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When see the Southern Cross for the first time...

"Got out of town on a boat goin' to Southern islands
Sailing a reach before a followin' sea
She was makin' for the trades on the outside
And the downhill run to Puerto Vallarta

Off the wind on this heading lie the Tres Marias
We got forty feet of waterline nicely making way
In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you
But on a midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time
You understand now why you came this way
'Cause the truth you might be runnin' from is so small
But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a comin' day

So I'm sailing for tomorrow my dreams are a dyin'
And my love is an anchor tied to you tied with a silver chain
we have our ship and all her flags are a' flyin'
She is all that we have left and 'Due West' is her name"


Hola from La Cruz!
We did in fact get away from San Jose del Cabo (SJC) at midnight on Friday the 11th. As we've mentioned before, we normally don't like to leave on a Friday, it's an old sailor superstition thing and though we're generally not superstitious people, we don't know many sailors who will leave on a Friday. We had it in our heads we were "leaving Thursday night", not realizing we were actually leaving on Friday morning, LOL!


San Jose del Cabo to La Cruz, 280 nautical miles.

Leg 16: San Jose del Cabo to La Cruz
We were headed across the Sea of Cortez to mainland Mexico and La Cruz, in the north end of Banderas Bay, which is most well known as the home of Puerto Vallarta. La Cruz is a smaller town about 20 miles north of PV, and a favorite cruisers hang-out.

Don and Lisa got up to untie our lines and cast us off the dock. We will MISS those guys, but will catch up again in La Paz or somewhere in the Sea of Cortez this summer. Once outside of the breakwater, Kirk re-engaged the autopilot (going under the cockpit and bolting things back together) so we'd have it to use on this crossing. More on the autopilot later...

That first early morning was a magical one when we saw the Southern Cross for the first time! The Crosby Stills & Nash song has long been a sailors' anthem, and one we've been waiting to experience. Just about latitude 20, there it was, shining brightly off to starboard bow...so cool to see. And it was also our friend Sandy's birthday, so we called to share the news.



We had calculated leaving at midnight based on wanting to arrive in La Cruz in daylight hours. Remember the old saying "measure twice, cut once?" Yeah, that... well, it turns out that Heidi (usually good at math!) miss calculated the time to cross from SJC to La Cruz by a few hours. She didn't "measure twice"... We typically sail or motor an average of 140 nautical miles in a 24-hour period. That was our average when we sailed to Hawaii, and it was also our average all the way down the coast from Washington to Ensenada. That makes for an average of 5.8 kts/hr boat speed.

However, when Heidi calculated our average 24-hour travel distance between Ensenada and Cabo, she made a miss-calculation. Because we "thought" that passage would take us six-days, we had it in our head that it actually had taken six-days. What both of us neglected to realize was that the trip from Ensenada to Cabo only took us FIVE days, not six days! You loose track of what day it is when you are out at sea...

So Heidi divided the 700 nautical mile distance from Ensenada to Cabo by 6 to arrive at about 116 miles per day. Huh, that seemed so slow!? Wonder why? (Divide that same 700 nautical miles by 5-days, and what do you know? You get 140 nm per 24-hours!) We knew we'd slowed down a bit on the last day to ensure arriving in Cabo in daylight, but not that slow. And rather than doing the math again ("measure twice"), we decided that we should probably calculate the trip to La Cruz based on going 116 nm rather than 140 nm per 24-hours. Why we decided that, we're not sure...


We have WIND to sail! We have WIND to sail! Did we mention we have WIND to sail?!

So not realizing Heidi's miss-calculation, we took the 280 nautical miles between SJC and La Cruz, and divided by 116 instead of 140. As those of you good at math have already discerned, if we had divided the 280 nm distance by 140, we'd get 48 hours, and whatever time we left SJC would be the time we'd arrive in La Cruz, two days later. Where as dividing by the erroneous 116 nm/day made for a 2.5 day passage, hence our leaving at midnight, to "arrive at noon"...Oy!

By early morning the first day, it became obvious we'd miscalculated our speed and would now be arriving in La Cruz in the dark--and we really prefer not arriving at new locations in the dark. So with no wind to sail on the first day, we throttled back the motor to lower RPMS, and started making about 4kts instead of 6kts of boat speed. This had the added benefit of saving fuel too. Lesson learned: We travel about 140km in 24-hours, always!


We see some amazingly cool animals every day...right inside our boat!

Cool Animal Sightings: Other than more squid on deck in the mornings (being nocturnal, they leap out of waves in the night and land on deck when being chased by predators), and an albatross or two we saw very little sea life on this passage. We were kind of surprised as we'd heard about dolphins and whales everywhere out there. At one point when Kirk was off watch, Heidi went down below to grab a snack, and heard a strange whistling sound. Thinking it was Tosh (he has kitty asthma, and often whistles when he breathes), she listened to him, but no, it was coming from further forward. She went into the forward cabin and it was louder, she listened to Tikka breathing... nope, it wasn't her. What WAS that whistle and where was it coming from? Suddenly she thought "Dolphins!" and ran back up on deck, only to see 2 dolphins swimming away... Note to self, listen for whistling, look for dolphins!

