Tom and Theresa's Travels

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 ...

  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 mountaino...

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 kaya...

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 cleani...