Nanaimo Reunion - Huatulco Mexico

We are glad we made it down to Huatulco and sad we did not have more time. Definitely a nicer place to spend time than the rolly La Cruz anchorage in Banderas Bay.
Here the water is clear, the snorkeling great and lots of coves to explore. Best for us though was a reunion with “Misty Michael” and “ Paesano”, two boats that we shared a marina with many years ago in Nanaimo BC Canada. Gerry, Chris, Margarita and Goyo looked after us well. It was great to catch up over meals drinks and outings about the area. Even “Goof” the street dog that adopted Chris was adorable.
We had one night in the marina to facilitate the simple departure procedures. Though we tried the canal (moorage without services at a slightly cheaper rate), we found it was not 20ft deep as they said, but slightly less than 6ft! Mud I think but will dive on the keel soon.
So we had lots of hands to untie our lines and wave goodbyes. We left on a Thursday evening along with several other boats to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec, a notorious high wind area blowing from the Gulf of Mexico across the break in mountain ranges. But also to avoid leaving on a Friday.

Thoughts from Mexico

We found this sign on a dusty back road in the hills above San Blas. Why it was there, who knows, but it is a quote worth translating.

"When all the trees have died, the wildlife and fish destroyed, and we can not drink the water, maybe then, we will understand that we can not eat money."

Victualling

“The Victualling Board was responsible for the purchase, preservation and distribution to ships of all naval victuals………This wide responsibility opened the way, …….to wide spread peculation and dishonesty,……..Complaints from the captains of ships to the victualling commissioners were frequent and virulent, but rarely produced any improvement. ‘In the case of pork,’ ran a typical complaint, ‘the cheeks, ears feet and other offal of the hog were thrown in as part of the men’s allowance….’”(exert from Oxford Companion to Ships and The Sea).

With improved food preservation today, it is easy to victual for several months. But why that long? Well, we are not sure of price and availability in the Galapagos and French Polynesia is expensive. Add to our time in remote islands a couple of months at sea and it becomes apparent why we just lost another inch of our waterline. We decided to purchase our non perishable stores in La Cruz (Banderas Bay nr Puerto Vallarta) after hearing the dinghy dock in Manzanillo might like to charge us $10/day. So we spent the money on a couple of nights at the Marina in La Cruz to load up. A nice change to what has been a rolly anchorage. Have also loaded on fuel as hearsay says the fuel dock in Barra de Navidad was ripped off (rumour control is that a larger vessel forgot to untie) and that the diesel in Manzanillo is bad. Finally we took advantage of being alongside and had the lady from the local tienda bring down 8 garafones of potable water (19L each) that we poured into the tanks. So with all our jerry cans full we have 300L aboard along with the 100plus cans, 20kg flour, 10kg oats etc…. she feels a little heavy. It took us the better part of a day to fill every little corner of the boat and we have yet to start on fresh stores! If the full list fascinates you we’d be happy to send it.

South to Banderas Bay

Pantropical Spotted Dolphin bow riding Narama

We have entered the “Horse Latitudes” (the belt between the northwesterlies of higher latitudes and the NE trade winds).  It means very light diurnal land and sea breezes, but usually not enough to sail.  All this motoring in the last few days means that our fridge has never been so cold, or our batteries so strong.  One benefit of this becalmed period is that it’s easier to spot wildlife.  We’ve seen many humpbacks as we’ve come down the coast, some large groups of adults and a few mother/calf pairs.  Some calves are so young that they are still floppy and helpless.  We have also seen our first Spotted Dolphins – now it really feels like we’re in the tropics!

Yesterday we persevered and had the blooper up; it still took most of the day to sail 9 miles into La Cruz.

Thanks 'Sweet Destiny' for the photo!

International Migratory Bird Festival (San Blas)

Juvenile Wood Stork

After nearly two weeks in San Blas it is time to sail onwards and start getting ready for our coming offshore passage. We’ll be sailing south stopping at a few places along the coast of Mexico before we fill Narama up with as much food and stores as we can fit!

