We've finally cast off our dock lines from La Cruz Marina, saying goodbye to the sweet town of La Cruz Huancaxtle and all of its friendly people. Leaving Banderas Bay, we were given a farewell send off by an escort of dolphins, flocks of pelicans, and a few whale sightings.

One juvenile humpback whale came close abeam of Pinocchio. Awesome to see, but we quickly diverted our course to avoid a collision. The humpy seemed curious about us...can't help but wonder if it thought Pinocchio's hull was it's mama.

Once out at sea and headed north towards our next destination of Chacala, we put the fishing line out and hoped for a fish dinner. It wasn't until we were 2 nautical miles from Chacala that we heard the now familiar sound "whizzzz"!...fish on! The fish put up a good fight. At first we thought it was a yellowtail, because it's tail was yellow, good assumption, right? We were so excited to finally catch a yellow tail tuna. We barbecued it and shared it with cruising friends, Jill and Brent off SV Cayuse. After my Instagram post to the internet world boasting of our "great catch", we found out from our friend, Pat Conroy, aka dinamo pescador experto, it was a Carvelle Jack. In Spanish, Jack fish are called "Jurel Toro", the locals call Jack fish "Toro", because they fight like a bull when caught! It's also referred to as "trash fish". No wonder it didn't taste like tuna!

Chacala is charming coastal town, tucked into a small bay. The green hills are dotted with colorful houses, cascading bougainvillea and palm trees. Noisy tropical birds compete with a mariachi band providing lively music to palapa patrons and beach goers. Both birds and band can be heard at least a mile away! It's nice to be back on the anchor and feeling the motion of the boat. It's known to get pretty rolly here in Chacala Bay, we hope not too rolly over the next few days. Soon we will continue north to Mazatlan where we will wait for an opportune time to head north up into the Sea of Cortez.