Tenacatita
As we arrived in our planned southbound destination we found maybe a 16 or so boats in the fabled anchorage. Most years would see upwards of 30 to 40 and yet even with those numbers the anchorage wouldn’t necessarily seem crowded in the large protected bay. As we neared the anchored boats I made out the rocky entrance to the “jungle cruise” estuary that is a must-see experience while in the bay.
“Looks like there’s a spot over there to the left,” I offered as we scanned for the perfect place to drop our anchor.
“What about over there?” Kristin suggested something closer to shore.
Finding the ‘perfect spot’ I think is a common cruiser’s obsession: not to shallow, not too deep, close to shore for the dinghy, far enough from shore to avoid bugs, not directly in front or behind or beside another boat, evenly spaced in the anchorage, the list goes on…
As we worked our way into the anchorage one of the boats anchored furthest out caught my eye in the distance. It looked oddly familiar. It was a canoe stern like Sonrisa, but a ketch (two masts) instead of one. On the second glance I noticed the baggywrinkles on the shrouds and the blue painted caprail.
“Ohmigosh! Look! It’s Sailor’s Run!” I exclaimed.
“Sailor wha?” Kristin asked confused as she was still in anchor-spot hunting mode.
“The boat over there to starboard. The Baba 40. It’s Jeff Hartjoy’s boat Sailor’s Run!” I continued. “I can’t believe he’s here in Tenacatita of all places. I thought he’d be down in Ecuador.”
“That’s a Baba 40? But it has two masts.”
“That’s right, it’s a very rare Baba 40 ketch. Look at the rest of the boat. It’s the same as Sonrisa.” I explained.
“You’re right! I see it now! How exciting that he’s here!”
After we purchased Sonrisa but years before we would cast off the docklines and cruise full time I followed Jeff “El Jefe” Hartjoy’s blogs of his adventures on his Baba 40 ketch. After we purchased Sonrisa I discovered Jeff’s first book “Cape Horn – Solo Around the Horn” as I was interested in reading about how he and his Baba 40 fared rounding probably the most notorious cape – famous for big seas and unrelenting storms. I figured I might learn a thing or two about our boat from his experiences. What I found was a captivating story of his adventure which I had a hard time putting down. I limited myself to one chapter per night to stretch out the story as long as I could.
About the time I finished his first book I learned of his next adventure – a solo non-stop unassisted circumnavigation via the 5 great capes. At age 70 he was going for the record as the oldest person to complete this challenge and fortunately for his fans he posted blog updates every 3 days on his progress (hmm, maybe I should follow his format). For the next several months I counted the days until the next blog post and followed his adventure in near-real-time every harrowing step of the way.
Sailor’s Run Baba 40 #5 ketch 
Sonrisa Baba 40 #1 Cutter
While we were in Tenacatita we had the opportunity to sit and chat with Jeff at the beach restaurant. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with Jeff and it was such a treat to cross paths in such a beautiful place.
Tenacatita is one of those perfect tropical hideaways you dream about escaping to. Theres a wide sandy beach that in front of a small campground with a beach restaurant. At the far end of the inland side of the bay is a resort hotel and a few miles across the bay to the east is the town of La Manzanilla. From the beach there’s a small outflow from the estuary where you can take a dinghy through the mangroves for several miles until you arrive at the actual beach village of Tenacatita.
While Tenacatita is (barely) within VHF radio range of Barra de Navidad, cruisers here hold their own morning radio net on channel 17 instead of the customary (for Pacific Mexico) channel 22. It was on the net we asked about conditions for getting into the estuary for the famed jungle cruise. We were warned of the rocks on the left, rocks on the right, and sandbar in the middle, but once inside you’re fine. Hmm.
On Friday we went ashore to the beach restaurant just before 5 looking for food. Unfortunately that’s a bit late for a beach restaurant and in our broken Spanish we learned that they were out of food for the day. We had resigned ourselves to a couple of cervesas but the waitress returned and offered us cheese quesadillas which weren’t really on the menu. We were very appreciative that they were creative with what they had on hand and they were quite good too!
By the time we finished eating it was low tide, so we walked over to the banks of the estuary outflow to check out the sand bars and strategize our dinghy course for the next day. At low tide we would be able to see the sand bars that will be barely underwater and invisible at high tide. We saw that once we passed the rocks the estuary makes a big arbitrary ‘s’ curve just inside the entrance.
“Ok, so once we’re past these rocks, we need to stay to the right until we’re almost at that outcropping, then we make a hard left and go almost all the way across to the other side and stay over there until we’re past the sunken barge, then we go back over to the right side and stay over there until we’re around the bend.” I mapped our course aloud.
“Sounds good. What about getting out again? Someone said they almost flipped the dinghy the first time they tried.” Kristin asked.
