Sail Cutthroat

22 November 2006

Puerto Vallarta is a large town seemingly centered on the tourist industry. Beach front hotels are everywhere. There is a great bus system throughout the area and lots of shopping and restaurants. We found the Sam’s and Walmart’s (they seem to be everywhere) so we’re restocked with the necessities. We have yet to make it to the central market – we always seem to have perishables from the first stop and need to get back to the boat for refrigeration. Roger also feels comfortable in his old established shopping Mecca.

On Sunday, the 19th we celebrated Roger’s 65th Birthday. He was surprised with balloons throughout the salon and wrapped gifts. We went for a long walk and then had a lovely brunch at the hotel. It was a quiet day followed by dinner at a local Argentinean restaurant – just the two of us. They played Mexican birthday music (whatever that is – could have been anything – we wouldn’t have known but it sounded nice).

Pat flew in Tuesday afternoon – Carol was certainly ready for his arrival. Her spirits bounced way up there. The plan was to explore Bandares Bay, fish, and sail for the time they are both with us. So off we went on Wednesday the 22d headed out for points unknown. The winds were out of the NE in the morning and increased in strength for the first several hours. We popped the genyker shortly after leaving the inlet and had an awesome sail down the bay. We practiced a jibe or two traversing the bay just trying to get the most speed. At 15 knots wind speed right ahead of the beam we were heeling fairly well and experiencing a lot of weather helm (makes it difficult to steer and the rudder is hard over). It’s all good to know information. Our objective was to sail along the north coast of the bay out towards Punta Mita and anchor. We anchored at Playa Anclote, about 1 mile NE of Punta Mita’s south point, in 20 feet of crystal clear 80 degree water. You could see the anchor drop to the sandy bottom and lay itself over with the chain just flayed out as the boat settled into position and the anchor took hold. The beach lays about ½ mile away with palm trees and thatched roof huts in front of upscale hotels. There is a golf course between the hotels and the point heading towards the Four Seasons Hotel– a truly beautiful setting. The only downside to the day was that no fish were caught - much to Carol’s dismay. In my opinion, the swimming more than made up for it.

23 November 2006, Thanksgiving Day we wake up in Playa Anclote to another beautiful morning. The sun rises late here so we’re not moving around much until around 0730 hours. Today’s adventure will be to continue sailing and fish out closer to the Tres Marieta Islands. This is a chain of islands 3.5 miles SW of Punta Mita running for another 5.6 miles all protected as a National Wildlife Preserve. Not sure if this is an anchorage that will support an overnight visit so we may be back in Playa Anclote again tonight. Turkey is not on the menu unfortunately – we went back to get the Walmart Turkey breast but it was all gone. So we’re hoping for a nice Dorado but have some steaks available in the event that the fish are taking Thanksgiving Day off.

We anchor in 30 feet of water right up close to the islands where there are a couple of tourist boats loaded with snorkelers. Actually I followed one of them into the area as I was a little hesitant to get that close in to shore. Forget the electronic/paper charts – they had me right up on the island once again. That is an all too common theme down here – but I’m getting used to it. Anyway, we snuggled right up close to the rocks and settled in nicely. We had a wonderful afternoon swimming, fishing (yes,

Carol is persistent and even caught a puffer fish – twice). Pat gets to take those off the hook. A couple of other big power boats came in for the afternoon and anchored close by. One of them decided to pick up the mooring from the tourist boats and successfully dragged it dangerously close to us. It was becoming quite the comedy as he just kept pulling it around the cove until the other tourist boat yelled at him to get off of it and go anchor. Oh yes, the Mexican signal for dropping your anchor is hooking your finger inside your cheek. The message was finally received and he went and anchored in front of us obscuring our view of the frigates and booby’s island paradise just a bit. Well this mooring is now a navigational hazard floating around and moving deeper into the bay. There apparently is no actual anchor at the bottom of this – just the chain. Pat decided that was unacceptable so off we went in the dinghy to do our good deed for the day. We tied a line to it and dragged it back into the cove with the dinghy. It had a long chain on it that we hoped didn’t lodge itself into a rock or coral. The hard part (well none of it was hard for me since I was just the driver) was getting it ashore enough that it wouldn’t drift back out. The dinghy could only get so close in as it is a rather rocky shore. Pat did a great job of swimming it the rest of the way onto the rocks and literally throwing the chain along with it. The mooring ball was setting between two rocks and is probably still there. The only damage was one skinned knee from the coral and one bruised upper lip from where the chain hit Pat once. Good thing for the snorkel protecting his mouth or he may have had a broken tooth or two. I think this adventure earned him several more Cervezas for the days work. He thinks he’s on vacation anyway so there is no beer shortage aboard Cutthroat this holiday week.

We went snorkeling in close to shore – it’s about 20 feet deep right up close to the rock line loaded with beautiful fish. Pat also changed out one of our zincs at the bottom of the rudder – that boy can sure hold his breath for a long time! So it was a very productive day.

Since it was so very nice and the winds had not come up hard from the east before at night (which would put us in a nasty little lee shore – meaning that we would blow up onto the shore if the anchor gave way) we just decided to stay put and enjoy our Thanksgiving dinner – yup, the steaks were the big winners.

