Once the family had cleared out we were left to figure out where to go next.   We had already decided that Barra would be our furthest point south and so it was time to make plans to return north to La Cruz.   The weather, however, had other ideas.   For several days in a row the winds blew hard from the north, leaving us all but stranded aboard – the wind would tear through the lagoon every afternoon kicking up a pretty good chop and making the rather long dinghy trip to town quite undesirable.

Our second afternoon of hanging out at the boat we were down below when we were hailed on the radio – a boat was letting us know that we should really head up on deck because another boat was dragging past us.   I popped up on deck to see our neighbors flying past us – going impressively fast, I might add.   She was frantically trying to get all of the screening off the dodger and he was trying to get the wheel back on (having taken it off to store on the side deck to allow for greater room in the cockpit).   They had, by now, missed all of the boats in their path but were quickly heading for very shallow water!!!    Finally they were able to get the boat put back together and fired up and got their anchor reset – crises averted!!!

The next day someone felt the need to post an article about different anchors (of course arguing that only a rocna anchor would have held up in those conditions) along with commentary to remind people that boats dragging in the lagoon is a regular event.   Owen was actually reading the article when I suddenly felt an odd blurp in the motion of the boat – I popped up on deck to realize we were now moving behind the boat that had dragged the day prior – even though we had been quite ahead of them only a short while before…   we were dragging!!!!    I quickly fired up the engine and started moving her forward while Owen grabbed the anchoring fob and got up on deck – the event was thankfully very un-dramatic and we were very shortly reset – it seems no one had even noticed we were going for a walk-about!!   Because the lagoon does not really flush out very well, the bottom is very soft silt and in the big winds and chop the anchor just pulled out – as mentioned by another boater this is a common theme in the anchor – that and going aground on the sand bar.   Someone described it as her two favorite things – mud-wrestling and drag racing!    We later had a conversation with the other boat that had dragged – they had been there for 2 weeks without moving – it was just dumb luck.   It was a bit of a confidence shaker though – in the 12 years Owen and I have boated together, we have only dragged once and that was while we were stern tied at Jedediah, on a rocky bottom, after a wicked storm.    It was also a bit unnerving to realize how many days we had been away from the boat during those big winds – what if she had dragged then!!  

We had decided to hang out in Barra until after my Mom’s service – I wasn’t able to go home but my sister was going to live feed it for me and for all of our family back east.   The internet was reliable in Barra and we didn’t want to end up somewhere that it was not reliable.

We spent an afternoon exploring at Colimilla – a fishing village inside the lagoon (which, like home, is built on a hill – it is uphill to go everywhere!!) and enjoyed a wonderful meal (and very inexpensive Pina Coladas) at a restaurant aptly named The View.  

We were finally beginning to make plans to head out and realized that we were quickly running out of cash.  There is not a bank or bank machine in Barra so we needed to make a trip into Melaque to hit the bank.   We opted to take the bus and were pleasantly surprised to run into Tommy Transit – fellow BC boaters will recognize Tommy as the driver of the Hummingbird Pub Bus on Galiano Island – taking that bus is always a musical and entertaining experience.  He was tickled to have been recognized out of context!  We took advantage of being in town to do a final grocery shop and then took a cab back to Barra – we were now ready to head out.

Our first stop on heading north was Tenacatita – I had been itching to get back to that paradise!!!  Lucky for us, Tera and Gentry (Freia) had been planning to head south from there to Barra but opted to hang around with us for a couple of days.   We enjoyed dinner (and several bottles of wine!) aboard Solstice Tide the first evening and then took our dinghies to do the Lagoon trip up to a Raicilla tour.   The lagoon trip was so cool – trying to meander our dinghy through ever narrowing mangrove trails – fully tunnels at the middle – trying not to impale us on the stumps that stuck out everywhere!!!   We finally ended up in an opening in the lagoon and were picked up from there by Pancho and ferried in the back of a truck outfitted with seats on each side and a canopy top.   The tour consisted mainly of videos explaining the process of mezcal production (and how it differs from tequila) and explaining that the various names for Mezcal were regional – we were in an area where it was called Raicilla but if you get it in Chihauha it will be called Sotil.    We were dropped back at the beach where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch and great pina coladas with our toes in the sand before making the return trip through the mangroves – for some reason we seemed to do even worse at controlling the boat on the way back, crashing into the mangroves at least 3 times!!!  Luckily there was no damage to the dinghy!  

The second morning we were in Tenacatita we were just waking up when I heard a “whoosh” and then another.   I popped up on deck and found two humpback whales just off our bow – they were so close.   Of course, I didn’t have my camera and missed taking a picture.   A few minutes later I was sitting out enjoying the peaceful morning when I heard the whoosh again and watched the whales surface right beside our neighbors’ boat – this time I got a picture!   Unfortunately, our neighbor left before I had the chance to head over to get their email address but managed to track them down though social media and were able to send the pic their way.

We spent a couple more days in Tenacatita enjoying the 28 degree water, and then decided to do a run directly to La Cruz – it seemed like a good idea at the time.  It ended up being alternately windless and then too much wind.   At one point we were seeing 20+ knots and really big seas – we had already passed Chamela so, barring going backwards (which I HATE to do), we had no choice but to tough it out for a few hours.   Everything finally calmed down (and then of course died out completely) in the middle of the night – we fired up the engine and motored to the corner of Banderas Bay where we were finally able to sail (though slowly!) across the bay, dropping the hook in La Cruz about 7:30 pm.  

La Cruz represented a good spot to get everything stocked up and ready to go further North.   We did a grocery run into the La Comer and spent days ferrying jerry cans of water back and forth from the marina store to the boat (we need a watermaker!).   The wind would kick up every afternoon making the transit across the bay to our boat long and wet – even after we moved in a bit it was still a long slog.   We did manage a beach party the first Saturday that we were there (a send off for the boats heading off to cross the Pacific) complete with a bring your own meat barbq, pot-luck sides, big bonfire and good visits with other boaters.   We also made a trip to the weekly market (we really need to stay away from the bakery booths!) and enjoyed the outdoor movie night (Belfast – such a good movie!).  

Finally, after a little over a week there, we checked out with the port captain, spent a final day ferrying water and then finally headed out again – next major stop:  Mazatlan.