We had a great time but it’s time to go. We enjoyed being in Zihuatanejo for SailFest and the kick-off concert for the International Guitar Festival. Zihau is rich in culture and has so many restaurants. We’re also going to miss our cruising buddies we had on S/V Dancy (Dwain and Nancy). They headed back North towards Puerto Vallarta last week. We were going to leave last Thursday the 5th of March but a variety of things conspired to hold us up.
This morning (March 11) we needed to go out of Zihuatanejo Bay and make water. Since we’d already ran our errands (e.g. pick up laundry, hardware store run to get parts to install solar panels, few groceries, and check out with the Port Captain) we decided to turn South and keep sailing.
Kevin sometimes frets about not having quite enough solar capacity and Bev gets tired of discussions around power. So Kevin ordered two new Solar panels in Zihuatanejo. He’ll shift some panels around and essentially add about 380 watts of solar capacity by replacing the smallest set of panels. Anyway, they were delivered to Island Summers by a panga boat on a very rolly afternoon (its like having an Amazon delivery by boat). Try managing 6′ panels being passed over the side railing of a sailboat in rolling seas. Yes, me (Bev) was the only person on the boat to receive the giant boxes. I managed but now one of our back berths is pretty full of solar panels until we can get to a dock where Kevin can install them.
Riley got groomed and his teeth cleaned at the vet in town. It stressed him out so much he ended up with a UTI that required a couple trips back to the vet for antibiotics. We waited a few days to make sure he was better before leaving.
Since our friends John and Nancy were on vacation here in Zihuatanejo we had a nice time connecting with them in the evenings. We even celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with them.
When going ashore in Zihua it requires a beach landing with wheels on the dinghy. It goes pretty smooth unless the surf kicks up. We were lucky the 5 weeks we were there we had perfected our landings (except one day Bev jumped off too early and found herself in very deep water fully dressed). The last day we had to abort one trip to the beach due to high surf. The part Bev never gets use to is wading out into the waves after dark to get into the dinghy when we’ve been in town after sunset. She has visions of sea monsters grabbing her toes!
Zihua is the furthest South many cruisers go. The sailors like us who do go further are often headed for Panama. We knew of a couple of boats in Zihua that were heading South and started a WhatsApp chat group titled ‘South from Zihua’. The group started off with 5 people on it and at last count it had 22. Of course those boats are now spread out across at least 500 nm of coastline all the way to the southern tip of Mexico but we hope to catch up with some of them soon and do some ‘bungee’ or ‘buddy’ boating.
Before sunset tonight we arrived at a small anchorage partway to Acapulco that we’ll stay at tonight called Papanoa. It’s a small fishing village lined with thatched huts and panga boats. The locals were very inquisitive when we pulled in and achored as we are the only boat here in their small and protected anchorage. We will depart at daybreak tomorrow and sail the remaining 80 nm to Acapulco.
Bev checked the U.S. State Department website and it has issued a Level 4 Do Not Travel Advisory for the state of Guerrero, which includes the tourist area of Acapulco. Kevin assures Bev its safe as long as they stay on the coast and don’t travel inland.
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