Heading Home

The anchorage at La Cruz is delightful, and we spend the afternoon recovering from our trip. Bill finds that the jib furler is easy to fix in daylight, when he is not being sprayed by every wave. It is close to dark when we finally launch the dinghy and head into town. There is a wonderful marina in La Cruz in the final stages of completion, but the road into town is all torn up. We trudge through the construction headed for Xocolatl, a restaurant that has been highly recommended to us. Not only is the food claimed to be good, the location is high above the town with a sweeping view of Banderas Bay. We find the restaurant but are dismayed to find a sign reading “Sorry. No credit cards”. We are out of pesos after our anchor adventure and here in the Puerto Vallarta area things are not as inexpensive as breakfast was in the remote anchorage of Bahia de Chamela. The owner offers to let us come back and pay tomorrow, but we are uncomfortable with that offer. One never knows what tomorrow will bring, especially on a boat. Since we do need to get cash sometime, we might as well get it now before sitting down to dinner. We ask where the nearest ATM is located, and the owner says the only one in town is at the gas station. He points at some lights down the road. Thinking he can make the trip faster by himself, The Captain suggests that The First Mate wait for him at the restaurant. Happily she does, sitting at a table overlooking the sweep of Banderas Bay, sipping a glass of wine, savoring the evening. The Captain returns almost an hour later eager for a beer. The gas station was 2 km down the road!

Dinner proves to be wonderful. The staff is attentive, and we enjoy the evening overlooking the bay.

One more Savor Day and then we will head into Paradise Village Marina to begin the clean-up and prep work that will enable us to leave Avante on her own for a while down here. We see Deb and Greg Baillie’s “Lion’s Paw” anchored near us and dinghy over to see if they are free to head out to dinner that evening. We suggest heading up the hill to the same restaurant as last night. The view over the bay is impressive with all the lights at night showing the sweep of the bay. It’s a delightful final evening to our first Mexican cruise. We discuss our various adventures in dealing with and living on boats especially in foreign locales, and we muse about our various travel hopes and plans. The Baillies plan to sail south to Costa Rica and then head west to the Pacific Islands. Wonder if we will ever do that? It is a dream.

Several weeks ago, we received this photo from our Telluride snowshoe group. As dynamic, healthy and happy a picture as it is with so many of our friends enjoying a beautiful hike on a gorgeous San Juan Mountain’s day, it did not pull us or tempt us to want to return to winter weather. We were tropical waters bound! Swimsuits, warm waters, sand, not snow, were on our minds. With Avante now in Paradise Village Marina, with clean up work begun, our minds now are turning northward to our mountains, our friends there and home. Avante will be secured until the end of March when we return for another two months. We will then sail toward new horizons and explore the Sea of Cortez, but at the moment as we clean and scrub, it is the jagged horizon of our San Juan peaks that is on our mind. Here we come!

STUCK

Tuesday, February 17th – STUCK! We are securely stuck at anchor. We were up by 7:00 with plans to motor out of the bay to head north 52 nm to Punta Ipala. Though often a marginal anchorage with rolling seas, cruisers do use it in order to be in position for an early morning departure to get around Cabo Corrientes before the winds hit. The Captain is delighted to see The First Mate dressed, on deck, at the helm with the engine running and ready to go. Being hooked on some boulder down below is not part of his plans. For well over an hour, we twist and turn Avante in a circle pulling at various angles hoping to free the anchor, but nothing is budging other than The Captain's rising frustration. Donning mask and flippers, he dives down hoping to be able to get deep enough to see something, but his ears protest long before he can get close enough to the 40’ depth where the anchor is located.
What to do? Of course, one could always cut the chain and leave the anchor down there. We do have another anchor we could use. However, this is no ordinary anchor stuck down there. It is a stainless steel 60# anchor with a replacement value of 3 to 4 Boat Units. For the uninitiated, a Boat Unit equates to $1,000 and is a common expression used when one is trying to absorb or rationalize the cost of anything on a boat. Thus, that simple piece of forged metal stuck down there costs between $3,000 to $4,000. It is not something one casually gives up on.

Greg James radios over from “Sirius” to find out if we have a problem. They had expected us long gone by now, and seeing us motoring in circles with Bill at the bow working the anchor controls, they suspect a problem and ask if they can help. By chance on our walks thru the little beach town, we had seen a tiny dive shop. Bill asks Greg for a dinghy ride to shore so he can walk to the shop. The dive shop radios its boat which just happens to be returning from a reef dive. With amazingly quick response, the dive boat reaches Avante just as Bill and Greg return. Their diver guesses that we are probably caught on one of the rocks below us. He puts on his gear and goes down. He is down there for a long time. We can see his bubbles moving around in a way that doesn’t fully make sense. When he comes up, we listen in amazement as he explains that the anchor and a good deal of chain are buried under a large wreck. We are not hooked on a rock or boulder. We are stuck under a boat, and that boat is large and very heavy. How the anchor and chain got there is anybody’s guess! The strong, shifting winds we had which barreled into the bay and caused all the boats to dance around their anchors were probably partly to blame as well the circling and pulling we ourselves had done earlier.
The diver goes down again with a rope to attach to the anchor hoping to be able to pull the anchor free from the other direction with his boat. No luck. The anchor and chain remain stuck. The diver talks about maybe having to cut our chain and forget about our anchor. We explain that we really do want to get our anchor back.