“Yeah, I think as long as there isn’t any swell coming into the anchorage it should be ok. We might have to time it a bit to avoid a big wave at the entrance.”
Saturday morning we packed the dinghy a few simple supplies, our camera and headed into the estuary near high tide. We chose to use the inflatable so we can use the larger 8 horsepower outboard for the longer than normal trip. The estuary “jungle cruise” runs roughly parallel to the coastline for around 3 miles until it ends in a small lagoon behind the beach Playa Tenacatita.
In years past this has been a popular feature of the area. Once upon a time there were hotels and restaurants that made for a nice little village on the beach. But in 2010 a developer claimed the rights to the entire area (which has been disputed for decades), fenced off the roads and brought in the state police to evict everyone. The hotels, restaurants and homes were bulldozed and for years the beach was inaccessible from the lagoon. We had heard that while the land is still in dispute, the fences were gone and the beach was once again accessible from the lagoon. We heard on the morning net that others had traversed the estuary successfully, so we thought we’d give it a try, still unsure of what we’d find on the other side.
The entrance was perfectly calm when we entered and clear enough to see the shallows from a short distance. We navigated our dinghy through the ‘S’ curve we had mentally mapped out the day before and had no problem entering the estuary.
Once inside we discovered the maze of channels that wind through the mangroves. After a few bends we found ourselves surrounded by lush green foliage and a cacophony of songs from all sorts of creatures hidden in the dense branches. Occasionally we’d slow when we spotted an iguana, ibis, heron, or egret sunning on a mangrove branch hanging at the edge of the water.
The deeper we drove into the mangroves, the narrower and lower the ‘tunnel’ became. Driving the dinghy became challenging as there was a cross-current through the estuary, so if I slowed down too much we’d drift sideways into the branches, but if I sped up too much the twists and turns made for a challenging slalom without impaling ourselves or the dinghy on a branch. Added to the fun was the 2-stroke factor for our old-fashioned outboard which goes from idle to near-full-speed with only a slight twist of the throttle.
After bumping and scraping our first mile into the estuary, I settled in on a thrust and coast technique where I’d give the outboard some gas to thrust us in the right direction, then back off and coast for a moment to control our speed. It was a bit awkward but it kept us out of the branches.
When we finally arrived at the lagoon and hiked up the embankment to the beach we were pleasantly surprised to find that while in fact most of the buildings were gone and the ones that remained were abandoned and patrolled by security, all along the beach in place of the restaurants were a string of food trucks serving food and drinks to patrons at tables and chairs set up under umbrellas on the beach. Ingenuity in the face of adversity seems to be a strong trait in Mexico!
After a leisurely snack on the beach we returned to our dinghy and with a little help from some fishermen we pushed ourselves out of the mud and made our way back to the bay. The return trip seemed much faster now that I had my technique down a bit better.
As we rounded the S curve toward the estuary entrance, I saw that it was no longer the pond-like conditions when we arrived. The tide was ebbing now and the outflow of the estuary was pushing against the inflow of the small swells in the bay causing some small breaking waves at the bar.
“Uh oh. Looks like we have a bar crossing this time,” I said.
“Oh no! Can we make it out?” Kristin worried.
“It should be ok. I’ll try not to get us wet. Looks like a big set just came in and the waves should be smaller for a few cycles in just a bit.”
“Ok. I’m nervous.”
“Ready? Hang on!” And with that I throttled up the outboard to push our way out of the entrance. The inflatable bounced over the first few waves in quick succession. One… two… three… four… five… Then we felt the dinghy drop into a trough and ‘whoop’ up and over the last wave and back down with a splash. Seeing a clear section ahead I throttled up and the dinghy zoomed clear of the bar and back into the bay.
“Woo hoo! We made it!” Kristin exclaimed.
“Yes and only a little splash. That wasn’t too bad.”
We decided to try the beach restaurant again, this time well before when they run out of food. Most of the cruisers in the anchorage had gathered at the beach restaurant La Vena in small groups and were actively trading stories of harrowing passages and impossible repairs.
In the Active Captain reviews for Tenacatita someone took the time to mention the “Rollo del Mar” on the menu and it sounded like something I had to try – shrimp, marlin, celery, garlic and onion, wrapped in bacon and smothered in sauce. Holy cow! It was one of the most delicious dishes I’ve had in Mexico. Since it had shrimp in it I couldn’t offer a bite to Kristin (allergies) but she could tell with my eye-rolling yum sounds that it was impressively good.
And yet even after several wonderful days in Tenacatita we found ourselves wanting to push on just a bit further to Barra de Navidad, a mere 13 miles south where we’d find a town, marina, and another interesting anchorage. We’ll certainly be back to hang out in this tranquil paradise!