Ixtapa to Huatulco
In late May, Steve returned to Dakota Rose in Ixtapa, along with his friends Geoff Lillegraven and Dave Udell, his brother-in-law
Tom Nelson, and the intrepid Russ Winther. Their plans for this one-week leg ... sail to Huatulco, Mexico, with an interim stop in
Acapulco. This will be a relatively easy week, with a total distance travelled of about 300 miles. Geoff and Dave have crewed on
Dakota Rose before, in the Newport-to-Ensenada and SanDiego-to-Ensenada races, and Tom crewed on the very first leg of this
trip, from San Diego to Ensenada.

Huatulco will be our last stop in Mexico, before embarking on the final leg of this trip, to Costa Rica.

Compared to when we arrived in Ixtapa in April, the marina is practically empty. By now, with the June 1 start of the official
hurricane season fast approaching, most cruising boats have headed north, either back home to the States or to hole up in one
of the well-protected marinas in Puerto Vallarta for the summer. People give us funny looks when we tell them we're headed
south ... we're definitely bucking the trend.
Upon our arrival back at the Marina Ixtapa,
we were met by the friendly, local
crocodile, protector of boats
Russ obviously hadn't learned a lesson
from Steve Irwin
A little boat maintenance is always
in order before we set out
Another Day Trip into zihuatenejo
After leaving Ixtapa early Monday afternoon for the 120 mile sail to acapulco,
we arrive tuesday Morning just after daybreak
The narrow channel entrance to the north
end of Acapulco Bay
Houses on the channel
are built on cliffs
dropping to the water,
with private funiculars
accessing their docks
Acapulco is home to the oldest yacht club in Mexico,
celebrating its 50th anniversary this year ... they gave
us a discount when we flashed our Coronado Yacht
Club card
The older section of Acapulco, surrounding the yacht club,
shows (to put it politely) a certain faded elegance
We had to visit the world-famous cliff divers ... click
above for more pictures
We left Acapulco at 0300 Thursday morning for the 180
mile run to Huatulco, hoping to make it by sundown on
Friday afternoon. However, adverse currents and winds
intervened, so we pulled into a small inlet and town to
anchor for Friday night, then continued the last 15 miles to
Huatulco on Saturday morning
At one point we were
passing sea turtles at the
rate of one every 15
minutes or so
Our Friday overnight
anchorage
It was so hot when we arrived in Huatulco, we followed Russ's
lead (and, took advantage of his credit cart), and got a suite in
one of their finest resorts
Our suite included our
own private pool
We discovered that Huatulco is not a city, but rather an "invented" resort destination. Up to the 1980's there was nothing here,
then the Mexican national tourist development agency, "FONATUR," decided to develop the area. Much like Cancun on the
Caribbean cost, Huatulco has a tourist shopping zone on the waterfront, a hotel/resort zone,  a restaurant zone, subdivided lots
for rich gringos to build vacation or retirement homes, and a housing zone for the locals who have moved here to service the
tourist trade. As Enrique, who runs the marina, told us, they even built a "brand new ancient colonial cathedral"!