More of Banderas Bay

We stayed for over a week at the anchorage off the village and beach at Punta de Mita. The anchorage provides a relatively good protection from the northwest winds and the swells. Only when the wind completely died down did the boat turn itself sideways to the light swell and started rolling from side to side. To land the dinghy there is a spot behind a stone jetty that cuts the swell and surf, so landing the dinghy and getting in and out is fairly easy. Not having any dinghy wheels mounted on the stern of the dinghy was a bother. The wheels sure would be a big help to bring the dinghy far enough up on shore to make it safe for the tide changes. During our stay there we also made the decision not to sail further up north but instead store the boat for the summer here in Puerto Vallarta, starting June 1st until mid October.

March 28th we sailed back to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle’s anchorage seeing familiar and new boats. Meeting up familiar friends, and meeting new ones. Of course we went to Philo’s hang out place again to listen to the band, swing the dance leg a few times, and just enjoy the rhythm and music. Leon the washboard player is so amazing, and fun to watch.

We also made a trip to the dental office to have our teeth cleaned. The ultra modern place got recommended to us by other cruisers. The service was super, and very reasonable.

After a week in the La Cruz anchorage which at some times due to the strong (15 – 30kn) wind can be rather unpleasant and we were ready to sail back to Punta de Mita. Of course we had to order another delicious pizza from Mizza-Pizza, Rafael’s and Nicole’s place. Rafael is a native speaking fluently English since he has lived many years in the States, in Oregon being a court translator. Nicole is from Schaffhausen/Switzerland and has met Rafael down here while on vacation a few years ago. Their two year old daughter is very cute, and already gets introduced to sailing when they take off on weekends in their sailboat. Since this was Easter week, a lot of people having their vacation. This explained the lively activity on the beaches everywhere. Some families even were camping right at the beach, having brought their tent, shade, and cooking facility.

The weather forecast was for very light winds, and that made the timing perfect to visit the “Islas Marietas”. A string of three small islands and underwater sea mounts that form the getaway to Banderas Bay. They are a federally protected nature reserve, providing a sanctuary for birds, tropical fish, humpback whales, dolphins, turtles, and rays. After we dropped the anchor and relaxed in the cockpit we were amazed at the sight of the flying, diving seabirds in the hundreds. We saw Heermann’s Gulls, frigates, pelicans, blue-footed, yellow-footed, and brown-footed boobies. This being a wonderful snorkeling and diving location it gets visited daily from tourists arriving by small pangas or big catamarans. Later in the afternoon the place gets deserted from the people, and only the flying, chirping birds keep the area lively. In fact the movie “The birds” by Alfred Hitchcock came to our minds. For the first time since we are in Mexico we had an anchorage to ourselves.
From here we sailed to Yelapa the most well known village on the south shore. The village is nestled in the steep tropical forested hills. This place has no cars, and is only accessible by boat. We anchored in about 30 ft, and then placed a stern anchor on the sand shelf near the beach to keep the boat into the swell and the onshore wind during the day, and a security for the nightly wind changes blowing down the canyons and valleys out to sea.
Between our excursions we did a major project on the boat. Never really having been quite satisfied with our cockpit space, Peter came up with the idea to relocate the main sheet traveler further forward. He took all the ceiling panels down in the entire aft cabin since the traveler is thru bolted. Of course we had to drill new wholes, and fill in the old ones. This being accomplished the dodger itself got moved forward as well, giving us more space to move around in the cockpit. Unfortunately the dodger canvas did not fit anymore due to the aft cabin hatch.

While Peter was busy I studied hard for the General Ham license. The Puerto Vallarta Yacht Club offered the last testing for the season, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to get it done. The Yacht Club is located in the Paradise Village Marina and the test was scheduled for 9 AM on Sunday the 19th. We decided to move into the marina, first reason so I can easily get to the test, and second reason we can have Karen from Canvas Connection come to look at our dodger. Thank goodness the test went well, and so did the meeting with Karen. While in this marina we took also advantage of the beautiful pools from the big hotel. It is certainly one of the nicest hotel/marina complexes we have seen or stayed at. We were moored right at the first dock, where the Great and Snowy Egrets elegantly land to catch some small fish. Very large schools are being driven to the surface by larger fish, so that the water boils from the small fish hitting the surface giving a sound like a sudden downpour.

After three days we headed back out into Banderas Bay, cruised along the south shore passing by Los Arcos, a National Marine Park and small bays, enjoying the deep green of the steep rugged, jungle-covered mountains plunging right into the sea. We anchored at Boca de Tomatlan, another picturesque village tucked in at the end of a beautiful bay. Again bow and stern anchoring was called for. Rio Tomatlan empties into the bay, providing a safe harbor for the local fisherman. It is quite amazing how well they maneuver the pangas over the sandbar during high tide. Here every day tourists are being dropped of by inflatable speed boats for the jungle canopy tour organized by the largest tour operator (Vallarta Adventures) in all of the greater area for Puerto Vallarta. It is here where the road ends, and buses turn around. Therefore throughout the day there is heavy traffic from panga water taxi services. It was quite amazing how cool it got during the night with the wind blowing out of the Sierra Madre Mountains and through the river canyon out to sea, so much that we actually had to cover ourselves with the heavier blankets. The climate on the south side of Banderas Bay is totally different from the north side with a less mountainous landscape.

From here we sailed back to La Cruz finding less boats at anchor since more cruisers are heading up into the Sea of Cortez for the summer.
Monday 27th, we left the anchorage very early and saw the beautiful sunrise only to be shadowed over by hundreds of floating dead fish in the bay. We are back in the Paradise Village Marina, same dock for a couple of days for the final fitting of our new dodger. Peter also was able to do the chain locker project here in the calm verses at anchorage while bobbing around. He mounted a wheel of line for a second anchor all the way in the bow before the anchor chain. This was a very tough job, and required another visit to Home Depot for the material.