Monday, January 25, 2010

Tenacatita

We left Chamela on January 18th and sailed southeast with fair winds and following seas. We headed toward Bahia Tenacatita, a famously pretty anchorage that is popular with cruisers. Our chartplotter again gave us inaccurate readings. The Navionics electronic charts are reportedly based on inaccurate charts created many years ago, before the advent of GPS. In this part of the coast the chartplotter often places our boat about 1.5 NM northeast of our actual position. This can be disconcerting as the chartplotter occasionally shows us sailing over reefs and onto land while we are actually safely out at sea. The maps on Google Earth are dead accurate--so I don't understand why commercial firms like Navionics continue to put out inaccurate information in their expensive electronic charts. Below is a shot of the chartplotter screen taken when we anchored in Bahia Tenacatita. The black symbol that looks like a boat indicates the position of Sabbatical. The other dark triangle is an AIS signal indicating the position of another, nearby boat. According to Navionics, we both managed to anchor on land!

In fact, we are in a big, beautiful bay with about 30 other boats. There is a long, white sand beach and a number of reefs with excellent snorkeling. Here are some shots of the anchorage.



Liberty arrived in the anchorage shortly after we did. Seth had caught a 40-pound MahiMahi on the way down from Chamela, so they invited us over to dinner. We brought sticky rice and wasabe, they supplied the fresh fish, and we made fabulous sushi. Another great evening with this interesting family. Here are a pictures of Liberty at anchor and of the crew of Liberty preparing to take the famous jungle river tour.





Into the Heart of Darkness (sort of...)
As in Chamela, a river empties into the bay. Going up river takes you west, through a mangrove swamp behind the berm formed by a series of beaches. Eventually, after passing through narrow passages and under a canopy of trees, one emerges behind the beach berm at Punto Hermanas, where there is a beautiful beach, a number of palapa restaurants, and a tiende with supplies. Cruisers call this trip the jungle river tour. Claudia and I took the tour in both our kayaks and our dinghy--it felt very adventurous and fun. Below are some jungle photos.



Here is Casey from Liberty during the jungle tour.


There are lots of fish in Bahia Tenacatita--some large Crevalle Jacks (aka Toro's) like to hang out right under our boat. Naturally, I have tried to catch them--although I didn't have much luck at first. Some big inedible puffer fish, that also parked under our boat, ate every piece of bait I threw out. When they got hooked they chomped through the leaders, line and hooks with their powerful, beaklike jaws. I tried lures and they ate the lures as well. I mean they actually chomped pieces of the plastic, managing to destroy the lures. Seth gave me a wire leader, which helped, but I still wasn't attracting the Toros, which are edible.

Eventually, I got on to the technique. I was telling Claudia that I'd like to try small fish for bait but didn't have anyway when I noticed that a small fish had jumped into one of our kayaks. I put a hook in him, dropped him over the side, and immediately caught one of the Toros, which we ate for dinner. I caught another Toro trolling a lure from the dinghy. They are okay to eat, but not nearly as good as MahiMahi or tuna. Some of the other cruisers have caught nice barracuda in the bay, but I haven't been so lucky--yet.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Heading South to Bahia Chamela


We left La Cruz on January 10th and sailed southwest across Banderas Bay so that we could get around Cabo Corientes, a formidable point of land known for strong winds and rough seas. It's reputation is a bit like that of Point Conception in California--sailors speak respectfully of it.

While crossing Banderas Bay we passed a number of fish boils--where small fish literally jump out of the water to escape larger predators, making the water seem to boil with fish. I cast a lure into one of the boils and immediately hooked the nice bonita seen here. We caught another small tuna soon after. Here is what a fish boil looks like.

Luckily, winds were light as we passed Cabo Corientes. There were choppy waves and confused seas caused by the meeting of strong sea currents (Corientes means current in Spanish), but we cut through them without difficulty. At sunset we arrived at a small protected bay off the fishing village of Ipala and dropped anchor for the night.