Out of air and needing reinforcements, he goes back to the shop. In an hour he returns with another diver and a crowbar. They dive on the anchor, and this time the two of them are able to free the anchor and use the rope to haul it up onto their boat. Our chain is still stuck under the boat, but at least, thankfully, we have the anchor. Chain is easier and much friendlier from a dollar perspective to replace. Our divers are good and are determined to try to free that chain. Down they go again to try to manhandle the chain around in a direction that would enable us on Avante to pull it free. Ready, they show us the direction to pull. It takes a bit of maneuvering to get Avante lined up and moving in the right direction. We motor above the wreck, put a bunch of slack in the chain then back up quickly till the chain pulls taut. We are using all of Avante’s 20 tons to try to drag our chain out from under the wreck. After several attempts, that sunken boat finally releases the last of our chain and up it comes. We are free. We have chain, and we have anchor. Bill uses up almost all of the Mexican money he has on hand to reward the divers. We feel lucky. Not many anchorages have divers nearby. What a start to a Travel Day!

Stainless steel 60# Anchor

Beautiful, isn’t it? But $4,000? The First Mate finds the cost of anything on a boat to be so ridiculously, incomprehensibly high that she no longer bothers to ask. Why?

It is now 1:00, a mere 5 hours after our planned 7:30 departure. The First Mate would like to spend the night and start all over again in the morning. The Captain will hear none of that. He is up. The weather forecast is favorable. He is ready to go, and there is no way he is dropping his anchor in this bay again! Off we go on an unjointly planned departure and not for Punta Ipala as originally scheduled. At a distance of 52 miles, there is no way we can reach there before dark. We will now continue overnight so we can head directly around Cabo Corrientes in the early morning hours and on up to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle in Banderas Bay.

It proves a miserable trip. Winds build up in the afternoon. We put in the first reef. Seas are a mess. Waves break over the boat, soaking everything. One of the lazy jack connectors snaps. The Captain has to go forward to fix it. We continue into the evening with winds between 18 to 23. What about the forecast of max winds of 15 knots? What happened to those afternoon winds calming with the sunset? Did not happen. We turn on the engine and let the sails luff a bit to reduce the angle of the boat while we prepare and eat dinner. Tuna fish sandwiches for dinner. Nothing else can be handled in the galley. At some point, we decide to take in the jib to reduce sail. The jib will not wind in. The First Mate is beginning to wonder what else is going to go wrong. The Captain goes forward to investigate the problem and returns soaked. The jib furler is not working. The jib is “stuck” out there, and in the dark and the heavy seas, he unable to get to the cause of the problme. We could take down the jib rather than furl it, but we don’t want to do that in this wind and with these seas. We decide to let the jib fly and instead we lower the main sail. Somewhat settled and secure, we motorsail into the dark night. We finally round the point in the early morning hours. Winds calm to under 16. We raise the main sail letting out the reef. Crossing Banderas Bay toward La Cruz, winds continue to drop. So do the seas. After all these winds, we end up having to motor across Banderas Bay for the rest of the morning. What a trip! But wait --- Two Travel Days equal (or beget) 4 Savor Days. Though we do not have that many days left before returning to Telluride, we do have scheduled 2 days in La Cruz before heading into Paradise Village Marina to clean Avante. The First Mate thinks that she will just make sure unused Savor Days are worked into the schedule when we return in April! She cannot complain, though. Eleven Savor Days were worked into this Gold Coast cruise. Not bad!

Gold Coast Cruising

It’s a small world, or so it can be at times. Sitting on deck while anchored in Bahia de Manzanillo, a dingy motors over to our boat. Greg Baillie from “Lion’s Paw” could not pass up meeting the people on this boat with Telluride on its stern. There are not many boats out there claiming Telluride as home. It turns out that Deb and Greg Baillie are from Telluride and also have Telluride written on their “Lion’s Paw”. Their home in Mountain Village is rented, and they are 1 1/2 years into traveling the oceans on “Lion’s Paw”. Our paths had never crossed in Telluride; yet here we meet crossing sails, so to speak, in a bay in Mexico! Small world, it is indeed. We now know of six beautiful sailboats hailing from Telluride out there sailing the seas. When people question us about being from Telluride, The Captain always comments that for Avante the first 1,000 miles out was the hardest part!

Two “Telluride” sailboats!

Saturday, February 8th – After 2 Savor Days in Manzanillo, we head to Bahia de Navidad. Motoring out of Bahia de Manzanillo, we decide to detour a bit to check out Bahia de Santiago which is on the other side of Bahia de Manzanillo. What a surprise! Where Bahia de Manzanillo was magical, Bahia de Santiago is ordinary, dominated by one large modern hotel building. Granted, it is white, but it just doesn’t have the poetry of Las Hadas.

Rounding Punta Santiago to enter Bahia de Santiago

Large, white hotel in bay. Nice, but not magical.

We motor out of the bay and along the coastline. Contrary to the tropical setting we expected along this Gold Coast, what we see is a rocky, dry landscape much like what one sees all along this Pacific Coast from the state of Washington and on south. Palm trees do exist here and there, seemingly planted for effect, and we are coming to believe they are about as native to this area as the palm trees in Florida are. This coastline is rock, scrub and cactus!

Heading out to sea to avoid some nasty rocks strung out from the coast, we raise sail as winds pick up and keep picking up. Afternoon winds do that down here, but these are early. We are sailing upwind in 20 – 25 knots of winds. The First Mate stays at the helm until the sun is too much for her. She is never going to fully learn to sail if they keep turning on the autopilot! It was a glorious sail, but 5 knots less of wind or less turbulent seas would have been more comfortable.