Half-way across, we tossed our first "Message in a Bottle". Heidi used a beautiful blue Neal's Yard Remedies bottle, and we put in a note with our boat card, asking who ever finds it to contact us with the lat/lon where they found it. We'll be curious to see if it ends up in Mexico, or elsewhere in the Pacific, if it ever gets found at all...



Wahoo!! We finally found the wind on the second day actually sailed for about 10 hours sans-motor with just the jib--the wind was too light and dead-downwind to put the mainsail up. We managed to arrive in La Cruz in daylight at 0700 Sunday morning, having had a beautiful sail and saving a bit of fuel too. Kirk climbed back under the cockpit to dis-engage the autopilot again, and we pulled into the La Cruz marina without a hitch, excited to re-connect with lots of cruising friends here, like Maryalice & Rick on s/v Notre Isle.

La Cruz Huanacaxtle


Our new Huichol hand woven pillow from the La Cruz Sunday market.

The town of La Cruz Huanacaxtle (or La Cruz) is very small, and classically "Mexican", dirt or cobblestone streets and not touristy at all--except for its famous Sunday market, and we were happy to tie up the boat, take a short nap, and then head off to the market. We didn't know what to expect, and were thinking it would be mostly produce and locals. But it turned out to be very "gringo"--Americans and Canadians come from all over the Puerto Vallarta area just for this Sunday market. The market was full of local arts and crafts, a small amount of produce, and many food and drink vendor stands. The indigenous Huichol ("We-chol") people are well known for their vibrant, colorful art and we purchased a beautiful hand woven pillowcase from one of them. In typical small-world fashion, our friend Judy was the first person we ran into at the market! Judy and Fred on s/v Wings, left Seattle almost 20 years ago and have circumnavigated the globe. They were among the friends we were looking forward to meeting up with.


Colleen, Heidi, Laren, and Kathy - Girls Getaway in Sayulita complete with friendship bracelets from one of the many beach vendors. BIG THANKS for coming to visit me girls. ☺ xoxo

By mid-afternoon it was time for Heidi to meet up with her BFF's from Seattle who'd flown down for a girls-get-away. Laren, Colleen, and Kathy arrived via taxi to pick up Heidi, and the girls took off for 4-days of FUN in Sayulita, just up the coast. We had visited Sayulita last time we were in Puerto Vallarta, almost 20 years ago, a sleepy little fishing and surfing village. At that time we were among the only people eating fish tacos from a palapa on the beautiful white sandy beach, empty of people, and full of fishing pangas.


The Dia del Muertos "Catrina" figure very popular here.

Today it's a different story. While still a VERY cute, colorful artsy town, with lots of hippy-granola ex-pats (US and Canadian) living there, the masses have discovered Sayulita. It's now full of yoga retreats, surfing camps, art galleries and delicious food, and the beaches resemble Coney Island! Heidi and her girlfriends had a wonderful four days, catching up, laying in the sun, getting $15 massages on the beach, swimming in the surf, shopping the cute art galleries and tiendas, and eating fantastic food. All too quickly the four days were over and it was time to head back.


The lovely, artsy town of Sayulita ~ see our photo gallery for more photos of this colorful town.

Meanwhile, Kirk was holding down the fort with our "Gatos del Mar" aboard Due West, and a big project list. He had a nice dinner aboard Wings, and caught up with Judy and Fred one evening. He also untwisted our anchor chain and installed our new Mantus swivel; made progress on installing our dinghy wheels, and cockpit shower; and spent lots of time on the phone with Lewmar, dealing with our mal-functioning autopilot.



It appears that the autopilot electromagnetic clutch needs to be re-adjusted, which can only be done in the UK!? Awesome!? This will take about a month round-trip, so our current plan is to re-engage/dis-engage the autopilot again for the multi-day trip to La Paz (arriving there mid April), once there, we'll ship the unit back to Lewmar in Connecticut, they will in turn, ship it to the UK to be repaired, and then we'll figure out a way to get it shipped back, either to the US and go pick it up, or back to La Paz if we can find a way, reinstall it, and be on our way.

Anyone want to come visit us in May and bring us our repaired autopilot?? Fun and games with boat parts! It's ironic that this "brand new" piece of equipment sat in a box in our storage unit for 7-years until August, so is now out of warranty, even though it has fewer than 100 hours on it!