The next morning, we continued south. The winds came up and we were able to sail down the coast on a broad reach the entire day--a beautiful day of sailing. About 5 pm we arrived at Bahia de Chamela, which looks like a picture postcard with white sand beaches and palm trees. We dropped anchor and jumped into the warm (about 80 degrees) and very clear water. There are fish all around the boat and a reef near by that is like a tropical aquarium. This is a lovely place--the kind of place I imagined while planning a trip to the tropics.



There are a few palapa restaurants on the beach that serve fresh seafood. Behind the beach is a small village with a few tiendas and one hotel. Here is how the anchorage looks from the palapas.



A river empties into the head of the bay. Claudia and I paddled our kayaks up the river, which is full of interesting wildlife.

Landing on the beach with the kayaks or the dinghy was sometimes a challenge due to the surf break. During my first attempt to land in a kayak I got turned sideways on a wave but somehow managed to stay on top of the kayak while being washed sideways onto the beach. A group of locals, sitting in one of the palapa restaurants, must have found the sight pretty amusing. They stood and applauded, and then offered me a cerveza.

The picture below shows our dinghy on a beach on a small, uninhabited island at the South end of Bahia de Chemela. We landed the dinghy during a lull, hoping to stay on the beach for a while. A short time later, however, some big breakers started coming in, forcing us to leave this little beach in a hurry. We generally used our kayaks to land on the beach, as we did not want to risk overturning the dinghy and immersing our outboard motor.



During our first evening in Chamela, we shared our catch with Seth and Sophie from Liberty. They are both Stanford post-docs who are cruising with their four-year old son Casey. It was a fun evening.

The next day, the other Sabbatical arrived. Phil and Marylou are both lawyers. They are cruising with two kids--Kelli and Ryan. We had dinner with them as well. Cruising is turning out to be quite a social whirl. To distinguish our boat, we have begun identifying our Sabbatical on the morning radio net as Sabbatical Verde. The other Sabbatical is Sabbatical Ninos.

One morning a small whale swam through the anchorage, right past our boat, and then past the other Sabbatical. I yelled to call their attention to the whale, which passed within 50 feet of their boat.

Although the bay feels very remote, we are (amazingly) still able to connect to the internet using a Telcel Broadband card. The connection speeds are slow, but we are still able to read the New York Times while resting up from snorkeling. While here, the US Supreme Court decided the case of McDaniels v. Brown--a case in which I had filed an amici curiae brief with the court. I was able to read the opinion and engage in extensive exchanges with my the various academics who co-signed the brief, all while at anchor in this lovely place. Technology is indeed wonderful.

The only stressful incident occurred on January 15th, when a strong storm cell passed through the anchorage, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. As the storm approached, we experienced sudden, violent SE winds, which put us on a lee shore. I let out more chain and got ready to raise the anchor and head to sea. As the storm cell passed by, however, there was a rapid shift in wind direction back to NW (which is typical), after which things cleared up and the day became beautiful. We heard later that the same storm caused some damage, and created water spouts, north of us in Puerto Vallarta.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

La Cruz de Huanacaxtle


We left Paradise Village Marina on January 9th for a short trip to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, which is on the North shore of Banderas Bay. Our main purpose in sailing to La Cruz was to refuel (as one might expect, there is no diesel in Paradise). After visiting the fuel dock, we noticed lots of available slips in the beautiful new marina (Marina Riviera Nayarit) and decided to take a berth there for the night so that we could explore the town of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (La Cruz).

We had a great sail from PV to La Cruz. Barry Crosby, a friendly Canadian we had met in PV, came along for the ride. Here is Barry at the helm.

Visiting La Cruz turned out to be a lot of fun. In the afternoon we stopped by Philo's Bar, which is a famous cruiser hang-out, and met Philo, Philo's girlfriend, Philo's mother, and Philo's girlfriend's precociously musical son. Philo is a well known musician in these parts--perhaps not as well-known as Jimmy Buffett, but cut from the same mold. His most famous lyric goes something like this:

I've been thinking 'bout Mexico
All of the places that I wanna go.
Pretty senioritas and cold margaritas
(I forget the rest, but you get the idea)

So of course we needed to return to the bar that evening to see Philo and his band do a set. What a kick! The band was rocking and the place was packed--mostly with cruising couples--who were absolutely grooving to the music. Truth be told, there was a slightly geriatric feel to the audience. A lot of the men were grizzled-looking sailors, and their wives and girlfriends looked (how to put this delicately) like they had a few years of foul weather under their keels, and could handle more. But we were all into Philo's tropical vibe. It was one of those magical live performances that captured perfectly the mood of the place and time. It might not have been Margaritaville (although quite a few margaritas were consumed),but it was the Mexican cruiser's equivalent. A highlight for me was when Capt'n Deb, the sixty-something skipper of a 60-foot trawler, sat in with the band playing a washboard. Philo's girlfriend's son, who looked to be about 10, got to show his stuff as well.

