Puerto Vallarta

The run down the coast to Puerto Vallarta was quiet. We miss having Ryan, Mike's brother, along, especially to ease the watch schedule! We rounded Punta de Mita, the north arm of Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta), at about 8AM, staying well offshore to avoid rocks off the point. The charting is a little weak, and very outdated, mostly done along this coast by the US Navy in the late 1800s. So GPS accuracy applied to old charts leads to some real potential for error. The charts themselves are accurate, as each point, bay, headland and rock relates to each other. But the chartmakers didn’t have the precision of GPS to determine latitude and longitude 100 years ago, so where we actually are (in GPS terms) can differ up to two miles from the charted location. That’s dangerous if you don’t pay attention, or if you depend solely on the chart plotter’s moving map display. I used radar – in bright sunshine and 20 miles visibility – to confirm distances and positions, along with binoculars and the old “Mark I eyeball”.  We changed ship’s time to Central Standard as we entered the bay.

Mike McFadden Entering Marina Vallarta

Marina Vallarta is close into town, in the same basin as the cruise ship docks. It’s surrounded by four story condos lined with little shops and restaurants. The setting is nice, so it’s a shame the marina was so shabby.  The shorepower didn’t work on two of the boxes beside our slip, there were dead fishfloating in the water and things were in a general state of disrepair.  We picked Marina Vallarta over “Paradise Village”, in a basin five miles farther north, because of its proximity to town. Doing it over, I’d pay the taxi fares and moor at Paradise Village.

The city of Puerto Vallarta is quite attractive. It’s built up the hillsides at the southeast corner of the bay, with many small two to three story red tile roofed apartment buildings and houses. The Rio Cuale, flowing even in the dry season, provides a verdant strip right through the center of town. The church – Templo de Guadalupe – has a quite interesting open iron lattice work round, almost onion-shapeddome surmounted by a cross. We had dinner in town one night, then Mike sampled the nightlife. Senor Frog’s, a chain of gringo tourist bars, advertised a $25 cover including free drinks, but the fine print turned out to be pretty restrictive. Just beer and cheap margaritas were included in the deal. He did meet some nice college girls down on Thanksgiving break and had a good time.

We provisioned at Walmart (against my principles, but the best source for fresh produce and dairy), just opposite the cruise ship docks.  The port clearance paperwork cost about $90, including agent’s fees.  This sort of legalized extortion at every port is supposed to cease, under a new progra instituted by President Fox providing for one stop clearance in Ensenada, Cabo and Isla Mujeres (the Yucatan side) valid throughout. No sign of it yet.

Wednesday afternoon, November 24th, we sailed for Barra de Navidad, 130 miles southeast.

Steaming out of Banderas Bay just before sunset we came upon a very large – 60-foot, I’d estimate – grey whale spouting and rolling. He didn’t stick around long enough for a picture but was fun to watch for a few minutes, just about 300 yards off our port bow. We rounded the infamous Cabo des Corrientes (Cape of Currents), forming the south arm of Banderas Bay, under a full moon in light northwinds and low northwest swells. Pretty benign! We dodged a few drift nets early in the morning. Onestretched a mile across our course, and the fisherman led us to its end in his panga.  The net was suspended with green pop bottles, and very hard to see in the early light heading into the rising sun.

Barra de Navidad to Acapulco

Resolution in Barra Navidad

Our next stop along the coast was Barra de Navidad. This very pleasant town of about 5000 people backs on a large lagoon and is strung out along a three-mile sandspit at the east end of a large, sheltered bay.  The dredged breakwater-protected entrance at the south end of the sandspit is quite straightforward and well marked, leading into a really first class marina.  The marina is part of the Grand Bay Hotel complex, a deluxe five star establishment, with pools, small beaches and tennis courts, all shaded by palms and available to boaters as part of the package. There were a number of very large boats in the marina, but lots of empty slips for small ones (like us).

We had a most pleasant two-night stay at Barra, celebrating Thanksgiving aboard, with a Costco steak dinner, with fresh green beans (Walmart) andmashed red potatoes – left from San Diego.

The town, reached by a panga service, had plenty of bars and small restaurants. Friday we enjoyed a good shrimp dinner above the beach while watching a lovely sunset. That night, Mike went back to town and made friends with some Aussie and Mexican crew off a couple of the large yachts. He also met two young Belgian “surfer dudes” who had bought a Chevy Suburban in San Diego, were slowly driving to Costa Rica over the next four monthsand would dump it there and fly home.  So he was a little sleepy for our 10AM departure on Saturday.

