Marina Nayarit at La Cruz

20 44.904 N, 105 22.771 W

Question: How do you get the boat from the anchorage to a marina slip without an engine and not using the sails?

We decided to stay for the day and have dinner with Adam and Cindy of SV Bravo on Thursday evening before heading out a Friday. The engine worked very well on the way over from Paradise Village to the anchorage at La Cruz but we needed to reset the autopilot. After running the rudder test and resetting the autopilot Rich wanted to check the engine. No go. The engine would not turn over. It was getting power but not firing. This is not a good thing. We went to the boatyard at the marina to see about getting a mechanic to look the engine. The boatyard suggested an American living in on a boat in the marina. Rich talked to him on the phone and got some suggestion of things to look at but he would stop by the boat on Friday. Rich tried the suggestions but no joy. So I guess we are sticking around for a while.

On Thursday evening we dingied in and met Adam and Cindy. We went to dinner at Philo's, a very popular cruiser hangout in La Cruz. It was open mike night with electric guitars. It was a lot of fun. Philo used to be a studio musician in the 1960's and the band played a lot of fun tunes.

Have you answered the question yet?

Since we will need to work the engine we decided it would be better to be at a slip at the marina. We only had to go less than the mile. So Adam and Cindy came over in their dingy with a 10 HP outboard. We tied the dingy to the starboard aft quarter and used it for propulsion and we used the Windarra to steer. It was a little tricky maneuvering since we really did not have any reverse and another sailboat decided to change slips in front of us but after we waved our arms and shouted, they moved so we could go by. Unfortunately we did hit the dock box but no damage. So now we are tied up and the engine fellow plans to come by tomorrow to do some checking and possibly remove the injector pump.

Adam and Cindy helping us move Windarra

In the meantime we will enjoy La Cruz.