Zihuatanejo to Barra de Navidad

Just saying Zihuatanejo makes our boy Simon giddy! Zihuatanejo is the best named town in the world in my book. I dig me some Zee-what.

We have. Nice view of the anchorage from the beach.

And there is Jungle - 2nd from the left.

They are playing music all over Zihuatanejo. They must know Jenée is coming to town.

Back at the dinghy, we've find a new friend, just trying to keep cool.

Back on board Jungle, we look ashore and at the Hotel Irma. Jenée reserved a couple of rooms here so we (including Simon) can get off the boat for a bit. A little resort living before we all jump back on board. Great idea by the admiral.

Nice view of the anchorage from the hotel.

And my baby is back! Not the best lighting, but a great day. The band is celebrating as well.

Multiple bands! All here to welcome my bride! Or maybe to have a holiday "battle of the bands". There were about 10 bugle and drum marching bands that didn't march much and played 3 songs each. I don't know how many different songs there are for these types of bands, but they kind of all sound the same. 30 songs were plenty enough for me. It was nice to see these high school kids enjoying themselves.

The bands stopped playing and we made an evening departure from Zihuatanejo to Barra de Navidad (Christmas Bay). It will take us 2 nights and we should arrive in the early AM.

The next day, we're fishing! Jenée is showing great form and there is a big fish on the hook.

Patience is the key for landing these big fish. Jenée is working hard and rdoing a great job. I don't have any patience and I have yet to catch one, hmmm...

And it's in! It's a sailfish and since we don't plan to keep it, Simon grabbed it by the bill vs. using a gaff.

Photo opportunity. Nice fish - about 50 pounds. Simon and I get to wear the cool orange gloves to handle the fish.

A closer look and this baby is back in the water, happily swimming away.

After a rough evening at sea, we are approaching Barra de Navidad.

We are anchored inside the lagoon and looking back at the entrance and the town.

It's a very peaceful anchorage.

We dinghy into town and tie up at the Sands Hotel. This place is right out of the1950's and has not changed a bit. Very cool old hotel.

Complete with a thatched roof bar.

A view of the pool. This place was groovy more than a few years ago. Ernest Hemmingway would have enjoyed hanging around here.

The harbor side of Barra de Navidad. We leave tonight for Puerto Vallarta. We'll be updating soon.

 

Sailing to Zihuatanejo, amigo.

OK, and we are back. Had a technical hang up on loading photos. Problem resolved. When we last departed, Simon swam a mile to a nearby island to check out the local shark population. This is one of the worlds largest populations of Hammerhead sharks - of course they sometimes eat people. These are white tipped reef sharks. Simon tells me these are much more docile and that I should swim over and check them out. I don't know, I'm good with the photos, how about you?

Good to see our boy swimming back to the boat in one piece. He was gone for 2 hours. Was I worried? Hey, I'm not his Mom (although she sounds like a cool lady). I did make Simon wipe his feet and sit up straight for dinner.

Hey, look at all the local protected fish swimming next to the boat. It's like someone accidentally dropped tortilla chips over the side or something. I'll look into it.

We are underway after a rocking overnight at the Isla del Coco anchorage. We get a show from leaping dolphins. Love these guys.

Simon rushes up front with his underwater camera (GoPro) rigged up on my boat pole.

And presto, we have dolphins under water.

And we are back to a fish on the line - a big fish.

But not this big. I got lucky catching this whale as it surfaced on one side, then again on the other. The impressive thing is clearly hearing the blow hole on this beautiful animal. He was checking us out for sure and very close to the size of Jungle (52 feet).

Back to fishing and Simon is now on his 70th minute attempting to bring a big fish in.

Success! A 70 lb yellow tail tuna. Trust me, with my beautiful bride coming down, none of this will go to waste.

Oh yeah, our boy is feeling it! And why not.

For part of t.he 7 day trip to Zihuatanejo we sailed at 7-8 knots. This was not one of those days. It was the proverbial mill pond. Beautiful.

We made it to Bahia Zihuatanejo. I can't wait to see Jenée.

Panama Canal - Una Vez Mas (one more time)

Simon and I took a bus over to Panama City to kill a little time. Found this really cool bed and breakfast in a high rise penthouse.

Not a bad view at all.

Here is a building that makes a lot of sense.

Nice view of the Gulf of Panama and the Pacific Ocean. We'll be passing this way soon on Jungle.

Now the story on Panama City is that all these high rises are built with laundered drug money. Well there you go, nice to know that all that pot money is being put to good use.

At street level things are starting to heat up. Busy place. The next day, it's back to Jungle and get ready to come through the canal.

And I mean get ready! When I returned from the little sojourn into Panama City, I was told by our agent J.C. that we leave the next morning - Tuesday. I was originally told Thursday. No señor, Tuesday and if you can't leave then it may be next Monday. We're leaving Tuesday. Here we are just outside the Gatun Locks letting this tanker pass. We'll be pulling in behind this guy.

We are ready to go. The guy in the foreground is our pilot - Hamid. Nice guy.

By the time we get into the locks, night has rolled in. We go through these locks and immediately hook a right turn to tie off on a mooring in Gatun Lake and mke our way through the canal beginning at 6:30 AM sharp.

Once in the locks we raft off to a big ketch.

Turns out to be a bunch of American college kids who spend a year on board taking classes and sailing the world. Not a bad curriculum, wish they had that when I was in college. It would have made those 7 years go by quickly.

It's a new day and we motor through the canal.

This is our new pilot, Fernando. Also a good guy. The canal water is muddy from all the dredging they are doing. It's a constant process to keep the canal and ships flowing.

Here is Simon setting up a group photo.

Smile! That's Fernando, Deborah, Simon, Carla and Craig. We met them at the marina and they volunteered to line handle for us. You need to have 4 line handlers on board to manage the boat as it goes up and down the locks. They were great to have on board.

You get a better view of us in the locks. These are the Mira Flores locks on the way down to the Pacific.

Hey Simon, try to chill bro while you handle those lines - good job!

What's this, another team meeting? We had one side tied off to another boat all the way through, so Craig and Carla had plenty of free time.

Heading into a new lock.

This is one of the shore side line handlers. They walk along holding the "catch" line until Jungle is moved into position, then the pull in the bigger line attached to Jungle and tie off on the wall. The boat line handler then feeds the line out as the boat goes down or pulls it in as the boat goes up.

Here you see a catamaran and monohull rafted off together and you see the lines connecting them to the side. We are almost all the way down on the way out to the Pacific.

A view of the gates closing behind us

I'm providing a much needed service. I'm pointing out which way to the Pacific. Impressive, no?

And we are out. And we are in a bit of a rain storm. We've dropped everyone off, fueled up and are now heading 450 miles out to sea. We are heading for the Costa Rican nature preserve - Isla del Coco. It is in our route plan to Zihuatanejo, Mexico. A total trip encompassing about 10 days of sailing.

Rains subside and its pretty nice out there.

A picture of Simon taking a picture of me. We know how to have fun on Jungle.

Arriving Isla del Coco.

It's a pretty spectacular place.

Lots of annual rainfall makes it very green.

Unfortunately, we ar e told by the park ranger we cannot go on the island since we don't have the proper Costa Rica paperwork. Bummer. We decide to swim around the boat. Simon suggests we swim over to that island to check out the Hammerhead Shark population that this island is famous for (google it, you'll see). Gee Simon, I need to change the engine oil. I'm going to end the blog here for now - more to come soon. Greatnews: Jenée is coming to Zihuatanejo - Buenas!