March 31 - We departed Tenacatita with excitement as we were headed back to Careyes, the coolest anchorage between Barra de la Navidad and Mazatlan. We spent two nights here. The dogs loved it!
Trango poses for a glamour shot.
Saesha and Sea Heather frolicking in the warm water.
March 30 - After filling our water tanks and taking on a bit of fuel we departed Barra de la Navidad to begin our 350nm bash into the wind and seas up the coast towards Mazatlan. First step, go around the corner to Tenacatita for the night. This was nice, uneventful, and easy.
March 21-29 - We departed Tenacatita and motored down to Barra de la Navidad. Using a satelite photo from Google Earth we were able to easily distinguish the not-to-recently dredged channel into the lagoon. The anchorage is wonderfully protected, like a salty lake, but it does get windy. While we were hear we saw two boats drag anchor. One did not have anyone aboard at the time and dragged down onto another boat who was manned at the time. The people of the downwind boat grabbed the boat as it approached and tied it up to them until the owner was located in town. No damage done to anything, but it was entertaining to watch.
Barra de la Navidad is a fantastic town. One of our favorites in Mexico. It's clean, quaint, has delicious restaurants, fresh produce, and a long clean beach. We ambled around town for a week because it was so comfortable and friendly. We stocked up on fresh fruit from pickup trucks loaded with such items.
We wanted to buy a few days worth of meat and chicken for our trip north to Puerto Vallarta, so after we finished with the produce trucks we went off in search of a Carniceria (butcher shop). We finally found one open in the afternoon and bought some cuts of pork and beef, but Carnicerias do not sell chicken, so we wandered from shop to shop to find some. Saesha asked one shopkeeper where to get chicken, and the shopkeeper gave her a funny look and said she needed to get her chicken much earlier in the day and this late in the day there would be no chicken available. Saesha chalked it up to a linguistic misunderstanding and we continued on our search. A few blocks later we saw a sign that said "Pollo Fresco" (fresh chicken) and Paul walked inside to inquire about prices. The woman tending the store burst into laughter at the gringo ignorance of Barra chicken policies and told us they only kill the chickens in the morning. Getting chicken in the afternoon was not going to happen. The entire family present at the store snickered in amusement at our plight. So, we gave up on the chicken!
We filled our water tanks.
A nice sunset in Barra de la Navidad.
Some mer-people we met in Barra.
Motoring through one of the canals in Barra.
March 20, 2007 - We sadly departed Careyes today and had a nice 22 nm motor down to Bahia Tenacatita where we spent the night. This is an excellently protected cove which made a great calm night.
March 17-19, 2007 - Careyes. Sorry it's been so long since we've updated. There I said it. The trip from Chamela to Careyes was a short 10nm hop. We went from a wide open bay to a tiny little cove surrounded by rocks. We anchored in Careyes just off the beach of the old Club Med (which incidentally has since been torn down). It's not the smoothest anchorage, but not too bad. The water is officially 80 degrees! At night here there is a extremely bright light the hits the water just were there breakers crash over a some rocks before coming into the anchorage. So far they have all smoothed out nicely before getting to us, but we don't go outside much because we don't like to look! Daytime is very peaceful. Our stern anchor dragged a couple of times threatening to let us slide sideways into the rocks. It was entirely our fault though for pulling in too much scope trying to pull away from the rocks and eventually just popping the anchor off the bottom... oops. We re-set it at full length so that we could pull away a little farther and it's working very nicely. We went ashore on the perfect sand of former club med and let the dogs have a much needed frolic. The water temperature is officially 80 degrees! So we can swim now.
