Manzanillo Bay

We didn’t leave Barra de Navidad until Wednesday. We waited our turn to get to the fuel dock Monday. Tied up and ask for 45 liters of diesel. Then we tried to take on water but the water was “not today”. Will it work tomorrow? Manana. Which really means “not today”. So we canceled the fuel order and anchored again in the lagoon. Only half the dock is open because a motor yacht too large for the marina is tied up to the fuel dock. It is so big that they back into the dock. They secure the front of the yacht by dropping one of their two anchors and the back they tie up to one side of the fuel dock. The yacht is so wide it almost covers one side of the fuel dock. When Vagari’s side ties to the dock there is at least ten, probably fifteen feet, of dock left.

Tuesday the water worked so we took on fuel and water and headed across the bay and anchored off the town off Melaque. Known to cruisers as “rocky Melaque” because the protection from the Pacific Ocean swell is poor. Therefore your boat rocks. That was not a problem the day we were anchored. We needed to spend some time out of the lagoon before traveling so I could remove the growth from the bottom and the prop. Vagari had a green beard along the waterline after a couple of weeks in the lagoon. For some reason lagoons promote more, different and faster bottom growth than we ever see in the ocean. We don’t swim in the lagoon because of the water quality.

The trip to Manzanillo was mostly a motorboat ride, does that sound familiar? We did sail for a couple of hours, but at less than three knots. The Manzanillo airport is just off the beach. We could see the tower and watched a couple of airplanes land as we coasted past. The coastline was one continuous beach with mountains and cliffs at both ends of the trip.

The entry to Manzanillo Bay is supposed to be spectacular. Just as we turned the last corner to enter the bay a light fog appeared and we missed the view. We found our anchorage, which is beautiful, and had a pleasant dinner on shore.

We have spent the next few days enjoying the pool, beach and restaurants at the Las Hadas Hotel & Resort.