La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Bandaras Bay

Underway from Chacala, motoring at first, started to play with our asymmetrical spinnaker in light winds, jibed around the point, and had a ripping sail as the winds built to 15-19 knots into the famous and busy Banderas Bay, making a steady 7 knots downwind to our destination of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. 

We pulled into Marina Riviera Nayarit, where we fueled up and, after some confusion over our slip assignment and some snazzy docking moves by Chris, tied up with the help of two locals with a great attitude (“No problemo amigos!”).  This is the first time we’ve tied to a dock in about 2 months, since San Jose del Cabo, and we enjoyed the next day of showers (cold and refreshing!), boat cleaning inside (Cora) and out (Calder), and laundry.  In Mexico, there are very few places you can do your own laundry and it feels very odd to drop off my laundry to be done; it returns to us in tidy folded bundles. 

Complicating matters, Chris woke up unable to walk due to excruciating pain in one of his toes.  It appears that an infection snuck into one of the cracks on his feet, a problem in this moist barefoot living.  I placed him on foot elevation rest time and antibiotics.  As his joint had been quite painful, we wanted to stay put to the further medical resources of Puerto Vallarta area.

La Cruz is an awesome little town with a laid-back pace, Mexican charm, and friendly people.  There are many little restaurants and small stores among the cobblestone streets, small chicks on the sidewalks, and the required stray dogs. 

At night, the live music scene comes to life, filling Terikah with tunes.  It is much hotter and busier than the Sea of Cortez and we found ourselves feeling a bit “lost,” as our plans seemed to be evolving from what we had envisioned. Welcome to Cruising 101. We had planned to cruise the area south of here for the month leading up to our passage, but realized this was not realistic with such a large upcoming passage and the prep needed. It was time to change our plans. We decided to settle in for a week of boat work in preparation for our upcoming passage.  We are finding ourselves comfortable at the dock with more convenience and ease to get jobs done.  It also allows us to walk around town, a privilege we won’t have during our upcoming one month at sea.  Bandaras Bay is quite busy, a bit of a shock for us after coming from the more remote Sea of Cortez. 

The marina itself is abuzz with the activity of boats from around the world preparing for the Pacific crossing and there are gatherings and lectures.  We went to a “Safety at Sea” talk as a family, then spent the following hour in our cockpit talking through all we had learned.  This is the place to be for networking and planning for our passage!

At Sunday’s waterfront market I was almost ecstatic at all the fresh produce, less abundant in the desert of the Baja side, and walked away with mangos, papaya, pineapple, garden lettuce, basil, French bread, fish spices, and some cookies to go.  The kids and I enjoyed watching artists at work on their crafts, from glass-blowing to intricate weaving. 

Into town, we bought more produce at the “Fruiteria” and cervaza at a small tienda, a cat curled up on the shelf sleeping next to the vegetable oil. 

We ensured all our French Polynesia charts were downloaded correctly, as well as alternative back-up charts on our iPad, which can be safely stowed in the microwave to protect from lightening storms if needed.   A boating friend gifted us with 2 coconuts and we drank the refreshing water, then used our ax to chop them open for the meat.  Cora and I made frozen vanilla honey coconut pudding. 

Chris’ foot continued to get better and he was taken off “foot rest,” and is back to being active.  Cora and I found our favorite ice cream shop, as well as a man who sells yummy sourdough loaves every morning in the square.  Energetic neighboring boat kids come over and play games and draw pictures.  Their family had the experience of freeing four sea turtles they found wrapped in fishing net and they have been making earrings and bracelets out of the net to raise money for turtle rescue; Cora loves her earrings with a story. 

I was amazed at walking into a pharmacy and simply asking for and buying antibiotics and prescription-strength seasickness meds. 

We have signed up for some assistance with weather-routing on the passages, which gives me a bit (okay, a lot!) of mental sanity and sleep.  I’m enjoying diving into the nuances of ocean passage planning.  We vacuum-packed our foul weather gear to prevent mildew and stowed it away until we get to colder climates again. 

Things are happening.  We’ll stay put here for a bit as we continue our preparations, nervous anticipation building and check-lists fluctuating daily.  Two to three weeks until departure…