Sailing San Patricio to Tenacatita (Inner)

Very stressful raising anchor this morning, as fishermen had gotten up early and practically surrounded our boat with fishing nets. We could see a lot of them really well, but it definitely had us paranoid about which ones we perhaps could not see!

We motor-sailed out of the bay in light wind, but with the solar, used about 6% of our capacity over the first two hours, and by 10:30 we were already gaining again. The wind picked up, becoming quite strong as we got close to the entrance to Tenacatita. We were heeled over significantly, but on a good course to the anchorage.

We planned to go to Tenacatita’s outer (further west) anchorage again, since we had liked it so much on our last visit, especially the snorkeling and palapas, but the wind was howling under basically no protection. The chop was significant, even right in the anchorage, so we decided to tack again and head to the inner anchorage, hoping for more protection. We were glad we did – there were 4 other boats there, plenty of room, and it was WAY calmer than the outer anchorage! There’s a dangerous underwater rock to navigate around, just visible beneath the surface at low tide, but we followed the chart and had no issues. As we anchored, we saw lots of big fish swimming around. Plus some really spectacular clouds, very optical illusiony.