February 5, 2002

Photo of the Day

February 5 – Zihua Bay, Mexico

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from last
weekend’s first ever Zihua Sail Fest in Z-town. A large group
of cruisers – around 85 – gathered aboard Latitude 38’s Profligate
and Blair and Joan Grinols’ Capricorn Cat on Friday evening
for snacks and cocktails to kick off the event which raised nearly
$4,000 for a local charity.

Banditos in Mag Bay?

February 5 – Magdalena Bay, Mexico

“Thought you guys would be the right
ones to know about Sea magazine’s wonderful piece of crap
article on Mag Bay in the February edition,” report Ron
and Valerie Hoskin of the Columbia 43 Valerie K in Alamitos
Bay. “The article is about three dopes who take a 43-foot
Tiara motoryacht from Seattle to Cabo, and then supposedly have
to ward off ‘banditos’ in Mag Bay! On another subject, our friends
aboard the Tayana 37 Avventura emailed us about seeing
an eight foot croc swimming in the anchorage around Tenacatita
and then disappearing up the river. They said it made them nervous
about cleaning the bottom of their boat. We’d seen a smaller
croc up the river last year.”

It’s not often that we break out laughing
while reading a cruising article, but it happened as we read
the Sea magazine article you referred to. The unidentified
author quotes broker/crewmember Vic Parcells as saying that “Mag
Bay was hard to get into – and extremely dangerous.” As
anyone who has been there before can tell you, it’s about as
hard to enter as the Golden Gate. But it got worse when Parcells
said the crew finally anchored and then had to maintain a watch
against “local banditos.” In fact, he claimed that,
“Every hour to hour and a half, a panga would come to the
boat. We scared them away with floodlights and triple chrome
horns – and we kept the flare gun ready as the final deterrent.”
The final deterrent to what, having some friendly locals sell
them some lobster? We’ve known of countless cruisers who have
enjoyed wonderful stops – some hours, some weeks – in Mag Bay
and never had a problem with ‘banditos’. In fact, it’s been years
since we remember anyone having any problem with ‘banditos’ in
Mexico. Obviously Sea magazine didn’t run this article
by John Raines, their Mexico expert.

As for crocs, we just returned from a trip
from Puerto Vallarta to Z-town, and can confirm that large crocs
– on the loose – are plentiful. In the little town of Manzanilla
– not to be confused with Manzanillo – there were all kinds of
crocs inside a fenced area at the end of the main street. A fenced
area with holes big enough for hippos to get through. Later,
while on La Ropa Beach in Z-town, there was a large croc completely
loose in a small lagoon not 25 feet from the place we ate breakfast
most mornings. When we came to say ‘hello’ on the last day, he
wasn’t there. His tracks, however, lead right to the water not
far from where Profligate was anchored. From all we can
tell, crocs and people get along well all up and down the west
coast of Mexico.

Warm in Mexico

February 5 – Zihuatenejo

As mentioned, the Wanderer and de Mallorca
just returned from a cruise from Puerto Vallarta to Z-town to
participate in the first annual Zihua Sail Fest. The trip was
a big success – check out the accompanying photos – and so was
the Sail Fest, which we’ll have more about tomorrow. We heard
it was cold in Northern California, so cold that Mt. Tam was
covered in snow. Well down in Z-town, it was warm – so warm that
you couldn’t sleep at 0200. So warm that the water had to be
85 degrees.

Mr. Happy enjoys a ménage a trois in Tenacatita Bay.

The crocs at Manzanilla are big . . .
and completely free to roam.

Kristi checks out the colorful menu at a Frenchman’s restaurant
in Manzanilla.

YOTREPS

February 5 – The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace

Who is out making passages in the Pacific
and what kind of weather are they having? Check out YOTREPS –
‘yacht reports’ – at http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/

Weather Updates

February 5 – Pacific Ocean

San Francisco Bay Weather

To see what the winds are like on the Bay
and just outside the Gate right now, check out http://sfports.wr.usgs.gov/wind/.
The National Weather Service site for San Francisco Bay has moved
to www.wrh.noaa.gov/Monterey/.

California Coast Weather

Looking for current as well as recent wind
and sea readings from 17 buoys and stations between Pt. Arena
and the Mexican border? Here’s the place – which has further
links to weather buoys and stations all over the U.S.: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.

Pacific Winds and Pressure

The University of Hawaii Dept. of Meteorology
page posts a daily
map of the NE Pacific Ocean barometric pressure and winds.

Pacific Sea State

Check out the Pacific Ocean sea states
at: http://www.mpc.ncep.noaa.gov/RSSA/PacRegSSA.html.

For another view, see http://www.oceanweather.com/data/global.html.