Tuesday, 28 January 2014 – After a fitful night we were ready to pull up the anchor at daybreak and head to Banderas Bay. The long Pacific Swells continued during the day however, as we were offshore, it did not bother us. Sailing along the coast with the wind off the land, we watched the mountains go by until we approached the Bay at Jaltemba. Here we got a nice breeze and scooted along at over six knots until we hit the south side of the bay where the wind suddenly dropped. We went back to the engine for a few hours until the wind switched direction and increased to over 24 knots giving us a nice port reach at up to 8.5 knots for more than two hours. What great sailing, the best we have had since we have been in Mexico.

As we reached Banderas Bay we set ourselves up for a 90 degree port turn and a passage between rocky Punta de Mita on the mainland and the rocky Islands of Las Tres Marietas.  There are some underwater pinnacles in this area so careful navigation is called for.  Because of the swells, the wind and the following sea, the passage had us squirreling our way into the Bay in seven-foot seas for over seven miles before the swells eventually began to play out and the sea settle down. 

We had originally planned on dropping anchor in a popular anchorage at a fairly protected cove at Punta de Mita instead, we decided to press on to the La Cruz Marina at Huanacaxtle about 15 miles north of downtown Puerto Vallarta. When we called them, we had an immediate radio response from the Marina who quickly assigned us a berth on dock B9. We had covered 50 Nautical Miles.

This is a large Marina capable of berthing large motor yachts and as we soon discovered, a real cruiser hang-out with activities going on day and night. We are sure to get involved with some of them in the coming days. It was nice to be tied up to a dock again and meet up with other cruising friends.