anna: The Allure of Lazaro Cardenas

Vieja, Zihuatenejo

AT NIGHT, INDUSTRIAL FLAMES, SMOKE, AND WORKING LIGHTS can be seen from a distance of 25 miles. The Grain Terminal is 200m wide and dredged to 14m. The Metal and Minerals Wharf provides 650m berthage. The Fertimex (fertilizer) Quay provides 509m of berthage. The Container Terminal is 284m long. The General Cargo Quay provides 504m of berthage. The Pemex Tanker Terminal is 200m long and has a depth of 14m alongside. Vessels of up to 80,000 tons, 267m in length, and 13.2m draft can be accommodated in the port. The harbor is protected by N and S breakwaters. The entrance is 200m wide and dredged to a depth of 14m. It leads NW to a turning basin with a diameter of 700m. Several harbor basins may be entered from this turning basin..

During the rainy season, occasional squalls occur.

The entrance channel is marked by lighted beacons and indicated by a lighted range. A large container crane stands in the vicinity of the harbor. From a distance, the industrial complex and the steel mill can be seen above the low land of the delta.

Pilotage is compulsory. Pilots can be contacted by VHF and board about 2 miles S of the harbor entrance. Vessels should send an ETA at least 24 hours in advance.

...and this is how Pub. 153 Sailing Directions (Enroute) describes the industrial port of Lazaro Cardenas (17.56N, 102.10W).

***

It is true; strange as it may seem, that the port of Lazaro Cardenas is our kind of place. We like the ambiance. But by no means would we ever characterize it as charming. None the less, a dynamic 1,000-foot, 80,000 ton steel hulk holds a certain fascination for us. We can watch these beasts at work for hours and hours and never tire of it.

By comparison, 37-foot Anna, from stem to stern, weighs in at 12 tons. Anna is probably smaller than the orange, fully-enclosed life-boat, which sits in a cradle - ready for launch - off the upper stern deck of most of these big boys.

Enroute, from Mazanillo to Zihuatenejo, we could see the working lights of Lazaro Cardenas from our NW approach, then abeam, and finally from the SE, as Anna slipped past and out of sight of Lazaro Cardenas at 0130. There was a faint breeze from dead down. Zihua was 40 nautical miles dead ahead. If we maintained our current course (ESE) and speed (4 knots), we would make the harbor entrance at 0930, a respectable hour. A night approach to Zihua would have been acceptable, as the inner entrance is one-half a mile in width and the bay is wide open with no obstructions. The bottom is mostly uniform, packed sand. A hook digs right in when set.

We opted against clearing into Lazaro Cardenas late at night. We wouldn't require a pilot as we were less than 200m in length, but anchoring in an industrial complex, like Lazaro Cardenas, no matter how interesting it might have been to us was not a place to hang out - and get in the way. Industrial ports don't really want small craft messing about unnecessarily. And most likely, the Port Captain would politely refuse our request for entry and tell us to drift on by, unless we had an emergency. So, with low-key Zihuatenejo only 40nm to the ESE, we moved on, past the allure of heavy industry.

We cleared entry with the Capitania de Puerto, Zihua, the following morning. Took our dinghy for a spin to the municipal dock, one mile away from where we anchored, on the opposite (south) side of the bay. We positioned Anna as far away from the centro as we could get, and 1,000 feet off the beach at the southwest end of the bay. This way we figured we could minimize the loud night life that we anticipated near the wharf, and stay clear of the beach activities during the day time. It was an approach that seemed to work well. The busy waterfront and buzzing panga traffic were demoted to ambient, background white-noise.

At nightfall, we could hear the exhalations of dolphins on the hunt. They would round up schools of small fish swimming around Anna's hull. They lit up the dark waters in bioluminescence as they scattered past us.

During the day we would swim around in the surprisingly clean harbor water that Anna was anchored in. We took some time to dive and clean the keel and to do some routine maintenance on deck - cleaning up some of the cosmetic rust on the 304-grade stainless steel components.

The Zihua Public Mercado is one of the finest fresh produce markets (also meats and fish and anything else you can think of) we have ever seen. It stretches out over many blocks and was our reward for bypassing the industrial complex of Lazaro Cardenas.

The daytime temperatures are currently in the low 80's, and at night the temperature drops to the high 70's. The water is clean and luke-cool - refreshing, and perfect for spending long stretches of time in the water; cleaning the hull or just floating, aimlessly around.

Anna continues on her way tomorrow, with a possible stop in Acapulco, enroute to the Bays of Huatulco, which are located on the southern fringe of the Pacific coast of Mexico, some 350nm to the south and east of Zihuatenejo, along the western sector of the Gulf of Tehuantepec.

We depart Zihuatenejo with a pictorial wrap up. Manzanillo to Zihuatenejo at-a-glance:

To enlarge any photo, double-click it.