Tom and Theresa's Travels

 We stayed in Matanchen Bay for 3 nights.  The first night, there were 5 other boats; the last night, we were the only ones anchored.  The bay and the beach are fairly large and unpopulated except for the 34 restaurants along the beach (I know it was 34 because they were on the sign - I have no idea how these restaurants all make it given that they seemed empty while we were there).   Matanchen Bay is near San Blas, which we anchored in on the way south in January.  It's a great spot to anchor except for the jejenes (aka no-seeums) and other biting insects.  Before dusk, we closed all of our hatches and windows, which seemed to work.  Interestingly, the jejenes are one of the most important pollinators of the cacao plant https://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/meet-the-flies-that-pollinate-cocoa-trees/ - so most everything has some purpose even when they are annoying 😉 We left Saturday morning at 8:00 am.  We knew the winds were going to be high that afternoon, but we wanted to do

After we left Yelapa, we anchored at Punta de Mita for one night, which is on the northwest end of Banderas Bay.  While we were leaving in the morning to go to Chacala, a couple of humpback whales were breaching quite a bit:   Chacala is a pretty anchorage that a lot of cruisers stop at going to the south or north.  There are a lot of beach side restaurants, a campground on the beach, and a few nice resorts.  Great beach to swim in.   I took the kayak to the beach to check in with the Port Captain and went to town to get a few groceries (not too many because I had to kayak back to the boat).  We refilled our water tanks and took the dinghy ashore for pizza (see Tom's post about the dinghy ride!).  Unfortunately, Chacala doesn't have much protection to the west.  We had both a bow and stern anchor set in about 20' of water.  We weren't going anywhere but the waves were rolly and choppy.  The rolling waves don't bother me - it's kind of nice being rocked to sleep

  After being in the La Cruz area (marina and anchorage) for over 5 weeks - which I thoroughly enjoyed -  we left the La Cruz anchorage on March 10th headed to Yelapa.  Yelapa is on the south side of Banderas Bay and is a really pretty village that you can only get to by boat or hiking.  Tom fished along the way and caught 2 Bonitas.  We threw the first one back but the second one was too injured by the hook so Tom filleted it and made ceviche that he ate later for dinner.   I love fishing - I was my dad's fishing buddy - but the swells were huge when we stopped moving so stopping to land a fish was uncomfortable, especially since I didn't have my sea legs and I had to be the gopher and go up and down the companionway to retrieve fishing gear because we weren't prepared to catch fish...anyway, I was being a little bitch (sorry Tom!) and just wanted to get to Yelapa and not be distracted by fishing so much.....Back to Yelapa.... Because of the mountainous terrain surrounding

I LOVE whales and all things Cetacean so I was so excited that I had an unforgettable experience with an adult female humpback whale and her calf a few weeks ago.  There are quite a few humpbacks in Banderas Bay - an estimated four hundred plus Humpback whales come to Banderas Bay every winter to breed and give birth to their calves. There's so many whales, especially near the south side of the bay, that the whale experts recommend running an engine or generator while sailing so that the whales can hear you and move out of your way (you don't want to hit a whale in a boat for their sake and yours).  When you're in the La Cruz anchorage, it's common to hear the exhale of the whale coming up for air near your boat.  The whales, along with the other marine wildlife, adds to the specialness of Banderas Bay.   While helping a friend, John, with his sail, two whales, an adult female and her calf, were putting on show in the La Cruz anchorage near his boat. A few kayakers and

We're anchored in Chacala.  It's an open roadstead to the west, but the Pacific swell is manageable tonight.  The beach is lined with seven or eight thatch roofed beach bars.  It's a steep beach, with a sudden, somewhat violent break. We arrived after motoring all day; we couldn't buy a breath of wind.  We tried to motor sail for a while, then we took the sails down to prove they weren't helping.  It was a successful test. We dropped the anchor in 28 feet of water and let out 130ft of chain placing the boat stern to the beach.  Then we dinghied a second anchor towards the beach another 80ft and pulled it tight.  It's comfortable to stay square to the swells.  So far, it's working. For dinner, we rowed ashore.  We tried motoring into smaller surf a couple nights ago,  and didn't like it.  And...rowing....rivers! We're experts.  While I eyed the surf with a grin, Theresa said, "I'll row!"  "Ok," I said, with disappointment and c

Announcement: the generator does not make hot water.  Well, it does, but we don't catch any of it for hot showers.  The engine does this, but not the generator.

 Remember heading off to college?  Opportunities to make friends abound.  Sailors are a social bunch.   More than a couple hundred of us met at a local beach bar to listen to 82 year old woman describe her 5th circumnavigation.  This time it was unassisted, continuous, and she past south of all 5 southern capes.  (South America, Africa, Australia, Tasmania, & New Zealand)  She was at sea most of a year.  She never used her engine, never took anything aboard other than seawater, and no-one provided assistance other than communication or advise.  Soon, she will sail from Vancouver to New Zealand because she's passed by a few times, but never stopped to enjoy the kiwis.   We installed batteries.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I stuck with old technology: 10 AGM lead batteries.  We wanted to upgrade to Lithium, but that required upgrading expensive components that still work.  No sense discarding what works. I've been studying wire rope, marine eyes, stemball fittings, spre

We've been "living" in La Cruz for the last month & I have loved it!  It is a small town but has a huge boating community with several hundred boats in the marina & another 50 boats in the anchorage nearby.  The diversity of boats and boaters is cool - there are multi-million dollar yachts (like ours 😉) & boats that are barely worth their yearly marina fees but still are floating.  Many of the boaters are live-aboards like us, some are racers & sail almost every day, some are preparing to go to the south Pacific or circumnavigate the globe, and others never leave the dock.  There are quite a few families with babies, kids, and teenagers, and a wide age range of boat owners from young couples in their 20's to cruisers over 80.  Yet we all have a common thread of owning a boat.  There are quite a few powerboats for fishing, going fast, & booze-cruises; many of the large powerboats are worked on daily by local workers, like constant cleaning, engine