It's been a while since we've posted a blog, so this one has to make up for a lot of time. We departed Barra de Navidad and spent over a week in Tenacatita. This is our favorite anchorage outside the sea of Cortez. Why? Because it is a safe large anchorage, it has a jungle river trip for your dinghy, there is a nearby quaint town of Manzanilla, there is a sea turtle nesting area, there is a nearby snorkeling area aptly called "the acquarium" and there are plenty of cruisers to play on the beach with or swim to shore with. Every morning is a cruisers radio network (the net) which outlines who's there, what's the weather and the day's activities. And it's all free!
We went to the weekly Friday night dinghy raft up/potluck and with over 30 dinghy's we met lots of interesting people. A few folks came down for the weekend in their boats from Puerto Vallarta, and held a mini sail fest in the bay. Craig got to sail/race on a beautiful catamaran with some folks from Austrailia. As a group we went into La Manzanilla for a local charity festival and enjoyed the local music and food.
One day I organized a group dinghy trip to "the Acquarium" for snorkeling. It is about a 45 minute dinghy ride from the anchorage, and thus safety in numbers. We get to this remote place, and no sooner had we jumped in the water when a power boat from Barra showed up with day trippers drinking beer and partying. It spoiled the mood, but most of them preferred to drink than snorkel, so it did not spoil the water.
We left Tenacatita for Chamela. Initially we anchored off the islands in the middle of the bay, but in the late afternoon the wind picked up and our anchor dragged a bit. We decided to move over to the beach which was better protected from the wind. However the swells were strong, so it was a very rolly night.
We left the next day for Ipala, anchoring only for the night as again it was very rolly. Finally we sailed around Cabo Corrientes with good seas, watching lots of turtles sun bathing on the surface, arriving at Paradise Village. After more than two weeks at anchor, it was nice to be attached to a dock.
We spent 10 days at Paradise Village, enjoying the pools, riding our bikes to nearby towns, and taking the bus to downtown Puerto Vallarta. We also took a day sail on a tourist catamaran boat to snorkel at Los Arcos and have lunch as Las Animas. On the way out, we saw a baby whale practicing how to breach. It jumped into the air a dozen times before we left it. The snorkeling at Los Arcos was very good, and we saw rays, free swimming eels as well as the usual tropical fish. Unfortunately on the sail back, Sue was stung three times with bees on her ankle and her finger and she has been swollen for many days.
We are now in La Cruz (Marina Riveria Nayarit) which is on the north side of Banderas Bay. We will be here for a few weeks, so unlikely to have a blog entry until we move again.