It takes us 5 tries to set the anchor in Bahia de Navidad. It keeps skipping along the gravel and rocky bottom and will not grab. Finally, we feel that comforting tug as we back down. The anchor is set. With rocks not far from us, we are very glad to set the anchor alarm.

We are on Central Time here in this part of Mexico. It is hard for The First Mate to comprehend that until she looks at a map. We really are that far east! However, we are on the western edge of the time zone. Sunrise comes late here. It is still dark at 7:00 in the morning. Being one who tends to wake with sunlight, The First Mate finds she is sleeping later until 7:30 or even 8:00. Not so The Captain. He has a different internal clock, that’s all. Up before the sun, he looks around outside and sees a sailboat anchored behind us that must have come in at some point during the night. It certainly was not there when we went to bed. It is a beautiful boat and a beautiful sight set off against the rising sun.

7:22 am – Bahia de Navidad

This boat is the most beautiful we have ever seen. About 75’ long, it is all wood and shines in the sunlight. It is sleek and classic, made to sail the seas. As we head out of the bay, we circle near to see if we can pick up its name and identify from where it hails. We can do neither, but The First Mate decides to capture a few more pictures of this elegant beauty.

Needing a fax machine, we are heading into Grand Bay Marina which is at the end of a narrow dredged channel. Once again, we are at a full moon with super low low tides. The Captain tries to raise the marina to verify the depth of the channel, but no one answers. We decide to trust the published data and inch our way thru the channel. It poses no problem. The marina is another matter. We are assigned a slip that at first we cannot locate and when we do, from what we can see, it looks like our slip is in a corner without sufficient turning radius to get into it. This marina does not send anyone out to guide or help us as other marinas have done. The “French Baker” in his panga making his morning deliveries checks it out for us and tells us that there really is room though we cannot see it from our angle. Slowly, more slowly than when we inched down that channel, The First Mate moves Avante down the fairway. Sure enough, there is room, but it is close. Lines tied, engine off, boat secure ...both Captain and First Mate are relieved. We now take the time to look around. What a beautiful marina and what a great hotel above it all! Another neat place – this one with palm trees in abundance!

We take care of what business we can and then decide to explore the little town of Barra. To get there, one takes a water taxi across the channel. What fun!

Approaching Barra, it reminds us of an island version of Venice. Imagine a gondola instead of a panga with an engine. All we need is a gondolier with a Pavarotti voice!

Back at the hotel, we enjoy a late afternoon swim in the pool. Refreshed and spruced up, we take the water taxi back to Barra and then a real taxi to Melaque, the town that is on the bay where we had anchored the previous night. Having had such a miserable dinner at that restaurant in Manzanillo, we are feeling a little gun shy, but the hotel concierge assures us that this restaurant in Melaque is very good. Our taxi driver also approves. We are feeling better. We arrive at the restaurant. There is not a light on. Monday night – it is closed! Now what to do? We ask the driver for a recommendation. Should we go back to Barra? No, there are no good restaurants there. Melaque has the best. He points to one across the street and says that it is very good. What else to do? Off we go, and we have a very good dinner with a delightful waiter accompanied by live music. It is amazing how one bad experience can have such a negative impact, but with this one very good experience, we are now feeling much better about dining out “on the economy”, as we used to say when we lived in Spain and Italy.

Tuesday, February 10th – The First Mate is up and ready. It is “French Baker” time. Finally, she hears him announce his arrival on the radio. Making contact, she requests that he stop at slip A-11. Avante is the name of the boat. He motors over with a panga filled with bakery goods, French bakery goods. She buys 2 croissants (chocolate for her, almond for him), 2 baguettes and a strawberry tart for tonight. Over our cappuccinos, we savor those croissants.

Today, our destination is Bahia de Tenacatita or Ten Bay in cruiser-speak. It is only 21 miles up the road, and then we will have 3 Savor Days. (That’s 5 so far if anyone is counting!) Ten Bay is a large bay, but it is quiet with little development. One of its features is a self-guided jungle river trip which runs thru a mangrove marsh. Turn off your engine and drift with the current. Listen to the wildlife. Search out the bright red crabs on the mangrove roots. Hunt for the birds among the foliage. We so enjoyed our trip that we went twice. Once in the early morning and then again in the evening.

Entering the river lined with mangroves.

We are soon drifting under a mangrove canopy thru shade and dappled sunlight.

Pelicans actually roost in trees! This strange sight is a pelican asleep on his branch. We are sitting quietly in The Dingbat as we drift silently under his perch.

Ever watchful and alert even in sleep, he senses our presence.

“No sleep for the weary,” he mutters to himself and off he flies.

Thursday, February 12th – We walk the beach in the morning! We snorkel! We explore the Jungle River in the late afternoon! “What a perfect ‘Savor Day’”, thinks The First Mate. “Not bad for a ‘Do Nothing Day’”, thinks The Captain.

Friday, February 13th – Though we have been told that anchoring in Bahia Careyes may not be possible for our size boat, we head out to give it a try. If nothing else, we want to see this up and coming “Mexican Riviera” with its many multi-colored homes climbing up the rocky shore. Again there is a good wind, and The First Mate takes the helm and stays there.

The only criticism I have about the J/160 is that it was not designed for a 5’5” person. Everything is about 3” too big, too tall or too wide for me. All this stretching and reaching out to count for something, one would hope!

Here I am on tiptoes trying to see over the dodger.

Arriving at the bay entrance, we take down the sails and motor between two rocky outcroppings into the bay. It is small, and though it actually comprises 3 bays in a clover shape, none of them have room for us. We anchor out in the middle to take in the view, but with the seas up, the wind barreling down on us and a huge rocky coast a few 100’ behind us, this is not a tenable anchorage for the night.

