La Cruz to Bahia Chamela

We left La Cruz around 7:15 am heading 96 nm south to Bahia Chamela.  We had pretty lite winds heading out in the am, but around noon or so we were able to put up the mizzen sail and jib which helped add a little speed.  Unfortunately the bottom of the boat has not been cleaned since up in Escondito, so it was starting to build up with growth and slowed us down a knot or so, we ended up averaging only 4.2 knots which made fro a much longer trip that if we did your normal average of 5knots.  Other than our speed going a little slow we had a great overnight, we arrived in Chamela around 12:30 pm on Thursday.  The anchorage was a little rolly and we were not able to find a place that was going to have the Super Bowl game on, so we decided to leave on Saturday and head south to the next anchorage Bahia Tenacatita. 

A whale, I know I can not get any good pictures, but I will keep trying

We hooked all three lines with Jack Crevalle's, one released itself, another took out the whole spool of line along with lure, and one we were able to get onto the boat, but then we released him, not very good eating

Sunrise, but it was pretty overcast until about noon

Chamela anchorage

Skeeters little buddy in town, we almost took him home with us...yeah like that is what SOMF needs another animal

Perula,the town by the anchorage, is a small with one main street with a couple of restaurant's, and a couple of little shops.  Surprisingly it did have three small hotels and a couple of trail parks where people set up to live in the winter time.  Now being back on the Pacific side of mainland Mexico we are having to surf land our dingy, which is always an adventure.  We did meet SV 4 Our Play who showed us a great and easier way to get our dingy up on the sand since we do not have dingy wheels.  They used a couple of children's balls in a bag or a 2 litre soda bottle filled with water and shoved it under the keel and pulled up on the dingy and it rolled right over.  Have tried a 2 litre soda bottle and a fender and they both work great. 

Skeeter playing in the surf

We sat at a palapa restaurant for a while, another group started a soccer game, I tried to get Jerry to play

Links to El Salvador Rally

For anyone interested in where we will be in El Salvador here are links to the Hotel and Rally website, Any one ready for a vacation we will be there from March 12th through May 1st. Let us know...

http://74.220.219.75/~bahiade1/?q=en

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://elsalvadorrally.blogspot.com/

About to leave La Cruz

Well Jerry and I have been busy getting ready to pull up anchor and head on south again, next stop Chamela about 98 miles.  We went to the El Salvador Cruisers Rally Seminar a couple of days ago and and are more excited than ever about going south.  We are going to pull up anchor tomorrow (Wednesday) around 12pm weather permitting.  There is a large storm up in the northern sea right now, but the worst of it should be Thursday down here, so as long as we get out of here tomorrow we should be in front of the possible large swells coming down here.  It will take about 20 + hours so we should be arriving around 10am on Thursday into the anchorage and as long as there are not a lot of boats there we should be able to tuck up behind the land.  We will be staying there through Monday so we can watch the Superbowl...Go Packers!!!

"La Ya Ya" one of our favorite little breakfast place which has great internet

We through Kate from SV Akupara a bridal party.  from left around the table..Isabel SV Ideal 1, Meri SV Hotspur , me, Dan who snuck in, Marie SV Day Ja Vu, Kate, Karen SV Gigi

Claudia's Best tacos and tortas

Yummy, Yummy

We had cocktails and pizza with Hugh and Victoria on Kaisen...awesome boat

Well it is one month into the 2011, we have been sailing 15 months and have gone over 2000 miles ( have not calculated it out exactly).  We are loving our lifestyle, meeting people, eating yummy foods, and learning about the culture of Mexico.  To Jerry and my family and friends, we miss you all tremendously and our thoughts and prayers are with you everyday until we see you again. 

A day in Puerto Vallarta

Jerry and I along with SV Day Ja Vu went into Puerto Vallarta to go down to the Centro area and South Vallarta.  We took the bus, having to change buses once, but we finally got there.  We had breakfast at El Pancho, having really good chiliquilies, which Jerry and I love.  After we took a free tour of the Navel Museum, which was all in Spanish, but they had great books that was translated into English.