San Blas International Migratory Bird Festival Website: http://avessanblas.uan.mx/programa.html

If anyone is planning a holiday in Mexico and is interested in birds we can’t recommend San Blas enough. It’s a groovy little town and during the festival there have been wonderful performances in the ‘zocalo’ or central square every night.

San Blas Bird Species List
Blue-footed Booby
Brown Booby
Brown Pelican
Neotropic Cormorant
Anhinga
Magnificent Frigatebird
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Boat-billed Heron
Limpkin
White Ibis
White-faced Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Wood Stork
Fulvous Whistling Duck
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Muscovy Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveller
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Snail Kite
Crane Hawk
Common Black Hawk
Great Black Hawk
Grey Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Laughing Falcon
American Kestrel
Rufous-bellied Chachalaca
Sora
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
American Oystercatcher
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Northern Jacana
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Whimbrel
Long-billed Curlew
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowicher
Laughing Gull
Heerman's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Elegant Tern
Black Skimmer
White-winged Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Ruddy Ground Dove
Mexican Parrotlet
Squirrel Cuckoo
Groove-billed Ani
Black Swift
Cinnamon Hummingbird
Violet-crowned Hummingbird
White-eared Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Golden-cheeked Woodpecker
Pale-billed Woodpecker
Greenish Elaenia
White-throated Flycatcher
Vermillion Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Thick-billed Kingbird
Western Kingbird
Rose-throated Becard
Mangrove Swallow
N. Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Sinaloa Crow
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
Northern Mockingbird
Mangrove Vireo
Bell's Vireo
Orange-crowned Warbler
Tropical Parula
Mangrove Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
American Redstart
Northern Waterthrush
MacGillivray's Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Grey-crowned Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Greyish Saltator
Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater
Savannah Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Orchard Oriole
Streak-backed Oriole
Yellow-winged Cacique
House Sparrow

San Blas, Nayarit

San Blas Estuary Anchorage

Arriving across the shallow bar with a moderate swell, our entrance was only made dramatic when our final approach coincided with a dozen bottlenose dolphins and a panga full of tourists, both circling us. What a vast difference from the desert of Baja; now we felt the heat and humidity and had a shoreline completely lined in palms. We anchored in the mangrove fringed estuary on the side of town and felt right at home once our anchor hit the muddy bottom. We had heard from several sources that this was a “birdy place” and were not disappointed. After a week of wandering various trails and side roads visiting disused shrimp ponds, the lighthouse, an old fort on the hill and a village surrounded by mango plantations, we saw lots of new and interesting species.

American Crocodile

We celebrated our 9th Wedding Anniversary by splurging on a panga ride for two. Instead of taking the usual trip to a natural spring and popular swimming hole, we had Chencho, our knowledgeable guide and driver take us up stream to an open wetland and bird sanctuary. Whistling ducks in the thousands and Wood Storks on the nest with their awkward-looking chicks were among the highlights, along with fat American Crocodiles sunning themselves on the bank.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

Some lovely friends, Rafael and his mother Josefina, had us over for lunch of exquisite smoked Corvina and a Yellowtail stew. Just when we thought it was nearly time to leave San Blas with its bustling central square, Josefina told us we had to stay for the “International Migratory Bird Festival” here in town. So last night we took in the opening ceremonies (lots of speeches) which finished with a colourful folkdance performance.

Isla Isabel – A seabird watcher’s paradise!

Male Magnificent Frigatebird

It took us three days to sail from Caleta Lobos (near La Paz) to the anchorage at Isla Isabel. In the end we decided to heave-to for five hours so we would approach this poorly charted, rock strewn island in daylight (the chart marks the island nearly two miles away from its actual position). We had a boisterous sail in anything from 15 to 25 knots of breeze, but it was a broad reach the whole way, so we were comfortable and merrily ticking away the miles as we left the Baja behind us. That strong northerly breeze also meant that we didn’t have any southerly swell at the island.
For two days we wandered the trails among several thousand nesting Magnificent Frigatebirds. We listened to the sounds of their bills clapping around us constantly as the adults greeted and courted over nests with tiny chicks, a very pleasant chorus. There were plenty of lewd male throat sacks inflated and scarlet red, tiny new chicks being guarded as well as large nearly fledged juveniles still begging for food. The sounds, sights and smells were nearly overwhelming. There were also plenty of Blue-footed and Brown Booby’s on the grassy banks on every shore, with fluffy, bright white chicks being fed on the nest. We spoke to a grad student from the University of Mexico City who was studying the Blue-footed Booby’s and she kindly answered our plethora of questions. With her field assistants and the pangeros at the fishing camp, humans were definitely out-numbered by birds!

