Paraiso
19 February 2010 | 19 28.359N 105 03.674W
What a fabulous place! The water is the clearest we've seen to date....just as blue as a pool. It's the first time we've been able to see the pattern our anchor chain makes along the bottom (and in 20 feet).
We did lots of snorkeling and kayaking, the best anywhere so far. We tried to fish but the damn puffer/porcupinefish are just a menace. They would chase every lure.....all the way back to the surface. And not just one, half a dozen or more. Sure kept the real fish away from the lure. So of course we teased them (which is the picture).
We heard some chatter on the radio and it sounded like boats were having problems heading to La Cruz. A squall had dropped on them, 40 knot winds and lots of rain. We could hear thunder and then it started coming our way. Not again! We kept in contact with boaters in Chamela Bay and they let us know when it hit them so we knew it wasn't far from us. Thank god the winds only got up to 20 knots and didn't last but maybe half an hour....not even long enough for us to open our water fills and get the tanks full.
The next day after kayaking and snorkeling all day and having decided to stay another day we get hailed for Hitaki that winds are on the way and there's only a one day window to get around Cabo Corrientes. So shoot! We're cleaning up everything quick and we're tired and not physically prepared for an overnighter but out we go!
We get to Chamela and keep going (Hitaki starts out after us). The winds are a little rough but not too bad. Unfortunately we have some issues....like the oil pressure dropping to zero! Crap.......oil cooler has a crack! Until the engine can cool down, we're under sail (and losing Hitaki as they motor past us). We get past Ipala and keep going. Winds keep us going but are dropping. We are just nearing Cabo Corrientes and the winds are almost dead on our nose so we're not getting any closer to La Cruz but we are sailing. Jim is able to switch the oil cooler around (it's a double thank god) and hook it back up. It's got a slow leak from a crack as well....darn it! But we baby it and get us into the bay where the winds are finally where we need them to be and can shut the motor off.
We end up having a fabulous sail/race with Victoria Rose on the way into La Cruz and make the anchorage just after the sun has set (thank god we've been to this anchorage before). There's a crap load of boats in the anchorage (over 30 --at least the ones we can count because their lights are on). So we anchored near some boats (a bit too close) until we can see better in the morning.