Puerto Vallarata to
Tenactatia
Nov. 18-Nov. 28
Kevin and I spent about four days in Marina Vallarata before
picking up Quinn on Nov. 18th. The marina allowed us to run our AC
to escape the heat, and we also found out about the nearby hotel pool, where
marina customers had access, to cool off in the very hot afternoons. The marina
itself had potable water (we had thought we could fill our tanks here…only to
discover that very few marinas in Mexico have non-potable water), electricity
(which was about $10/day for us), and a plethora of restaurants, small markets
and pharmacies, and a couple of lavanderias but no machines for general use.
Since this was the first marina we experienced since leaving Ensenada, we
learned about the gap between our expectations and reality; the bathrooms,
which we figured might be close to our dock, were clear across the entire
marina—and meant that we only took advantage of the “real” shower one
time…again, we had visions of using the showers, filling our water tanks,
meeting fellow sailors, and having the use of laundry facilities—and none of
these things really happened (although we did meet one guy next to us who owned
a trawler but was a former sailor, and he gave us very helpful advice about
different anchorages where we could take Quinn, who was joining us for a couple
of weeks). Also, we had to pay a deposit on two key cards to gain entrance to
our dock, but we found out that the key cards did not work due to some “Wifi”
error that hadn’t been fixed (and, oh, we thought there would be Wifi, as well,
only to discover that it didn’t really exist). This meant waiting around for
the marina staff to give us entrance to the dock where we had our slip.
Pardon the rambling, but we couldn’t help but notice why so
many who have cruised in Mexico will tell you/us, “Hey, you’re on Mexican
time”—meaning, chill out and simply go with the flow, which K and
I both got much better at doing by the end of the season.
So, as nice as the marina was for convenience and the air
conditioner to cool us down, we were eager to leave once Quinn arrived. He was also ready for “some blue-ass water,”
as he called it 😊. As we sailed away from the marina, one of
the major highlights for me—since we’ve been talking about this trip to Quinn
for so long—was watching him sit on the stern step and put his feet in the
water for the first time…he hollered with laughter and delight (the only two words
to describe it) about how warm it was. I guess this is to be expected when you
have grown up on the central coast of California your whole life and only
experienced some cold-ass water!
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| And just after leaving with Quinn to head south, dolphins joined us! |
After spending one night at La Cruz and one night at Punta
Mita, we left to head south around Cabo Corrientes, which is famed for its
strong currents and winds. Like we had done with Point Conception in
California, which “separates” northern and central California coastline from
its southern sister, we rounded the promontory of Cabo Corrientes early enough
to beat the winds, giving about 4 miles berth between us and land, and
separated ourselves from Banderas Bay to explore Costalegre, or the “happy
coast” of the Mexican mainland.
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| Cabo Corrientes lighthouse |
Our first anchorage was Punta Ipala, a 45 mile sail from
Punta de Mita. We motored most of the way and pulled in to a small anchorage
with no other boats except the panga boats which fringe the shoreline. We were
hot, and Quinn was eager to snorkel, so we donned our masks and fins and swam a
short distance to the rocks on the north side of the anchorage. The water was
churned up a bit, but Quinn saw his first assortment of sea life. A fisherman
in his panga boat came up to us, and with our limited Spanish and a whole lot
of gesturing, we thought we had settled on him picking us up in his panga to
take us to shore for dinner…so we thought. An hour after our 5:00 pick up time,
I decided to whip up a quick dinner. Quinn was convinced that he wanted to go
to shore, and we were reluctant to offload the dinghy since we knew we were
leaving early to head to Bahia de Chamela. So I compromised and told Quinn I
would ride the SUP with him to shore.
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| Hilarious--I looked like I was bracing for a battle. Lol! |
It was a rolly night since Ipala is pretty exposed, but we
left with one other boat just after sunrise at 6:45 a.m. After another 50
miles, we arrived in Bahia Chamela, a large bay comprised of 2 or 3 anchorage
spots and two mini-islands/rocks within the bay. We dropped anchor at the south
part of the bay with 6 or 7 sailboats.