Sure enough, around midnight the wind decided to come out of the East and started to pick up to about 15 knots making it a darn uncomfortable and long night. I came up on deck shortly thereafter and decided to stay – just in case. Now, at anchor I always leave the engine key in the ignition and the windlass breaker flipped on. That way, if we need to make a quick exit I can maneuver and get the anchor up quickly. We had towed the dinghy the day before and it was still in the water and we had not taken up the swim ladder – note to self – take up swim ladder at the end of each day! I wasn’t worried about the anchor holding in 15 knots of wind but the rocking motion created by the 20 miles of open water from the shoreline to our position was more than enough for the waves to build to a substantial level causing the uncomfortable ride. We have this very cool snubber system for the anchor that absorbs the shock and distributes it from the unforgiving anchor chain to a heavy line with rubber snubbers (large black rubber pieces that the line is laced around. Well the torque was substantial enough to pull them apart at the ends where they lace. Pat and Carol relieved me at 0430 but I don’t think anybody got any sleep that night. I hate it when that happens! Daylight couldn’t have come early enough, the rocky shore was exactly where we left it the night before and the only difference on the morning of 24 November was a much stronger breeze in the morning. So we might as well go sailing and take advantage of the winds!

For some reason the wind gods aren’t favoring us this week. We got about two hours of nice sailing in as we dodged the rocks shoals between Punta Mita and the Tres Marietas Islands but then we had to head off so we could get further out into the Pacific for better fishing opportunities. The wind then did its very usual thing of slowly dying and it was on with the iron genoa. The fish gods weren’t much more pleased and we only caught one fairly good sized tuna that was just delightful as he was seared on the grill for dinner.

We decided that a little village of Yelapa was calling us to visit.

It’s one of the more protected and larger coves on the south shore of Banderas Bay and gets a great write-up in the local cruising book. Its beauty is understated and the tunes to South Pacific kept popping up into my head. Note to self – get that music score downloaded into the iPod. As we entered the cove, we were greeted by a young man in his panga, Raphael. He inquired if we were interested in using his mooring for the night. Now this had some potential upside as well as downside. Upside – we were in 750 feet of water in the middle of the cove and would have to get very close to shore to safely anchor if we were going to spend the night.

Downside – we were still lamenting yesterday’s mooring experience and wondered if this was any safer. After closely questioning Raphael we agreed to hook up to his mooring for the small fee of $25 which included disposal of our trash and his return at 1600 to take us ashore. He also assured us that the wind would not blow in Yelapa over night – this was sounding very appealing.

The swim gods were much in our favor and the water being deeper (about 90 feet) was also a bit cooler making for some spectacular and much needed cooling off. The beach front of Yelapa is lined with thatched roofs covering little restaurants and drink establishments. Raphael, who said he was 25, handed us off to his uncle, Rudolfo (27) – we were clearly staying within the family’s realm of establishments. We enjoyed some of the local Margarita’s and cerveza along with chips and guacamole and a lobster. Rudolfo wanted to know if we smoked. I don’t think he was talking about cigarettes. We declined and the subject didn’t come up again, but got a good laugh from the Cutthroat crew. When we answer yes to that question, it’s time for us to come home. As soon as the food arrived so did about a million flies – it was downright disgusting, but the lobster was delicious. The safety tip here is that it’s okay to drink on the beach but we’d rather do our eating on the boat – we probably get enough protein without the flies.

Upon returning to the Cutthroat, we fired up the grill for that Tuna, but we also fired up the oven for the last of the meatloafs. While Roger does a great job of seasoning and preparing the fish, he just didn’t want to eat it. After a sleepless night and several precarious anchorages, not to mention the flies, he could have been bordering on cranky. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes are always an excellent anti-cranky solution. I still left the windlass on and the key in the ignition, but we all slept much better and the wind never did come up – just as Raphael predicted.

Next stop was Los Animas about 10 miles further east towards Puerto Vallarta continuing along the southern shore. The coast line of the southern bay is very different from the northern coast which is flatter and the water depth is much shallower. The southern shore is very mountainous with rocks and palm trees coming right down to the water and very deep water. It’s far more interesting and conjures up thoughts of tropical paradise – which it is! We anchored east of Los Animas - too many tourist boats with loads of gringos looking at the scenery and hoping for some nice snorkeling. We avoided that group and ended up just outside the surf line in about 35 feet of water over sand with fairly good holding. This was only to be a lunchtime visit as we planned to return to Paradise Village that evening. With great swimming and beautiful houses along the shore with a spectacular beachfront to view it made for another lovely experience. Meatloaf sandwiches and cerveza for lunch – the perfect day! Cerveza sounds so much better than beer. Beer sounds like you’re headed for the bowling alley – cerveza sounds almost sexy…just a thought.

All in all, our little bay tour took us about 100 miles in 4 days and we got a great lay of the land for future exploration. The Moneymakers head for home on Monday – back to civilization, family, and for Pat, work. We so much appreciate Carol’s assistance in making the trip south and Pat’s support and Thanksgiving visit. Roger and I remain in paradise until the middle of December, and then back to Florida for a month.

If we do anything else exciting in the next couple of weeks, we’ll let you know…but I’m not planning on it!

Sorry this became so lengthy…we hope everyone had a most enjoyable Thanksgiving Holiday!