Sunset at Careyes (you can rent that house on the hill for $6000 per night)
Former site of Club Med at Careyes
Stern anchor holding us off the rocks to the right (out of view)
March 15-16, 2007 - Chamela. The trip to Chamela was fairly long at 53 nm and took about 10 hours. We motored the entire day because there was almost no wind. We did see lots of sea turtles though. At one point we actually had to weave back and forth to miss them. Chamela is a wide bay with a beach that wraps 2/3rds of the way around and has a few little hotels and palapa restaurants. A surf landing here would have been suicidal, so we attempted a semi-suicidal rock landing in the dingy. We picked out way through the surge and pointy rocks into a small rocky cove. Just as we were about to step out of the dingy into the water a swell moved in, picked us up, and set us down lightly on the rocks. We counted each and every one of our lucky stars that we weren't smashed to little bits. There's a nice, but very quiet little center square there too. We walked into town and picked up some somewhat fresh veggies and a few drinks. We met up with our friends on Tango whom we originally met in San Diego.
Sea Turtles! They're everywhere!
March 13-14, 2007 - Ipala. We departed La Cruz late morning thinking we would just skip across Bahia de Banderes to a place called Yalapa. The guidebooks make it sound like an ok, but not great, anchorage for spending a few hours before rounding Cabo Currientes. We showed up after a nice sail across the bay and began poking around. Every conceivable anchorage was filled to the brim with mooring balls. We could have anchored, but we would have wrapped up so many moorings that there's no way we could have ever left! So we left, and decided to go around Cabo Currientes to Ipala. We made good time with a nice tailwind and sea, but it was of course dark when we arrived. Coming into an unfamiliar anchorage in the dark is never a good idea, but the guide books made it look wide open with very few obstructions. Well, as we pulled in we had our radar going and I picked up a few fleeting contacts, so we searched with the spotlight when we saw fishing nets marked with gallon milk jugs filling 2/3 of the bay! So we had to anchor way the heck out in the middle of nowhere where we bounced around all night in the swell. It wasn't so great, but I'm glad the radar can pick up a milk jug!
March 9-12, 2007 - La Cruz/Puerto Vallarta. We left Chacala and motored on down to La Cruz in Bahia de Banderes. We thought about stopping at Punta de Mita, but decided to hit it on our way back north instead. It was a 45 mile day. Not too too long. No wind, fairly small seas, all in all comfortable. At first on our approach to La Cruz I asked Saesha if she knew if there was a marina there. I saw the break water through the binoculars, but beyond it I saw maybe 50 masts sticking up. Saesha said that she didn't think so and maybe we were seeing Nuevo Vallarta or something. As we got closer, however, we discovered that all of these boats were anchored out, and I mean WAY out. The farthest one was probably 2 miles from the outside of the breakwater (basically in the middle of the ocean). At this point the wind had picked up quite nicely, but it was too late to sail. So we motored on up, wiggled our way in and out of all of these boats and anchored right up front, the closest boat to the dingy landing. I still don't know why everyone was anchored 2 miles out.
La Cruz has a nice little beachy area where you can land a dingy right next to the base of the breakwater. When we landed there was a boy there collecting donations to keep an eye on the dinghies. We complied with ten pesos (about $1), walked around La Cruz staring in awe at the over priced mansions that were being pawned off, and watching the construction oft he marina. Then we took a bus to downtown Puerto Vallarta. It's a beautiful colonial city (at least the downtown part is). It's built on a very steep hill and has cobblestone streets and lots of very tasteful tourist traps. All in all a great place to be a tourist.
Just a few of the boats in the La Cruz anchorage.
Saesha in Puerto Vallarta
Bell tower of a cathedral in Puerto Vallarta
Paul and Saesha in Puerto Vallarta
Looking up the steep hills of Puerto Vallarta.
March 7-8, 2007 - Chacala. We headed south from San Blas and arrived after 45nm at Chacala. We spent two days here because it was so very nice. There were a couple of boats, all stern anchored when we arrived. I was having a rough day when we arrived, and when I saw the stern anchored boats I could feel it coming. No sooner had we dropped our bow anchored, backed down and set it, then a man popped his head out of the boat next to us an called over "Hello!", "Hi" I said. "Where did you come from?", "San Blas, how about you?" I played along waiting for the real question to come out smiling over at Saesha who just shook her head thinking exactly what I was thinking. "La Cruz, we're headed north. Everyone here set stern anchors, so when we came in we did too so we wouldn't swing into anyone." Ahhh... and there it is! I played dumb as if I didn't see that all six boats had lines coming out of both ends, and said "Oh, yeah?", then waited for it... "So do you plan on setting one?" For crying out loud! I haven't even set a snubber on my primary anchor yet! And a howdy to you too! but I kept it all inside and just said "Yup, but we just got here, so it will be a minute ok?"
