Monday, 17 February 2014 – We left just as the sun was rising at 7:23 a.m. heading out of the bay and past the Islands to a point about two miles offshore. We then turned to parallel the coast heading for the large bay of Tenacatita. Our first headland was the Farallon where there is a large bowl-shaped dish, La Copa del Sol. Later we passed the twin islands of Los Frailes (Friars) which stick up out of the water about a mile offshore. Early in the day we used the land breeze to press on full sail and scooted along at almost seven knots for over an hour until about 9:15 a.m. when the wind finally died.

The sea had only a slight swell and it was a great day to practice taking sun sights with our Sextant; using ‘Dead Reckoning’ and plotting our position by hand rather than relying on the GPS to tell us where we were. The sights were all good as the Line of Position (LOP) passed through the confirming GPS waypoint each time. It is always amazing how accurate a sextant can be if you make a good sight. The one we use is a Celestaire, Astra lllB Deluxe that I acquired last year in Mazatlán for $200. We also have a Davis Mark 25 plastic Sextant on board. We also use a software product called “Starpath” for doing quick and easy sight reductions although we often practice calculating sight reductions by hand, just for fun and for the practice.

An hour or so south of the Frailes, is Punta Hermanos, the entrance to the Bay of Tenacatita. Our plan was to head to the main anchorage just north of Punta Chubasco.  This is a well-protected anchorage from North Winds and if a southerly blow occurs, you head across the bay for protection off the town of La Manzanilla.  The anchorage consists of a large gently curved bay with a fine sand beach which has an all-inclusive resort, the BlueBay at one end and a small campground and Palapa Restaurant at the other.

At 2:20 p.m. we anchored in 25 feet of water about 300 yards off the beach. We had covered just over 35 Nautical miles in almost seven hours. As this is a large bay there were over 20 other boats. After tidying Hilbre we were hungry, so we made ourselves a fine meal of grilled steak, roast potatoes and veggies on the BBQ. After which, we settled down to enjoy the sunset. The resort hotel had some sort of event in the late evening as we could hear the booming voice of the MC wafting across the water but it all ended at 10:00 p.m., and peace was restored to the tranquil night.