Los Frailes to Nuevo Vallarta
12/11/2003 - 12/19/2003
The boobies of Isla Isabella will have to wait for us to visit another time.
Passage from Sea of Cortez to Bahia de Banderas
After listening to the morning weather report, we decided to weigh anchor and head toward the mainland. The island called Isla Isabella was the intended destination. Isla Isabella is reported to be a wonderful stopover en route from the Baja to Puerto Vallarta. The tiny island is uninhabited except for the keepers of the bird sanctuary on the island. Snorkeling, hiking and bird watching are supposed to be magnificent. Frigate birds and boobies nest on the island. The baby boobies are reportedly adorable.
This does not look like a dorado (mahi-mahi)! This marlin now has a $10 lip ring.
The distance from Los Frailes to Isla Isabella is approximately 210 miles which means one night of sailing with an early evening landfall. The extremely calm first afternoon and night allowed us to read as we motored toward the destination. The next morning Robin cranked on the SSB to listen to the weather forecast. A strong north wind, approximately 25 to 30 knots, was predicted to start in approximately 18 hours and last for a few days. Decision time. The big question to answer is whether the tiny island of Isla Isabella would be a good place to be anchored during this kind of weather. We made a quick decision to skip Isla Isabella and head to Punta de Mita in Bahia de Banderas. Call us wimps, but Isla Isabella is a bit too exposed to ocean swells and Sea of Cortez chop.
The new destination of Punta de Mita is an additional 70 miles south of Isla Isabella. This means we will spend an additional night at sea with an crack of dawn arrival. By our calculations, we will be sailing behind the Tres Marias when the wind is expected to pick up. Hopefully, these islands will protect us from swell/chop coming from the north. Just as the sun started to set, Robin looked back at the fishing lines and exclaimed "We have a fish!" Simultaneously, Robin & Duncan quietly said "Oh No." The fish on the line was not the desired dorado, but it was a marlin. You know, the kind the testosterone filled sport fishing boat fight for hours at a time then stuff and hang on a wall. You also know that marlin have sharp pointy bills on them.
Panga fishermen clean their catch on the way back in to Punta de Mita. Pelicans patiently wait for the remnants.
Given that we do not like the taste of marlin, the plan was to let the fish go. Now, the big question is how to get the lure out of the marlin's mouth without damaging the boat or Duncan. Fully gloved, Duncan stands on the tiny swim platform while Robin pulls in the line. The marlin appears to be tired. We pulled it near the swim platform as Duncan contemplated how to removed the lure. With much consternation, he decided to cut the line and sacrifice the lure. Tough call. Thoughts of the marlin's bill going through Duncan's hand or, even worse, the bill scratching Whisper's gelcoat forced the decision to let the marlin go with the lure in its lip. As a fellow cruiser stated, "Yet another marlin with a lip ring".
As the sun set, the swell started to arrive from the north. The predicted wind must already be blowing up in the Sea of Cortez. By midnight, the wind started to build. At 5 am as we rounded the corner into Bahia de Banderas, the wind was blowing at around 20 knots. Once inside the bay, the protection of the land dropped the wind to 5 knots and we tucked into the anchorage at Punta de Mita. Check out the video of our arrival at sunrise.
Chris & Chris and their beautiful Valiant 40 Spirit Wind arrive in Punta de Mita.
Punta de Mita
After catching some shut eye, Robin emailed friends Chris & Chris on Spirit Wind to let them know we arrived in Punta de Mita a few days early. They planned to come play in Punta de Mita the following day. The next morning Robin sat reading in the cockpit anxiously awaiting their arrival. Let the fun begin! By 11:00 am , Spirit Wind was anchored within swimming distance. Visiting, eating, swimming, drinking and catching up filled most of our days.
We celebrated Chris's (the female) birthday by taking a hired panga into Punta de Mita and enjoying a great dinner at a restaurant on the beach. One night, we anchored and rafted our dinghies in the middle of the bay and enjoyed sunset hors d'ouevres and cocktails. Chris (the male) spent lots of time surfing while the rest of us swam laps between the boats.
Chris & Chris prepared a delicious dinner of salmon and salad. They also enticed us to drink too many of Chris's famous drinks -- the "Rum Boo-Boo".
The sunsets at Punta de Mita are always spectacular.
An impressive show of two whales breaching paved the way from Punta de Mita to Nuevo Vallarta.
With the decision to spend Christmas in Bahia de Banderas come the choice of spending the holiday in a marina or an anchorage. We decided Paradise Village Marina was our first choice. The only problem is that we did not have a reservation and the marina was pretty full. We contacted the harbormaster via email and radio to see if we could get into the marina. Luckily for us, he said he could squeeze us in to the public dock without electricity or water. Less than optimal, but we will take it until a better slip comes available. Once we had the go ahead, we left Punta de Mita and headed further into the bay toward Nuevo Vallarta. En route, the whales of Bahia de Banderas treated us to a spectacular breaching show. This will be a fantastic place to play for the next three months as we prepare for departure to the South Pacific.
The people on the whale watching boats definitely received their monies worth.
The huge splash is left over from the breaching.
Here they go again. Duncan loves his new digital camera's telephoto capabilities.
Thus ends the whale show as evidenced by the tail heading down for a deep dive.