Acapulco! – Slow Dancers Voyage

We pulled out of Zihuatanejo Bay at 9:50 on Wednesday, March 27. We had a beautiful sail all day heading toward Acapulco. As darkness came, the stars came out and we saw bioluminescence in the water. Around 3 a.m. the winds and seas increased and the wind changed direction, making for a wet and bumpy ride. 7:00 a.m…..Acapulco ahead! We entered the busy bay and were greated by Vincente who operated the mooring balls. He helped us to tie up and we were able to relax and enjoy breakfast. We chose the mooring balls because all of the marinas in Acapulco use a docking system known as “Med Mooring”. We had never done this and weren’t very excited to learn. It involves backing into a slip while either grabbing a mooring ball or dropping the anchor off the front and tying up to the dock simultaneously. Seemed to us like more than two people could do. So we opted for a mooring ball out in the bay.

After a day of rest and getting acclimated, we spoke to a couple as they dinghied past. “Go into the Yacht Club and tie your dinghy to one of the moorings, climb the ladder and go ashore. You can use their pool and facilities”. It sounded great! The next morning we hoisted our dinghy from the deck and hefted the motor from the back railing onto the bucking dinghy. In we went through the breakwaters of the yacht club. Hmmmm…moorings? We found what we thought were the buoys and as we were trying to tie up, yet still wondering how we were to get to the ladder on the concrete dock, an employee told us, no…tie to the ladder. Well, that would certainly make it easier to get to it. We motored over and grabbed the ladder. What he didn’t say was that the concrete wall that the ladder was attached to was covered by sharp barnacles! The tide went up and down constantly and the fixed dock did not move. Our inflatable dinghy would not last long in a rubbing contest with this! Get away from there quickly! A man in a motor boat hollered (in Spanish) that we could tie up next to his other boat in a slip right across. Nice!! We motored close, ducking under the many lines tied across the slip. When we got into the slip, we were again next to a concrete dock….argh….barnacles!! Out of there and back to Slow Dancer. Were we trapped? We really wanted to go to shore! We asked Vincente and he showed us his mooring buoy….again leading to a wall of barnacles. It’s no wonder so many locals use beat up hard dinghies.

In the end, we ended up at a marina that allowed us to use an end tie….aaahh! Freedom!

We joined some friends that had come in to the marina for dinner, riding a loud party bus into town. We provisioned and explored for 3 days. On our last night we climbed a hill to watch the Clavadistas, a family of cliff divers that have been diving these cliffs for over 100 years. We enjoyed a nice dinner overlooking the cliffs and water below.