Paradise found

Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico

Barra is truly a special place.

We have used the dinghy to go into town a couple of times and are now using the water-taxi service instead.  They have a 24-hour service, for 25 pesos round-trip from the lagoon anchorage to town. You don't have to worry about where you tied up the dinghy and they seem to be able to navigate at great speed in the pitch dark of these moonless nights.  We went in to have supper last night and were able to stay late, not having to worry about getting back to the boat after dark.  The sunset from the restaurant was spectacular.

 

We visited our friends, and former owners of Sine Timore, Iwo and Joanna, at their beautiful home on one of the canals.  This was a glimpse of what life could be like if we ever decide to give up this boating nonsense - pretty tempting.  Iwo took us for a walking tour around town, including our required stop at the Port Captain's office, and we could could certainly see why they chose this particular town to settle in.

The weather here is nothing short of perfect.  Beautiful warm sunny days with light ocean breezes.  Lots of lush foliage as we are now in a much more tropical climate than just a hundred miles north.  The town is very charming, with lots of authentic Mexican shops and restaurants as well as an assortment of tourist traps as well.  We have deployed all of our solar panels and are able to keep up with our current demand, so we have not had to resort to using the new generator yet.

 

 

 

 

 

On the ocean side of the town, the evidence of the hurricane two years ago is very evident.  There was a lot of damage along the sea-front and the beach is reportedly a lot narrower than it used to be.  Otherwise, the town seems untouched - Iwo says that they suffered no damage at all where their home is, just a few blocks inland.

Across the channel lies the Grand Bay resort and the Marina Puerto de la Navidad.  It is a first class facililty but with first class prices to go along with it - too much for our limited budget.  Nice to look at though.  The price for anchoring in the lagoon (free) is hard to beat.

The autopilot pump in its proper home.

I counted 19 boats in the anchorage yesterday - a few have left since we got here.  Cruisers who have been coming here for years tell us that they have seen over 70 boats in the anchorage only a few years ago.  We are not sure why the change, but it has been the same story at all of the anchorages and marinas we have visited since leaving La Paz.  It is good for us, but the locals are hurting.  Maybe all of the boats are just waiting for us further south.  Speaking  of which, our current plan is to stay here for a couple more days, then head for Manzanillo, about 25 miles further down the coast.  This will be another test for the repaired autopilot - maybe with some actual sailing this time.

 

The verdict is still out

Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico

We are carefully making our way south...

We spent 3 nights at anchor in Bahia Tenacatita, probably one of the most picture perfect anchorages in all of Mexico, with palm-fringed white sand beaches, clear turquoise waters and just perfect light swell and sea breezes.  During the day it was warm, cooling off nicely at night to make sleeping comfortable.  Unfortunately, we did not really give it much of a chance - I spent most of my time fighting with the autopilot and was not in a real good mood.

The autopilot is hydraulic and as far as I can tell, the motor and pump assembly just fell apart.  The two pieces are held together with two allen screws and have a rubber O-ring seal between them.  When I investigated the unit, the screws were both backed out a good 1/4", causing the loss of all of the hydraulic fluid and filling the hoses with air.  Putting the two pieces back together again was not that hard (just have to be careful not to squish the O-ring) but getting the air out of the system proved to be very problematic.  No matter how much I played with the bleed screws and manipulated the wheel back and forth, I know I still don't have it all out.  Because of the manner in which the hydraulic ram is mounted, one end is always pointed down and air always likes to go up.  My hope is that if everything else is OK, the rest of the air will just magically work its way out over time.



Fixing things in exotic locations does require some down time.

As a test, we made the short trip (about 15 miles) to the lagoon anchorage at Barra de Navidad.  The autopilot steered the entire way and seemed to behave itself although it is making much too little noise now.  This is not a real good test as the conditions were very light and we motored the entire distance.  The actual distance would have been even less except that you have to go around some rather intimidating looking rocks just south of Tenacatita.

Barra de Navidad is a unique location , with a breakwater entrance leading to a narrow, mostly unmarked, channel to a very shallow anchorage.  We have very good waypoints for this channel in our cruising guide and were able to negotiate it without mishap.  A bit spooky to see birds standing in the water only a few feet from the boat as we passed them by.  We found a spot in the very tight anchorage in about 7 or 8 feet of water - only took us 2 tries until we were happy with our position.

The weather during this travel day was very overcast and we got a tiny splattering of rain.  All in all, a good day to be on the move.

{GMST}19|11.452|N|104|40.355|W|Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico|Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico{GEND}

Cabo Corrientes 1, Sine Timore 0

Bahia Tenacatita, Jalisco, Mexico

The weatherman was calling for light winds around Cabo Corrientes on Firday, with a cold front moving in late on Saturday, giving some 20 knot breezes.  Our plan was to head out early on Friday and be well south of the cape before the higher winds arrived, possibly giving us some good sailing on Saturday morning.  I expected we would be motoring around the cape itself.