Why is it that boaters think they are doing something so damn important? We are not great explorers charting rocky shoals for the Queen. It's a yacht. It's not a job. We are all on vacation. Relax, and realize that this means absolutely nothing to anyone except you and for you it's just a vacation. Sorry, I digress. Chacala was wonderful, but we didn't take a single picture... sorry.
March 5-6, 2007 - San Blas: BUGS, BUGS, and MORE BUGS! Okay, we were warned! Some people said "oh it's not that bad" some people said "it's the buggiest place they've ever been." we found it was closer to the latter. We followed most of the recommendations, screens on the hatches, bug spray, lawn and garden bug killer inside the boat for 30 minutes before you go in and lock yourself up for the night. Well it didn't work! The bugs fly right through the screens and I swear they actually LIKE the smell of bug spray!
We anchored in the estuary which was beautiful and very convenient, except of course for the bugs. San Blas is a wonderful town. It's very friendly, easy to get around in, and has some very delicious tacos. Norm (aka Jama) is a very friendly man who "has been helping cruisers and fisherman for over forty years" (said with a new yorker accent). He gave us some nice fishing tips and swapped a few books and helped us get a hold of some Lawn and Garden spray (which did help keep the bugs from forming a colony on the boat!)
The highlight of the stay was the trip up an estuary in a panga. We had a nice guide who drove us down the quite estuary at a leisurely pace pointing out all the crocodiles an birds. Then we stopped for lunch and came back out. Here's a quick video of the ride back out.
Panga Ride Video!(not for the feint of heart!)
Yes, that's a crocodile.
That's a baby crocodile.
An Egret on final.
Egrets doing their thing.
March 4, 2007 - We sailed from Isla Isabela to San Blas and anchored around the corner in a wide shallow bay called Metanchen Bay. It's a beautiful, calm anchorage, although our friends on Harmony got hit with a thunderstorm here and seriously thought they might loose their boat! So that memory was vividly branded in our minds. On our way in we saw one of the most incredible sights we've ever seen (up there with glowing dolphins). We saw 15 giant (and I mean HUGE) whale sharks they were about half the length of the boat or more, so 20-25 feet long! I had seen them on the Discovery Channel, so knew that they were harmless so remained calm (yeah right!). We watched them swim along the surface of the water scooping up this line of little tiny fish in their giant vacuum cleaner mouths. Here are some pictures and a video to boot!
Video of Whale Sharks in San Blas (sorry, but we need a faster internet conection to put this on the server, so this is not yet available)
Whale Sharks at San Blas
More Whale Sharks at San Blas
March 1-3, 2007 - Ok, we finally decided to leave Mazatlan after a month of hanging out, working on the boat, taking Spanish lessons, and taking in the festivities of Carnival. Sailed down to Isla Isabela. What a fantastic place! We have never seen so many birds in one place. Thousands of Frigate Birds and Blue Footed Boobies make this island their roost for mating season. The birds nest either on the ground or in short trees at eye level, and are so prevalent that you have to watch your step so as not to step in a nest! The babies in their nests will just stare you down if you walk up to them. Absolutely no fear. Incredible. Here are some images:
All those little black dots are nesting Frigate Birds
A quick self portrait hoping not to get pooped on.
Baby Frigate Bird.
The anchorage at Isla Isabela looking SE (Sea Heather is the left of the two boats)
A big ol' Frigate Bird.
A Blue Footed Booby looking as intelligent as ever.
February 2007 Archive