December 28 – After a night in the stunning Anchorage at Las Hadas, we decided to head North. Our early morning departure gave us the satisfaction of a gorgeous sunrise over the Bay of Manzanillo. We had to dodge multiple fishing lines strung out from the shore but we were forewarned by a pod of dolphins and always accommodated by the friendly local fisherman who cut the lines to let us pass. We arrived in the beautiful cove of Paraiso late afternoon and anchored for the night and were treated to a lovely view from the underwater illumination from a neighboring yacht.

Sunrise over Manzanillo Bay

Cliff top houses south of Point Farrallon

December 29 – We had a nice morning of snorkeling in Paraiso cove and then weighed anchor mid-morning for a quick sail up the coast to Bahia Chamela and the town of Perula. We rowed a shore for lunch and were treated to an outstanding meal at Il Pirata on the beach and a great day of body surfing and boogie boarding. We fell in love with this place, where the locals treated us like lost relatives.

A soggy New Year’s Eve at the Jazz cafe with Gil and family. Best rib eye dinner ever!

Stormy day on the 1st.

Paraiso

Aphrodite from the beach at Perula

From the Jazz Cafe

Sunset with overcast skies

We have finally left the quiet waters of the lagoon at Barra to do some sailing. A few hours south we came to Bahia Santiago where we anchored for the night and snorkeled the wreck of the San Luciano, which lies close to shore at Playa La Boquita. After a delicious lunch of grilled Mahi Mahi at a restaurant on the beach we swam back to Aphrodite and had a great sail another 5 miles South to Las Hadas.

Genna enjoyed our sail to Las Hadas.

Peggy did too!

View from Las Hadas resort.

Las Hadas Marina

Beach at Las Hadas Resort

December 26, 2012
Merry Christmas from the beautiful Barra de Navidad!
With the family back on board again, we anchored in the lagoon of Barra enjoying all of the festivities that Mexico offers. Spending days at the beach with everybody, swimming in the pools at the Grand Bay Resort and at the Sands Hotel.

We took a bus ride to Melaque and hung out at the beach on Christmas Eve, watching the pelicans dive for fish 15 feet from the shoreline and grabbing some fruity snacks from the local vendors. Afterwards we met up with the folks from Autumn Wind and Wizard for a shrimp and beer lunch at Señor Froys on the beach.

On Christmas Day we joined 75 other Cruisers for a potluck Christmas dinner, including turkey and all the trimmings, but unfortunately no Christmas Cake or Christmas Pudding!

Christmas Cheers!

Barra de Navidad Lagoon

Fruit vendors at Melaque

Anyone for shrimp on a stick?

Merry Christmas!

Yum!

Last evening in Barra de Navidad.

The passage to Banderas Bay and Neuvo Vallarta was a much shorter one of ~80NM, though we decided to make it an overnight journey so that we could both leave and arrive in daylight. On the way we passed the Islas Marías, a no go zone for us and most everyone else as the Isla Maria Madre is the prison home to many of Mexico’s worst offenders. The visibility wasn’t fantastic, so we didn’t see the islands at until the setting sun revealed them in profile. We passed Punta Mita and entered Banderas Bay at sunrise.
Banderas Bay is hallowed for it’s perfect sailing conditions and despite the early hour, it didn’t disappoint, giving us a pleasant 12kt breeze to beat our way upwind toward Nuevo Vallarta and Paradise Village Marina.

Islas Marias at sunset

Punta Mita at sunrise

Aphrodite in Paradise

We had about a 250NM crossing from Los Muertos to Isla Isabela. Pointing this far S put the prevailing NW swell more on the stern than on the beam and gave us a more comfortable ride across the Sea of Cortez than might be typically encountered on a crossing from La Paz or Los Muertos to Mazatlan. As it was, the seas weren’t too dramatic in any case and the winds were as predicted pushing 15 – 20kts on the first day of the crossing and very little on the second day. The crossing was uneventful with the exception of a couple of bites on the lure (but nothing landed), escaping a maze of gill nets laid in our path by the fishermen and trying to prevent Frigates and Boobies landed on our rig wanting to hitch and overnight ride to Isabela.

We arrived at Isla Isabella on the morning of the 1st of December and dropped our hook at our preferred anchorage south of the twin pillars of Las Monas at 21º50.88’N 105º52.76’W. We were helped out by the very friendly skipper and crew of “SeaReach” (from Galway via Vancouver), who helped us spot the right patch of sand to drop our anchor into. After resting up for a short while, we swam ashore, avoiding the overhead of launching the dinghy.