Juvenile Magnificent Frigatebirds

We easily could have stayed longer as it was such a treat to be able to observe their behavior. The frigatebirds would gather grass for nesting material from the few open areas and this they would take on the wing, swooping down and snatching a few blades in their long bills. It seems that this grass was in high demand as it was mowed down in the few areas that we saw. At one of our all-time favourite picnic lunch spots we were sitting on slopping grass with boobies nesting a little way away on either side, the slope reaching down to a volcanic rocky shoreline. We laid down and watched frigatebirds and boobies glide over us only meters away from our heads. Every bird turned its head to examine who these intruders were lying on their island. When we looked out to sea we also saw humpbacks, both adults and calves breaching. It doesn’t get much better than this!

Brown Booby with its chick

We are now en route to San Blas while I write, motoring on smooth windless seas.

Who are you on MY island?

Friends for the New Year

A psychologist turned carpenter and a doctorate student in need of a holiday aptly describes the last couple of friends that joined us to bring in the New Year. But does it really? The depth and “breadth” of their wit and humour (yes the English blood shows I think) defy the rougher outward persona they portray to perfection. Albeit some alcohol was involved that led to more one liners and unplanned antics than I can recall, but our sides are still recovering from laughter. We still consumed the chocolate cake I stepped in and I’m sorry Rob but those pictures of the chorizo sausage will stay under lock and key. This entertainment made up for the cooler temperatures and overcast skies we had while exploring the islands north of the La Paz. We still managed many snorkels, a swim with sea lions, some beach exploration and great sailing to and from the islands. On the wildlife side (and here I exclude Homo sapiens), the highlight was the Magnificent Frigatebirds in San Gabriel starting to court, the males red pouches puffed to impress and much bill clacking between what appeared to be courting couples.



Devil Ray

Back in La Paz we had a couple of nights in Marina Palmira and caused quite the stir hanging our laundry out to dry. It seems we may have started a movement which I hope takes hold to drive some sense into the north American psyche. On one hand we were congratulated for doing so by Antipodean and European boaters, whilst murmurs of discontent were heard through the grapevine by the odd North American.

We hope everyone had fun over the New Year, best wishes for 2011 and thanks to Rob and Caroline for all the laughs.

We are now gearing up to leave Baja for the mainland and are pleased we took the time to explore the Gulf of California.

Festive Season in the Islands

View from the top of Isla San Francisco

Each morning we listen to the weather on the Ham Radio nets. We hear about low pressure hitting the BC coast back home, bringing cold and wet weather, while we have enough warmth here for snorkeling and hiking in shorts.
On Christmas Eve we anchored at Isla San Francisco and shared a sunset drink on the beach along with the crews of nine other boats also anchored in the bay. Then on the day “Sarah Jean II” hosted us for a holiday feast that couldn’t be beat: lobster, prawns (steak for Stephen) and lots of fun stories around the table.
Whether in a warm or cold climate, we hope everyone had a joyous, festive season this year!

Christmas Cruising Crowd Isla San Francisco

Full Lunar Winter Solstice Eclipse



View at 28 minutes after midnight

We spent most of the night of the solstice on the beach at Amortajada, on Isla San Jose. With hot rum in hand we were able to witness the moon gather a shadow and the stars multiply as the night grew darker. We went ashore to try and take photos of the event and we were glad that we did despite small biting insects! We had a short nap while the moon was completely dark and once we were satisfied that it was coming back, we made our way back to Narama. We watched the final stages of uncovering thru the hatch above our heads while we lay snuggled in our bunk onboard. The last time we watched a lunar eclipse was seven years ago – also from an island in Baja. Perhaps it’s prophetic that the celestial bodies have aligned again while we are here?



