I've now decided it's too much trouble to try and insert photo's into the text so all pictures are in 'Aphrodite's Album'

Albums for this log - Puerto Vallarta/Turtles - Tenacatita to Manzanillo/ La Cruz Early Morning/

LA CRUZ DE HUANACAXTLE (whan-cash-ley – it’s a tree, so the cross of the tree)

Or more commonly called ‘La Cruz’ is in the North Eastern corner of the Bahia Banderas, approximately 8 mile north of Puerto Vallarta. We had a two day passage from Mazatlan, once again with variable winds, sailing well from mid-day to early evening (on the drifter) and then motoring/motor sailing through the night – tiresome! We, or at least I, am very much regretting not having an autohelm. Denis our windvane is great when there is wind, allowing hands-free sailing, but without the wind, and no autohelm, we have to hand steer. This soon becomes tedious, and there’s not a lot we can do about the situation until we get to Panama, so only another 1,500 miles-ish to hand steer! Anyway, awaiting our arrival in La Cruz were our lovely friends Paul and Lynne on Pincoya, who we hadn’t seen since Christmas in Ensenada – it seemed a lot longer than 4 months ago. We first met Paul and Lynne (who are from Birmingham, UK) at Chula Vista marina in San Diego, and became firm friends. We were really looking forward to meeting up again and spending a few days with them. Sadly our cruising plans are taking opposing directions and so it is highly unlikely that we shall see one another again until we are in Europe, where, we don’t know, but wherever it is, it will be a great reunion. We were in La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta for 8 days and on anchoring in La Cruz, had became close up and personal with a local fisherman by the early hours of the next morning when his panga ‘clonked’ into Aphrodite around 0600 as he was trying to extricate his fishing net from our anchor chain. I think it may be the last time he sets it in amongst anchored boats! The crab by the way, which got proudly passed over for photographs, somehow got dropped during its transfer back from Paul to the panga, leaving his 500 yard fishing net bringing in a catch of three tiddlers and two crayfish. Following the dropped crab incident, the panga sped off, giving our boat a skimming ‘clunk’ for good measure – Paul says it was an accident – maybe I’m just too cynical! We also crossed paths with Tom and Carol on Susurru and Kurt and Agatha on Maverick, who we will hopefully be catching up as we now head south, a week after them. We had a truly lovely and fun time in La Cruz, an interesting town/village (?) which at the moment is undergoing major change as a new marina development is to permanently alter the coastline, creating many more marina berths, but at the same time, creating devastation for many of La Cruz’s residents. What was once the shoreline boasting beautiful beachfront homes is now one block back, the developers having ‘filled in’ the bay creating land to build condominiums, hotels, bars and restaurants. A time of flux, anger and change. It’s a place of many faces. A small Mexican town – cobblestone streets, poor (by western standards) homes, but because of it’s charm, it’s a place that people have come to and stayed. Walking down the dusty streets passing little tiendas with minimal stock on the shelves, you then turn into the courtyard of an Italian restaurant with a cascading waterfall and amazing food. Paul and I both love Mexican food, but boy, was it good to eat European for a change. There are two or three such restaurants in La Cruz, and not surprisingly, in the time we spent there with Paul and Lynne, we didn’t by-pass any of them! We also spent a day in Puerto Vallarta, which for all it’s touristy resort reputation, I really liked. The sculptures along the Malecon are probably the finest we have seen so far, the old town quaint and interesting, making me wish we had been able to spend more time than we did. A quick trip was made to Marina Vallarta in order to ‘clean our bottom’ and at the same time, Paul installed ‘lazy jacks’ on both masts. Heading back to La Cruz to say our farewells and to spend one last evening with Paul and Lynne, we headed into town and back to Anna Banana’s – cruisers used to dinghy into and tie up at the dock at Anna Banana’s –AB’s no longer has ocean front and it’s view of the sea is now eclipsed by a huge ‘sand-dune’ – more landfill waiting to be levelled into the sea. But the spirit lives on at AB’s, and every Sunday night there is great live music from both local and American musicians, a great atmosphere and a must for anyone stopping over in La Cruz.

1st May saw us saying our final farewells to Paul and Lynne and La Cruz, and heading south once more for Tenecatita.

TENECATITA

A lovely bay with good shelter and a quite 2 night stop. Here we met Ruth and Buddy of Anapurna who welcomed us into the bay as we made our arrival around 1930 hours on May 1st, inviting us over for coffee the following day. Anapurna a Hanns Christian 48, is my new favourite boat, AND, it’s for sale!!! AND, if we had the money, we’d buy it RIGHT NOW! Absolutely everything the perfect cruising boat (if there is ever such a thing?) should be and therefore out of our price bracket, but if wishes were horses…….!!

Our entire time in Tenecatita Aphrodite was surrounded by thousands of fish, and on our departure, we were surrounded once again, but this time by large jelly fish – literally thousands of them as far as the eye could see. Did very little in Tenecatita – including not even going ashore! Paul of course was busy – oil change and other boy things that I can’t remember, but I’m sure were essential.

So, 4th May – da dar!!! My birthday – and we are heading on down to Manzanillo for 1/ 2 nights and then chasing after Maverick and Susurru who are already some 200 miles ahead of us. Sadly, once again, there is insufficient wind to sail so we are engining, but, due to the lack of wind and therefore the smooth surface, we have seen lots of turtles – fab! Fishing lines are out and Paul and I are competing to see who gets the first bite – as it’s my birthday it should really be me – it’s only fair – but I have a niggling feeling that it’ll be him – that said, neither of us are trying very hard, but a nice fish dinner would go down a treat tonight – I already have the white wine in the freezer chilling.