We've Come a Long Way

12-20-12 - Bahia Tenacatita, MX

The morning we left Punta Mita

We have moved South (again)! From La Cruz we moved to Punta Mita for a couple of days. This was mostly to get out of the marina and make an attempt to stop spending money as well as to let some heavy weather pass. That is not to discount Punta Mita. It is a great anchorage with the classic beach scene of palapas and some surfing (on a very shallow rocky beach as I found out). After a few days it seemed like the right time to leave.  We had been listening to the local weather forecast and had planned a departure of Tuesday morning. But Monday morning came along and the weather seemed to have cleared up a little early, in fact there was supposed to actually be some wind for our trip South.  So after listening to the morning VHF net and doing some weather checking of our own we decided at 9:00AM to pack up and head South.

Side note on the “net”.  For those who have not experienced this phenomenon: the morning Net (as it is called) is an organized time peiod on the VHF where someone (the person changes daily and is usually 6 people who take a day each-Sunday is a day of rest) volunteers to “run” the net and goes thru a set of categories while everyone who is within VHF range listens in and contributes their knowledge and help to the community as a whole.  It starts with check-ins where everyone listening calls out their boat name and then progresses to emergencies in need of help, weather, tides, things for sale or trade (everything is sold for “coconuts” as you are not really allowed to sell things in Mexico) and then usually goes into the happenings of the area.  Typically the happenings of the area is the biggest category with all the activities being announced and the restaurants and establishments that cater to cruises chiming in with their daily specials, etc.  Yes, even the restaurants that want cruiser business have a VHF handy to listen and talk on.  Needless to say the “net” is a valuable tool when new to an area.

 I can tell we’ve come a long way as this situation developed.  Not in reference to the distance, but to our abilities and our confidence in them.  We decided at 9:00A to pack up our toys, dinghy, paddle board, and make the boat ready for a 120 mile overnight trip out into the Pacific Ocean to a place we have never seen before.  The night before we had no intention of leaving, but this morning everything looked good so we left.  That’s a long way from just a few months ago when it took us that much time to decide to go for a day sail in San Francisco Bay.  We made the decision to leave a day early mostly to get some sailing in.  The wind was supposed to be heavy but reducing and they mentioned something about it turning to the South for a brief period the next day.  But we glossed that over in favor of good north wind for the majority of the trip. 

The sun going down that night

 I get my morning exercise lifting the anchor and raising the sails and we motor out of Banderas Bay.  Along the way we avoid a couple of whales, which we are still not very fond of seeing within 100 yards of the boat, but are getting more used to them.  The seas are really lumpy and on our beam, meaning it’s basically uncomfortable.  For a moment we think about turning around but carry on figuring we would just motor the same distance again tomorrow.  The second we exit Banderas Bay the wind picks up to 20 knots as predicted and the swells to 4 to 7 feet at predicted.  It makes for a fun but a little challenging sail downwind as the autopilot has a hard time keeping up with the swells.  It occurs to us around noon that we really don’t have anything to eat for lunch or dinner that is easy and “underway” cookable.  Especially in the swells nothing would stay on the stove.  SO we muddle thru some snacky type lunch and some crappy premade dinner we had been carrying with us since San Diego.  No one left with us and we are the only boat in sight…until night falls and there are little blinking lights everywhere.  A panga with his lights on (just a white light, navigation lights don’t seem to concern anyone down here) and blinking white lights to denote the start, or end or middle, who knows of a long line or shrimp net.  Nothing shows up on radar as these little pangas blend in with the waves.  That gives us something to do on watch at least. Sometime during the evening I take a little nap, then take over the watch. Elizabeth sleeps for about three hours and then we do this over again and then the sun comes up.  The wind has died, but not after I saw a 10.2 knot speed over ground on the GPS.  Just so you know that’s REALLY fast for us.  It was just for a second as we surfed down a wave, but it still counts!  We motor on for a few hours as the wind slowly builds from the South and then all of a sudden I recall the weather forecast we glossed over yesterday as the South wind builds to 20 plus knots straight on our nose.  We start pounding into a South wind swell with a following North swell and start taking spray back into the cockpit.

You're not supposed to wear a jacket in Mexico!

  This isn’t supposed to happen in Mexico!  At least it’s hot so the spray feels good, but the boat and everything is instantly covered in salt as the water sprays over us and dries in the wind.  The last 10 miles we see the GPS speed drop to 2 knots as we pound in to the waves.  A little course change and things are better but still not what you want after 26 hours out and only 10 miles from the anchorage.  Then the little fishing panga comes and intercepts us mid ocean, as we are struggling to make headway and starts waving his hands and pointing.  Good thing he did because we would not have noticed the little black flag on a buoy denoting the start of his long line.  We detour around that and enter Bahia Tenacatita.  We go all the way around Roca Centro because they say not to go between it and land, and finally anchor.  Tidy up and an anchor down later, all is well and we are ready to launch the dink and go ashore. 

The anchorage from the estuary mouth

So we’ve come a long way from San Francisco just a few months ago.  Many people may think it’s not a big deal, and it probably isn’t to them, and we can now say that it wasn’t really for us either, just another day of cruising in Mexico.

Just a teaser for the next post