In Shawn and Heather’s second edition of Pacific Mexico: A Cruiser's Handbook, the spot where they indicate an anchorage at Isla Pajara proved to be
the best snorkel spot…there is a very small beach area where we landed the
dinghy and then set out with our gear; we spent a couple of hours wrapping
halfway around the perimeter of this tiny island, avoiding all but the western
most exposure from the open ocean.
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Bahia Chamela to Tenacatita
This leg of the trip was another full day, but we finally had some great sailing, and the weather had cooled slightly--plus, the water
color! It went from blueish green to the most beautiful “blue-ass”
water. Truly, it was mesmerizing water…so much so, that I was jiggling our
fishing line and hanging out on the stern deck when I saw a huge fish fly
toward our lure. It jumped out of the water several times…I was so
excited, but I wanted Quinn to grab the “reel” and enjoy the catch. He spent
several minutes taming this beast while Kevin assisted; after gaffing him,
Kevin held up a beautiful 21 lb Dorado! We were stoked! We had at least 10
“steak” sized fillets from this beauty.
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| Fish on! This beauty was a fighter... |
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| A 21 lb Dorado! |
As we rounded the rocky area on the north end of
Tenacatita, we passed the small anchorage called “The Aquarium” and made our
way to the cruisers’ anchorage just a couple of miles east of this. The cove
where we anchored was incredibly calm, easily the calmest anchorage of our
entire trip. It was near a river/estuary, so we noticed the mosquitoes,
especially at dusk. But the cruisers here were incredibly friendly, inviting us
to Bocce ball on the beach and daily 3:00 happy hour at one choice palapa
restaurant that had fantastic food! (it’s the restaurant closest to the river
mouth).
Besides the amazing snorkeling at “the aquarium” (the
first anchor spot we passed on the way into the bay), we also took the dinghy
through the river estuary; we saw only a few different birds, but we decided that
our motor probably scared away most of the critters through this jungle-like
tour.
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| Green coral...and look closely for Nemo's cousin! |
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| Entrance/Exit to the estuary...hit it at slack tide. |
One Epic Day!
We were expecting to beat back to
Puerto Vallarta with Quinn; however, our weather indicated that we might have
some southern wind pushing us north—so we took off at the perfect time.With
about 15 knots of wind at our back, we decided to fly our ballooner for the
first time... This was sailing! As a relative novice to this world, I
couldn’t believe how stable and balanced our boat was with this sail flying. We reached 9 knots, a record for us, with only the ballooner and mizzen
sails. With dolphins at the bow....catching skipjack tuna...and absorbing the sweet sound of wind through the sails--we felt privileged to witness the day.
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| I am not a morning person, but this sunrise... |
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| The dolphins arrive...they were so ready to play. |
There are three main marinas in Puerto Vallarta, and after our mediocre experience at Marina Vallarta, we decided to try Paradise Village, which boasts a nice marina, a very large hotel with two different pools, and a nearby plaza complete with souvenir shops, restaurants, a Starbucks, and a laundry mat. Really, this place had everything, including non-potable water. We had full access to the hotel pools and restaurants, so it was a fun way to end the trip with Quinn. We arrived on Thanksgiving day...and celebrated properly with Mexican-made fajitas and shrimp tacos.
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| View from the restaurant |
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| The sad part of this hotel: two caged Bengal tigers named Daisy and Duke. Gee, wonder who the hotel caters to! |
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| Beautiful parrots |
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| The alligator slide was the best! |
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| Pretending to own this yacht! :) |
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| Quinn has the best smile |
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| My incredible husband |
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| resident iguanas |
Our time was too short with Quinn. But we wouldn't have to wait too long before all of our kids arrived in La Paz.
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