Puerto Vallarta - Huatulco

4/20/11
After spending a wonderful time in our beloved Puerto Vallarta s/v Maestro has decided to ship south headed for Ecuador and the Galapagos.
Before the festivities can begin we had an extensive check list of pre-departure preparation items. We gave ourselves one week to complete routine items like oil changes, zinc replacements, bottom cleaning, rigging & sail inspection/repair and of course provisioning. As we threw the dock lines and prepared to take on fuel at Opequemar in Marina Vallarta we noticed a characteristically full and hectic fuel dock so we opted to more North and fuel up at Marina La Cruz. We left the harbor with cruise ships in our wake and motored into a calm Banderas Bay. As we moved along the afternoon thermals started to dramatically increase the wind speed and after our third frustrating attempt to approach the La Cruz fuel dock in 30 knots of wind we were glad to rest Maestro comfortably. After spending $1200 on Mexican petrol we were ungraciously hurried off the fuel dock before we could say a goodbye to our friends Katrina and Rob so we turned out of the basin into a now 34 knot apparent headwind. Erin was preparing the deck for sea and with the motion received her first boat bite and sprained her thumb on the station post. A good omen.
Anchored overnight at Punta Mita was rolly with a southern swell. Great for surfers and great for us because we could wait to leave!

4/21/11
Maestro departed Punta Mita at 0500 with an uncomfortable beam swell and not a breath of wind three hours crossing Banderas Bay. Rounding the potentially turbulent Cabo Corientes we encountered a pod of whales all around us – what an experience!
As we motor sailed southward against wind and current we were alerted when we thought we saw a lobster buoy. (These can be a hazard to sailing vessels and their propellers and are to be avoided at all costs) As we approached closer we notice that it was in fact a sea turtle with a seabird resting on top of it. Next thing you know there were several turtles and bird combinations in less than a quarter mile. These turtles weighing anywhere from 50 – 100 lbs are like underwater mines. Fortunately they have excellent senses and dive rapidly when approached. We couldn’t help but think of the days of old when turtle soup was on the menu. Thank god for Costco!
We arrived in Bahia Chemala after a long windless and rolly 12hr day. Even still - we are elated to be at sea and enjoy the sweet salt laden balmy air. The charts for the Chemala area show us as being laid up on land on two separate navigation systems. They are off by a minimum ½ mile. This really requires a vigilant look out for rocks, reefs and other potential obstructions. The anchorage was a busy Mexican Easter weekend full with thumping disco sound system barreling into the harbor. Add that to a full anchorage with Mega Yachts and seadoos made us apprehensive about our stay. With sunset only an hour away we didn’t have much choice and dropped the hook. Fortunately it was Good Friday and the music stopped at sunset and we settled into a restful evening.

4/22/11
Arrived at Tenacatita today and we were pleasantly surprised at how few other yachts are in the tranquil anchorage. This is one of the top destinations in this area and is typically packed with many cruisers. I guess it is another good reason we are at the tail end of the season. Most boats seem to be heading up to La Paz or into the ‘sea’ to summer over. Tenacatita has a famous “jungle cruise” that you can take your dinghy up approximately 2 miles into a mangrove laden river. We dropped the hook and settled in. Len busted out the binoculars to inspect the goings on with this infamous river. It isn’t an obvious entry from the anchorage but after watching several boats (from a ¼ mile away) easily access in and out of the river mouth Len felt pretty confident as where to go. We hopped in the dinghy with excitement to experience our first land based voyage in a week. Upon approaching the beach there was quite a bit of surf and lots of Mexican families enjoying the waters of the river mouth. After a brief inspection we gunned the throttle on the back of an incoming wave and before you knew it we were meeting the propeller with a scattered rock bottom. Startled; we shut down the motor and jumped out of the dinghy to direct ourselves as not to get ‘pooped’ in the surf. In true Mexican hospitality a nice senor came over to help us drag out of the sand and graciously showed us the correct in and out area. We returned back to Maestro humbled and feeling like rooky cruisers. The damage assessment was half the propeller blades severely damaged.
Well – it took us several hours to ‘reconsider our operations’ but we eventually headed back to the river and successfully navigated through the channel. That was a lesson we won’t forget!
We met a couple on a 32 ft cruiser who downloaded us some information on Navy secured anchorages in Pacific Columbia, an Ecuador Guide and an interesting cruiser compendium on the South Pacific islands: Tuamotos.

