Cruising Adventures of the Red Witch

April 7, 2025  The trip from Bahia Chamela to the Bahia Matanchen anchorage near the town of San Blas where we would be hauling out our boat was approximately 150 nautical miles.   We broke the trip up into three separate days and we had the perfect weather window with no north winds.   We actually had minimal winds, but we did get some time of southwest and west winds each day to help push us along on our journey northwards.   The first day that we headed out from Bahia Chamela the seas were still quite large and lumpy, left over from the northwest winds that had not died down until early in the morning.     With our fishing lines out we caught four Bonitos. We only kept one small one because Bonito is best eaten fresh. The other three that we caught were probably the largest Bonito that we had ever caught, but luckily they were easy to release. After catching all four Bonito we stopped fishing as each time that we caught a fish we had to slow down and ...

A pril 2, 2025   On April 2nd we pulled up anchor and travelled 4 nautical miles back south to the islands at the south end of Bahia Chamela.   We spent two nights there and were the only boat in the anchorage.   The anchorage reminded us of some of the anchorages on the coast of BC.   A combination of a rocky reef and islands broke up the ocean swells close by, and although we sat happily on mostly calm water in the anchorage, large crashing waves were constantly pounding the rocks that sheltered us.   The sound of the crashing waves was quite different than that of them breaking onto a beach such that both the sound and the look of them crashing onto the rocks reminded us of BC.   The cool air and chilly nights added to the feeling of BC and our hatches even started to drip with condensation overnight, definitely reminding us of BC.     There were several beaches right around the anchorage and the first day there we went ashore to the largest o...

April 1, 2025    The day before our departure from Tenacatita was a sad day.   We had a great morning in at the beach, which included a beach walk, time playing in the lagoon river, swimming, digging holes, surfing, and running around, all of our beach favourites.   During it all, however, was the awareness that it was our last day in the bay that had quite happily become our home for the last three months. That afternoon the pack-up began and Falcon was not shy about voicing his unhappiness with our planned departure.   While we were packing up he repeated “no leave” and “want to come back” many times over.   Although a part of us felt the same way, we were also looking forward to being back in our house in Canada, and I know that Falcon felt the same way as he often talks fondly about things from there and things that we will be doing when we are back there.     Unfortunately, our departure will most likely be the demise of many sea animals tha...

March 26, 2025     March has felt like the end of summer to us.   The weather has gotten colder, the nights are down to 14 degrees and although the daytime highs are still up to 30 degrees the morning and evening air has a chill that makes it feel like fall.   We spoke with one local Mexican today who said that this was normal weather for March.   March has also been the month that the majority of cruisers have been heading back north, or moving on further south; many people whom we have seen on and off throughout our time here have now fully moved on for the season.   With our own planned departure date approaching, it definitely feels like the end of a season, which has felt very much like summer to us.   Ever since the evening before Falcon’s second birthday in December, when we had a beach fire hotdog roast, Falcon has talked about it.   So, after the majority of boats left the anchorage here we decided to have an evening ...

March 24, 2025     On another early morning, we headed into the lagoon in our kayaks.   We had been into the lagoon once before, near the beginning of our time in Tenacatita, with our friend Gabe who visited us in the anchorage on his Dad’s boat from Barra De Navidad.   On that trip into the lagoon we did not have very much time as Gabe's boat was departing in the early afternoon.   We took our tender in and although we took our time going in through the lagoon to the beach in the far bay, we rushed our way back and planed our way through the narrow sections of the mangroves.    It was a great trip, but we wanted to do it again in our kayaks and take more time to look at the many birds and crabs that live amongst the roots of the mangroves.   We took about two hours to kayak the 5km, into the lagoon, along the wide river, and through the narrow sections where the mangroves form a full tunnel to pass through.   It was especially cool to take o...

March 23, 2025  Early one morning we headed to shore with our shoes in our kayaks.   After walking the length of the beach we put on our shoes and headed up onto the sand road.   As we got to the back of the resort, the road became cobblestone and we followed it up the back of the hill to the resort gate.   We had heard that it was often possible to see Coatimundis around the area of the gate, as the security guards seemingly fed them.    Sure enough, when we got there, there was one Coatimundi around.   It appeared to be an older adult and we watched it for a while.   Coatimundis are related to the racoon, but they have longer faces and much longer tails.   They are also diurnal, unlike racoons that are nocturnal.     We carried on outside the gate and up to the top of another hill where there was a lookout, and we got a lovely view out over the anchorage with the crashing waves far below.      Wh...