How this whole thing started
Building the House Part 1 and finding the property
After spending some time exploring the area I took a liking to Barra and its small town feel. Its still a fishing village at heart and I hope it doesnt get spoilt by tourism too quickly.
I decided a lot on the canals could be a perfect home for our boat as its a short 5 minute walk to downtown yet quiet in the evening. It can get quite rowdy during holidays in Mexico with all the festivals.
From the canals I can be in the pacific ocean in 10 minutes for fishing or visiting one of the many bays and towns nearby. When it comes to haulout time I will need to go to Manzanillo or Banderas bay.
I had no idea how to buy property in Mexico so I started reading everything I could about the process. Luckily internet connectivity is good in Mexico. Once your familiar with the basic buying process, its not difficult.
This looked like the perfect place for our winter home 
Aerial view of Barra and the canal system
The Barra canals
The virgin lot! Behind us is the Cabo Blanco hotel with 24hr security and a guard house at the start of our road. This was an important factor in the buying decision.
Another view from our neighbors roof
65ft of water front on the property, but It will need a new sea wall for a 6ft draft sailboat.
I considered a floating dock like my neighbors directly across the canal but eventually concluded it would be too flimsy for a 10 ton yacht and a potential maintenance problem.
I found a respected architect/builder who had previously been the mayor of Melaque. I figured he must know how to deal with bureaucracy! He guided me thro all the permit process and supplied the workforce. In the end the 'permit process' was sweetened by taking a nice bottle of Canadian whiskey to the port captain.
First order of business was to dredge the canal to give 8ft clearance at low tide. I calculated a 6ft tide swing throughout any typical year and this gave me an idea how far down we had to dig. Next job was to find a big backhoe. We found what we needed in Melaque. A Case 650XL 4x4 with a huge reach. The lower arm below extends another 6ft.
We finally broke ground and started dredging an April 2011
My builder found some huge 4m long concrete pipes to use as our pilings. No wimpy PVC pipes here!
Driving the pilings into the peaty mangrove swamp. We discovered 2 axe heads and lots of pottery while digging the foundations.
We tied the pilings together with steel rebar and built a new sea wall behind the old seawall. Lots of pumps kept the water out. We had to do most of the work at nite to catch low tides.
Once the new wall was complete it was time to remove the old wall in front
A giant hydraulic pickaxe broke up the wall into manageable pieces.
Now the deep new sea wall was complete, we started on the dock itself
You can see how the new seawall is set back from the original wall to give Sea42 more space and protection.
Forming the steel cantilevers to be encased in concrete
Placing the final small pilings required some divers!
The front pilings are in
The forms are placed
Lay the steel and polystyrene honeycomb
Finally time to pour the concrete slab. I found a cement company that had a special concrete formulation for salt water applications
The completed dock Jun 2011! Its a tight fit but no problems getting Sea42 tied up. There is no floating dock. The boat is tied between four posts with sliding rings on solid 1" stainless steel rods. That allows the boat to rise and fall with the tides. Minimal moving parts, no rotting materials, minimal maintenance. It survived Hurricane Jova with no scratches.
You can see how the dock is set back into the lot and also projects
into the canal on the ends. The pipes on the top of the pilings are for
lights that I added later. 3 posts also have 110v electric outlets and water
faucets.
The same view with the caps on the pilings. They are translucent and have low profile CFL bulbs under the caps on simple plastic mounts. There are 15 pilings with lights so keeping the system low cost/energy and easy to maintain was a priority.
The dock has now been in use for more than 6 months. Sea42 is the largest boat with the deepest draft in the canal system so I was concerned at first that I would hit the bottom at low tide and put too much stress on the dock when other boats and fishing pangas go past too fast and cause a wake. No problems so far.
The mooring system has been great. Getting on/off the boat requires a little care as the height of the boat changes with the tide and its also a minimum of 1ft away from the concrete dock. I should add a handle to the piling nearest the gate to aid getting on/off.
Im locked in the canal at low to medium tide as the area near the end of my canal is too shallow to get out into the main channel. I was down at the boat in November for a week and the high tides where all at nite so I couldnt get the boat out. I wouldnt be comfortable taking the boat out in the dark. If I need to be out on a certain date I may anchor the boat in the big lagoon in advance. Im used to doing that in the San Francisco bay as I was tide locked there also.
The mooring system has been great. Getting on/off the boat requires a little care as the height of the boat changes with the tide and its also a minimum of 1ft away from the concrete dock. I should add a handle to the piling nearest the gate to aid getting on/off.
Im locked in the canal at low to medium tide as the area near the end of my canal is too shallow to get out into the main channel. I was down at the boat in November for a week and the high tides where all at nite so I couldnt get the boat out. I wouldnt be comfortable taking the boat out in the dark. If I need to be out on a certain date I may anchor the boat in the big lagoon in advance. Im used to doing that in the San Francisco bay as I was tide locked there also.
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