Mantanchen Bay and San Blas

We left Isla Isabella on the morning of December 7th. It was a cloudy, blustery day, and it rained on us as we sailed east-southeast toward Mantanchen Bay. Most of the morning we were close reaching into 15-20 knots of wind from the northeast with a single reef in the main and a partially furled jib, making about 4 knots. At lunch time I fell off, south of the rhumbline, in order to get more speed and reduce the heeling (so that Claudia would have an easier time making lunch). This turned out to be a good move. The wind shifted North as we closed with the coast, giving us an excellent angle. We made 5-6 knots most of the afternoon and passed San Blas about sunset.. At that point it started raining again. Visibility was poor and our electronic charts were again off by about a mile and a half. Luckily, the anchor lights on other cruising boats guided us into the anchorage. We anchored over a mile off the beach, but in only 20 feet of water.

The next day we took our dinghy into the beach, where we found a row of palapa restaurants. Many of the restaurants were staffed but we appeared to be the only potential customers. We left our dinghy in the care of one of the restauranteurs and walked out to the highway, looking for a bus to San Blas. Before the bus came, a taxi offered to take us in for 20 pesos.

We spent the day looking at the old town of San Blas. It has a nice marina (up a river from Mantanchen Bay) and a pretty town square, but not much else that interested us. The famous bells of San Blas (immortalized in a poem by Longfellow, that speaks somewhat jingoistically of the decline of Spanish civilization, and the rise of Anglo-American culture) were represented in a ruined church that looked like it had been built well after Longfellow's time. We heard there is a good river tour but we would have needed another day to take that, and we decided not to spend another day.

We got back to the beach near sunset and felt obligated to have dinner in the restaurant where we had left the dinghy. This turned out to be a mistake. At sunset the notorious, biting sand flies of Mantanchen Bay swarmed forth. The restaurant provided insect repellant along with the chips and salsa, and we used it liberally. They also burned coconut husks which, they assured us, would repel the bugs. But it was all to no avail. As we ate our pescado al ajo, the bugs ate us. They crept up under our clothing and found areas of skin that we failed to cover in chemicals. We had itchy bites all over.

In the morning we sailed south again, heading for Banderas Bay.

Here are a few shots of San Blas and Mantanchen Bay. It is pretty, but I don't think we'll be coming back.