4/25/11
Barra De Navidad marina is one of the finest on the West Coast because of the lovely facilities they offer to their guests. We pulled in and had a wonderful slip with a view of the 5 star resort. When we check into the marina office the quoted us for a two day stay which totaled ½ of which we paid for an entire month that last time we came through 10 years ago. OUCH. We bartered a bit (that’s putting it nicely) and we agreed on a rate that was more reasonable. When we signed the papers the nice lady passed me a slip that said: “Facilidad no hay pase”. Hey? (More like.. What the $%@) I looked at her and I looked at Len and she quickly told us that a group of Jewish people had rented the entire hotel for 10 days and no one was allowed to use the pool, tennis courts, walk on the grounds and that we were restricted to the marina area only. The tropical cascading pool was only a fantacy in my thoughts! And it was so damn hot! Determined not to let it get us down we carried on and enjoyed the marina. After all we were there to get the propeller fixed – not laze around the pool! (Oh, I still had my visions!)
Mission Propeller in a small Mexican town can be a problem and all intellectual resources must be used. We asked around a bit and most said “No.. No” go to the larger ciudad 40 miles away in Manzanillo. Finally we found a guy who would give us the right answer and we found the Yamaha dealer in Barra. Wow – we weren’t sure how this was going to go but we put our propeller on the back of his brand new pickup truck and stumbled through our Spanglish. He told us he would return and off he went through the maze of parts and half build walls of his shop. About 15 minutes later he returned with a brand new still in the box propeller for our 25 hp Yamaha. Success! We love days like these.

4/28/11
We have been motoring our way most of the last 24 hours with an intermittent 4 hour sail sometime yesterday. There isn’t a breath of air. And someone has turned on the heat. Again – there are turtles everywhere! The water temperature has increased 10 degrees since we left PV – it is now 85 degrees. Summer is coming. We don’t expect to get much wind this time of year as we are right between the changing of seasons. It should be to our benefit crossing the infamous gale force Teuanepec. All literature suggests the first of May is one of the best times to cross.

5/1/11
Wonderful marina stop in Ixtapa and we took a taxi visit to Zihuatanejo. We washed down the salty decks, filled up the water tanks, did a load of laundry and headed across town looking for another propeller. Come to find out that the “Barra Propeller” did not have adequate pitch and was our lagging hull speed and we think setting off the motor alarm. (To be continued?) We found our way to a somewhat organized Yamaha shop in Z-Town and they directed us to his Uncle’s place up steep winding roads. The taxi parked outside this bright pink casa and we bartered through a large open living room window for our new propeller. I didn’t get any pictures of this exchange but it was in true Mexican fashion with children running around, dogs barking, men laying on the front porch and of course a picture of the virgin Mary hanging on the wall overseeing all.
After we took care of boat business we headed about town viewing the sights, walking the beach and boardwalk and then found a little café to lounge at. We met a nice man from Mexico City there who recommended a great restaurant. Great is an understatement actually. High in the hills of Zihuatanejo is a restaurant called La Casa Que Canta (www.lacasaquecanta.com) where we sat high over the bay and watched the sunset over scallops and palm heart salad, etc. – great cap to a wonderful day. If you go to Z-Town this restaurant and atmosphere is a MUST!

5/3/11 – Passage to Huatulco
Len woke me this morning at 0800 to 100 bottle nose dolphins jumping towards Maestro. What a sight! (We are about 40 miles offshore) As usual I ran to the bow to lay on the bow sprit to get an up close look at them taking advantage of our bow wave. There were so many that not only were they stacked in uniform on the bow wave but they flared out towards the beam on the vessel seemingly in strict hierarchy. The older dolphins got premium real estate on the bow wave while the younger smaller dolphins frolicked on the beam wave. I took a few shots with my camera but it doesn’t do much justice given you cant penetrate the water with the camera. They were at least 5 dolphins deep – at one time I counted 12 on the bow wake alone. After an hour of riding with us they departed as quickly as they arrived.

5/4/11
We have rounded into the infamous Gulf of Tehuantepec. Weather is calling for Gale Force conditions N to NE winds 40 - 50 kts tomorrow with seas 12ft - 18ft. Fortunatley we are just getting the start of it as it is only blowing 30 kts. It is a following condition but coming into the marina will provide a challenge as it will turn to our beam.

5/6/11
Safe and sound in Marina Chahue in the bay of La Cruecita. No worries docking yesterday. We shared sea stories with the ladies on M/Y Elysiam from Puerto Vallarta - they arrived here about 10 days ago. We went to the port captain to check in this morning and told them our departure plan would be for Saturday - weather permiting. We have to take on fuel and have viewed the hidious fuel dock in Huatulco and have decided to jury can it from the PEMEX station on land. Four trips should do it. We have been running an average of 7.5kts with several counter currents so we are happy to be making reasonably good time. We are a little surpirsed that a full blown Tehuanapeker is out there as everything we have read said that the first of May is the safest and most tranquil time to transit the Gulf. Damn weather books. I have a feeling its going to be a long 230 mile windy passage and will be battening down the hatches!
Huatulco is beautiful. We tried to find a remote beach and ended up hiking for about 1.5 hours in the heat without any success. We finally cooled off with an evening swim in cental Huatulco. There are no tourists here so it was us and lots of Mexican families. If you stay in the water long enough eventually you will cool down!