Month: April 2018

We departed Puerto Vallarta on the Gunboat ’62 “ Chim Chim “ for the delivery to San Diego. Our intention was to do it non-stop, but the Sea of Cortez had something else in mind. While doubled reefed and under storm jib (mainly to keep the speed down), we experienced 4-6’ short period northerly seas, mixed with south and west swell coming from the Pacific. It made for a bumpy ride, and the port side dagger board “bearing “started to work its way loose from the hull. Concerned it would get worse (we still had about 900 miles of uphill sailing to go), we decided to pull into Cabo to affect the repair.  We accomplished that, gave the boat a proper wash, and had a nice dinner. I spoke with Tanja and mentioned we’d time our crossing of the Sea for more pleasant sailing conditions, which we later did!

I joked with Gio that we were tempting Neptune by giving Chim Chim a spit polish only a few hours before departing on the “Bash “ – normally 700 miles of rough, upwind sailing. Fortunately, he must not have been paying us any attention, as other than the usual headwinds for the entire trip and some roughish sailing in the early going, the conditions were relatively benign. Neptune did, however, make sure that we didn’t get a single fish…

Chim Chim did herself proud again, and it was nice to be back onboard her. Beyond the dagger board repair, there were no other issues. We did wrap the port side prop in fishing gear of some kind (typically, it was late at night). The Captain, Owen, aka “Sheriff Longmire “ made a quick job of it with a mask and knife – simply by leaning out of the port side escape hatch he was able to reach it! Perhaps it is hindsight as these things happen (we caught one on Alsager’s rudder in broad daylight), but going forward I’m going to make it a point to avoid passing over sea mounts at night as they are common places to find gear in the water…

Thanks to John and Owen for having me aboard, where once again I ate very well, including on my 45^th Birthday, when Brianna prepared an awesome steak dinner for us all to enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Mats and I took the bus to Sayulita twice, we liked this little town a lot and wanted to go on an adventure. It took 2 buses from La Cruz, but all in all 1 hour top to get there. The busses are running all the time, I have not noticed much waiting time yet.

On the way from the bus stop to the little downtown area, you pass a little Hippie Market. They had some cool stuff, but also lots the same. We ended up finding some bargains, walked down to the beach and saw that they have a little campground right on the beach. Haven’t seen that often. And than Mats wanted to head home already. Walking around in the heat is not easy, but the 2nd time we took his little bike and we were able to cover more ground and visit the downtown area. Boutique like stores, most quite expensive. But nice to walk around there and Mats had a yummy ice cream. 😊🍦

We were planning to visit again ones the Captain returned. But as soon as he was back, he was ready to go sailing again and the weather looked promising for that. We will have a post ready to let you know, how his delivery on Chim Chim went.

As we got closer to La Cruz, it got windier and we even saw a few kites out. Of course I got excited to see some whales again too, still my favorite. 🙂  Getting into the Marina and into our slip we really had to concentrate due to the wind, but all went well, we did a good docking job. A few things still needed to be done before the Captain took off.

He had accepted another boat delivery job, Gunboat Chim Chim from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego. He decided to put Alsager into the friendly Marina in La Cruz which is close to Puerto Vallarta, where we already knew our way around and other cruiser friends were staying as well.

I was looking forward to this time to catch up on all the adventures we had done down south, meet friends and explore the area. We hung out with German friends, who have a sailboat in the anchorage and are preparing for a big trip. There son Linus got along with Mats well. On one of the first days, they stopped by our boat and asked us, if we want to join them for a visit to Bucerias, there was a nice beach restaurant to hang out. We had a relaxing afternoon together.

If you need some physical therapy/personal training, Kerstin is great. You can find her on the sailboat Lanikai in the anchorage in La Cruz.

It was also nice to have our other friends from the Catamaran Nibi around. We met up at the pool in the Marina a lot. Julie and I had some great conversations, while her older daughter Rose and younger Alice played with Mats like crazy. I hope we meet them again in the future.

 

From the Melaque anchorage we headed back up north, first to Tenacatita, where we enjoyed some days and waited for a good weather window. There was a 3 day opening and we planned to sail to Chamela, rest the night,  possibly have a stop in Ipala and finish at Punta Mita. A dinner in Chamela almost knocked us out and erased that plan, but after I threw up, the Captain pulled himself together and sailed us to Ipala, where we were so glad we could chill the night to gain back some strength from that stomach bug.

Here a little clip from our sail up north.

We made it to Punta Mita on the 3rd day and just rested up for a few days, bought Ramen noodle soup and slowly recovered again. For the first time on our trip I did a Yoga and a Pilates lesson and felt great afterwards. Evan also got some surfing in and was happy.

It was than time to sail to the Marina in La Cruz, as the Captain had to take on his boat delivery job, helping to bring Chim Chim from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego, while Mats, Noah and myself meanwhile waited for his return in La Cruz.

Before heading back to Tenacatita, we spend 2 nights in the Melaque anchorage, which is an about 15-20 min dinghy ride back to Barra de Navididad. When we left the Marina in the morning, there was no wind, so we just motored and towed the dinghy.

