D & D
03/10/2010, Leaving La Cruz Bay

Picture is of Friends over at our boat last eve
Wednesday AM All is well, the sun is shining and a light breeze is blowing. Friends over from Sailing Vessels Tenacity and 40 Love last evening (Tesday) for a delightful, laughter-filled time. Got gas today and we are on our way.
Sail Plan
First off, all is tentative, and it may take longer, as it is dependent on wind and seas; We will be traveling more than 400 miles in the next week to 10 day,
Today, March 10, we are leaving La Cruz Bay and sailing to Punta Mita, about 10-12 miles away. Hope to catch up with Sharon and Dick Dreschler, who just arrived there, for an evening together.
March 11: Sail to either Chacala or Metanchen, depending on winds for an overnight anchorage.
No internet connection for the next week to 10 days, most likely.
March 12: Sail to Isla Isabella and anchor there for one night.
March 13 - 14 or 15: Sail day & night across Sea to Baja Peninsula and anchor at Las Frailes (may take longer, depending on winds)
After Las Frailes, sail to Muertes and anchor there.
The next day we should be in the La Paz area, anchored somewhere, and hoppfully will have internet.

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D & D
03/09/2010, La Cruz Marina Bay

Picture is Marina activity - putting one of the J-24 boats in water
Saturday - Tuesday - Anchored outside of La Cruz Marina
This has proven to be quite an interesting place to be. We arrived at our anchorage, here in La Paz, with numerous Navy boats and helicopters circling around. We learned that the President of Mexico is here at the Marina. A large scale regatta began earlier in the week with sail boats from Mexico, USA, Canada and various other countries. The marina is full of saiboats of every size and shape and it's great fun to watch them sail by, as we are right next to the entrance to and from the marina. Yesterday we watched a "practice race" with J-24 Boats.
Apparently the president of Mexico is back in town to race on one of the J-24's so the security is being enhanced again. A variety of sailors and troops are pretty much everywhere. Yesterday, evening a small navy launch approached our boat to let us know that we would have to move at least several hundred meters. They will be holding training exercises where we and about 20 other boats are anchored. The two sailors were very courteous and apologized for not speaking English very well, nice touch considering our Spanish is limited to about five words.
We have also reconnected with some friends we met along the way and have had a social time with get-to-gethers at each other's boats as well as dinner at some fun restaurants with music.
We had problems with the Telcel when we arrived here, so no internet for the first two days. We bundled the computer up, took the bus into PV and the main Telcel office, only to be told, " Yes, you have paid for 4 months service (through April) but every month you must come in to an office and pay $2.50 so you aren't blocked the next month." Hey, we paid and we're back on. Just a different twist at times. We also provisioned yesterday at the local grocery store and are picking up our laundry today at 1 PM. A word about their bus service; is it ever efficient. Buses come every couple of minutes, they are fast, efficient, and dern cheap! We enjoy the atmosphere, the people, the sights and sounds and paying $2.00 one way versus $24 dollars for a taxi into PV.
We think that Wednesday will be our day to start our trip to the Sea of Cortez. Once we leave, we will most likely be off line between one week to ten days. All is well, the sun is shining and a light breeze is blowing.

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D & D
03/06/2010, Anchored outside La Cruz

Picture is self portrait of us just after dawn, this morning.
Friday night, we arrive in Ipala at 1540; However, this is a very small anchorage, 3 other sailboats are already anchoring here, and another sailboat follows us in and starts dropping his anchor just to the port side of us. We drop ours; don't like the position as we are too close to another boat, oyster floats, and fish nets. We pull up anchor and the windlass stops working; Darryl hauls it up by hand, I move the boat and we try again. By 1600 we are finally set. But now, Darryl has to go work on the windlass anchor. He puts in more shims; it seems to work. We hope that we don't to replace it. We eat dinner, listen to Mexican music from the shore and go to bed early.
0500 Saturday and we are both awake. We discover the other 4 sailboats have already taken off to head toward "Cabo Corrientes", famous for "tossing sailboats about" as you round the point. We discover that we are entangled in a fish net and (remember, it's pitch black outside) use our boat hook to careful divest ourselves of it. Darryl then pulls up the anchor, stays on the bow with a big flashlight and directs me through the oyster floats and fish nets. I am grateful when we are through all that, have managed to not snag anything, and we are on our way to Puerto Vallarta. We round the point around 0900 and have no problems; we have all 3 sails up and are sailing at 4-5 knots. It's a cooler morning, in the 70's with cloud cover mixed with blue skies. A large dolphin pod has already come to visit.
Just about every anchorage that we have been in has any where from five to 30 small open fishing boats, 23 ft. pangas, which are made of fiberglass and appear to be quite heavy. They usually have a 75 h.p. outboard with no back up power. This is surprising since we sometimes see them five to 20 miles off shore. These fishermen are anything but lazy. Quite often we see them setting nets or heading out long before daybreak and coming back in after sunset. What a life. They unfortunately live close to the ocean, listen to the pounding surf and fish all day. Wait a second, that's what many touristas spend big bucks to do for a few days a year. Oh well, I guess sitting in bumper to bumper traffic five days a week is more satisfying.
We arrived tonight at 1530 at anchorage outside La Cruz Marina near Puerto Vallarta. We had a fabulous afternoon sail, with winds gusting to 19-20 knots and hit speeds of 6.5-7 knots with a reefed main, stay sail and jib. As of today, we have sailed 1031.1 nautical miles since we left Mazatlan last January. We are amazed! Coordinates: N20.44.723; W105.22.326.

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Donna
03/05/2010, On Way to Ipala

Saturday, March 5 at 0500
A voice whispers in my ear, "Donna, are you awake?" - Well, I am NOW! So my capitano suggests that we pull up the anchor, get out on the sea and enjoy a sunrise, so that's just what we do. The oil is checked, and the engine started - I pilot us through the bay while Capitano keeps an eye out, avoiding some shoals and other sailboats who have foolishly chosen not to use an anchor light. We have no problem. The sunrise rewards us for our early departure, for it is spectacular and lasts for 40+ minutes, growing bigger and better each minute. We are also surrounded, several times by several pods of large speckled dolphins. We turn down the motor and I get up on the bow and shoot pictures. Their breaths are like little "poof" sounds as they surface. I see a speckled mom, with a small babe, half her size, no speckles, swimming together. This is why we're here. We revel in it all.
So, Capitano sounds a bit "hoarse" lately. Could it be that he has overdone his voice, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Captain is leaving the bridge/on the bridge!" I fixed that, ladies. Guess who's down in the galley doing dishes? It's not me! Ok, so we do have fun on this 37'float with sails.
We are headed for Ipala. Current gps Coordinates: N19.43.297: W 105.21.107.

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D & D
03/04/2010, Chamala

Picture is of 3 dolphins swimming off the bow of "Luffin It."
March 4th and we're up early and take off from Barra Navidad around 0800. The seas are somewhat quiet, but we pull up all 3 sails and "motor sail. By noon we have some wind come up and we quickly kill the engine, and spend 4 quiet hours just sailing along the coast. It is peaceful, a group of dolphins join us for a spell; their bodies are speckled with white dots, a different look. They are shy, scare easily and dart away at times, never to be seen again. However, this was the day that I held my camera in my hand most of the day, looking for shots of dolphins, whales or turtles. No turtles today, darn it, though we went by the Careyes Turtle Preserve area. We anchor this evening in Chamalea. Coordinates: N19o35.047; W105o07.842. We will head for Ipala and the foreboding Cabo Corrientes.

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D & D
03/03/2010, In Barra Navidad

This was really fun to watch! He'd fly up in the air for several seconds at a time.

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