We checked systems – all OK except the pilothouse air conditioning – and got underway with Mike at the helm. Acapulco is 320 miles to the southeast, where we’ll spend three nights at the Acapulco Yacht Club – a reciprocal with Seattle Yacht Club. Then we have another 1100 milesfrom Acapulco to Los Suenos, Costa Rica, where we’ll leave the boat for Christmas.

Barra Navidad Marina

Light northwest winds and long four-foot northwest swells made for a pleasant ride down the coast, passing Manzanillo in the early afternoon. It is hot – 85 degrees – and humid, so fairly uncomfortable for sleeping. The air conditioning comes in handy for the cabins, especially since we’re standing watches and need our rest. While it requires running the generator, it’s worth it at night. The generator,however, got a little warm after 12 hours in the 85 degree heat and humidity, and shut itself down at dawn Sunday. It ran fine in the afternoon, when it was time to make water – thank goodness. However, the master head won’t flush – controller problem which has occurred before. There is a bypass scheme involving touching wires together, but that’s not too smart at sea, so we’ll use the forward head till we get the electronic controller replaced.

All day Sunday the 29th we ran down the Mexican Riviera, passing Ixtapa and Zihuataneo in the earlyevening as the sun was setting. We decided to skip them, in favor of a full three nights in Acapulco.  It’s still hot, without much wind. The currents push us around a bit, impeding us for a while then giving us a boost of up to a knot. They seem random, so we smile when they’re in our favor, and frown when they’re not. Our average overall speed is about 6.5 knots at 1700 RPMs, which is efficient for fuel consumption – about 2.3 nautical miles per gallon.  At 1600 RPM we make 6 knots at about 2.8 nautical miles per gallon, so that’s ocean crossing speed.

Acapulco Cliff Divers

We made our way into the magnificent Bay of Acapulco a couple of hours after sunrise on MondayNovember 29th, having watched the city lights from 20 miles west. The city marches up the side of the mountain range backing it.  A 9AM arrival at the Club des Yates de Acapulco was a bit too early, as there was no slip yet ready. So we milled about outside the mole (concrete breakwater) then took a vacant buoy for a couple of hours.

At 1230 space was ready. The tidal range is slight, so the docks are fixed and concrete, with smallmooring buoys between the pier ends. You tie to the pier and the buoy with the Club’s lines, weaving the boat into a web to hold it off the dock.  Climbing on and off is fun, since the dock is aboutthree feet off the water.  I had planned to have a boarding door cut in to the bulwark just opposite the starboard pilothouse door, but that project was deferred. Here is a place it would have been very useful.

Many of the slips are “Mediterranean moor”, meaning you back in, tying the bow to a buoy in the fairway or dropping your anchor 30 feet ahead of the bow to hold you off the mole. Without a passarelle – an aft boarding ramp – we’d have had a terrible time with a Med moor, never mind my lack of skill in tying up that way.  I’ll need a portable passarelle for Europe. During the Florida stop inMarch I hope to have a side boarding door cut in.

Once we were settled in, we had lunch at the club then walked over to the beach, about 500 yards across the peninsula. It was pretty crowded and not very attractive. We then took a VW Beetle taxi into the old part of town and wandered around a bit. Throngs of people out for their late afternoon strolls, and a hilarious accident – two busses had sideswiped each other at about five miles an hour, trying to gain an advantage in the thick traffic. They were wedged together stuck against a concrete traffic island, blocking the busy street, and a local cop was standing there scratching his head.

Hualulco, Mexico and the Gulf of Tehuantapec

Resolution in Huatulco, Mexico

We plan to spend a few days in Acapulco, then head south for Hualtulco, clear out of Mexico and make the Gulf of Tehuantapec crossing.  This is the south end of the low 150 mile isthmus at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. A high in Texas with lower pressure to the south will create strong north winds which funnel down over the isthmus, generating gales in the Gulf of Tehuantapec. These spread out along the sides of the Gulf and out as far as 300 miles, creating steep short dangerous seas. So the recommended crossing method is to stay right next to the beach – less than a half mile off. The wind will blow strongly, but the seas are still slight, since they haven’t had enough distance –“fetch”– to build up.  You never cut the corner, even in apparently good conditions, as these gales can develop quickly, with little forecast warning.

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