After the slow process of checking out with the Port Captain, paying for our moorage at the marina and stopping at the fuel dock to top up our diesel and gas supplies, we got out of the marina around 10:30AM.

We motored for the first two hours, across Bandaras Bay, in very light winds.  As we got closer to the cape, the winds came up and we were able to sail on a beam reach, changing to a broad reach as we got to the mouth of the bay.  We were given a send-off by several whales and a small pod of dolphins.  Everything was just perfect, although the motion of the boat in the small swells had worked their magic on Susanne and she was sick after about the first 5 hours of the journey.


Approaching Cabo Corrientes

As we started rounding the cape, never closer than 5 miles, we hit a counter current, slowing us down to not much more than 3 knots for much of the time.  It took many hours to crawl our way past the cape and into deeper water.  When we were about 10 miles west of the cape, the breeze picked up and we found ourselves on a broad reach in 17 to 18 knots of wind and some larger swell coming in from the NW.  We sailed along with our double-reefed mainsail and about 1/2 of the genoa, maintaining a very comfortable 6.5 to 7.3 knot speed (basically hull speed for this boat).  As the day progressed into night, the winds increased to between 21 to 25 knots and the seas became very confused, with enough motion to make the Captain sick.  Yes, I was sick, for the first time since we started sailing - I have no idea why as we have seen much worse conditions elsewhere and I never had any problem before.

Susanne was down for the count, so I spent the entire night at the helm, not that I would have been able to sleep anyway.  I reduced sail to keep our speed around 5 to 6 knots and hung on for the ride.  The only real problem with this sail setup for downwind sailing is that I could not get the boat balanced.  This means that the rudder was almost hard over all of the time, just to keep us going in a straight line - the autopilot could handle it, but it was working very hard.  I think in the future we will take the mainsail down completely when sailing down wind in any winds more than 15 knots - I am sure we would be better off with the genoa alone.

We sailed for a total of about 80 miles in 15 hours, gybing back and forth only 4 times, to keep close to our chosen course.  Gybing the boat by myself was not as much fun as you might think - I am sure this contributed to the fact that I was not feeling my best.  Had to dodge a couple of large freighters and a field of what was probably long-line fishing pangas (hard to tell in the dark), but otherwise saw no traffic to speak of.

We would have kept on sailing except that about 60 miles from our destination the autopilot made a few rude noises, then stopped moving the wheel.  Panic, panic!  I attempted to steer the boat manually, but with the extremely unbalanced rig and my half-asleep state, I was forever at risk of an accidental gybe.  I got Sue up from her death-bed to steer the boat while I struggled to get the mainsail down.  Once we had the sails down and the engine on, it was a lot easier to steer and there was no danger if I lost my concentration and went off course for a while.  Some clouds had come in and blocked out the moon and stars, so the night was pretty much pitch black, with only the compass for a steering reference.  Fortunately we do have all the modern electronics so we were no jeopardy of losing our way.  The winds continued to blow at between 23 and 25 knots for the rest of the night, and the seas continued to be quite rough.

Come morning, as the sun rose, the winds died and we would have been motoring anyway.  With the lighter winds and smoother seas, Sue and I were both feeling a bit better and we managed to keep ourselves awake and hand-steer our way to Bahia Tenacatita, arriving around 4PM, where we now find ourselves in a picture-perfect anchorage.  I think I slept for 15 hours straight as soon as we were settled.  I am afraid to look to see what has happened to the autopilot, but I guess I can't put it off forever.  Without a good working autopilot, I cannot see us going very far.  All in all, this is just a typical passage for any sailor - just ask any one of them.

{GMST}19|17.94|N|104|50.11|W|Bahia Tenacatita,Jalisca, Mexico|Bahia Tenacatita, Jalisco, Mexico{GEND}
{GMST}20|44.88|N|105|22.82|W|La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico|La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico{GEND}

Ready, set, wait...

La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico

On New Years Eve we had a great dinner at the Black Forest restaurant, returned to the boat to watch a DVD double feature, then just before midnight we walked to the east end of the marina breakwater, where we had a view of all the lights of the city and resorts on the other side of the bay.  The fireworks started more or less around midnight and we could see displays from as close as a 1/2 km to over 15 kms along the beach - a very unique perspective.  Of course, some of the locals were setting off flares right beside us and we had to dodge some sparks and cinders, but we managed to escape un-singed.  Overall it was a great end to the year.

On New Years day it started to rain, and rain quite a lot.  We are told this is very unusual for this time of year.  It continued to rain off and on yesterday as well, for a total of almost 2 inches.  We were in a bit of panic, running around closing hatches and such - we discovered we are completely unprepared for rain now, having seen so little of it in the last two years.  The good news is that the boat seemed to handle it well - no new leaks that we could see.

We did manage to get our laundry done, and we had an opportunity to meet the crews of a couple of other boats that are making the trek to El Salvador.

