New Crew

Maggie enjoying a cup of tea

I arrived in La Cruz two days before Maggie arrived by plane to Puerto Vallarta.  Its about a 1 hour easy bus ride to the airport.  The Puerto Vallarta area like most of Mexico has got public transit totally sorted out.  It is generally easy and cheap to get around.  Sometimes the transport is a little rickety and sometimes the drivers are a little aggressive but I have only been on one bus that had an accident so far and that was only a fender bender!
As I was coming into La Cruz I had an overcharging problem with my batteries and the day I arrived my dinghy engine quit.  So a couple of major issues to deal with.  So Maggie ended up spending more days in La Cruz than either of us really wanted to.  It did mean I got to spend more time with my Auntie who was in nearby Sayulita which was lovely.
I managed to sort out the overcharging problem with a switch installation so I can now just shut off the alternator when necessary.  Thanks to Gary on Searover II for guidance with this project.  The dinghy motor remains unresolved.  We have had to rely on the kindness of friends for rides or paddle.  Kialoas abundance of dinghys has come in handy (I have had to bear quite a bit of teasing about how many dinghys I have on my little boat!) as the rowing dinghy has been pressed into service as well as the swimming to shore with a dry bag method.  We finally left La Cruz and started heading northwards, first stop Punta de Mita, a big 9 mile hop.  It was an upwind sail to get there and took 4 hours of beating, but we were rewarded with a young humpback whale surfacing within 3 meters of the boat!  Exciting and just a little scary as even though it was smaller than Kialoa it was not that much smaller.

A meet up of Bluewater Cruising Association boats in LaCruz
There were 10 boats represented and 3 others in the bay that
were not able to attend.  Talk about an organization that is
meeting its mandate of getting people on boats to head out
cruising!

Next day we headed for Chacala, some 30 nm this time.  Once again spotting whales but not nearly so close.  I called my Auntie as we were passing by Sayulita and she was heading to Chacala by car!  So a wonderful coincidence turned into a fun dinner at the beach palapa in Chacala!
Maggie and I upped anchor the next morning and motored most of the way to our next stop, Mantanchen bay.  Got a little sailing in at the end and spotted whales again.  A quiet night in Mantanchen and then around the corner the 3 miles to San Blas, which is a very shallow bar and channel up to the Marina.....not the best thing to do on a falling tide but I managed not to go aground and only got a few more grey hairs before we were safely tied up at the Marina.

On the way to town, Chacala.

Kialoa at anchor Chacala

Dinner with my lovely Auntie.  

San Blas sunset