Kirk caught the bus up to Sayulita to see the girls off, and then the two of us spent the day in Sayulita, walking around town, taking photos (see photo gallery!) and talking to Carlos, owner of Tierra Huichol, and part Huichol native himself. Carlos explained how the artisans make objects out of paper maché, then cover them with bees wax and colorful beads. In another type of art, they use embroidery thread and lay it down in the bees wax strand by stand to make intricate designs. Tierra Huichol also had many different Catrina Dolls, the collectable skeleton woman dressed to kill (pun intended!), and a Mexican symbol of Dia del los Muertos (Day of the Dead.) The main Tierra Huichol store is in Puerto Vallarta, well worth a visit if you are ever in PV or Sayulita. There are artisans creating their art on display in the stores.


This larger-than-life-size iguana (3+ feet), is paper maché covered with bees wax, and seed beads pressed into the bees wax one by one to create the colorful designs. These designs relate to the Huichol spirit world and each one has specific meaning. The serpent is the "god of the ocean" and they believe they all ascended from the ocean. The iguana symbolizes "the advisor of future". The "flowers" on the iguana are peyote buttons and symbolize life and success.

Back in La Cruz, Heidi was so happy to be sleeping in her own bed again (the beds in the condo in Sayulita were rock-hard!) and she was super-excited to see the Gatos del Mar, Tosh and Tikka, who make life infinitely more FUN! These furbies are adjusting to the heat by sleeping the day away on top of the refrigerator!? We must have an air-leak as they have found this to be the coolest spot in the boat, hum... Heidi has also taken to covering them with wet rags or towels to help keep them cool, and they don't seem to mind, they just lay there, so it must doing the trick.


How we keep the furbies cool in this heat...drape them in wet cloths. Inside of boat is regularly about 85°F now days.

Tikka has learned how to climb from the top of the dodger, onto the mainsail cover, and then jump up onto the top of the bimini, sleeping between the solar panels! Crazy girl--we don't like it when she jumps down onto the canvas dodger, so are trying to break her of that habit... Now that we also have our African Queen sun awning up, she's learned to climb up on top of that too, and we're just waiting for her to slide down into the water. So far Tosh is keeping his feet grounded (but he already went swimming once back in Seattle so he's a bit more wary)... these kids are going to get swim lessons soon and learn to use their "Louie-line". Details on that in our next post. Tosh, our "cat-dog" is a fantastic fetcher, and his most favorite toy is an o-ring that he chases around the boat, or carries around in his mouth.


Our King of the Jungle "cat-dog", who fetches endlessly, and growls if you try to take his O-ring away, LOL!

Our friends Judy and Paul on s/v Grace, from Seattle invited us out to experience the music scene in La Cruz one night. We've been looking forward to catching up with them ever since we started this adventure, because they've cruised Ecuador, and we wanted to pick their brains about that. We had a fun night out at Philo's Bar listing to the house band, including 85 year-old Leon, playing the washboard, cowbells, bicycle horn, and a variety of other unique percussion. He was a hit! We only wished Frosty & Patti were still down here so we could have experienced Frosty jamming with the band, he's one AMAZING blue's guitarist and we really miss hearing his music. Come and visit us Frost (and bring that repaired auto-pilot!?)



We made another trek to the La Cruz Market the second Sunday we were here, because Heidi has FINALLY ditched her fleece and was in need of some warm-weather clothes, specifically sun dresses, as even tank tops and shorts are too hot to wear. Luckily there are a lot of cute, cheap sun dresses here ($15) so she's in heaven. We also bought some delicious dried mangos from a local mango-farming couple, Memo and Victoria, originally from Seattle, he as it turns out used to own the kayak shop where we bought our kayaks (NWOC), and started one of our favorite Seattle restaurants, Agua Verde! What a small world...

Heidi's girlfriends took a duffle bag home for us full of fleece, down, jeans, and sweatshirts. We kept a few cooler weather clothes, but it's mostly about minimal clothing these days, when the interior of the boat is 85°+ each day, all hatches open, and all fans on. We are loving it!



To help with the heat, we had a sunshade "windshield" made out of a sturdy mesh fabric as a connector piece between our bimini and dodger. The canvas guy in La Cruz did great work, but when we tried to zip it in place onboard.... Turns out it was backwards. The zippers needed to be on the other side of the fabric. Another case of "Measure twice, cut once"?! We had to take it back to be fixed, but once it's in place it will keep the cockpit shadier on passages while letting the cooling breeze through the mesh.



We've met some new friends here at the dock, Sherri & Steve on s/v Pablo from Santa Cruz, and Carol & Paul on s/v Unleashed from Seattle. We'll be heading out to the La Cruz anchorage later this week, and then likely over to Punta de Mita, looking forward to meeting up with our good friends Karen & Roger on Meredien and buddy-boating north towards Mazatlan and La Paz.

We plan to be in La Paz by mid April for the Women Who Sail Rendezvous, where we'll meet back up with sv/ Pablo again, and also look forward to seeing our friend Teresa from Seattle, joining the rendezvous... let's see how Neptune cooperates with those plans. We have loved being in Banderas Bay!

Remember to check out more images of La Cruz & Sayulita in our photo gallery.