Exploring Banderas Bay

We arrived in Banderas Bay on Nov. 3 and after the long passage from Cabo San Lucas we went straight to Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta. This is a beautiful place, luxury hotels, beach, cable tv, and WiFi. We rested, washed the boat and had breakfast at the Paradise Yacht Club.

The next day we moved to the municipal marina near the airport as Tom had a friend from New York (Brian) flying in on the 5th. This made it a lot closer to pick him up and gave us another chance to do some marina shopping. We found Marina Vallarta to be a bit run down and alive with locals trying to sell us anything one can imagine. This was definately not the place for serenity. The docks were also a bit run-down. While we were there my inverter/charger kept blowing their breakers. I got out my volt meter to investigate and found 137 volts. YIKES!!

Next morning I woke to find a multi-colored diesel sheen on the water. That was enough for me. As soon as the crew roused themselves from a night of shore-leave, we departed for Marina La Cruz. Even though it's only a few miles north, it was a totally different world. This is where a lot of cruisers hang out while in Banderas Bay. Very quiet. This was more of what I was looking for. While there I found my friends from Channel Islands Harbor, Rick and Karen aboard Eyes of the World and fellow powerboat cruisers Larry and Lena aboard Hobo.

Behind the Marina is a little town called La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (try pronouncing THAT one!) It's a really quaint little town where many X-pats reside along with the locals. What a great place! We had dinner at Filo's , which is the local hot spot with a gringo band.

Next moring we left Marina La Cruz to explore more. Banderas Bay is appx 20 mies wide by 15 miles deep. There are a lot of places to see. Near the north end are a small group of islands called the Las Tres Marietas. Care must be taken when approaching as all the isands are surrounded by rocks and reefs. What a beautiful spot. Tour boats from the mainland where there with boatloads of eco-tourists, but we found a good place to anchor for the day. Tom and Tucker went snorkling while Brian and I swam of the stern of the boat.

After a day of sun and fishing we cruised north to the far end of Banderas Bay and anchored up at Punta de Mita. We dingy'd ashore to the small town and resort there. There are a zillion waterfront palapa restaurants there. A bit pricey but the food was great and the views priceless.

As the time for my crew to be in PV was winding down, I gave them the option of where to spend their final days aboard. It was unanimous, Paradise Village was the favorite, although mine was La Cruz.
The last three days were spent at the beach, volleyball court and getting to know new friends from the U.S. Friday morning things were a bit quiet abord as everyone packed for their re-entry back to reality.

Everyone, that is, except ME!!!

Delayed departure and the trip south

We had origionally planned to leave Oct. 25th, but the weather gods had other plans in the form of a small craft warning. We waited till the 26th, but the flaggs we're still flying. Carefully studying the forcast we could see that there would be a weather window opening all the way south for us if we left on the 26th. So we did.

The crew at the start was myself, of course, Tom Morton, Bob Taylor and Tucker ( a friend of Tom's from Oregon) Everybody seemed to get along really well and we soon fell into a rythum with watches being 3 hours on, and 9 hours off. This is a great luxury enableing one to sleep, shower, watch TV etc.

It was a bit rough out at 6 am on the 26th when we left, but it was pretty much on the stern. We yawed around for the first 20 miles, then settled into a large following sea with almost no wind. We were FINALLY going south!!! 24 hours later we arrived in Ensenada. AS it turned out it was the perfect time to leave.

We spent the day in Ensenada clearing into Mexico doing paper work, cleaning the boat a bit and getting some last minute provisioning. We left ensenada at 9 PM that night to an absolutely flat sea. We could the the reflection of the stars in the water. We had this condition all the way to Turtle Bay which we arrived at on the 29th after a 36 hour run. The Baja HaHa sailboat race was in Turtle Bay when we got there , so it was packed with sailboats. We refueled, got more beer for the crew and were back underway in 90 minutes flat.

The weather south of Turtle Bay was a bit more windy with a large following sea once again. Not a bad ride, but we were glad we to not be going north. We had started fishing at dawn the first day out but didn't get a bite till we were south of Turtle Bay....Then WHAM!, two Wahoo in a short time. Fresh sashimi!!! Then a Yellowtail to round out the menu.

Along the way we stopped in Bahia Santa Maria, about 180 miles north of Cabo San Lucas for some rest and relaxation. Tom and Tucker went ashore to explore, and we spent the night there. The next day the wind was blowing in Bahia Santa Maria and we we're conntemplating staying another nite there. Weather reports said conditions would only get worse so we left at 10 am. Once outside we found the wind mostly died and away we went again to medium choppy seas on the stern. Not a bad ride at all.

23 hours later we rounded Cabo Falso and viola!!!, Lands End.

Cabo San Lucas is expensive. I paid $164.00 US for a slip for one night!. Bob left us there to visit his Mom who has a homoe there and it was nice to meet her and her sister.
We changed oil in the main engines, installed new fuel filters and departed Cabo on November 2 at 3:30 am for the 300 mile run to Puerto Vallarta. We had origionally thought of crossing to Mazataln (180 Miles), and then heading further south to PV, but this would have made the trip a hundred miles further overall, and added another day to our trip. As it turned out, going directly to Puerto Vallarta was the right choice. It was smooth seas all the way accross.......The weather gods had smiled upon us the entire trip down.

We arrived Nov. 3rd at 4 PM in Puerto Vallarta for a total of 1150 nautical miles.....