We checked out the shore, Evan went to try to find some Petroleum for our night lamp, which wasn’t so easy and Mats and myself had an ice cream meanwhile.

We had a better night sleep, as there was a nice breeze going and less Mosquitos. It was also a good place to stock up on provisions and get some more cash.

We decided to keep this beautiful sunset we experienced on a dinghy ride back to the anchorage, to keep in our minds for the furthest we had sailed south. 🙂

 

I know, this is kinda groce. But it did look a bit funny too… 😉

Ending on a good note…

When we left Tenacatita, we were only 12 NM away from Barra. But oh boy, it took us forever to get there, as we hit some fishing long lines. We went a bit off shore to be able to sail, all of a sudden we saw a little coke bottle in the water. We than looked up and down the water and saw more and more bottles apart from each other, but in a line. You don’t want to have that line wrapped around any part of your boat and than have to go diving. Especially not around the prop and therefore not being able to run the motor! We tried to sail away from it, which was in the wrong direction, until we were able to flag down a Panga. They told us, that the end was about a mile away, by that time we already had tried to avoid the line for 45 minutes. When we finally arrived at the flag and end of longline, we were 22 NM away from Barra! That short sail ahead of us ended in another almost all day sailday.

Barra de Navididad was the furthest point south for us. We had to be back in the Puerte Vallarta area 2 weeks later for a boat delivery job for the Captain.

There was an anchorage next to the Marina, which turned out to be very shallow, so we decided to check out the Marina. There was a fantastic pool in the super nice resort, which the Marina guests were allowed to visit. It was super hot in the Marina and lots of Mosquito’s around. The nights were not pleasant and we were looking forward to get some breeze again back in an anchorage. We stayed a few days, cleaned the boat and enjoyed the pool and explored the area. I was still dealing with an upset stomach and sore body from catching a bug in Chamela, that took about a week.

This is the resort from the other side of the bay.

The Marina

Taking the Panga to Barra for 30 pesos, very nice to not have to set up the dinghy and just call them up on the radio.

Barra de Navididad. Some buildings were still in the works or left undone when probably financial means were running out.

Cute little restaurants and shops

A church preparing for a wedding ceremony

This was the festival we were planning to see and why we had not stayed in Chamela or Tenacatita for too long. There were also fun little rides for Mats in the evening.

This restaurant “Nacho” was recommended to us by some locals and the Captain was enjoying it especially.

The shallow anchorage we checked out by dinghy

When we sailed into Barra, we saw some tragedy squeezed into the rock. We decided to check out the container ship wreck later on with our dinghy. The first pics show how we saw it from the sailboat.

Getting closer we were able to get a look at the whole wreck. The swell was pretty big and Mats did not like it very much being so far out with the dinghy. We kept our visit pretty short.

This sacred place is found just to the starboard side of the entry into Barra.

Pool time at the resort

And this was the Resort Blanca. They are super friendly and welcoming to non-guests as well, have a dinghy dock free of use, amazing food, good Wifi and we spend 2 afternoons here.

Barra was nice, we enjoyed our stay.

Getting ready to continue our journey, this happened:

 

A few times we jumped in the dinghy in Tenacatita and drove over to La Manzanilla. It took about 15-20min and it was important to go in the morning, as the wind usually picked up in the afternoon. We also watched, that the shore break wasn’t too big, so the landing with our dinghy wasn’t a problem and we got lucky every time. I have very fond memories of La Manzanilla, especially from this experience, when we visited the crazy Crocodile Sanctuary! You gotta watch this!

 

Arriving in the calm morning, passing the fisherman and jumping fish here and there.

Watch the movie before looking at the pics! 🙂

Looks like this could also be a potential anchorage, but figuring it must be rolly, since it is not as protected as the Tenacatita anchorage. But the little town is cute!

Love this cutie!

Arriving at the Crocodile Sanctuary, 60 pesos for the show at the entrance, after that, we were alone… with the wildlife.

This hanging bridge was super scetchy. You gotta watch the movie! Some planks were questionable…

with this underneath, the was a bit frightening.

We saw a crocodile aim slowly for this bird, but this time, he did not catch him.

A damaged paths which made us wonder.

We passed a huge hornet net, but nobody seemed to live there.

Cute baby crocodiles in the sanctuary to look at.

Those guys seem to get along just fine!

This guy is approx 46 years old. He had a good sleep.

Funny how they lay there with there mouth open, are there waiting that food comes around this way? No, of course not. Just there way to deal with the heat.

At the exit, we were in for a surprise. This guy, in the middle of the path!

They totally got us. We serious started to throw water bottles at him, just to make sure.

Matsi wasn’t that sure just yet…

Only in Mexico! LOVED IT!

On a second visit to Manzanilla to get some ice and groceries, we trolled a fishing line on our way back and I caught this guy

 

Tenacatita was a great anchorage. Clear water, fishes all around, Pelicans, we had a great time. Here a little clip about some fun in the water. 🙂