Ixapta is the sister town and is a tourist town, lined with hotels
along the beaches, where a Z"wot" seams to be more traditional and low rise.

Well we have now been ashore we landed on the beach in the amongst the
pangas, their landing is a lot elegant as Sean points out they just wind up
the motor and then shoot for the shore sliding up on to the beach, this
fascinated Sean. After going to super market to stock on passage snacks,
which we could not get at the last place, we then played on the beach, next
door to an open air full basket ball match and the pangas's launching before
sun set for the night run for fish. (I will photos of this at the next
wireless location.)
We wandered the streets which are small shops and bars set up for the cruise
ships and tourists but done nicely. Both Tracy and I like the feel of this
place, it is a small, homely town that has fun, in a beautiful setting.
Stopped at a lovely restaurant had great garlic Mahi Mahi and prawns so
fresh and garlic sauce was superb.
We ran into some more boats heading south, one with six adults on a 41
footer, boy do they have night shift watch people, but they are in a rush
they want to be through by end of next week to El Salvador we may but will
not push, I think we are 2 to 3 weeks away certainly not on a tight
schedule, we will probably stay around here tomorrow.
As a sign off tonight, the scene is we have live music coming from the
beach bars, lights orange from houses rising high above us on hanging from
the hills, we have about 14 boats at anchor, with 100 pangas and small
fishing boats off to port also at anchor. The surf is crashing on the beach
to my starboard but a gentle 8 knot breeze is coming off the land which will
make it nice tonight (current 27 C, 81 F). The basket ball match is still
going I can hear the umpire whistles since it is Friday night they have a
good crowd, but you could sit in a restaurant and watch it as well, very
civilized.