The building was built in 1974 to be the Puerto de Capetian's office, then it became the Navel Hospital, then in 2001 it became the museum.

Walking along the fabulous Malecon, with tons of restaurants and stores overlooking Banderas Bay

The Municipal Mercado, which had shops and artist's work throughout.

After a long day of sight seeing we stopped at "The Hangout" had a couple of Indio beers which are one of our favorites.

La Inglesia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (Church of our Lady of Guadalupe), the patron saint of Mexico and of Puerto Vallarta

The Main Plaza on the Malecon

"The Cheeky Monkey" a really fun place with $1 beers and $1 margaritas

Stone art

Looking at sand sculpture from the balcony of Cheeky Monkey



Still in La Cruz!

Jerry and I have been having a great time here in La Cruz, taking the bus into Puerto Vallarta to do some boat projects.  The biggest project has been the bilge pump.  We needed to get a new bilge pump, the old one still works but since the switch to automatically turn off the switch needs to be replace we decided to replace a new bilge pump.  The old switch would not turn off so it would be on all day running down the batteries and the pump would stay on running.  The project was a little bigger than what we expected.  But after two days of hard work from Jerry, and I helped a little, and a couple of trips to the very expensive Zaragoza marine store we have finish and have two working bilge pumps.   

Jerry and Shiraz working on the bilge

 I took a bus with Marie from SV Day Ja Vu to Bucerias which is 3.5 miles east of La Cruz.

Church in Bucerias

Tons of tourist shops  "the best junk" as they all say!!

Colorful bridges

Pictures in La Cruz!

Claudias tacos, great tacos, tortas, and burritos

Box turtles at Huichol gallery

Beautiful artwork

SV Day Ja Vu, SV Gigi, and SV Cuervo at Philo's great dinner and music

The band at Philo's

Small little open air market with gifts

The enterance to the plaza

La Cruz de Huanacaxtle!

Well I know it has been a couple of days since I have last posted about SOMF's sailing adventure, but we are in La Cruz which is located in the northern part of Banderas Bay.  We left San Blas on Tuesday the 18th, we ended up staying a couple of more days than expected because I came down with a little cold and hurt my toe really back on the dingy floor, when Jerry had it out working on the dingy.  It ended up being a good thing, not the cold and toe, but saying longer because we took a bus into Tepic with Meri, Tim and Carolyn from SV Hotspur.  Tepic is the capital of Nayarit, unfortunately we did not get to do much touring, but we did get to do some last minute provisioning at walmart.  Tuesday morning we motored over to the gas dock and fueled up, after about 2 hours and 1300 liters of fuel we left San Blas.

fuel, fuel, fuel

Shiraz on watch

Our first stop was Chacala which was 24 miles south, it was a great motor down with no winds.  Chacala was a little village with an awesome beach.  The only down side was it was quite rolly in the anchorage so everyone puts out their stern an chore, which I have to say is a hassle.  We only stayed 2 nights and one day there, but it was great to run and play on the beach with Skeeter and get ready for our 43 mile trip south to La Cruz. 

Chacala beach

clean, cobblestone streets in Chacala

Carolyn and Jim on SV Hotspur right before they take a dive from the wave on their paddle board

Banderas Bay which means "Bay of Flags" was said to originate when Francisco Cortez arrived here in 1524 and was greeted by natives carrying banners.  This large bay is nearly 20 miles across and 60 miles or coastline.  The bays starts with Punta Mita in the north and ending with Cabo corrientes in the southern most tip, with many towns in between including, but not limited to La Cruz, Bucerias, Nuevo Vallarta, and Puerto Vallarta be among the largest. 

La Cruz is among a smaller town which used to be a small little fishing village, but with increase of tourism has even grown.  But out of the other marinas the town of La Cruz is still the place to stay for a more authentic piece of Mexico.  The anchorage of La Cruz is very large, holding more than 50 plus boats which are in the anchorage now.  Again the only down side is it is a little rolly at times, but that is going to be suspect down the pacific coast. 

La Cruz anchorage with about 50 boats

Philo's a major cruising hangout