Author: Scott and Pam
The last leg of this passage is here. The day started with another potential naked sighting, this time it was Scott taking a shower in the cockpit. Po’oino Roa left early leaving us alone in the anchorage. Half way through Scott’s shower he heard a boat round the bend and whoops from the occupants. It turned out to be our friends Nick and Nikki on Star Gazer. We found it funny and exciting we knew the only two boats we encountered at Isla Isabela. It is very difficult to feel alone while cruising, meeting new people seems to be part of every day. Pam is trying to keep a list of the people we meet and their boat names.
We left Isabela at 9:30 hoping for a nice beam reach to PV. The wind direction had changed overnight and it ended up being a combination of downwind sailing and motoring. It was another beautiful day. As mentioned, stopping at Isabela was part of the plan to arrive in PV on Saturday and during daylight. This allowed for a leisurely sail and no worries if we were only going 2 knots. The trip was pretty uneventful, but as we approached the mainland navigation considerations were staying the required 20 miles off of Isla Las Maria’s (the forbidden prison colony islands) and a channel between Punta Mita and Isla Las Tres Marieta’s (five-mile chain of three small islands). Our watch schedule didn’t work out quite as we planned and Scott ended up only getting three hours sleep all night. We approached PV as the sun was rising (see the scrapbook for the awesome sunrise picture). We made a plan to connect with Eleytheria during the Amigo net, but when we switched frequencies we could not hear one another, they are a couple days behind us. PV is in the state of Jalisco and a new time zone (CT) for us, we are now two hours ahead of CA and one hour ahead of the East Coast. Once in Banderas Bay we radioed Marina Vallarta, our planned destination to arrange for a slip. The “Paperman” responded and asked us to call back when we reached the breakwater (the entrance to the marina). The Paperman (in this case represented by Ceicilia) is an agency that helps with the port check in and out process and is also somehow associated with the marina office. Pam called back at the designated time with hopes of getting specific directions to our slip, M12. The directions given were, when you get to O dock there will be a big white boat named Lunacy, turn right. Then when you see Sea Hawk another big boat turn right again. Ok, the only dock letters we saw were A and E and a big white boat named Invader. Scott made two circles while we considered what to do. You really don’t want to turn down the wrong channel, then you are faced with turning around often in a very narrow dead end space. It would be a good time to mention the marina was very busy with traffic, at one point a power boat was coming at us and a panga driver decided he could also fit, Scott held his course. We were also attempting to communicate with each other using our walkie talkie’s, but the channel we always use had constant chatter. We couldn’t get a word in, so that plan was aborted. After the second circle Ceicilia called us on the radio and said she could see our mast and to continue coming straight and she would be on the dock at M12. When we finally found our slip there were four people on the dock to catch our lines, a very welcome sight. Paperman offered their check-in services, let’s see run all over PV for an entire day or pay a $20.00 fee, hmmmm. We discovered there was no power or water available for our slip. When we checked in at the office, she promised it would be fixed on Monday or we could move to I dock. Moving was not on our agenda, so we agreed Monday would be fine. Our batteries were fully charged and should be fine through the weekend. We went to breakfast and then back to the boat to set about our chores. Scott took a short nap, while Pam started the task of packing to spend three weeks off of the boat. We finished this task together and it felt like we packed half the boat, but the bases are for sure all covered. We left the boat around 3:30 and took a taxi to Villa del Palmar, the time share. The rest of the day we spent enjoying every opportunity to be in water, the Jacuzzi, pool, bathtub and shower. We ended the day by having dinner at Pipi’s, Scott’s discovery of the best guacamole and he is right. We are thrilled to be in Puerto Vallarta, it was our best passage so far and we are on a high. We will probably only post sporadic entries for the next three weeks while we are on land. It is our plan to leave PV on Jan. 11th and continue heading south.
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