Approach to Bahia Cayeres. Prime real estate down here with luxury homes in a multitude of bright colors.

As we were told, it is a very pretty spot. What a fantastic beach ringed with palm trees! It would be great to visit, but conditions just will not allow us to stay.

These rocks, less than a few 100’ behind Avante’s stern, are a good reason why we choose to leave this windy, rolling anchorage. If the anchor slips, we would have very little time to get up on deck, start the engine and get the heck out of there.

The Captain enjoys the view before we reluctantly pull anchor and head 10 miles up the way to Bahia de Chamela.

By the time we are out of the bay and into open water, winds are averaging around 18 knots and the seas are quite turbulent. The Captain decides that we will motor rather than raise sail to tack back and forth the 10 miles we have to go. It proves a timely decision, for within a half hour of raising sail we would have been going thru a first reef maneuver as the winds climbed over 20 knots. Within a half hour of that, the second reef would have had to be put in with winds clocking in at 28 to 30. It is not that we could not have sailed. It is just that it would have taken so much longer to tack those 10 miles, and it would have been a good deal more uncomfortable than the wave bashing we were currently receiving.

As we finally motor into Bahia de Chamela, we expect the winds to drop within the shelter of the headland. They do drop – to a mere 20 – 22 knots. Anchoring in such winds in rolling seas is always a challenge. At the helm, it becomes a matter of putting just enough power on to hold the boat in place until the anchor hits the bottom. Too much power, and you overrun the anchor. Too little, and you end up way down from your intended anchor spot and thus possibly too close to boats behind you. It is a bit of a dance out there, made worse by the anchor refusing to set firmly and skipping over either rocks or gravel down there. Twice we back down on the anchor. It grabs briefly before pulling loose. On the third attempt, it catches. We’re done. With the wind still howling and barreling down on the anchorage, it is a relief to be secured.

Bahia de Chamela is the first good anchorage one reaches after rounding Cabo Corrientes heading south to the Gold Coast, which in reverse makes it the last good anchorage before heading back up around Cabo Corrientes to Puerto Vallarta which is what we are now doing.. We are planning 3 Savor Days here. (That’s 8 and counting.)

Saturday, February 14th – We spend the morning involved in various projects and interests. After lunch just as we are about to launch The Dingbat for some exploration ashore, those afternoon winds pick up again. We are soon being blasted by 20+ knot winds just like yesterday’s and decide that a launch The Dingbat exercise is not necessary in this wind. Even though we know we are securely anchored, there is always a nagging concern when winds are this high. Added to this concern is the presence of a new boat that anchored much closer to us than we would have liked, especially in this wind and with the way both boats are swinging at anchor. We are not too pleased with this and decide that remaining on Avante to monitor the situation is a good decision. So, we go for a swim. It’s a Savor Day!

Sunday, February 15th – We get up early, launch The Dingbat and head ashore to enjoy a brisk morning walk to the near-by village. We purchase eggs, but on the way back, The First Mate convinces The Captain that breakfast in one of the beach restaurants would be preferable. We chose one with brightly colored checked tablecloths and order orange juice and omelets. Expecting reconstituted orange juice, we are surprised and delighted with soda fountain-sized glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice. The juice alone is a great breakfast. The omelets are delicious, too. With the total cost at $8.50, The First Mate declares the breakfast galley aboard Avante closed for the remainder of our stay here! Who can blame her? Fresh orange juice, beachside location, pelicans and other sea birds doing acrobatics out there, peaceful breezes – This is truly a Savor Day!

On the way back to Avante, we stop to visit with Kate and Greg James whom we had met in Canoe Cove in Canada last summer. They had bought an old Baltic 52 and had been at the boat yard for well over a year, lovingly and beautifully restoring her. “Sirius” was almost ready and they were planning to take off in July headed south to Mexico. Mexico is a small coastline, right? We knew we would meet up somewhere down here and sure enough here we are anchored almost side by side in Bahia de Chamela.

”Sirius” – Baltic 52” – at anchor in Bahia de Chamela

While we are comparing adventures as cruisers do, a dingy motors up to tell us that a barbecue picnic is being planned on the beach of one of the islands in the bay. All cruisers in the “fleet” in Chamela Bay are invited. Bring whatever you want to eat and drink, snorkel gear for the near-by reefs and whatever else you want to add to the fun. Sounds like a great time. We’ll be there, but first The Captain wants to move Avante. His excuse is that he wants to get closer to the headlands to be less exposed to these strong afternoon winds, but the truth is we have had enough of swinging too close to the boat that anchored so near us. Dreading another round of skipping anchor sets, we move, drop anchor and on the first try it bites in securely. Feeling so much better about this spot, we change into bathing suits, grab our gear and head off to the island.

We meet a great group of fun people, but in particular there is a couple from California with whom we had exchanged weather information by radio on the trip south to Cabo. Ines and Kirk Nyby are tandem sailing on their schooner “Pilot” with their son and his wife, Mindy and Tristen, on their catamaran. They are at the beginning of a yearlong cruise to the Pacific Islands, returning to Long Beach Harbor by way of Hawaii. This will be Ines and Kirk’s third ocean voyage. In the 70’s as a young couple, they were one of the first to circumnavigate on a catamaran. Then in the early 90’s after designing and building “Pilot”, they took their 3 children out of school for a year and, along with Ines’ parents sailing on their own boat, undertook a cruise similar to the one they are doing now. Here they are today doing the same trip with their son and his wife. “What a great saga!” thinks The First Mate. Eager to learn more, she invites them to join us and the James for dinner the next evening at one of the beach restaurants. The James, as are we, are thinking about heading off to the Pacific Islands. This truly is a great Savor Day!

