Thursday, December 30, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Puerto Vallarta to Barra de Navidad
We left the anchorage at LaCruz at approximately 8:00 pm on December 15th heading for Barra de Navidad (Christmas Bar) which is approx. 131 miles south of LaCruz. It was another all night passage but with Amanda aboard it seemed to fly by. The trip down was uneventful other than running into a pod of about 5 humpback whales approximately 50 yards off our port side. We have never been so close to these amazing animals and I have to say we were all a little awestruck. We also saw numerous sea turtles and that was a treat as well.
I am writing this update from the lagoon at Barra de Navidad. This is our first time here in Barra and I have to say we are all in love with it already. The lagoon is flat and there seems to be everything one can want or need readily available. The whole lagoon is lush and green so the scenery is amazing and the town is adorable...it should be a great place to spend Christmas! We even have a turkey that we bought in Mazatlan for Thanksgiving but never got to cook in the freezer so we plan to have some friends over on Christmas eve for a turkey dinner and then join the rest of the cruisers for the potluck on Christmas day.
I am writing this update from the lagoon at Barra de Navidad. This is our first time here in Barra and I have to say we are all in love with it already. The lagoon is flat and there seems to be everything one can want or need readily available. The whole lagoon is lush and green so the scenery is amazing and the town is adorable...it should be a great place to spend Christmas! We even have a turkey that we bought in Mazatlan for Thanksgiving but never got to cook in the freezer so we plan to have some friends over on Christmas eve for a turkey dinner and then join the rest of the cruisers for the potluck on Christmas day.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Mazatlan to Puerto Vallarta
It took a bit longer than we had expected to pull off the dock at Marina Mazatlan but boy it sure feels good to be moving once again. We installed our new strong track sail system (what a wonderful product) and left our cozy little slip on Dock 5 at approx. 7:00 am on December 3rd. Since we were leaving so late and Amanda is due to fly into Puerto Vallarta on the December 12th we decided not to stop at any of the anchorages along the way but instead sail directly from Mazatlan to Banderas Bay. Last year we had stopped at Mantanchen Bay on the way to PV and got held up for almost 5 days waiting for some bad weather to pass through and we did not want to risk the same thing happening this year.
It is approximately 180 miles south from the marina in Mazatlan to the anchorage at LaCruz (near PV) which is a long passage especially considering we were short one crew member (Amanda). We were both exhausted by the time we dropped the anchor the following day and the dogs were really anxious to get to shore but in the end it is nice to be here and have that long passage out of the way.
All of our new systems worked flawlessly except we did have a small problem in that it seems our depth finder is not working correctly (probably due to the lightning hit we had back in July) so that will need to be dealt with in the near future.
It was nice having our new and improved radar especially since there was no moon at all the night of our passage and the radar was our eyes in the dark. Our new W-H autopilot works as good if not better than the ones we lost this past summer and we both really love the new VHF with integrated AIS (Automatic Identification System) that lets us know via our VHF when there are big ships out there. We only picked up one ship on the AIS leaving Mazatlan (the Ferry) and two cruise ships once we got into Banderas Bay but unfortunately the thousands of fishing pangas and hundreds of shrimping boats do not show up on AIS so the radar was the star of the evening for us.
I almost forgot to mention that on the day we left we were followed, hailed and questioned by the Mexican Navy. They had been circling off in the distance in a ship of approximately 120' for a hour or more before they decided to come along side of us and hail us. Since there English was very poor and our Spanish not so hot it was a bit frustrating but in the end we communicated the best we could and they left with the simple statement to let them know if they could be any help. I think the Mexican Navy is trying to show a presence out in there waters and that is what prompted there interest in us. It is nice to see them taking a bit of control in there waters and they were very polite so as the saying goes.....no problemo.
It is approximately 180 miles south from the marina in Mazatlan to the anchorage at LaCruz (near PV) which is a long passage especially considering we were short one crew member (Amanda). We were both exhausted by the time we dropped the anchor the following day and the dogs were really anxious to get to shore but in the end it is nice to be here and have that long passage out of the way.
All of our new systems worked flawlessly except we did have a small problem in that it seems our depth finder is not working correctly (probably due to the lightning hit we had back in July) so that will need to be dealt with in the near future.
It was nice having our new and improved radar especially since there was no moon at all the night of our passage and the radar was our eyes in the dark. Our new W-H autopilot works as good if not better than the ones we lost this past summer and we both really love the new VHF with integrated AIS (Automatic Identification System) that lets us know via our VHF when there are big ships out there. We only picked up one ship on the AIS leaving Mazatlan (the Ferry) and two cruise ships once we got into Banderas Bay but unfortunately the thousands of fishing pangas and hundreds of shrimping boats do not show up on AIS so the radar was the star of the evening for us.
I almost forgot to mention that on the day we left we were followed, hailed and questioned by the Mexican Navy. They had been circling off in the distance in a ship of approximately 120' for a hour or more before they decided to come along side of us and hail us. Since there English was very poor and our Spanish not so hot it was a bit frustrating but in the end we communicated the best we could and they left with the simple statement to let them know if they could be any help. I think the Mexican Navy is trying to show a presence out in there waters and that is what prompted there interest in us. It is nice to see them taking a bit of control in there waters and they were very polite so as the saying goes.....no problemo.
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