My son Mike and his GF Rhi, and Duncan, another son, all left yesterday. Duncan has been here living on the boat since early October. Mike and Rhi came down for a week. Judy is up north, in Carnation, WA, for xmas with her kids, returns here on the 29th. I am home alone on the boat. This actually is the first time I have been here alone, since buying the boat a year and a half ago!
Duncan had a really good time here. He met a nice Mexican college girl and they really hit it off. She showed him all around this region, really introduced him to Mexican Mexico. Got him interested in improving his Spanish! He says she is the nicest smartest girl he has ever met! She was sending him flowers and stuff.......
We were out sailing a couple of days ago, heading out to Las Tres Marietas, a group of islands just outside of Banderas Bay, about 5 miles southwest from the Punta de Mita anchorage. They are a federally protected ecological preserve. On the way out, it got sorta dark but there was still some light. Mike and I were up on the bow, on the windward side, and what to our wondering eyes should appear but a huge Humpback whale swimming right under the boat, only about 10 feet down. It was half turned on its side, looking up at us. Then half an hour later, a huge school of dolphin started swimming along in the bow wave. They were chasing a school of fish, and you could see the dolphins snapping up the little guys. All were glowing and leaving phosphorescent wakes. Spell binding.
The sailing guidebooks, in perhaps an overabundance of caution, recommend not anchoring in the Marietas overnight. On the south side of Isla Marieta, though, there is a little nook or cove that is the best anchorage in the group of islas. There is a big tour boat floating mooring ball, too. The bottom is about 25 to 40 feet, sand and a few rocks. I took a chance and moored to the ball, not fully trusting it but guessing that on this calm night of all nights it wasn't going to break and cast me up onto the rocks that were only 100 feet away. As it was so late in the day, I was pretty sure the tour boats wouldn't show up and kick me off their mooring ball. There probably is more chance of it breaking during the day with a big tour boat tied to it and the afternoon winds hitting 15 to 20 knots on a normal day. Those winds hit the other side of the island first, so this is the daytime lee side, but they still blow pretty strongly in here during the day. Overnight a 5ish knot wind was coming from the north east, from the shore, but we had some protection from the eastern most island. The danger in anchoring here is that if the wind switches to come out of some southerly direction you are on a lee shore only feet away from some really super gnarly rocks......
The stars were as clear and bright as I have ever seen in my life, anyplace or anywhere, just incredible, laying like dust across the sky, except brightly glowing and beautifully colored dust. They were 3 dimensional, it looked like some were closer than others, you could see the depth of the sky....... The Milky Way was so very dense, and immense, stretching clear across the night sky.
Next day we snorkeled and swam and cleaned the bottom of the boat and did a beach landing in surf with the dingy, hiked around on Isla Marieta, and generally had a great time. These islas are uninhabited, except by millions of seabirds. Snorkling around made me want to dive, but my tank was back at the dock. We saw eels, rays, lots and lots of beautifully colored tropical fish. Probably octopus live here, but didn't see any. I've heard that you are supposed to have a governmental permit to land on the islas, but we didn't have one and I'm not really sure if you do need one.
Coming back from the Marietas we had from 23 to 25 knots of wind on a beam reach. Really nice sailing, the boat comes alive at those wind speeds and goes 7 + knots so Mike and Rhi and Duncan really got the feel of active sailing. We held 8 knots for awhile. At some point we caught a little 3 pound Pacific Bonito, can't remember now if it was on the way out or on the way back in. It was good pan fried in olive oil and butter and wrapped up in harina tortillas with the usually fajita trimmings. And icy cold Pacifico.
We spent a couple of days anchored out at La Cruz. The new marina is very modern, very secure and quite attractive. It is less than half full, after being open for a year+. Rafael has taken over as the marina manager. He was previously the manager of the Vallarta Yacht Club. He is a great guy and says he is looking forward to lowering the moorage prices in the Marina Riviera Nayarit and getting it filled up.
The anchorage just outside the marina and just off the La Cruz beach is generally the best in the Bay, in terms of being the least rolley, best protected, etc. It is the live aboard anchorage for the entire bay. 15 to 30 feet deep, good holding sand, no weeds. La Cruz is a fun little Mexican town that is changing rapidly under the pressure of the money coming into town thanks to the new marina. Lots of real estate is changing hands and being spruced up. Philo's is the cruiser bar.......
We saw a lot of whales, putting on all sorts of whale shows. Leaping, tail thumping, fin slapping, spouting, breathing, tail wagging. They were everywhere.
From La Cruz anchorage we sailed every day, looking for whales and dolphins, fishing a little, just enjoying some father/son catch up bonding time.....
My son Mike's photos from this time are here: http://www.nubinski.com/DecemberWinds/index.html