Monday, February 16th – A robust beach hike followed by another fresh orange juice and omelet breakfast. Cannot get any better! Only problem is that The First Mate has 2 blisters on her toes that developed from sand getting into the sandals and abrading the baby-fine skin of her toes. The Captain shakes his head in disbelief and amazement. He knows for a fact that she hardly ever has the right shoes for the right place, but here she is with right shoes (Keen water and hiking sandals) in the right place (beach) and she still gets blisters! What to do with her and her feet? Undeterred, she plasters on Band-Aids. What’s a small inconvenience on another great Savor Day?

We all meet later that evening on “Pilot” for cocktails before heading ashore for dinner. As The First Mate had hoped, it is a convivial group with a lot of information flowing back and forth. We have dinner at Manuelitta’s on the beach. We are the only group in the restaurant, and they are delighted to have us. So many restaurants on the beach and not a lot of evening clientele on a Monday night.

The Formula for Cruising is working nicely. Though The Captain continues to grouse about Savor Days, these Savor Days are adding a further dimension to our cruising. We are exploring more, doing more, getting on land more and meeting interesting people whose stories, adventures and plans are fascinating and informative. All of this adds to the richness of the Cruising Life. Would not miss it for the world!

AVANTE Aground!

It was mentioned when we were coming up to and rounding Punta Mita that the navigation charts for Mexican waters left a lot to be desired. Both The Captain and The First Mate have decided they are mostly useful as a general guideline, but are definitely not to be relied upon for serious navigation needs. The underwater survey data taken of these waters was done by the US Navy over 100 years ago!

















Look at the dates on the chart shown above. 1873 to 1901? The First Mate thinks this chart belongs a museum rather than in current use on an ocean-going boat!

Granted that, unless subject to seismic activity, not much changes underwater in 100 years, there remains a lot of data (like rocks that have been found or could be found with modern equipment) that ought to grace charts used by mariners today. Modern mariners would greatly appreciate such information, but that apparently does not concern the Mexican government.

An interesting phenomenon occurs when one needs to find one of the new marinas that have been built in the last 100 years. Many have been placed in dredged-out estuaries or even dug out of the land. These marinas naturally do not show up on our 100-year old charts, and no attempt has been made yet to locate them for the searching mariner. We have been in two already which are not on our charts: Mazatlan and Paradise Village Marina. To find these marinas, we have to rely on our guidebooks and the GPS waypoints they list and not our charts.

The First Mate must give the Mexican government some credit. In a few cases, where navigation need would appear to be most urgent, updates and additions to the charts have been made. For instance, the navigation chart to the main harbor in Puerto Vallarta was added and updated. We motor in there for fuel prior to heading south to Manzanillo. Cruise ships use this harbor. It is tight once one is beyond the entrance, and it is reassuring to have a fairly accurate chart of where to go to find the fuel dock. Chart we may have, but we still carefully monitor our depth meter and hope that channels have been recently dredged by harbor maintenance to their charted depths.

A further interesting discrepancy occurs between our charts and our actual location determined by GPS coordinates. Our actual GPS position is displayed on the charts on our computer and on our Furuno chart plotter, but there is a big difference between where we actually are and where we are shown on these charts. At the end of each day as we head shoreward to anchor and to go into harbor, we often end up “aground”. Night after night, Avante shows herself to be an agile and adventurous amphibian as we see ourselves located well inland according to the charts. The First Mate feels like Avante is turning into the search for Noah’s Ark. Which mountain are we going to alight on tonight?

















The chart shown above is what shows up on our computer. The 3 shades of Blue are water. Gold is land. The Red line is Avante’s track. The Yellow dot near the town of “Ipala” is Avante anchored well up in the surrounding hills. Look at the light blue area. The circles are rocks thru which we supposedly motored.

The reason for this goes back to the inaccurate Mexican charts. In Banderas Bay anchored in Punta Mita the charts are about 1 1/2 miles off from our actual GPS location. The Captain decides one evening that he is going to tackle this discrepancy and try to align chart and GPS. It takes a lot of figuring and finagling of buttons and controls, but he finally does it. The adjusted chart now shows us anchored where we actually are. This is a relief! The next morning we take off. Things look good until we get about 20 miles down the road and find that the actual location of nearby land is not where it shows on Bill’s meticulously adjusted charts. We conclude that the problem is that the charts are blissfully and consistently inaccurate! The only thing reliably consistent about these Mexican charts is their constant inconsistency. To deal with this, The Captain would have to reconfigure the data every time we change our location, and that is just too time-consuming and frustrating. We are just going to have to put up with this misguided visual image and do our own mental math to locate Avante on the charts.

For the last three years, we have been sailing with US and Canadian charts in some very remote areas with tricky navigation issues. US charts are very good, and Canadian charts are superlative. All have been updated using modern tools like GPS and satellite photos to accurately determine the position of things. If a series of rocks and shoals were ahead of us, our GPS location was right on, and we could confidently steer thru and around them. If a depth was listed, we knew we could count on it to be accurate. Not so here in Mexico. How we miss those so very accurate charts!