Eclipse Seen from Amortajada

South to Puerto Escondido

Narama flies her Spinnaker!

“I guess we should take the pole down before we catch a fish.” We had been running down wind with our jib poled out on our first day out of Santa Rosalia. The pole had barely touched the deck as we were about to round up behind Punto Chivato when we looked behind us and had a nice dinner-sized Yellowtail on the line. Oh its nice to be at sea again! We’ve had a lovely week or so making our way south in the Sea of Cortez. We hope that everyone has a wonderful Solstice and Christmas and a Happy New Year!

From the logbook:
Dec 10: “Sailed off the anchor with the mainsail. Then rigged and set the spinnaker for the first time in who knows how long. A light 10 knot NE breeze made for an easy sail south to Punto Mangles.”
From the Sketchbook:

Pair of Red-billed Tropicbirds.  We heard them calling before we saw them fly over-head.  NE San Marcos Island.

Santa Rosalia



Place names from our time in the Northern Sea of Cortez









Great Egret on the dock

On arrival in Santa Rosalia we were greeted at the marina by the statement that “the asylum is run by the inmates”. If they are crazy we didn’t see it, maybe we fit in there too, but what a great bunch of people. We are all eccentric in our own ways. Our two night planned stay turned into two weeks when we found out it was not too complicated or expensive to get your chain galvanized up in Mexicali. That’s a days bus ride away and I pondered where else you could send a wooden crate of chain weighing 105 kg on a bus! The transport cost was over twice the galvanizing, but we opted for speed (oh right we forgot we were in Mexico). We did get it back and a nice job was done. Our timing was impeccable as we arrived very salty the day water returned to the town after a 3 day drought, we enjoyed a wonderful thanksgiving meal at one of the “inmates” houses and sat out a few day 40+kn Northerly at anchor in the protection of the harbour without mishap. The bakery in town served as a pleasant distraction to the usual tortillas and we found more stove fuel for which we had run out and had reverted to the camping stove in the cockpit. Projects like covers for the kayak and jerry cans, sail maintenance, water pump bearing changes, varnishing and research for our puddle jump filled the rest of the two weeks rapidly. In town the old mining relics, museum, the church designed by Eiffel and brought out from Europe and of course the hot dog stand(maxed out at 3 with all the toppings) filled the local culture aspect of our visit. We were glad to spend the time there get to know everyone even a little bit, but also nice to be back on the road sailing out into the boisterous NWesterlies again.

Marina and Mining Relics in Santa Rosalia

Pilot Whale Vocals

In the deep waters around the San Lorenzo group in the Northern Gulf of California we have had a couple of fascinating encounters with pilot whales. Some of them swimming upside down checking out Narama's bottom and others vocalising.  The clip attached has the vocals of a group slowly travelling, the second sound bite is a different occasion when two groups met with far more excited calls.  The pictures are a mix of Pilot whales, Long-beaked common dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin, Whale Shark, Sperm whale and Bryde's whale.

For better picture quality use this link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyiFt50DFMQ

Water Works



Baja is dry! In fact in 7 months we've only seen a few drops of rain! We ponder how the austere looking big horn sheep copes and have marvelled at the myriad of cactii that thrive here. But what about us? As we don't have a water maker, we liken the boat to a camel, some friends term it "camping", we call it home. On the longer 2- 3 week jumps away from the supply of liquid gold, we have to be careful. Especially when there is more than two of us aboard, but we can live quite happily on 50L/person/week. So what do you get for that? ...... you get: a daily fresh water rinse under the solar shower; to do dishes in a bucket of salt water (mexican dish soap handles this well) and rinse with some fresh; exercise from using the hand pump as we don't have a pressurized system (that can be vulnerable to leaks and requires electricity); as much drinking and cooking water as you need and finally to wash clothes in salt water with a little rinse in fresh, but then, we aren't wearing to many layers these days and most washing waits till we are closer to a supply. For sea passages we cut the showers to a sponge down and cook with a little more seawater. This then lasts about 5 weeks for the two of us at 5L/person/day. Keep in mind the head (toilet) uses salt water and we get to swim at least once a day when anchoring.

