As mentioned in the prior post, we did a lot in February and March and are currently in California doing things like collecting stuff we ordered for the boat that got delivered to our parents’ house, buying a few more things, and carefully packing it all in suitcases that weigh less than 50 pounds each. And, of course, visiting our parents in San Rafael and Modesto.

So now I’m taking some time to document a bit more about our sailing in Mexico in February and March through a series of 53 photos ordered chronologically. Some of these were already posted on my Instagram, but many were not. Captions can help tell the story of what we were up to, I hope. I’m using the “slideshow” format for each photo group this time, so use the arrows on the screen to go through each group of pictures. If you find the text over the graphics to be annoying, view on a tablet or desktop instead of a small mobile device. I didn’t want to take more time to figure out a way to get wordpress to put the captions below the pictures in slideshow mode.

First is a series of photos from our time spent in Bahía Banderas. As mentioned in my prior post, it was quite social meeting up with people from boats we already knew and making new friends. We really enjoyed the La Cruz Sunday market which is right at the marina and the character of the town of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. It was more expensive than Mazatlán but perhaps an easier more fun lifestyle with all the other sailors around. After about a week at Marina Riviera Nayarit we went over to Marina Vallarta to stay for a while and learned that it was not that nice and that the Port Captain process there took a long time due to the heavy commercial traffic including cruise ships there. However, we did enjoy the location which which was near a hotel we stayed at ten years ago, so we wanted to go back. And it did put us very close to Zaragoza marine and the wonderful Tere and Pepe’s coffee shop which I discovered when hauling a huge load of laundry to a local laundry service when the one at the marina was too backed up. There is also a Thursday evening market at Marina Vallarta with many of the same vendors. Some Coho Ho Ho folks, including Bob who organizes the rally and seminars each year, met us there on market night.

Heading south from Bahía Banderas required us to round Cabo Corrientes. The first anchorage south of there is a bay known to cruisers as Ipala. It can be rolly or even bad for holding in strong weather, but we were OK there. We spent a night there and had dinner on the boat of some friends heading north and then headed south the next day. We spent a few days anchored near Pérula at the north end of Bahía Chamela. We only went on shore once on a Monday when many things were closed. We walked to the town square and it was quite a hot day. We bought some fruit and veggies at a local store and then enjoyed some drinks and food at a papala on the beach. Another english speaking guest was really excited to see the michelada I ordered and had to tell the waitress he wanted one of whatever that was. Mmmmmm, better than gatorade on a hot day.

After Pérula we went to Bahia Tenacatita. This anchorage was very full of boats but had plenty of room. We met many new boats and ran into many we’d already met. It’s really a pleasant place to hang out and feel securely anchored. It’s not the best place for provisioning but we did take advantage of a 200 peso per person panga ride to La Manzanilla for the Friday market. Our dinghy would not be able to manage the beach landing there, so that was very helpful. Our electric dinghy motor died and we luckily had some new friends on S/V Aloha that had a spare gas motor and lent it to us along with a little gasoline (our boat motor is diesel). We used that to go up the 3 mile estuary to another beach in the bay but did not bring the spare gasoline and overestimated what the range would be based on our old 2-stroke motor we used for Djinn. Luckily we ran into S/V Somehow who joined us for lunch and agreed to stay close to us just in case we ran out of gas. We actually had just enough gas to make it out of the wave break just outside the estuary in Tenacatita but needed their help for a tow the rest of the way. I suppose we could have rowed…

Pictures from snorkeling in Tenacatita with my Canon TG underwater-capable point-and-shoot camera. I used the SUP board to find areas I was interested in by looking through the clear water and then jumped in to see more. One time I was out there were a lot of siphonophores in the bay and I got stung on face, neck and leg. Luckily the pain/swelling was gone in a couple hours and did not seem to be as bad as the jellyfish stings Noj got in another bay (or worse the stings of the Portuguese Man-o-War which is a member of the siphonophore family with far worse stings than this common and less complex siphonophore).

Our next stop after Tenacatita was the marina at the resort in Barra de Navidad. To get from there to the main town of Barra we had to call the Taxi Aquatico on VHF and pay a small round-trip fee. It was much more convenient than having to load up our own dinghy, but still subject to salt-spray from waves. The town had lots of live music and we enjoyed our time there. The marina was about 5 degrees farenheit hotter than the surrounding area. The resort is right on the border of Colima and there is a cute town called Colmilla that has a few restaurants and a seafood vendor.

Our next stop after Barra de Navidad was Bahía Carrizal. We spent four nights there and decided not to head further south into Santiago or Manzanillo which were just around the corner. Carrizal has nothing on shore and only one small sandy beach. We snorkeled on both sides of the bay, first on the side we anchored closest to and then by rowing our dinghy to the other side.

After Carrizal, we headed back north. Stayed several days in the lagoon at Barra de Navidad which is calm and quiet and just as easy to get to town via Taxi Aquatico. Spent a few nights in Tenacatita and then followed the big rush back up to Bahía Banderas, stopping in Pérula for several nights. We ran into a boat we knew from the Coho Ho Ho that had a great dinghy and motor and offered to take us 3.5 miles across the bay to an island known for great snorkeling. A dinghy with a 20 HP motor goes much faster than a monohull sailboat so it was quite a thrilling ride to some excellent snorkeling.

We pulled up anchor in Bahía Chamela on a Saturday 10 PM to time a low wind window around Cabo Corrientes. We were one of many boats doing the same – at one point I could count twelve boats within ten miles of us on AIS early Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon, we anchored outside La Cruz for a few nights and then were able to get into a slip at the marina earlier than our reservation and have the wonderful workers there wax, polish and wax our gelcoat fiberglass exterior, clean and polish our stainless exterior fixtures and rigging, and clean the bottom of the boat. We also got to have a local mechanic confirm that not only did we need alignment but also needed our engine mounts replaced which helped us choose what to get in the US. We fully cleaned the inside of the boat and got ready to fly home including taking a COVID-19 test 24 hours before our flight. It was a lot of work to get ready but was interspersed with many dinners with friends in town including seeing several boats we expect to see again in the Sea of Cortez this summer and more drinking, music, and dancing at the Tree House.

Right now I’m sitting at my in-laws’ house in San Rafael enjoying fast wi-fi and easily available shopping opportunities that don’t require me to adapt to an unknown culture. We’ve got two bags each to check in filled with boat parts as well as toiletries and foods that are hard to get in Mexico. While it’s been nice to visit with my family in Modesto and my in-laws here, I’m really looking forward to sleeping on the boat Wednesday night. I hope this post of pictures with less attention to the story-telling gives you a sense of how we spent our seven weeks in Bahia Banderas and several bays in the Costalegre area of Mexico.