Today, the clouds cleared off and we have returned to the usual sunny blue skies.  We made two trips on the buses today, one to visit the chandler in PV (picked up a few must-have items) and then a 2nd trip to the Mega store about 10km down the road (last-minute provisioning).  While at the chandler, we consulted Neptune (right across the street), who advised us that tomorrow would be a good time to round Cabo Corrientes.


Riding the collectivo to Mega

Yes, there is yet another of those pesky capes baring our way south.  Cabo Corrientes, or Cape Currents, is the southern most point of Bandaras Bay.  As with most prominent points of land, winds tend to accelerate the closer you get to the point, and because Cabo Corrientes is a very prominent point sticking out into the Pacific Ocean, winds tend to be much stronger here.  Because we are heading south, the typical prevailing winds here (from the NW) should make for a fast and exciting ride.  I'll believe it when I see it.
Since we wanted to get away early tomorrow, I attempted to check out with the port captain around 2:45PM this afternoon, only to discover that their hours are from 9AM to 2:30PM - figures!  I guess we won't be making that early a start after all - not really a big deal.  It is just a good thing tomorrow is only Friday since they are not open at all on the weekend.

A few last looks at the town of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle...

 

New Years Eve

La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Nayarit, Mexico

Just playing tourists...

We have taken the bus into Puerto Vallarta a couple of times, to see life in the big city.  The buses and collectivo taxis run up and down the road from Punta de Mita to Puerto Vallarta, passing through La Cruz and Bucerias along the way, almost continuously - the most we have had to wait has been about 2 minutes.  For 16 pesos (about $1.25 CDN) you can catch a ride to or from La Cruz to PV, a trip of about an hour (it would be quicker but the buses do tend to stop a lot.)

Puerto Vallarta, unlike Mazatlan, seems very busy - tourism is still thriving here.  We are not really used to crowds any more and could only stand it for a few hours before retreating to the much quieter streets of La Cruz.

As usual, we walked a lot of the town, from Marina Puerto Vallarta all the way through El Centro to the South Side - a total of over 15 kms on the one day.  Along the way, we found the local Honda dealer, who handles mostly motorcycles but also deals in Honda generators.  They had one of the small EU10i generators in stock and I was tempted, but I really wanted the larger EU20i version.  As luck would have it, there was a Honda EU20i generator at their store in Tepic, about 170 kms away, and they were more than happy to transfer it to the PV store for us.  Thus we ended up buying ourselves a Christmas present.

Note: A lot of the boats around here have these generators but we have resisted the temptation up till now, preferring to rely on our main engine and our solar panels for our power requirements.  However, with our current plans to head south, we may be facing more extended periods at anchor with potentially overcast skies and less ready access to diesel to refill our tanks, so we thought it was prudent to have a backup power source for charging our batteries.  Time will tell if we actually use it or not.


View of the whale statue at the entrance to Marina Puerto
Vallarta, as seen from the Starbucks on the corner.
Does it get any more touristy than this?

While we were in the area of Marina Puerto Vallarta, we stopped by the only significant marine chandlery in the area.  They have a pretty good selection of items and I am happy to say that we found very little that we needed.  Is it possible that we have finally got everything we could possibly want?  No, not really - it is just that we cannot figure out where to cram any more stuff on this little tiny boat.  Of course, as I am typing this, Susanne is making up a list of items that we may go back to the chandler for next week.  Sigh!

Other than our exciting trips into PV, our time here in La Cruz has been pretty laid back.  We quite often go out for breakfast at YaYa's or Ana Banana's, sometimes getting into discussions with other cruisers, which has a tendency to extend breakfast to about noon.  Then maybe a walk down the beach, or a short trip into the nearby town of Bucerias (they have banks and a Mega grocery store there), dinner at any of the variety of small restaurants, then maybe watch a movie or read a book, then go to bed and repeat it all the next day.


View from the marina restaurant, La Cruz

Entrance to the marina at La Cruz

The weather here has been just about perfect.  The daytime temperatures are about the same as Mazatlan but the nights are a little warmer, thus it is shorts, T-shirts and sandals all the time.  Today we woke up to a bit of drizzle and it has been overcast all day.  It is still warm, so really all it means is you don't need to wear your sunglasses outside for a change.


Panga dock, in front of the fish market, Marina Riviera Nayarit, La Cruz
 

Our current plan is to be out of here around the 3rd of January.  Really, the only thing holding us here is that we want to get some laundry done before we leave, and a lot of stuff is closed today and tomorrow for New Years.  As for New Years for us, we will probably just go out for supper at a little fancier place and be home long before midnight.  If we are really ambitious I guess we could go up to the Sky Bar at the marina office, where they get a view of the entire Banderas Bay and will be able to see all the fireworks from Nuevo Vallarta and Puerto Vallarta across the water.

Anyway, we hope everyone had a great Christmas and we wish you all the best in the coming year.

Marina Puerto Vallarta