Click here to hear one of Philo's tunes.

Friday, January 8, 2010

In Puerto Vallarta--Paradise Village

On December 9, we sailed south from Mantanchen Bay. We had light winds until we rounded Punta Mita and entered beautiful Banderas Bay, where we encountered a stiff breeze. It was late in the day, so we anchored just below Punta Mita for the night. The next morning we sailed east into the bay, arriving at Nuevo Vallarta about 3 pm. We had made reservations at Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta beginning the next day, but they were able to accommodate us early. We found a slip and had dinner at the Vallarta Yacht Club, which is in Paradise Village.

Paradise Village is a beautiful marina associated with a large, popular resort. We decided to stay for a month so that our two boys could visit us over Christmas break. Our daugher Jessica had just started a new job in Portland and could not come.

The boys stayed with us on the boat, but enjoyed the amenities of the resort, including the pools and beach palapas, where they could order food and drinks. We made a number of trips into Puerto Vallarta, which was easily reachable by bus. The boys liked a bar named Cheeky Monkey, which serves dollar margaritas.

The stay in the marina allowed me to make a number of repairs to the boat. I discovered that the wooden mast partners (wedges that support the mast where it passes through the roof of the cabin) had rotted due to a leak in the mast boot. Using a jig saw I bought at the PV Home Depot, and some teak boards I had on the boat, I made new partners and wedged them into place. I replaced the leaky mast boot with "impermeable" neoprene fabric that was made for me in Mazatlan by a woman known as Lycra Laura.

I also made some modifications to the plumbing for our marine head, which greatly reduced an odor problem. I eliminated the diverter valve (which was allowing gas from the holding tank to bubble up through the toilet) and repaired our pump-out pump, which was damaged by some cloth that was accidentally flushed down the toilet. The cloth had been clogging the system, making it difficult to pump out.

The stay in the marina also made it possible to work on some academic projects. I did some work on a possible book. I also did some pro bono work on a death penalty case from South Carolina--writing a lengthy report exposing scientific misconduct by an analyst who testified about forensic DNA tests. Some work I did at the navigation table on the boat, but I also did quite a lot while sitting on the beach.

We took one side trip on the boat to Yelapa, a beautiful inlet on the south side of Banderas Bay.

The boys have now gone back to school. I am finishing up my academic projects and getting ready to move on. We plan to visit La Cruz to refuel, and then round the notorious Cabo Corrientes and head south again.

Here are the boys arriving at the airport in PV.



And here is what they spent most of their time doing on the boat.



Here is Elliot at Cheeky Monkey celebrating the purchase of a new hat (which required protracted negotiations in the mercado).



Despite the tropical location, Graham managed to get into the Christmas spirit.



Here are some scenes from the Malecon in PV. A sand sculpture, and a bronze chair on which one can sit and contemplate matters.




Our boat is not the only Sabbatical in these waters. There are two others. We have become very friendly with the family on this Sabbatical, a Valiant 40, from Hermosa Beach. Phil and Marylou are lawyers and they have two kids, Kelli and Ryan. We have seen them a lot. To distinguish ourselves, we have started identifying our boat Sabbatical Verde on the radio nets. They often identify themselves as Sabbatical Ninos.



An interesting event in Nuevo Vallarta is the release of young sea turtle hatchlings. The sea turtle eggs are collected from the beach and incubated in protected areas to save them from preditors. When they hatch, they are released at sunset, which gives them the best chance of reaching the sea and surviving. The public is invited to participate in the release and cheer them on, as they crawl toward the setting sun and the ocean waves.