A Week in Puerto Vallarta

Well, we've been in Puerto Vallarta a week now. The boat jobs are basically done, new board on the starboard side to tie jerry cans to, engine serviced, starboard aft salon window replaced, fuel topped off, and provisioning done and stowed (except for the fresh stuff). Wednesday evening we went out into Banderas Bay with Andre on his boat Symbiosis, a Beneteau 39, to watch the full lunar eclipse. Andre had some friends along from Canada, Jim, Carol and Lindsey and Dave and Jerry. We watched the eclipse, came back in a dropped almost everyone off, then Andre, Jim, Cathy and I headed back out to watch the unveiling from the eclipse. Jim is a farmer from outside Ottawa who is probably best described as a mystic. He has had a few life altering experiences and speaks with passion about meditations, communing with whales who he insists are telepathic, alien encounters while meditating, etc. His reality is not for me to judge or comment on, other than to say that he has had these experiences and is willing to share his impressions with others. Andre is of a similar cast. A self described vagabond, he spends his time here teaching sailing and struggling with the locals in an effort to leave Mexico. He sailed down here 6 years ago from Canada and hasn't left yet, but he's getting close. I expect we will see him in New Zealand next year. His blog makes interesting reading. You can access it from his web site www.casanaval.org.

His descriptions of his terrorist cat are hilarious.
We are basically ready to head off across the Pacific which should prove fun. No one really knows how they will handle long periods at sea. We have both made trips of 9-11 days, which would put us maybe halfway to the Marquesas. Both of us have things that we want to do while underway and as long as conditions are stable, we should have a pretty good run. The trade winds are predicted to be "directionally enhanced" which means that there should be consistent wind and possibly little of no ITCZ (doldrums). We'll find out. Between now and when we leave, we have friends coming for a week which will be fantastic. Rob and Nancy are bringing not only themselves, but mail for us and Toketie and a few odds and ends boat bits that we couldn't find here. Don't know exactly what we adoing for the week, but we will have fun. We hope to leave PV March 3rd to head back to Tenacatitas and then down towards Manzanillo to wait for good weather window to leave. Stay tuned for what the future will bring……

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The Slog Blog

We left Tenacatitas on Thursday due to predicted NW winds developing off Cabo Corrientes. We motored north in basically no wind until early afternoon when we were able to sail for a couple of hours. The wind clocked around so we were heading straight head to wind. The wind had dropped to 5 knots or so. We tried tacking a few times but basically were not making much way north so we started the motor again and motor sailed through the night. The winds were not strong, rarely reaching 10 knots, the seas were only 3-5 feet but close together so we hobby horsed our way north between 2-4 knots most of the night. It took us 24 to reach Cabo Corrientis and we still had 30 odd miles to go. We decided top head for the anchorage in La Cruz for the night. Surprise, surprise, the wind was coming from the anchorage in La Cruz so we continued to motor sail with only the main up. A long, slogging trip north with little to make it memorable. We moved a few turtles out of the way with our bow wake and had a whale blow about 50 meters from us in Banderas Bay. When we got to La Cruz, we spied out a Canadian Flag on a boat from the Bluewater Cruising fleet of 2006, Jabula. Bruce and Jeannie, a South African couple who made their home in Canada for a few years have already gone around the world once on their Westerly 33 and working their way around again. We spent an enjoyable few hours with them and with luck will run into them again further south. Saturday morning we managed to get Marina Vallarta on the phone with Skype and they said come on in, they would give us a slip assignment when we got in. I tried to explain that we could not call them as we have no phone, I was using the computer, but no comprendo. We upped anchor and were underway shortly after 10:00 in the morning. We called to the marina on the VHF when were inside the harbour and I almost fell over when Sergio answered the radio and gave us a berth. We settled in with help from a couple of dock guys from the marina and then a panic ensued as the boat that had left the slip was returning with engine trouble and we had to move. We ended up on K dock with an 83 foot gin palace on one side and a 75 foot steel sloop on the other side. We look like a toy!

