Isla Ixtapa (Grande), Guerrero, Mexico

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

017-40.800 N
101-39.400 W

The crew of the BlueJacket wishes you a hearty "Ahoy!" from Isla Ixtapa in the Mexican state of Guerrero.

When I last wrote we were in Manzanillo getting ready to make the 190 nautical mile trip to the Ixtapa area. We departed La Hadas at around 6:30 AM, when it's still very dark out, and headed out of the bay. While we enjoyed our time in the Santiago/Manzanillo bay area, we were quite happy to put the power plant which belches grimy smoke behind us. While most of the time that we were there the winds were blowing away from us, there were times when a heavy smog would descend on the area and hang until the afternoon winds kicked it out. Quite honestly, I can't imagine living there.

We had waited for a period where the forecasted winds were below 15 kts, as recently the forecasts had been off by about 10 kts. There's a huge difference between 15-20 kts and 25-30 kts as our friends on Ashika found out on their passage. Their forecast winds of 10-12 turned into 15-25 kts and they had a very bumpy ride. Since we were headed SE, we wanted winds behind us, but instead of getting the forecast NW winds, we had SE winds all day long! Eventually the winds died and came back to life at a sailable angle, so we did get to sail for a while, but as usual the winds were fickle and the sails went up and down multiple times.

We had hoped to stop at an anchorage named Maruata, which is an open roadstead with no protection from incoming swell, but because the conditions were quite favorable and forecast to deteriorate, we pressed on overnight. Since someone has to be on watch at all times, we broke the night into our usual 3 hour shifts. I took the 9-12 PM and 3-6 AM shifts which keeps Sue's time alone in the cockpit at night to a minimum. Just as I was about to come on to my 3 AM shift, Sue came down and told me that the low oil pressure alarm light had come on. I rushed up to see what's going on and saw that the oil pressure gauge was reading normal, but the warning light was on. To be on the safe side, we raised the sails and shut down the engine, but because we only had about 6-8 kts of wind, we were only making about 3 kts.

I checked everything that I could think of and didn't find anything. Amazingly we had limited Internet access and I was able to text Dave Balfour, who's a great friend and commissioned BlueJacket when he worked at Freedom. I didn't expect to reach him until he awoke, but it appears that I woke his wife who got him up and he said to trust the gauge and not the idiot light. Our slight wind was fading, so I fired up the engine and we motor-sailed along. That's a scary thing because if something happens to the motor along here, there's very limited resources available to repair it.

We made it to Isla Ixtapa, which also called Isla Grande in some guide books, at just past noon, meaning that our 190 mile trip had taken about 30 hours. Isla Ixtapa is about a mile offshore from Ixtapa, which is a large tourist destination and lined with high rise hotels. During the day Isla Ixtapa is packed with people who come over on water taxis, but starting at 4 PM they all head back to the mainland and by 6 PM, this entire island is vacant. Unfortunately we arrived on a Saturday, which has the most frenetic energy of any day, but once you get used to the fact that the jet skies are going to use your boat as a turning pylon and the kayakers are going to come up and want to talk, it's a wonderful place!

We spent 2 1/2 days here and have enjoyed every minute. We spent one morning making a ton of water and scrubbing the grime from Manzanillo off of the boat. I also polished the stainless and scrubbed the hull. We also wandered around the island (it doesn't take long). We were anchored in the western bay, which feels less commercial than the eastern bay and there's a southern bay which faces into the swell which is supposed to have good snorkeling, but due to the swell there was no way to check that out.

One of the restaurants (El Indio) has a boat and they'll come and pick you up and bring you to shore. They even deliver food to the anchored boats! We ate there a couple of times and really enjoyed their coconut shrimp. There's a dozen or more restaurants between the various bays, so you have lots to choose from. And if you want a massage, there are probably half a dozen massage tents who will offer you an hour long massage for $200-250 pesos!

Today we're headed to Zihuatanejo, which is only about 10 miles from here, where I hope to find an oil pressure switch so that I can replace the faulty one.

Before I forget, photos from Isla Ixtapa are located here.

-- Geoff & Sue

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For the cruiser:

We anchored in the middle of the eastern bay in about 18' over good holding sand at N17-40.8 W101-39.4. There are quite a few rocks lining the shore, some of which are 50 yards offshore. The western bay is filled with moorings, which would make anchoring highly problematic.

On our passage from Manzanillo, we hugged the coastline rounding the various points by about 2-3 miles. As a result the freighters were further offshore and we didn't have to dodge any of them.

We probably could have stopped at Maruata because the winds were light and the swell was only about 4', but I think that it would have been difficult otherwise.

The guidebook makes Caleta de Campos look like a quiet little anchorage, but we were surprised at all of the lights lining the shore. We weren't going to stop there any ways due to earlier security issues.

Log ID: 2211