February 15,2007.

We checked out of Paradise Village in the early morning of .It was easy to see how some people become complacent and not leave this beautiful setting.  We had gotten into a yacht club routine of pot luck dinner on Sunday, bead making, Baja rummy, Mexican buffet, and bingo on Tuesday, and movie night on Wednesday. We had enjoyed two very special evenings at Paradise Village, New Year’s and Valentine’s Day.  The food was fantastic on these two occasions as compared to just really good. We had also gone to the El Tigre Golf Course for their Sunday brunch.  This was in celebration of the Valentine brunch that we had done for so many years in Auburn.  We toasted our friends with champagne and enjoyed a great brunch which we didn’t have to prepare.   But it was time to go or we might end up doing what so many cruisers in this area do, buying a condo!   This was not exactly what we had come cruising for and so we were anxious to get going to see Mexico and meet more of the people.  This was too much like being in Southern California, so we knew that we needed to leave soon.  We had gone to the port captain the previous afternoon, so we were set to leave as soon as we turned in the marina keys.  Motoring south on the bay we found the channel for the harbor of Marina Vallarta.  This is the only place that you can get diesel at a dock.  You can have a panga bring diesel out to your boat but it is in big drums.  Since we needed 100 gallons we went to the Opecquimar dock to get diesel.  It took about 40 minutes to pump that much diesel through our Baja filter.  Finally we were back under way motor sailing across the bay toward La Cruz, which is on the northern part of Banderas Bay.  We watched whales play and frigate birds dive for amazing heights; it is amazing the simple things that can become interesting. .  The wind picked up to 22 knots when we were almost at La Cruz, but we were too close to put up the sails.  We met up with friends on Beaudacious and they invited us over for dinner.  It was an enjoyable evening sitting in their cockpit having tri-tip roast, rice, green beans and salad.  What a great meal and served out of a boat’s galley! 

 On the 16th we did our way point planning so that we would be able to leave the anchorage early the following morning.  Our planning was that if we left here by 4:30 AM we should be sailing around Cabo Corrientes about 9:30 AM.  Cabo Corrientes is a little like the Mendocino coast not something you want to do in the windy part of the afternoon. Well, the best laid plans don’t always happen so it was really 5:20 when the anchor came up and we headed out in the dark. 

 There were so many turtles floating along with the currents.  You would just see a smooth large ball that appeared as if it might be a fish float.  As we approached nearer we could see the head and flippers.  If it became scared it would quickly duck under water, but many times we just watched each other sail.  We learned that this was the olive puzzle back turtle. We buddy boated down the coast with La Solana, so we kept in touch with them periodically to see what was happening.  They caught a large dorado but we did not have as good of luck.

 Both boats arrived in Ipala about 2 in the afternoon.  We decided to use bow and stern anchors so we didn’t take up the small anchorage.  We had talked to a boat heading north and they said they were the only one anchored there.  That was not the case with us, for soon there were several more boats coming in and most of the anchorage was taken up with a floating line that had oyster cages attached to it.  The floating line was a problem just about all early evening until the wind changed and it floated away from the boat.  While in this anchorage a panga came out to the boats and asked if we had any school supplies, they especially were looking for pencils and paper.  I had a large collection from the Dollar Tree Store and was happy to share with them. 

 We enjoyed a dinner with La Solana on our boat.  Their dorado was wonderful both sashimi style and cooked with spices by La Solana’s captain.