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Tenacatita

We arrived here on Friday by late afternoon and again after a lot hand wringing about landmarks and questions like "Is that the abandoned hotel over there that we are supposed to aim for?" we got safely anchored. There were over 30 boats here but it is a large anchorage and no one was crowding anyone else. Saturday we took a trip up the river to get to the outer anchorage and get a few provisions. The local resort runs "jungle cruises" up the river and it is pretty spectacular. It's hemmed in by mangroves for most of it's length and there are places where it is really only wide enough for one dinghy. We me the jungle tour panga a couple of times and had to crowd into the mangroves so they could get by. When we got to outer anchorage, we were a bit surprised by what we found. It's a long stretch of beach with maybe a down palapas (small restaurant bars). There is a small store (they call them Mini Super for some reason) and they had a decent selection of fruits and veggies and other basic provisions. We stocked up on the necessities, had a bit of lunch on the beach, watched the world drift by and practiced saying no gracias to all the vendors that ply their trade along the strip. It is basically a middle class Mexican vacation spot. Sunday and Monday were taken up with boat chores, walks on the beach, a bit of swimming. Yesterday we ventured over the resort with laptops to connect to their internet service. We had gone over the day before to ask if they would mind and they fell all over themselves to say yes, no problem. I think they were a bit taken aback that someone would actually ask permission.
It is a bit strange as we move through these anchorages. There is usually a local cruisers radio net on VHF 22 in the mornings. There's always someone trying to organize everyone else into doing group activities. Volleyball on the beach, bacci ball, group dinners at the local restaurant. The thing that people don't do is interact with the locals at all. Everything is about staying in the group of boaters. It gets a bit surreal at times. It seems that people come down here and want to recreate the neighbourhoods they left behind at home. Not what Cathy and I are looking for. We are happier finding a few close friends to share experiences with and try to see some of what makes each place unique. Here it has been the river trip and the outer anchorage. It's good to see a developing middle class in Mexico. There is still a tremendous amount of poverty and corruption and nothing ever seems to get quite finished but there is hope. Some of the cruisers point to all the resorts that are springing up and say that that's a sure sign of improvement. It could be except the resorts are mostly foreign owned and the staff are paid whopping great salaries of maybe 100 peso's a day (around 10 USD). It doesn't buy much.

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Chamela, Beautifuol Chamela

What can I say, it's a beautiful anchorage. Long sandy beaches with a decent dinghy landing, a nice clean little village with enough little shops to keep prices good and lots of room in the anchorage. We walked the beaches, explored the town, spent the day yesterday snorkelling just off islands in the southern portion of the bay, and generally have had a wonderful time exploring this part of Mexico. This, for us, has been the best place we have been so far. We weren't hassled constantly to buy something; everyone just seemed to be pretty relaxed. It could have something to do with the heat and humidity. During the day temps are in the high 20's with high humidity. It cools off enough at night to sleep with just a sheet and maybe a blanket in the early morning hours. The water is around 23-24 C and reasonably clear. We met a few other cruisers on the beach and in the anchorage, shared a meal with David and Linda from Toketie and RELAXED. The repair job of the week was the Duogen drive shaft. I had the wind blades up and all of a sudden the blades went nuts in 10-15 knots. The drive shaft had pulled out of the coupling to the wind blades and dropped down. Well, I took it all apart and the pin that secured the shaft to the coupling was placed so that it was only around 1/8 of an inch from the top of the fibreglass drive shaft. After over 300 miles of cruising with maybe 2/3 of it using the Duogen, I was surprised it took that long to part. Some epoxy, high density filler and a second bolt through the coupling further from the top of the shaft and all is once again good with the world. Yesterday's snorkelling didn't go exactly as planned but it was fun nonetheless. We motored over the Isla Colorado with the intention of staying the night. Well, Toketie dropped their anchor first and dragged. They finally caught so we gave it a try, we dragged. We finally caught and headed to the beach for a swim and snorkel. There wasn't alloy on the bottom but I did see a stingray, puffer fish and some greenish coloured fish that liked to stay in my shadow (I'm guessing to hide from the ever present pelicans). We spent maybe an hour or more in the water and walking around the beach before we rowed back to our respective boats. I decided to take a wire brush to the keel cooler for the fridge to try and keep ahead of the fouling issue. I ended up wiping down the hull again. I cleaned it two weeks ago in Isla Isabella and it was as bad again. Warm water is a blessing and a curse, but I still prefer it.
We are currently underway to Bahia Tenacatita just north of Manzanillo. Our plans are pretty vague from here except that we will start working our way back north to Puerto Vallarta around the 18th of Feb to meet up with Rob and Nancy on the 24th.