Fortunately, cruising Mexico does not hold the navigation challenges that one encounters in the Pacific Northwest. To be on the safe side, The Captain keeps Avante at least 2 miles off shore and more often closer to five. When our books talk about a rock 1 1/2 mile off shore or they say to give a point a wide clearance, we on Avante double the distance and steer clear. Avante may show up aground on Mexican charts. We can live with that - just as long as we do not end up aground in Mexican waters!

Broaden Your Horizons

We all remember sayings and admirable quotes that we heard and eventually learned in childhood. In fact, many of these quotes were so ingrained in us that we turned around and used them on our own offspring. The pattern will continue. It is programmed into us.

One of the quotes I remember my mother using was more an urging than a quote. “Broaden your horizons,” she would say. These simple words did make an impression on me. So much so that I even used them as the topic of one of those mandatory college essays one had to write to gain entrance. Back then, my mother meant these words more in the sense of “get a good education”, “go to college” and “get ahead”. That is certainly what I thought when, as a naïve 17-year old, I wrote that college essay. Little did I know that they were going to stay with me and impress me throughout my life.

Pauline Wilma Brna Julius, my mother, died in her sleep in the early hours of Monday, February 9, 2009. She was 93 years old. She lived a good and long life. Though widowed young, she raised two children on her own and was rewarded with their love. Her greatest rewards and joys, however, were the births of her four grandsons, one granddaughter, and one great granddaughter. Bill and I flew with that great granddaughter out from Arizona to Massachusetts on my mother’s 90th birthday. What better gift could there have been to give her? It proved a fond memory for all of us.

The last ten years were not kind to my mother. What can be said about dimming eyesight, weakening body and failing mind? They were as hard for her to endure as for us to watch, though for the last two years, we were more aware of the approaching end than, fortunately, she was. Each time I flew back east to visit, I left knowing that it could be the last time. I tried to imprint that final kiss, hug and look. Our last visit was December shortly before taking off on this trip on Avante. It did prove to be the last one, and I have a good memory of it. She was happy and attended to by two very caring and up-beat nurses.

Those who knew my mother as a younger, vibrant woman knew she never sat still. She was full of energy, always needed to be doing something, always wanted to feel she was helpful. She also had a fetish for anything to do with laundry: washing, folding, ironing, mending, whatever had to do with clean cloth. On her visits to us when our children were young, I used to go crazy thinking up things for her to do to keep her happy and feeling involved when she wasn’t either reading to or playing with the boys. I finally came up with the laundry. I would save up laundry for her to do. (She would have done the housework if I would have let her!) When it came to the boys’ socks and underwear, as far as she was concerned, the only way to make sure they stayed white was to bleach them. Bleach they got. Lots of bleach. The cotton/synthetic blends of the boys’ socks and underwear did not take well to all that bleach. Within a week after her 3-week visits, one or all of her grandsons would show up in the morning with drooping underwear or socks that had stretched out to unbelievable lengths. Bleach at work! I never told her, but it is a fond and funny memory I have of her. Replacing underwear was nothing. Her feelings of being involved, helpful and useful in her daughter’s houseful of three rambunctious boys were what counted the most.

Those two nurses had blessedly keyed into my mother. Thinking ahead to ward off any sad feelings at my leaving, they brought out of a bag of socks just up from the laundry. A whole bag of socks that needed to be paired up and folding together! My mother was delighted. I found out that they did this for her every evening after dinner and before bed. This simple task made her feel needed, loved and, for however long, involved in the life around her. Seeing her happy at that moment of leave-taking was wonderful. It is a memory I can smile at and one I will hold as dear as the one of those bleached-out, stretched-out socks.

Memories like these are precious. They ease the pain, but they are stagnant glimpses of the past. What she gave me in the memory of her encouragement, “Broaden Your Horizons”, is a thought that has echoed in me over the years and with maturity has broadened and deepened in meaning and purpose. “Experience more”, “see more”, “do more”, “do not be afraid”, “seek adventure”, “do the new”, “go, girl”! Though you will not see me signing up to blast off to the moon, there is much I have done with those words as my guide. I do wish I had thought to tell her this. Perhaps she knew just by watching the steps I have taken, the choices I have made, and the new horizons I have explored. One thing I know for sure is that I will pass those words on to my granddaughter, her great granddaughter. Berlin will know who told them to me. I will tell them to her and hopefully, she will live by them, too. A legacy to be passed on. Grab life, live it fully, and go, Girl, go!

Manzanillo -- A Most Romantic Spot

Thursday, February 5th – We leave Ipala for the last stretch to Manzanillo. Jazzed by his big catch of yesterday and undeterred by its poor taste, The Fisherman Captain wants more!

We see local fishing boats out on the water. One perky, little blue one catches The First Mate’s eye. It reminds her of a fishing boat’s version of the engine in the children’s book, “The Little Engine That Could”. I wish I can, I wish I can --- catch the biggest fish!

When it turns toward us, the outspread arms that hold the fishing net off the boat are filled with seabirds along for a free ride. Mother Nature did not make them dummies. They are resting up in hopes of gallant flying, diving and eating exploits when the fish are hauled in later.

