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Banderas Bay (La Cruz – Puerto Vallarta) – Chacala – San Blas (Mantanchen Bay) We left early trying to find some of the offshore breeze but managed very little sailing as we pushed north, following along miles and miles of beach with not a soul in sight. It was quite attractive and rugged having a back-drop of mountains; there were few dwellings however we noted that almost all the ‘strategically great’ building spots, atop of small hills close above a beautiful private beach, were already taken by multimillion dollar houses, the sort of places that film stars would have to get away from the crowds. Cabo Corrientes was rounded a little before midnight and without fuss, we were blessed with almost a knot of current pushing us along and this more than made up for the light head wind that sprang up as we got close. Suddenly, like turning off a light bulb we moved from subtropical to temperate climate; the air temperature fell almost fifteen degrees and the water temperature followed closely astern. We were about to discover why everyone else we had met was moving south whilst we seemed to be alone in moving north! It was a distinctly chilly morning at 0400hrs when we anchored off the new Marina at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, generally shortened to ‘La Cruz’ as no one knows quite how to pronounce the rest. We were now in Banderas Bay and a stones throw from Puerto Vallarta, a big city and thriving tourist centre. This area has become a very popular retirement spot for North Americans and Canadians so the building of Apartments, Condominiums and Time-share has taken off in a big way. It is always interesting how Real Estate is marketed; anything that has more than a tennis court and Jacuzzi is now a ‘Wellness Resort and Spar’! We had been told that the Marina was charging $3/day for dinghy’s but could go where the Pangas went for free. Our first sortie ashore put this to the test but we ended up so far out of town we decided to just pay the money and have done with it. If someone had mentioned that this price included use of the showers we wouldn’t even have hesitated, as it was it took us a while to find that out. The Marina was still under construction and they were working at a seemingly frantic pace to get it completed; in a short time it will be another excusive development surrounded by expensive condo’s and fancy restaurants, another place the average cruiser wouldn’t want to go even if he or she could afford it. Another couple of years and it will be another Las Hadas and the anchorage will be plagued with Jet-ski’s and Speedboats; we got here not a moment too soon! We took the bus into Puerto Vallarta and did some provisioning; there was Walmart, Sam’s Club and Home Depot so the average American would feel right at home; in fact it was so ‘at home’ you get to wonder what they come to Mexico for in the first place……I guess it’s just the climate. We did manage to use the Marina showers on the last day of our stay and they were worth the three dollars however on the morning net, as we were going out of the bay, we heard that the fee had been raised to ten dollars and the remaining yachts in the anchorage were really kicking up a fuss about it; maybe we won’t go back……. On the next leg we had a little more breeze and were able to sail more than half the distance, this was a most refreshing change and I was hoping that it would be a sign of things to come. We had been aiming for San Blas but as I was determined to use the breeze and we were not exactly romping along, we cut it short and ducked into Chacala; a very pretty little spot but a little open. I laid out a stern anchor and was glad to have done so, for when the wind died we would have gone broadside to the swell and rolled horribly. The next morning we were shrouded in Fog and even as daylight tried to penetrate, we could hardly see across the bay. We knew the sun would burn it off as the day progressed and heaved up our anchor just as soon as we’d taken the morning weather forecast from the radio. It was another day with very little wind however and we motored most of the remaining distance to anchor just south of San Blas in Mantanchen Bay. This seemed a beautiful anchorage very much to our tastes and whilst there were Palapas surrounding us along the beach they were mostly empty due to it being ‘off season’ and cool, we were able to sit in the cockpit, listen to silence and relax for once. By mid afternoon it had warmed up enough for me to get into my wetsuit and clean off the bottom, we had now been thirteen months afloat and our antifouling paint was giving up thus I spent about forty minutes removing many small barnacles and a fair amount of weed; it was fortunate I had the wetsuit as the water was a little chilly. The next day, after the morning fog had cleared enough for us to see where we were going, we went around to the town of San Blas and anchored in the river; there is a bar to cross on the way in which we had heard was recently dredged to twelve feet but by our reckoning that must have been the depth at high water, we went in at about half tide and only had six feet under our keel. The anchorage was calm and there were fewer bugs than we had been lead to believe; ashore we found a rustic but charming Mexican town with few tourist trappings. There were basic shops and a couple of small ‘mini-markets’, enough to get any basic staples required; fortunately we didn’t require very much….. Paula took a couple of pictures though the town was far from picturesque then we moved on to check out the remains of the old Spanish Fort and “Cathedral” that stood on a small hill overlooking the town. During the late seventeen hundreds this was a thriving seaport where the Spanish built ships and support vessels for their Eastern Pacific fleet; they also imported through here all their supplies for such inland settlements as Tepic. The Spanish were quite wise in building most of their bigger settlements inland, in the mountains, where the air is cooler and much fresher; San Blas was infested with Mosquitoes and everything else that bites (as it still is!) so disease was rampant. We admired the stonework on the “Cathedral” which had been put together by talented stonemasons; it also gave an indication of the wealth that was flowing through this area at the time. We returned to Mantanchen Bay on our last day as we needed an early morning departure for Isla Isabella and we didn’t want to be ‘Tide or Fog restricted’ in passing over the bar on the way out. Ashore we walked the long beach and explored up the main road where we discovered a few small “tienda’s’ selling various types of bread and cakes which we thought was a little on the expensive side; there is also a Brewery, no doubt very popular with some of the boats headed south. They also do a “Jungle Cruise” from here which is very popular and takes tourists through a large area of mangrove swamp to La Tovara Springs where it is possible to swim in clear fresh water. We left Mantanchen Bay on Sunday 13th January at 0518hrs, as usual there was fog but not as heavy as it had been for the previous few days, it was also cold and the cabin temperature was only a little over fifty degrees! As we progressed we ran into thicker patches of fog and were grateful for our Radar which even picked out the smallest of fishing boats with enough warning for us to keep clear; it is however somewhat unnerving to be in a small yacht in fog (even with Radar) so we were very glad when it started to evaporate around 0930hrs. The rest of the journey was spent motoring and motor-sailing on a relatively calm sea; there were several whales about and we did get to see some breaching in the distance however, much to Paula’s disappointment, nothing came close enough for photos. Isla Isabela became visible at about twelve miles off and we could soon see the clouds of sea birds circling its peaks; this is the ‘Galapagos’ of Mexico and we had been instructed many times, by those we had met on our way north, that it was not a place to be missed. Next stop Isla Islabela John & Paula |
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| La Cruz |
| Local enterment on the buses into Puerto Vallarta |
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| Chacala |
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| San Blas |