Post Tsunami

March 16, 2011

After the tsunami, boats scattered, working their way north or south.  We watched a boat pull up their anchor in Tenacatita and saw that the anchor and chain were all twisted up in a ball, like a cat had batted it round and round.  The skipper had to deploy his dinghy to get it untangled.  Later, we learned that Ponderosa had the same problem with their anchor, which was attributed to the underwater action caused by the tsunami.

It was a few days before we were able to go back to Barra.  As mentioned previously, the tsunami caused a 10 inch water line to float and block boats from leaving or entering the anchorage in the lagoon.  We monitored the status every morning on the “net” and within a few days heard that the water line had been re-anchored and that the channel was open for navigation; we headed back to Barra lagoon to top off our fuel tanks.  I was reluctant to go back to the lagoon as there were 65 boats or so in the anchorage when we left and it wasn’t any fun trying to find a place to anchor.  My fears were unfounded as we found only 14 boats in the anchorage.  In town, it was eerily quiet,  not only had many of the boaters left, but it was nearing the end of the season and most of the Americans and Canadians who winter in Barra had gone back home.  The fun little town of Barra had lost its appeal - it was too much of a “ghost town” after all the hustle and bustle of the winter activities.

Our plan had been to work our way north, slowly, visiting some of the anchorages we had passed along the way.  We weren’t in any hurry because we have flights out of Puerto Vallarta the first week of May to go to Michael’s niece’s wedding in the states.  Normally, we would be happy to have an anchorage all to ourselves.  Maybe it was the tsunami, we don’t know, but our enthusiasm to explore was gone and we decided to head north to join boats from Seattle and other boaters we had met along the way, all who seemed to be gathering at the marina in La Cruz.  After 5 months of being at anchor it would be nice to be tied to a dock for a while – real showers, yoga classes, lots of good and inexpensive restaurants, gatherings with friends and more; to get there we would have to round Cabo Corrientes.  Many agree it is similar to rounding Cape Mendocino, Point Conception or Cabo San Lucas – not to be taken lightly.