Out goes the line with The Captain’s specially designed weight system attached. Throughout the morning and into the afternoon, he jumps to the zinging reel five times. Each time the drag on the reel is profound. It feels like the hook is stuck to the ocean floor. It’s a tug-a-war with no clear winner until the hook breaks free. Five times, an empty hook is all the reward he gets for his effort. What is grabbing this hook? It comes up bent after one snagging. Another time the whole back of the lure is scraped clean of paint. Whatever is biting that hook is big and has even bigger teeth! The First Mate suggests that maybe whatever is out there is something we do not want on this boat. The Captain ignores her and keeps on fishing. He suggests that maybe one of the many sea turtles we see swimming around Avante is getting snagged on the hook. I do not think so, and tell him that even if it is a turtle, we do not want that on the boat either. I know nothing about turtle anatomy or dissection and even less about turtle soup. Plus, I do believe sea turtles are on the endangered list so definitely taboo aboard Avante. The reel zings off a sixth time. It appears that we have a manageable fish on the hook. The Captain is disappointed because he can tell it is not as big as yesterday’s. He reels it in, gaffs it and brings it aboard. It looks similar to yesterday’s Bigeye Tuna, just a bit smaller in size and eye. Though we are doubtful as to the taste of this fish, it is soon dispatched and put in the refrigerator waiting filleting the next day in Manzanillo. With that catch, The First Mate declares the cold storagefull and ends fishing for the rest of the day. Instead she gives The Captain her fish book and tells him to review the chapter on processing one’s catch suggesting pointedly that his fillet technique could us a little fine-tuning.

We spend a very quiet night at sea. On the early morning watch, The Captain takes pictures of a spectacular sunrise over the mountains as we approach Manzanillo.

Nearing Bahia de Manzanillo, The Captain awakens The First Mate to come up and view the landscape. We are entranced by what we see. The bay is encircled by white buildings rising up the mountainside strikingly bold against the dark foliage.
Las Hadas Hotel (where the movie “10” was filmed) is a fairy tale complex complete with a magical turret. We anchor in the bay rather than seeking a spot in the marina. The view is just too perfect from the distance afforded by being at anchor. What we see reminds us of the Mediterranean, especially the hillside villages of the Amalfi Coast.
Later that evening as the lights come on around us, the magic of the bay is increased ten-fold. It is truly a romantic setting, and we enjoy dinner sitting on deck with our flickering electric candles adding to the ambience.
Saturday, February 7th -We dingy into the marina walk up to the hotel and get a taxi to Sorianas, another mega-supermercado. It proves to be a very good supermercado. They have everything we need except, as expected, Gin and good white wine. We know, however, that we will be using this store for re-stocking when we are back in Manzanillo next fall. In fact, Bill is so pleased with the store that he obtains one of those discount cards which US supermarkets all give to their customers. We are now officially a member of Sorianas elite clientele base!
That evening, being our 39th Wedding Anniversary, The First Mate is relieved of galley duties and taken out to dinner. The idea was a good one, but the dinner itself proves to be marginal and surprisingly expensive. Since The First Mate likes planning and cooking up a good meal and The Captain enjoys eating her good meals, neither of us enjoys dining in a poor restaurant just for the sake of eating out. We return to Avante anchored in the beauty and magic of the harbor and know we should have dined aboard amidst our own twinkling candles viewing the fairy-kingdom lights in the harbor around us. The beauty of this harbor for us ranks right up there with another favorite spot we have found in our travels on Avante -- a summer time slip right below The Empress Hotel in Victoria Harbor, Canada.

Avante below The Empress

Bigeye Tuna

Our 4 days in Puerto Vallarta, or more specifically in Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta, are not all spent fine-tuning The Formula. For one thing, we are running out of gin and good white wine. We search the small local market that caters to tourists and yaties. The white wine selection is poor and meager. Though they do have some gin, the price is exorbitant. We decide to head into town. The bus is the way to go – so we are told. It is if one has all day to circle thru every condo and hotel in Nuevo Vallarta while slowly navigating into and out of every pothole along the way. After our “Grand Tour” of Nuevo Vallarta, we hit the main road to PV and arrive at the US-known bastions of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. Both are located within walking distance of major hotels and are filled with Americans as well as Mexicans buying and buying. We find no good white wine and not one bottle of gin. Next we take a taxi to another US bastion: Costco. This edifice of American enterprise opened within the last year and is a bit out of town. Obviously not as popular as the former stores or maybe not as well located, it is a relief to be in a less frenetic place. It looks just like every other Costco we have even been in and stocks similar items. The First Mate is delighted to find Stacy’s big bag of lighted salted, baked pita chips. These are her stalwart friends when ocean swells start to get at her. Sit in the wind and munch pita chips with occasional sips of a ginger ale – yup, that does the trick. Contrary to what one might think, she has found that a full tummy or a filling tummy is better at countering an unbalanced ear than an empty tummy. Go figure!

The Captain, however, is dismayed. Here, too, there is not one bottle of gin on the shelves, There are lots of Tequilas and Rums. He stocks up on Tequila, Rum and a few bottles of white wine that he hopes will be good. We also buy 4 bags of Stacey’s Pita Chips, fresh shrimp, some vegetables and fruit and 2 heavy-duty insulated bags to carry it all in. Snagging a taxi, we have him take us directly back to the marina. No bus this time. Once was enough with that experience.

We enjoy Paradise Village Marina. Here we are surrounded by some really big boats. “Piano Bar” is one we are sure we have seen up north. Where? We settle on either Friday Harbor or Victoria Harbor. Finally, The Captain runs into one of its crew and finds out that they were in Friday Harbor last year. They run the boat south to Mexico in the winter and than back up to the Pacific Northwest in the summer. Not an uncommon practice along this coast, the trip north, though, is long, arduous and not for the faint of heart. There is a group that runs an organized rally south each year. The “Baja Ha-Ha” is the exciting trip south from San Diego to the glorious warm winter cruising waters of Mexico. The miserable trip north banging boat and body into winds and waves is known as the “Baja Bash”. For this reason, our future plans upon leaving Mexico are either to head west to the Pacific Islands or to continue south to Costa Rico and thru the Canal to the Caribbean.

