Zihuatenajo – Take 2

With excitement this morning we raised the hook in Zihuatenajo Bay off Playa Ropa and headed out for our 3-4 day passage to Huatulco, where we are planning on meeting Michael’s sister Sandi and her family, and later our friends Bob, Elana and Maya.  About an hour out, we realized our alternator is not working.  We spent 4 days at Marina Ixtapa (the next bay over) getting it fixed when we first arrived here, and we thought it had been all taken care of.  Without the alternator charging our batteries when we are motoring (which unfortunately it looks like we will be doing lots of for this passage), the only way to charge up our batteries is with the generator.  Generator on equals using fuel.  Motoring equals fuel.  Three to four days at sea with the motor on equals too much fuel.  We cannot spare any extra.

About an hour out, we decided to turn around and come back to Z-town (what we gringos call it when we don’t want to try to spell it).  Fortunate for us, we were able to get a hold of the mechanic who worked on the alternator last week and he came out to Zihuatenajo to see what is going on.  We hope we’ll be heading out again tomorrow morning with a working alternator – even though it’s a Friday.  There is a sailor’s superstition that one should never begin a passage on a Friday, so we’ll say that we simply began today and will continue tomorrow.

This is not a bad place to be laid up.  This area is tropical, and therefore much greener than the landscapes further north that we have become accustomed to.  The town itself used to be a fishing village, and we enjoy sitting on the fisherman’s boardwalk watching thousands of pounds of fish being loaded up every day onto carts attached to the front of  bicycles.  Today, the town has a nice mixture of local and tourist amenities, and as a gringo, we are not overrun with time share salesmen or people pushing their necklaces and bracelets onto us.  We had perhaps the best meal yet in Mexico at the Porto di Mare, right on the boardwalk here.  Even more surprising than the meal was the service, which never seems to meet American standards very well anywhere else that we’ve been.  Danielle and I went to a yoga class, the kids have been catching up on homeschooling (we are still 10 lessons behind where we were this same time last year) before our guests arrive, we’ve been swimming a bit and exploring the town.

The lay-up here does put us a bit behind schedule though.  We were hoping to get to Huatulco by the 19th to get oriented and clean the boat after a long passage, before the Mandels arrive.  Hopefully, we’ll only be a day behind.  I am relieved we had built in some buffer time.

-Barb
Zihuatenajo Bay