16th-22nd April
The lovely calm conditions we had for our stay in Yelapa's bay continued and there was no wind at all for the 16-nautical-mile crossing east to Puerto Vallarta. So it was motoring all the way - noisy, but easy and relaxing. On the glasslike water's surface Bernard spotted a sea snake: this time it was unmistakable, with its black upper body and yellow belly, and flat, black-and-white-striped tail. Later I googled 'sea snakes in Banderas Bay' and came across these fun facts: "They are able to swim both forward and backwards at sea. They have an interesting ability to tie themselves into a knot and then move the knot from one end of the body to the other removing foreign items such as algae, barnacles and miscellaneous growths acquired at sea." Wow, respect!!
Marina Vallarta is in the middle of Puerto Vallarta near the airport, a Mexican naval station, the cruise ship harbor and the Hotel Zone. It's huge, with shopping galleries, restaurants and condos on all sides. And in the middle of this very urban environment, seemingly incongruous signs around the marina warning of crocodiles! It's popular mainly with power boats, and not our favorite marina, but a good place to take on fuel and provisions before starting our voyage back to the Sea of Cortez. And Honu's bottom had by now acquired a dense community of small barnacles and little stringy beards of growth, so a good cleaning was in order.
It was a half-mile walk from our slip to the marina restrooms and showers, which on the plus side forced us to walk more for exercise, despite the heat. And the heat and humidity were starting to be intense...trying to keep the boat and ourselves cool became a daily effort. I'd hose the decks down and lay wet mats on top of them, then wet them again a couple of hours later, and pegged large towels and a tablecloth around the cockpit and along the lifelines to create some shade. We had the fans in the cabin running constantly and I hosed my head with water several times daily. Thankfully, our slip reservation entitled us to use of the nearby Hotel Flamingo's paddling pool. In the late afternoon after a day of chores we'd sit up to our necks in the pool and rest on lounge chairs in the shade sipping two-for-one cocktails. We did laundry, got haircuts, and Bernard hired a diver to clean Honu's hull and replace some worn zincs near the propeller. We finally completed our dentist visits, and received quality treatment for significantly less than what it would've cost in the US.
And we started to plan our voyage back northwest-ward. The start of Mexico's rainy season is approaching and we need to get Honu into the far north of the Sea of Cortez out of the hurricane belt. We're aiming for Puerto Peñasco, just six miles of the US border. It's a long way up there, so we have to get moving. At this time of year there should be some westerly and southwesterly winds to help us along our way, but we're likely to have north and northwest winds on our nose at least part of the time, and the south-setting currents from the Pacific and then the Sea maybe all of the time, so it won't necessarily be an easy voyage. First stop: Punta de Mita at the northwestern end of Banderas Bay, to rest before re-entering the open Pacific.