Bahia Tenacatita, Jalisco, Mexico

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

019-17.870 N
104-50.230 W

The crew of the BlueJacket wishes you are hearty "Ahoy" from Bahia Tenacatita!

Bahia tenacatita is a large bay located just 22 miles from Pariaso, where we last were anchored and has multiple anchorages located within it depending upon the wind and swell direction and what you want to do. We've actually been to three of the anchorages, but have only spent in the NW anchorage, which is huge and can support a lot of boats.

We first pulled into an anchorage known as "The Aquarium" so that I could check out the diving and the snorkeling, but the swell was so large that you couldn't get close to anything and the wave action was stirring up so much sand and silt that you couldn't see anything. With great disappointment we moved to the NW anchorage.

The NW anchorage is the largest and most popular anchorage in the bay. It's extremely large and can support dozens of boats. By tucking in behind Punta Chubasco you can find protection from just about anything other than S to SSE swell. Even though you may be directly out of the swell, that doesn't mean that the swell doesn't effect you as nature abhors a vacuum and the waves refract around points. The swell has been pretty large lately with 6' average swells from the SSW with 15+ second periods. A 15 second period means that a wave only comes through every 15 seconds and the motion is a gentle up and down, but they still roll the boats and when the waves his the shore/rocks, they do so with great vigor. As a result our flopper-stopper has been out since getting here and taking the dinghy to the beach can be an adventure.

One of the key things that people like to do while at anchor here is to take their dinghies up estuary to a large lagoon which is located about 2.5 miles from the mouth. Due to a shallow sandbar at the entrance, you really want to enter the estuary around high tide. High tide was around 8 AM, so that was good for seeing wildlife. For us this was complicated by the large swell which was breaking over the bar, but luckily the swell shifted a bit to the west providing a bit more protection.

We made the trip up the estuary with the crew from s/v Asheka. They were our dock mates in La Cruz, so it was nice to see them pull into the anchorage. I know that they were happy as they had just come from several nights worth of rocky anchorages. The estuary is a mangrove lined river that gets increasingly narrower as you proceed toward the lagoon. At the start the mangroves are 20-30' apart, but as you proceed they get to the point where the dinghy can barely fit through and you're constantly ducking. We were treated to some close up encounters with quite a few birds, but I was a bit disappointed in the lack of variety of birds. Perhaps they were all hiding in the woods waiting for us to leave.

The beach along this anchorage is wonderful with long stretches of soft sand. At one end of the beach is a small restaurant and campground and at the other is a nice hotel. The week before and after Easter is known as Semana Santa and Mexicans flock to the beaches and hotels. What was quite interesting was that the restaurant was closing early during all of Semana Santa. What a contrast to the US where the businesses would probably be adding additional hours! It just shows a very different mind-set.

On the east side of the bay you'll find the small beach town of La Manzanilla which by dinghy is less than 3 miles away. We took the dinghy over one day when the forecast was for light winds and the swell looked manageable. It was a fairly comfortable ride over there and then we stopped to time the wave sets before landing on the beach. Waves typically break at 3 locations. Right next to the shore for very small waves, mid-way out for medium waves and much further out for large waves. It didn't appear that there were any large waves, so we were sitting outside of the mid-way point when I looked back and saw a large swell coming. It was clear that it was going to break before we could get behind it, so I gunned the motor to try to avoid it breaking over us. We almost made it, but got a bit wet, but we didn't flip/swamp the dinghy so I'll chalk that up as a successful landing.

We spent the rest of the morning exploring La Manzanilla, buying fresh fruit and had lunch on the beach. All in all a very nice way to spend the morning. Our surf launch went without an issue, but the ride back was a bit more spirited as the wind had picked up to much more than forecast. On the way back we watched a Humpback whale splash his tale for minutes on end. We've seen them do this before, but have never found out why they do this. If you know, please tell us!

Photos from Bahia Tenacatita are located here.

-- Geoff & Sue

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For the cruiser:

We anchored in the NW corner at N19-17.87 W105-50.2 in about 24' over sand. We had trouble holding, but it appears that you really have to let the anchor settle before backing down on it. If you start to drag, stop and let the anchor work it's way in before backing down again.

The entrance to the estuary is located behind the rocks that form a semi-breakwall in the NW corner of the bay. If you arrive at any time other than high tide, you'll have to raise the motor and potentially walk your dinghy across. Note that this may be challenging depending upon the wave action.

In La Manzanilla we landed the dinghy towards the S end of the beach. We arrived at high tide and didn't see all of the underlying rocks that made walking the dinghy out very difficult. That end of the beach seemed to have slightly less wave action than other sections, but not that much less.

Log ID: 2204