La Cruise to La Cruz

La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico

Our worst passage in a long time.

 We left Mazatlan at around 10:30AM on Tuesday.

Leaving Mazatlan behind

When we got to the narrow channel through to the breakwater, we found it blocked by the dredge and had to back off and wait a bit.  They were very nice and moved over so we were able to proceed after only about 15 minutes.

As we exited the breakwater, we found some large swells coming in which gave us quite a ride.  The combination of the stress of passing the dredge and the rolly conditions was too much for the crew.  Susanne was quickly very sick and I was not feeling at all well either.  I have a slight cold (caught no doubt on one of the bus rides to or from the Copper Canyon) and this wreaked havoc with my usually iron stomach.  I never got violently ill but I never felt completely OK either, for the entire 2 day trip.

On the first day we were able to sail for only a few hours before the winds died and we motored slowly for all of that afternoon and night.  The sea conditions calmed down a lot but neither of us was feeling great.  I found that I could not seem to sleep either - not sure why as I was plenty tired, especially after the 2nd night.  The only wildlife we saw was one dolphin, one small whale that looked us over before diving under our bow, and the usual collection of sea birds.

Sunrise on approach to Banderas Bay

Around 7:30 on Wednesday morning I shut the engine down and we were able to sail for over 24 hours straight, not always very fast and not exactly in the direction we wanted to go, but that was OK as we had a lot of time in hand if we did not want to arrive during the night.  We ran into a small collection of panga fishing boats, just before dawn, when we were about 25 miles out of Banderas Bay but otherwise saw virtually no traffic on the entire cruise.

As soon as we entered the Banderas Bay, the wind died off and we had to motor for the last 2 hours into the marina here at La Cruz.  It was an easy entrance and the marina seems very nice and modern.  After checking in with the marina office and the Port Captain, we had a very tasty lunch at the Sailor's Bar, and then promptly fell asleep for the rest of the day and right through the morning.  We both feel a lot better now.

The Marina Riviera Nayarit office

It is interesting to note that at least 3 other boats that left Mazatlan the day after us, all arrived here at the same time as us.  They all motored the entire way at around 7 or 8 knots.  I figure we could have just done it, with our maximum motoring speed of around 6-1/2 knots, but we would have burned a lot more diesel, and we feel that if you have a sailboat, you really ought to try and sail when possible.  Considering how we were feeling for most of the way, maybe they had the right idea.

Statistics:

Total distance for plotted route: 172 miles
Total distance travelled: 194 miles
Total time: 48.5 hours
Total time motoring: 20.3 hours    Sailing: 28.2 hours
Total distance motoring: 96.1 miles   Sailing: 97.9 miles

We consider it a successful sail if we actually spend more time sailing than motoring, so this does qualify.

{GMST}20|44.88|N|105|22.82|W|La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico|La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico{GEND}