Cruising Adventures of the Red Witch

February 10, 2025  For the whole month of January the water quality here was very poor.   We had poor visibility all of the time, and at times it was only a couple of feet.   What seemed to be a type of red tide would roll in and out.   In the morning we might have only two feet of visibility, but by evening we could see five feet.   It changed frequently and quickly, but it was never good.     Since around the beginning of February things have improved immensely.   We still can’t see the bottom in 25 feet of water where we are anchored, but we can look into the water and see all of the fish that swim around our boat.   We have now been snorkelling a few times and hopefully the water clarity will continue to improve and we will do more.   One day we went out to a rock that sits alone as a pinnacle in otherwise deep water.   Jason did some snorkelling around it, not close enough to actually see the rock, but about...

January 25, 2025   In mid January we contacted the surf shop in Barra de Navidad and found out that they had a used 9-foot long-board for sale.   The owner ended up meeting us in La Manzanilla, and we acquired a long board.   Since then we have been regular surfers.   All three of us have been enjoying learning to surf and we are now all able to stand up and ride a wave.     After seeing us starting to surf Falcon was eager to try.   It started with us holding his hand and him standing on the board while it was floating in the calm water, then he quickly progressed to standing without our help.   He then started lying down on it and standing up on his own, so we tried giving him a little push while he was lying down and he quickly hopped up to standing.   Now we can push the board just ahead of a little wave.  Falcon paddles with his hands that barely reach off the board, then he will hop up and ride the wave.   ...

January 15, 2025  After my parents left we started to explore more of the area that we are anchored close to.   Beach time has become an almost daily component to our lives. Now that we have had more time to explore all of the beaches, and to dig holes and build sand castles on each one, we have learned that the black sand that we had assumed was part of all of Tenacatita, is actually localized to only one of the three beaches.   It is the largest of the three beaches and the black sand is quite obvious on the surface in the dry upper part of the beach.   Lower down it is not obvious until one starts to dig, when it can be found at varying depths, but usually within the top six inches. Over on the other two beaches we have dug quite deep down and have never found black sand.   We now spend most of our beach time on the smaller, more western beaches.   The beach that is right beside the lagoon entrance is a perfect child-friendly beach. It is one hundred per...

January 4, 2025    On one of the days, while visiting with my parents, we all went to the large crocodile sanctuary.   Narrow board walks and bridges led us around and through the large 264-hectare crocodile sanctuary that apparently has a population of 400-500 crocodiles of various sizes.   There was also a museum where we talked to one of the workers and were told that the waters of the sanctuary itself support the crocodile population.   The crocodiles eat shrimp, crabs, and fish, and we witnessed first hand, a bird.   The majority of the crocodiles that we saw were at the beginning and end areas of the walk, and we moved slowly through these areas as we stopped to look at all of the crocodiles.   Falcon really liked seeing them, and he took it upon himself to point them out to people who where coming behind us.   He would point and say, “crocodile, crocodile” to the different groups of people.   It was quite cute.   At the end of th...

January 3, 2025  The first time that Falcon and I slept over at my parents' air bnb we ate an early dinner and then went out for a sunset beach walk before Falcon was ready for bed.   My parents had seen the sunset there the night before when they had first arrived, and they said that it was a beautiful place to watch the sun set, and that the beach also got very busy with local fishermen.   It was a lovely evening as we walked along the sandy beach and sure enough the beach was quite busy with Mexican families, men with fishing rods, some with throw lines, some with throw nets, and boys with practice throw lines.   Some people were fishing, but others appeared to be waiting, then suddenly people in a certain area would run to one area and all cast or throw in their lines or nets.   At first I didn’t see what they were seeing, but then I started to spot the localized fish action just out from shore.   As the sun lowered in the sky the horizon turned orange ...

December 31, 2024  On December 31st we moved further southward to the anchorage of Tenacatita.   When we pulled in and anchored, our boat almost felt still.   This was by far the most protected anchorage from the swells that we had experienced since crossing out of the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan.   At Tenacatita the hills were covered in trees and vines, with cactus trees and low cactus as well.   It was definitely the most jungle looking of anywhere that we had cruised so far.    When digging holes and making sand castles with Falcon we quickly discovered that the sand looked like a normal colour on top, but about two inches down it became dense, black sand.   It was quite heavy and hard to dig through, but it made lovely sand castles that did not crumble and fall down in the usual way when they dried out.   It was interesting.     Three nautical miles away, at the far side of the bay, was the edge of the little town of La Manzanil...