Roaring Dragon, Raging Winds

From Lazaro Cardenas we sailed overnight to Caleta Carrizal, the same unspoiled little cove that we had stopped for one night on our way south(east). Once again it was a pleasant and only slightly rolly anchorage. We were told by our friends on Gia, who were leaving there just as we came in, that they had heard a dragon roar the previous night. As they were sailing away, there was no time to get an explanation.

We did not hear the dragon roar until we were leaving the following morning. As we motored out of the cove, close to the west shore, virtually a rock wall, a swell sent a surge of water into a narrow cave and a blast of air roared out. So now, we too had heard the dragon roar.

It was an easy motorboat trip from Carrizal to Barra de Navidad, a place we fell in love with on the way down. It is very scenic, not overly touristy, and has a great, calm anchorage.

It can be a bit tricky navigating into the shallow lagoon. However, we had used our handheld GPS and portable depthsounder in the inflatable dinghy during our last visit to sound the lagoon and establish the boundaries of the entrance channel and area of the lagoon deep enough for anchoring.

A planned short stay of 3-4 days in the lagoon stretched into six days due to unusually strong northwest winds, which we would have had to punch straight into if we continued up the coast.

The winds finally let up this morning and we made the short jump up to Tenacatita, a favorite anchorage of Mexico cruisers, and a place we had stayed for awhile when Steves dad was with us in 1991. We would love to spend some time here but we also want to high-tail it to Puerto Vallarta and possibly do some kind of inland excursion before it is time to head further north.