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La Cruz to Chamela

I feel like a train conductor, La Cruz to Chamela with stops at Punta de Mita, Isla Marietas (sometimes), Ipala and finally Chamela.
We left La Cruz Saturday afternoon after Cathy, Linda and I went ashore and walked around the town of La Cruz. We tried to check in with the Port Captain but they're closed on the weekends. We went to Philo's and had a drink (local cruisers hangout, you can get a shower there for a buck and they have live music most nights). We stocked up on fresh tortillas and after stowing the dinghy etc we set sail for Punta de Mita, about 10 miles WNW. The wind picked up and we were close hauled all the way. We managed to get Tarun up to over 6 knots to weather which was pretty impressive considering the load we are carrying. Toketie (full keel Robert Perry designed steel cutter), although they don't point quite as high almost caught us when the wind piped up to 20 knots. They can carry a lot more sail area but when we tacked they had to fall away. The plan was to spend the evening at Punta de Mita and leave around 08:00 for Ipala with a stop at Isla Tres Marietas for a bit of exploring. Well we got away on time and we made our way to the "day" anchorage (BIG QUOTES THERE, on Isla Marieta. The rollers were crashing up on shore and the wind was directly into the anchorage and neither Toketie nor us wanted to stop so we continued on around Cabo Corientes. We were expecting 10-15 knots which did not materialize until about 14:00 so we had a few hours under motor. When the sea breeze did come in it was 10-15 form the NW and we had a great wing-on-wing run down to Ipala. The big challenge to this part of the coast is the lack of accurate charts. We are relying on cruising guides, radar and dead reckoning to get anywhere. It makes us glad we learned and remember all the basic arts of navigation. We got to Ipala around 17:30 and anchored in swell and gusty winds. The anchorage is only ¼ mile wide and is dotted with rock outcroppings that make anchoring a challenge. There ended up being 6 cruising boats at anchor plus may 10-20 pangas close in to shore. The best thing we can say about the anchorage is that we didn't drag. It was really rolly and windy and sleep was a bit challenging. We got underway again this morning by 07:30 and set sail as soon as we cleared the anchorage. OK we set sail for about 20 minutes before the motors came back on. The wind died and stayed light to non-existent until around 14:00. We flew the drifter with main and mizzen and surfed for about an hour and half at 5-6 knots until the wind started getting up again. Drifter down, main down and headsail up and we are making a comfortable 5-5.5 knots. At this point we are probably 7 miles from Bahia Chamela where will spend a couple of days until we move a bit more south to Tenecatitas.
Back again. We anchored by 18:30 in calm (ish) seas and 5-8 knots of wind. We are going to stay at least 2 days and maybe more depending on how we feel. No rush anymore. One bit of repair I'll try and make is to the windex. We seem to have had a demented bird working on it and one arm is bent in a complete "U". We'll what happens when I go up the mast

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La Cruz

We anchored outside the breakwater at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (ok normally called just La Cruz) at around 13:30 yesterday.  We visited the office at the marina in the morning and tried to pay for power and water but they said, no, it was OK so that was that.  We left the marina around 11:30 just after Toketie left and we motored out to Banderas Bay.  We managed to set sail pretty quickly and had a nice close reach sail straight to La Cruz.  The anchorage is a bit rolly at night and during the day the sea breezes do kick up a bit but it is great to back on the hook.  Andre, one of the people David introduced us to, came out with a group of people from Puerto Vallarta on his Beneteau 39 “Symbiosis” to say goodbye which was pretty cool.  A very interesting man with a fascinating history, some of which we have managed to piece together.  With luck we will run into him again when we go back to PV to meet up with Rob and Nancy at the end of the month.  Today was spent sorting out the wiring for the tiller pilot to connect to the wind steering when we are motoring.  Our wheel pilot, George, is getting a bit noisy and we need to save him for when he is really needed.  Besides, the power draw off the tiller pilot should be a lot less.  I copied the design for the connection to the Monitor of David from Toketie and it only took a few hours to knock together while at the dock this week.  We’ll see how it all works in the next few weeks.  Tomorrow we will likely head up to Punta de Mita for the night then on to Tres Marietas for some snorkelling on Sunday.