This page is the log and photos for SV Tropical Dance from Zjuantenejo Mexico to Acapulco on the Gold Coast. March/April 2008
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The 40 photos on the above photo page were taken during the trip south along the Southern Mexican Coast, March & April 2008.
Zjuantanejo to Huatulco
The Log of Tropical Dance Zjuatenejo to to Acapulco,March/April 2008
By Reylyn Yarussi
Greetings everyone,
Here are some highlights after departing Zihuatenejo with our friend Andy, and sailing down to Acapulco & Puerto Escondido
We weighed anchor in Zihua Bay on April 30th in the afternoon for an overnight passage to Acapulco. It was a normal uneventful smooth passage, with sailing about half the time, motoring the other half. We arrived to the entrance of Acapulco Bay the next day around noon, and picked up a mooring by 1pm. Since it was Dan's birthday, and Andy's first passage, I broke out Pina Coladas. A fellow cruiser from a boat nearby came to join us for the afternoon party.
We only stayed in Acapuico for 3 days, as it was a big city and not much to do for cruisers. The best part of Acapulco was the yacht club. What a nice place! And we had to ourselves! We spent two days at the Acapulco Yacht Club pool, since we had no desire to go into the city.
Andy Under the Fish Station Andy and Dan at Most Excellent lounge and
the ‘In Water Lounge’ Swimming pool area.
AYC's ship store on the right (large glass windows), 
& dockside lounging under the palapa roof.
On the second day, Dan and Andy went to go check in with the Port Captain, shortly afterwards, we took a trip to shore and headed for the 1PM Cliff-diving show, which only lasts about a half hour. We sat in a restaurant overlooking the cliffs to watch.while eating lunch. The rest of the after noon we headed for the AYC Pool.
Can you say Clavadista Antilado?
We departed Acapulco Bay on the morning of the 4th day before sunrise, as we had a 150 mile passage to Puerto Escondido and we wanted to get there before noon the next day. This passage made for a good memory. Heres my story:
Turtles were spotted by naked eye about 100 yards away on the port side motoring @ 7 knots. This was a common sight to see around mid-morning to mid afternoon. I took a look through binoculars to get a closer look and noticed the yellow floaters around them, at which time I then noticed the netting also. By that time they were off our port stern and I yelled at Dan "Whoa . .there snagged by a net!". He stated " lets go free them!" . .and I said "absolutely . . lets go free them!". I climbed into the cockpit and took the wheel off auto . . pulled a "U" - ey and brought the turtles to the startboard side of the boat. During this time, our guest on board, Andy Conlin, was so excited that an "event" was taking place he ran down and got his camera and started shooting away while Dan and I tried to figure out how to get these two turtles free from a snag from hell.
All turtle photos by Andrew Conlin
I ended up using the extendable boat hook and pulled the mess up above the water while Dan reached down to start cutting away at the net. He ended up dropping one knife into the water. The difficulty was the fact that we have a 6' freeboard on Tropical Dance - it was a rough reach down to cut. I had to pull the net , plus the weight of two turtles up just so Dan could get a good angle and cut the right line. The whole operation ended up taking about 30 minutes - and we freed both turtles.
Meanwhile . .our feline navigator Dan takes a siesta on the bow is
letting us know where we are.
Next stop . . .Puerto Escondido - the Mexican Pipeline!
Take care everyone!
Reylyn
SV Tropical Danc