In the early morning and late afternoon, local fishermen in their pangas come into the quiet waters of this marina estuary to fish. Skillfully balanced in their tipsy, little boats they hurl the nets out, let them settle for a while and then pull in their catch. I figure they are either catching dinner or the next day’s bait.

Paradise Village Marina is actually part of a larger complex simply called Paradise Village. It is huge resort with hotel, condos, homes and all the amenities and people that go along with such an enterprise. There is even a zoo with a couple of sleepy tigers and a bunch of squawking parrots who actually do say Ola to passers by. We enjoy an evening sunset drink in one of the beachfront bars and then walk out to the end of the quay. It is all very nice, but we are eager to set sail at the end of our 4 days. Too many people – too many tourists.

Wednesday, February 4th – We head out the channel (at high tide) for the 175 nm overnight passage to Manzanillo. This overnight passage had been jointly discussed and approved as the most expedient way to reach the wonderful cruising waters and anchorages of Mexico’s Gold Coast. To get there, we have to round Cabo Corrientes, another cape with winds and conflicting currents. Winds prove to be nil as we motor toward the point. We put out the fishing line and shortly it starts zinging away. Cut the motor, grab the rod, strap on “Lucille” – the name The Captain has given to a kind of a belt with a holder for the rod so the person reeling in the fish doesn’t have the rod jammed into his stomach, and pull out the vodka and the gaff. This one is big, real big. The Captain is having a heck of a time with it. Off it goes pulling out hard-fought line. Finally, The Captain gets it near the boat and realizes that there is no way The First Mate is going to be able to gaff and pull this one in. There is a finite limit to her strength, ability and agility, and there is a very real chance she could end up in the water, gaffed thru the leg, serving as shark bait while his fish swims away free. Motivated more for concern for his fish than his First Mate, The Captain does it all. The First Mate only gets the rod when The Captain has the fish securely gaffed. He hauls it up and onto the deck. It is huge! The biggest one he has caught. Pulling out our fish pictures, we identify it as a Bigeye Tuna. Wow! We are going to be in fish for meals and meals. Subdued with vodka, The Captain prepares the fish to be placed on ice in the refrigerator. Forget about carving up the fish on a rolling deck in the heat of the day, we had already decided that we were going to get our fish on ice and cooled down as soon as possible after catching. Cut off the head, bleed it, gut it and ice it – that seems the way to go. Then carve up the fillets in the cool of the late afternoon when we’re in harbor or at anchor. Even with the head off, the fish does not fit in the freezer! We don’t want to cut off the tail because the tail provides a great grip when The Captain is later taking off the skin. So, The First Mate pushes and twists the monster into the box. It’s going to be a wrestling match getting this guy out of the box, but dinner will be worth it!

As we continue south, The First Mate does a search thru her fish book and reads that Bigeye Tuna is really good eating, according to the author of the book. She suggests that maybe we stop in Bahia Ipala for the night so we can carve up our beauty and have a really nice dinner. By now winds and waves have begun to pick up. Carving this big fish on a rolling deck is not going to be easy. The Captain concedes that that is truly the case, and it is jointly agreed to overnight at anchor in Ipala Bay. Winds are 18 to 20 when we rocket into the bay. It takes a bit to secure us, but we are set. This is an isolated bay with 2 or 3 little restaurants that enterprising locals have opened to attract the few boaters that show up. Shortly, a group motors out in their panga to invite us to their establishment. Father, mother and three kids are in the boat asking us to eat in their restaurant. They are nicely dressed and polite. We feel sorry to refuse. We have our fish, but we tell them that we will return in 2 weeks and will eat dinner with them then. They then ask us for school supplies for their kids, which we do not have on the boat. It turns out that school is supposedly mandatory in Mexico, but each family must pay for their children’s school supplies once there are past sixth grade. Of course, these poor families just cannot do that. We plan to buy some simple school supplies for our return trip.

Now to the fish. The Captain cuts it up. It is a messy task taking up most of the counter space in the galley. The First Mate suggests that maybe we really do not want to catch fish any bigger than this one. “And how would you like me to guarantee that?” asks The Captain. The flesh is red, deep red. The First Mate does not like the look of it, but the fish book said it is good eating so it must be. She cooks it like she does Ahi Tuna: panko-crusted and seared quickly. We sit down to feast. It is horrible! Neither of us can eat it. We decide that this is definitely not a tuna that is eaten raw. We put it back on the stove to cook all the way thru. Much better, but not great. I now have 7 frozen packets of Bigeye Tuna in the freezer. What am I going to do with them? How should this supposedly good-eating fish be cooked? Having been raised with such phrases as “Waste not: want not” and “Remember the starving children in China”, The First Mate has a hard time with the thought of just throwing the fish away. To her, it feels unwise or unlucky to throw away the meat this poor fish provided for us with his life. She feels strongly that Mother Nature did create certain animals for us as food and that to kill these animals for food is okay with her, but to kill for any other reason is asking for her wrath. Her wrath on these open seas The First Mate does not want.

The First Mate is disgusted. So is The Captain, and we are both thinking that for this we stopped for the night! We would have arrived in Manzanillo the next day. Instead with 135 nm still to go, it cannot be done in the 12 hours of daylight available at this time of year. There will still be another day and an overnighter before we arrive at our destination. However, the night is balmy, the stars are out and we fall asleep cradled in Avante rocking away on a rolling Pacific Ocean. What’s another day here, another day there? We’ll get there mañana, mañana.