Punta Mangles

PUNTA MANGLES

4/1 Anchor up at 11:00 planned to sail 25 miles north to Caleta San Juanico. Passing Isla Coronado on it’s NE side the swell and wind began to increase. We dropped the mainsail. Continued to increase. Short period big swell and gusts over 25 knots, right on the nose. Mom inside. Claire and I re-routed our destination for Punta Mangles. 6 miles closer than San Juanico, but still over 8 miles to go! Hectic bash up the coast. Could not locate the so-called dangerous Mangles rocks. Reported to be submerged but “can be seen awash in heavy seas”. Our charts and guides report that they are 2 miles SSE of Punta Mangles and anywhere from ¼ to 1 ½ miles offshore. Very broad generalization for such a hazard! As captain I made a risky decision to stay as close to shore as possible, closer than ¼ mile seemed safer to me than an unknown distance, plus slightly smaller swell than the open water. Claire and I spent a few hours hugging the coast, tacking back and forth in 25 feet of water. Any other rocks below us just as dangerous and unknown. Anchor down around 16:00. Gorgeous, thankful, and happy to be in calm water despite the still gusty winds. A few abandoned houses, looks like luxury homes to our SW. Fish camp remnants to our North on a small beach. Trees, mangroves, lagoons, and arroyo to our West. Cows with bells clanking over the hillside at sunset.

4/2 Great day exploring the area. Abandoned condos/hotel on the hill with a “roman/greek” view. Fish camps, lagoons, cows, caves with water, and another fish camp with a rustic boat ramp. We built a huge fire pit, had a feast of fish I caught and local produce medley, dessert of roasted marshmallows. Sometimes the un-planned anchorages are the most memorable.

we left carmen, passed isla coronado (photo center). the blue waypoint is punta mangles, san juanico is the cove above it. we turned toward the coast just above coronado and then worked our way up just a 100 yards off the shoreline. not very safe, but also not many options available. 

abandoned hotel and condos

caves

little chef. mise en place.

COWS!

small fish camp

turtle shells

looked like greek ruins

fossilized scallop shells

another fish camp with boat ramp

shark head?

looking out of the caves

so much of the crystals

looking up

lost an oar!

found a picture of the ruins in 2010. they must have abandoned the project. hurricanes probably did most of the damaged, but i would imagine all that metal was scrapped for local housing. pretty interesting stuff.