Where do we get water? In La Paz the highly chlorinated water available at the marina must have cleaned us and our tanks nicely, in San Everisto there was a desalination plant for the village where we had our jerry cans fillled, in Puerto Escondido they had sweet spring water from the mountain range that rises abruptly behind it, and then on three occasions we have been genourously given a jerry can or two from cruisers with watermakers that enabled us to stay out a few extra days. All small towns will have a purifacador, "the local government subsidised watering hole" who will fill your jerry cans with reverse osmosis treated water and whose facilities are always spotless. 10 – 15 pesos gets you 20L. (about $1CAD). Or as in Guaymas and San Felipe, you call a water truck and lug the 20L containers up and down the dock to fill 300 odd L if we are empty.

So thats how water works here, we do enjoy the odd day at a marina to rinse the layers of salt that accumulates after spray dries and sticks over the weeks of sailing. Recently we arrived in Santa Rosalia on the day the water came back after a 3 day drought for the entire city.... apparantly due to internal politics, the city had not paid the water bill.....where did the money go is the question...??
So next time you turn on that tap..... be thankful :).

Angel de la Guardia

From the logbook

10 Nov: “We anchored in the little cove on the north side of Puerto Refugio. The water was so clear that we could watch the anchor hit the sandy bottom. Fresh caught dorado for lunch – what a treat after an overnight passage!”

12 Nov: “Oh how it blew through the night. We were glad that we took the time to rig the stern anchor and shoreline yesterday (over two hours!) It meant that we had a much more comfortable night, although we were both up to check and adjust lines during the night.

From the Sketchbook

Turning South… sans Vaquita

Vaquita Statue on San Felipe's Malecon

We spent two weeks anchored inside the breakwater of San Felipe. A lot of that time was spent wandering the beautiful beach at low tide (looking at shorebirds of course) and ticking little projects off the perpetual “to do” list on Narama. But our main goal was to try and sight Vaquita marina (“little sea cow” in Spanish; Phocoena sinus is its scientific name). This tiny cetacean has the dubious distinction of being the world’s most endangered marine mammal and it only lives here in the very far north of the Sea of Cortez.

To learn more about Vaquita follow these two links:

http://www.vivavaquita.org/

http://vaquita.tv/

We weren’t very optimistic about glimpsing it due to these dwindling numbers (current estimate is 250 animals left) and it’s incredibly shy behaviour (most sightings are from the deck of a ship using 20x binoculars), but the weather certainly didn’t help either. We really only had 2 and a half days of good conditions for sighting. How much time should we spend without another decent anchorage for over 100 miles? When the next northerly was forecast we took it and ran south. Our only sighting was the bronze statue on the San Felipe malecon.

This was a significant decision as we won’t likely head north again until we arrive in Australia, which is another year at least. The Sea of Cortez has been a beautiful, year-long detour on our voyage, one that we don’t regret. It will still take us a few months on our southern course to leave the sea, but as the latitude in our logbook slowly dwindles towards the equator we get more excited about sailing on to new places. We wish the Vaquita well, it’s going to need some luck to survive.

Guaymas to San Felipe




East Bay, Isla Coronado

We spent a few days anchored in front of Guaymas so we could finish re-rigging and bring on stores for a few weeks of cruising. We were then joined by dear friend Marie and headed out to an anchorage outside of the harbor for our first refreshing swim. Delightful! Arranging for someone to join us so soon after we returned to Narama ourselves was perfect. It meant that we had to get things ready fast, no time to fool around in a dusty boat yard for long.

Marie has been a great sailing companion. She agrees with our philosophy of heading off in any direction in order to fulfill our curiosity, especially when it comes to wildlife. We’ve had fun snorkeling and trying to ID every fish, birding and whale watching. We managed to show off by catching a dorado on the first day of sailing north from Guaymas, then a Jurel or Yellowtail as we approached the north end of Angel de la Gardia last week. We’ve had a few fabulous days of whale watching in the deeper waters: vocalizing Pilot Whales, spy-hopping Sperm Whales and lot’s of bow riding dolphins.  



