La Cruz as we pull into the anchorage

December 5-6

We left Matanchen, which is sure to be among our favorite spots, at 730am and continued on with our trek. Punta de Mita, located on the rocky point at the northern entrance to Banderas Bay, will be our final overnight stop before reaching our somewhat final destination of La Cruz.

The 7 hour day out at sea was a blast. Rick and the kids were catching fish all day, Black Skipjack tunas to be exact. Mostly catch and release, but one was on it's way to our dinner table! Not only were Skipjacks attracted to our lure, but we had another Dorado on the hook as well. This one was much larger than the last, and it was a bull. We are guessing it was 50 inches or so. We had the boat doing a 360, slowly reeling him in. When Rick got him close to the side of the boat, we noticed his mate was swimming frantically along beside him. After catching the last Dorado, we had read in the book that Dorados have one mate for life and that it is not uncommon to see such a thing happen. It was so pathetic and heartbreaking to watch that when the hook finally ripped out of his mouth, Sydney and I couldn't help but feel some relief. Not that we wouldn't have enjoyed another fabulous meal of Mahi Mahi, but it just wasn't meant to be.

We dropped the hook at 3pm, marinated our Skipjack, and settled in for a nice quiet evening.

The next morning we headed to the beach and enjoyed a nice breakfast overlooking the small bay. While the kids played in the surf on their boogie boards, Diane and I went on a search for more bug spray. Not that it mattered much at this point. The damage had been done!

We pulled the anchor at 10am and headed into La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. La Cruz, which is about 10 nautical miles from Puerto Vallarta, is where we will be through the holidays, except for the week of December 10-17. The Mingo family will be in PV that week so we'll move to Paradise Village which is more convenient to town. We've enjoyed spending every Christmas Eve for the past 10 years with Dave, Kim, Michelle, and Daniel and a week in Maui over Christmas break a few years back. Although it's a bit early this year, I'm grateful we're celebrating another holiday together!