Mural in Puerto Vallarta. A continuous mural on the building, it’s connected by the red line from the can on the left to the can on the right. There were a number of freshly painted murals there and in La Cruz. The hunt was on…
Time to start heading north, back to La Cruz. First stop, Isla Cocinas in Bahía Chamela where we anchored not far from Sirena, a boat we met in Tenacatita. We headed over to say hi, and they invited us to a beach fire picnic that evening. The next morning, we heard on the radio net that a number of Tenacatita boats are beginning to head north. We, too, pulled up anchor and headed north into Bahía Chamela, a short motor away. When we were there three weeks or so earlier on the way down, they had been working on the breakwater in the estuary and had made progress in building the wall and dredging the channel. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures.
Feeding frenzy on the way north.
Next leg, up to La Cruz. We left Chamela about 0800 and dropped anchor in the La Cruz anchorage just after midnight.
Hazards of the sea. We had a big wave that bounced the dinghy off its chocks. The bottom part is supposed to be on top of the wood blocks. Nothing hurt, though.
Back in La Cruz we reconnected with friends, worked on our Spanish lessons and attended more cruising seminars. We went sailing in Bahía de Banderas and saw whales. We ate shrimp, and vegan ice cream (but not together).
The big boys out practicing for the MexOrc Regatta, one of the big spring races in Banderas Bay. They zipped right past us.
The other big boys. This was a good day for whales. And the sailing was pretty good, too.
Our fishing has not been this successful, but we keep trying. We watched the crew unload their catch for the day. The smallest one in the truck was around 260 kilos.
Meanwhile, daily boat life goes on.
Bill working on the windlass. It’s what hauls up our 45 pound anchor, so we need to keep it in good working order. Nina, as anchor wench, is grateful.
Cleaning up and lubricating the boom vang, apart and assembled. This helps hold up the boom. We discovered we need a new spring for it as it has compressed to 9 inches shorter than it should be. Not much bounce left.Gunk in the paddle for the knot meter. This would explain why our speed was showing as 0. Bill is getting quite good at checking this while we are still in the water. The hole it fits in is in the bottom of the boat so a small geyser is better than a large one. Especially since we have a very shallow bilge.This is one way to buy eggs. They come unrefridgerated, and you buy them by weight.
Art time…
La Cruz murals. These popped up between the time we left and came back. There were 36 murals in total, done by different artists over a couple of day period. They interviewed the people whose walls they were painting and incorporated that into each mural (except for the little bird in the middle group, it shows up all over the place).
One the left, one of the better streets in La Cruz. On the right, a repair job in the same street. The concrete was still wet when it was being driven over. Amazingly, small motorcycles are very popular here, in spite of the roads.
Bus tickets to Puerto Vallarta and back for one person, two buses each direction, all part of the same system.
And back in PV:
Puerto Vallerta. The hearts were on the Malecon. Frida is a very popular image and she shows up on everything. We did wonder what she would think of the marketing of her image, good Communist that she was.
And then we heard news of the COVID-19 virus outbreak. All of us began to wonder how it would change plans. Banderas Bay is a hub for cruisers heading to the South Pacific as well as a gathering place for those of us staying local in the Sea of Cortez. All kinds of questions were asked and often answers changed from morning to afternoon. As we left La Cruz for Mazatlan, we heard that many of the South Pacific Islands were closed to cruisers. A number of boats had crew cancel. On the morning HF radio net, we heard from boats who have turned around and returned to Mexico. What to do? For many people we know down here, their boat is their only home. Bashing back up the coast isn’t really feasible until May or June. The Hawaii/Pacific Northwest route has Hawaii forbidding travel between islands, and the season for sailing back to the west coast doesn’t begin until June/July. If you leave your boat in Mexico, you have to get to where the marina or boat yard is and spend about a week getting the boat ready to store. We were planning to store the boat for the summer in Puerto Peñasco, on the northern end of the sea, over 400 miles away. Do we head straight there or carry on with heading to La Paz and up the Baja side of the Sea of Cortez to see the islands we missed at the beginning of our trip?
On the life can be challenging front, an area where turtles live near a pedestrian bridge over the highway in Bucerias. There are three turtles in this picture, possibly more. A good reminder that we can survive despite the environment we’re currently in. Stay well.
Thanks for sharing the photo’s. Such a nice post given all the crap in the news lately. Love seeing the updates. Hmmm maybe we should be selling our eggs by the pound. 🙂
Bill and Nina, We love seeing the new murals in LaCruz. Some of the buildings look familiar. There used to be a restaurant named Cascades owned by someone from Oregon, and our favorite was a German restaurant, Black Forest, where a couple named Latcho and Andrea performed on guitar. We, too, got lots of pictures of the MexOrc races … I remember a local boat named Blue was a big racer.
How is everyone doing with the Covid 19 virus? Are you being careful with being out in public places? We are sheltering at home and have decided that our experience aboard Tamara in Mexico has prepared us very well for being sequestered this way, not to mention we learned how to clean our groceries before bringing them abroad.
It’s good to hear about your adventures. Keep blogging and stay safe.
Love the art work and your whale photos are wonderful! What timing. Carl and I are pondering chocks for a hard shell dinghy after years of an inflatable, I mentioned you two, and voila! There was your photo of your dinghy chocks. I’ll poke back through some of your much earlier photos as well from when you were fitting Gypsy out. I echo what Marili says. Stocking the house and hunkering down for the most part is very similar to our two months on the boat each summer. Take Good Care! I sure enjoy your photos and story telling. Pam and Carl
GypsyKramer 
Thanks for sharing the photo’s. Such a nice post given all the crap in the news lately. Love seeing the updates. Hmmm maybe we should be selling our eggs by the pound. 🙂
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Bill and Nina, We love seeing the new murals in LaCruz. Some of the buildings look familiar. There used to be a restaurant named Cascades owned by someone from Oregon, and our favorite was a German restaurant, Black Forest, where a couple named Latcho and Andrea performed on guitar. We, too, got lots of pictures of the MexOrc races … I remember a local boat named Blue was a big racer.
How is everyone doing with the Covid 19 virus? Are you being careful with being out in public places? We are sheltering at home and have decided that our experience aboard Tamara in Mexico has prepared us very well for being sequestered this way, not to mention we learned how to clean our groceries before bringing them abroad.
It’s good to hear about your adventures. Keep blogging and stay safe.
Marili and Dave
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Love the art work and your whale photos are wonderful! What timing. Carl and I are pondering chocks for a hard shell dinghy after years of an inflatable, I mentioned you two, and voila! There was your photo of your dinghy chocks. I’ll poke back through some of your much earlier photos as well from when you were fitting Gypsy out. I echo what Marili says. Stocking the house and hunkering down for the most part is very similar to our two months on the boat each summer. Take Good Care! I sure enjoy your photos and story telling. Pam and Carl
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Thanks for sharing your photos and story. Kevin – Battleground WA.
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