 Sailing across the sea last week towards San Fransisquito was vigorous, with about 15 knots on a close reach. It was the first time that we’ve had someone else onboard during an overnight passage. It meant that one of us had to sleep on the floor as the forepeak isn’t conducive to sleep in those conditions! We had a few days of gunkholing in Bay of LA where we swam with Whale Sharks and found thousands of Humbolt Squid washed up on beaches and mangroves of a small island. We arrived in the small harbor of San Felipe yesterday morning in some of the worst seas that we’ve had in the Sea of Cortez. The sea is very shallow up here and so with 25+ knots the seas were breaking on us occasionally. We had set out from Gonzaga Bay the morning before, motoring in flat calm seas. Flat calm is what we wanted as we were heading north towards the Vaquita Refuge. During the night we had a light breeze for hours to sail along at about 2 knots, then it built to make any chance of finding one of these small, shy porpoises impossible. So here we sit waiting for calm conditions to return so we can continue our search.


Washed up Humbolt Squid

Guaymas to San Felipe Species List



Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Peregrine Falcon

Yellow-footed Gull

Heerman’s Gull

Laughing Gull

Western Gull
Elegant Tern
Common Tern
Double-crested Cormorant
Brown Booby
Blue-footed Booby
Brown Pelican
Magnificent Frigatebird
Red-billed Tropicbird

Black Storm-Petrel

Black-vented Shearwater

Great Blue Hero

Black-crowned Night Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Brewer’s Blackbird

Wilson’s Plover

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Western Scrub-Jay

Gila Woodpecker

Northern Mockingbird

Great Horned Owl

Northern Flicker (yellow shafted)

Long-beaked Common Dolphins

Coyote

Fox (Kit?)

Bottlenose Dolphins

Short-finned Pilot Whales

Sperm Whale

Sooty Shearwater

Belted Kingfisher

Black Phoebe

Say’s Phoebe

Vesper Sparrow

Common Raven

Northern Shoveller

Reddish Egret

Wilson’s Warbler

Red-necked Phalarope

Sabine’s Gull

American White Pelican

Brydes’ Whale (probable)

Eared Grebe

Common Loon

House Sparrow

Mourning Dove

Long-billed Curlew

Willet

Sanderling

Parasitic Jeager

Western Grebe

Violet-green swallow



Spy-hopping Sperm Whale

Magnificent Frigatebird



Bottlenose Dolphins







Brown Pelican





Yellow-footed Gulls







Summer Heat

 What did we learn from leaving a boat baking in 40̊ plus temperatures?  In short - it gets hot; “dammed hot”, hot enough to fry a 12V battery by drying it out (we left one solar panel on each battery which was too much even though I overfilled them); to turn sun drenched plastics brown even though they were stored inside; to crack melamine and wood due to expansion contraction differences(we left 3 large buckets of bleached water  in the boat and they were all dry); to fade uncovered teak remarkably compared to covered teak and rubber bands to disintegrate. While living aboard in the yard the 35 plus temperatures inside the boat in the evenings as the heat radiated upward from the hull was a little “uncomfortable”.  The weevils however seemed to thrive on the heat munching through our bulk chick peas and pinto beans. We had eaten most of the rest of the food and left no tins aboard.  Otherwise the boat was as we left her, just with a few extra layers of dust.  The water pressure in the yard being non existent, we left the big clean up until our one day in a marina and used some of the precious town water to give her a proper rinsing.  The dusty yard and helpful crew at Marina Seca Guaymas were great and we’d go back.  The water truck comes around regularly as do other bootlegging services.  It was a 5 peso ride into town on a regular collectivo (the local public transport) and a good variety of supplies and services at hand except alcohol for our stove……we might be breaking out the camping stove shortly. The only warnings for the marina are depth. We draw 6’8” and touched on a 0.6m tide and 0.9m tide on the way out so we now sport some nice scratches in the new antifoul.  You may want to ask or find some carpet or plastic to protect the hull from the slings, they have not quite got that figured out yet. So we also have a few topside scratches which they did offer to polish.  Otherwise it is a place to easily come and go from with some liveaboards who can take the summer heat