Isla Isabela is stunning and packs a lot of things to see and do, despite being only about 1NM from end to end. Firstly there are the birds. Big frigates and boobies (with brown, blue, green and even red feet) hanging out, sometimes 2-3 on the ~10ft tall trees that cover most of the island and circling in the air from dawn to dusk in huge numbers, like a scene from a dinosaur movie. Like the wildlife in the Galapagos Islands the birds show no fear of people, most will let you walk right up to them. The boobies don’t lay their eggs in nests on the trees, but lay them on flat nests on the hard rock of the cliff tops. Don’t get too close, because they will snap at you with their hooked beaks.
Then there are the lizards and iguanas hanging out in the sun. Then there are the snorkeling sites, with Isabela being so far from the mainland and surrounded by deeper water, that the watering many places is very clear, offering visibility of maybe 100ft or more. The rocks around Los Manos are great places to snorkel as are the reefs in the rocky bay on the south side. We saw many different kinds of fish including several spotted eagle rays. Finally the geography of Isabela is amazing, with rocky islets to the north and east, near vertical cliffs and sea caves, several accessible peaks and yet still finds room to have a volcanic crater lake in the middle!

Las Manos

Birds in the air

Jungle Walk

Frigates

Crater Lake

Fishing Camp

Iguana

Green Footed Booby

Nesting Booby (not sure of foot colour)

Booby with a view

Isla Isabela Overview

How many birds will fit in this tree?

Las Manos from the shore

Two birds, two boats

The guy in the boat was our friendly guide Jairo

Robert & Laura

Leaving La Isla Isabela

La Ventana lies about 15km from Lo Muertos as the vulture flies, if your not into wind or kitesurfing, then you probably have never of it. If you are, then you probably have. Anyhow, for either of those sports, it offers a fantastic location. Warm water, good wind and a long L shaped beach with a cross/ on shore wind, giving an easy start and the safety of a downwind shore. This, in combination with all the kite and windsurf school infrastructure you would wish for, make this a place to be.

Laura and Jason.

Looking across to Isla Cerravlo.

@Baja Joe’s

Kites

More Kites

Last morning at La Ventana

“The Bay of the Dead” is a useful staging post either on the way north to La Paz or on the way south back to Cabo San Lucas or as a jumping off point into the Sea of Cortez heading toward the mainland ports of Mazatlan or Puerto Vallerta. Our intent is stop for a couple of nights on our way to Isla Isabella on the way to PV and to pop over to La Ventana – more on that later.

Despite the name, Los Muertos is beautiful anchorage, well protected from the prevailing NW winds with soft white sands, with the choice of a restaurant (“1535”) at one end and the El Cardon resort at the other. Also sharing the bay is a bevy of local fisherman who drive their trucks down to launch their pangas early in the morning.

Aphrodite in Los Muertos.

View toward El Cardon Resort.

Panga fisherman’s trucks on Los Muertos beach.

El Cardoncito is a small anchorage on Isla Partida, just north of the Caleta Partida anchorage which is adjacent to the channel between Isla Partida and Espiritu Santo. There is room in El Cardoncito for just a couple of boats and we were the only one there for the first night.

El Cardoncito anchorage.
On the second day we were joined by Osprey who had stopped over at another anchorage on the ways up to the islands. We had great fun with Kirk and his family over dinner and going ashore to beach comb.

Osprey in El Cardoncito.

El Cardoncito and T/T Aphrodite.

In the afternoon we did some spinnaker pole swinging from Osprey – a first!

Mexico is fun!

La Paz means “Peace” and even though anything after Cabo would be considered “peaceful”, it lives up to its name.

It took 3 days to hop up to La Paz stopping at Los Frailes and Los Muertos overnight. We caught some fish along the way..

Preparing breaded Mahi-Mahi roe sautéed in garlic and butter as an appetizer for the Mahi-Mahi fish tacos. Yum!

A peaceful corner in La Paz.

This VW bug expresses a lot about La Paz. One of those thousand word picture thingys.

La Paz waterfront looking toward Costa Baja and Marina Palmira.

Looking the other way toward the anchorage.

Laura said “pick the cafe where the old local dudes hang-out. She was right.

Callejón La Paz.

Our previous stops reflected the rugged remoteness of the Baja Coast. Not so Cabo. The appearance of a Mickey Mouse eared cruise ship as we approached the bay foretold of the shock that we would experience in our return to civilization. Overnight we had nothing but the twinkling of our co-traveller’s running lights to accompany us, but suddenly we were surrounded by water taxis, tourist boats, big game fishing boats and swarms of jet skis.
We refueled waiting to see whether we would be given a slip for the evening, as late entries to the HaHa, this was unlikely, especially since there was a big money sport-fishing tournament going on there were many boats (and a few mega yachts) in town. We had to return to the anchorage for a while and prepared to go ashore in the dinghy, but just as we’re about to jump in, we heard that Aphrodite had got a slip (or at least a share of one). Ashore we were gently accosted by street peddlers selling silver trinkets and small wooden toys.
In the evening after a break for some food, we joined most of the rest of the HaHa fleet at “El Squid Roe” which is zanier than it sounds, but a good time was had by all!

Our new friends “Rubber Duckies” after leaving Bahia Santa Maria.

Genna doing homework in the pre Cabo tranquility.

Peggy relaxing

Danger! Mouse!

The arch at Cabo.

Approaching Cabo San Lucas Marina

If you’re in Cabo and need some bread, this is the place to go. Marcus bakes a variety of breads from around the world and does it properly. San Francisco sourdough, Italian focaccia, New York rye, German pretzels and French baguette are a few of the fine things he has on offer.