We departed La Paz on 5 January, and after a refueling stop, made the short hop to Caleta Lobos to anchor for the night. The forecast was for a norther to be passing through 5-6 January, and we wanted to assess the weather on the morning of 6 January before deciding whether or not to head out. Because the distance of 380 nm from La Paz to Banderas Bay is outside of our motoring range, we needed adequate wind for the passage, but the seas can be big and uncomfortable during a norther. After seeing how little wind was predicted for the days following the norther, we decided to leave and make use of the strong northerly winds and deal with the large high frequency waves.
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| Sunset from Caleta Lobos |
We departed Caleta Lobos around 9AM and after motoring out
of the San Lorenzo channel, set full sail on a broad reach approaching the Cerralvo
Channel. Halfway down the channel we switched to a downwind configuration with
the C-0 light air head sail. Although the seas were large and sometimes confused, we were
really moving and made 130 nm in the first 24 hours.
The following 3 days (7-9 January) had very light winds, around 6-8 knots, and we ambled along at about 3 knots, making roughly 70 nm
per day. Temperatures and the intensity of the sun were noticeably increasing as we made our way south and east. The winds finally died, and at 10PM on 9 January we took down the sail, fired up the engine and
motored the final 65 nm to Puerto Vallarta.
Our sea turtle sightings steadily increased in frequency coming
south towards the mainland. We saw one that was possibly injured,
simultaneously swimming and hanging onto a floating log, and it came towards us
as we got closer. Sea turtles floating around in the big waves do not look at
all adept at a life at sea, since they just seem to bob around and go where the
waves take them.
After passing Punta Mita at the mouth of Banderas Bay on the
morning of 10 January, we were welcomed into the lush and beautiful bay by whales. We
were able to get AEOLI reasonably close to several groups of them, and even
witnessed 2 sequential breaches. Since we were enjoying the moment, we
unfortunately did not get many photos.
The 102 hour, 382 nm passage was a vivid re-initiation to
life at sea. We were both quite seasick for the first day, and were very
fortunate to have prepared food before-hand. It wasn’t until after the second
day that we were more or less fully functional and able to perform tasks inside
the cabin. We used the same night shift schedule as coming down the coast, four
alternating 3 hour shifts per night starting at 7PM, with a morning and
afternoon nap shift for whoever needed it.
We arrived at Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta in
the afternoon of 10 January and are looking forward to exploring the mainland.
Lovely photos, you two!! Thank you for sharing your lives on the sea so that we may live vicariously through the captured movements of your ocean lives from afar... damn this office job in winter snow. ;)
ReplyDeleteLove!