Lazing in La Cruz

 

You know you have entered cruise mode when you find yourself having an animated discussion on what day of the week it is.  Without the regular rhythm of the work week the days run together, especially as the climate almost never changes from 90 degrees and sun, which heightens the sense of timelessness.  We feel ourselves slowing down, being happy with accomplishing one task in a day (maybe), and just hanging out without really thinking about what day it is.  For the past few weeks Ed and I have been lazing in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and losing track of time, having arrived down the mainland coast from Mazatlan.

La Cruz is in Banderas Bay, just 6 nautical miles from Puerto Vallarta, and is ‘cruisers- central’ with great marina facilities, a yacht club, a sandy beach and a cute small town of little shops and cobblestone streets.  For Pacific Puddle Jumpers, like ourselves, it’s also ground zero, as numerous seminars and workshops take place here to support the Puddle Jump.  So far we’ve had seminars on SSB radio communications, offshore weather, rigging, sailboat electrics & spares, provisioning, and more.  We are psyched because in the coming week we’ll have another in-depth seminar on weather, a session on what to do ‘when big things break’ and also an in-the-water demo and deployment of a life raft where we can all practice on getting into one.  Granted, no seminar will ever replace real experience, but these sessions are definitely better than nothing (and in any case, we hope we never have real-life experience on deploying a life raft!).

 

The beach in La Cruz is just behind the marina where we are docked. Here it is at sunset.

 

What we love the most, perhaps, is the wonderful nature that we’ve seen all over the place since we left Cabo for Mazatlan.  The most fun, perhaps, was an encounter we had with a school of squid during the overnight passage from Cabo to Mazatlan.  During the night, a number of squid launched themselves out of the water and onto our decks, which we found when the sun came up. We believe they were probably trying to escape some dolphins, as we saw a number of dolphins around the boat on the passage.

Squid jumped out of the water and landed on Time Warp’s decks.  We didn’t know squid could fly!

We returned the squid to the ocean, but they left their inky imprints behind, which tell the whole squiddy story

 

Over the past week we have had a lot of fun with a visit from Giulia, who is on school break for a week.  We decided do a short excursion with the boat over to Yelapa, a town accessible exclusively by boat, foot or horseback.  The stunningly beautiful bay and beach lead up to a quaint and peaceful village, and a path through the village reaches a secluded waterfall in the jungle above the palapas (houses with thatched roofs).

Here are some pictures of our visit to Yelapa with Giulia.

Giulia in Yelapa, with a view of the bay and anchorage

 

Giulia getting ready to dunk in the waterfall in Yelapa

 

Time Warp moored at Yelapa. Unfortunately the anchorage was way too rolly, making for an almost sleepless night, even with the flopper stopper.

 

Back in La Cruz we’ve had a great time taking in all the nature, including lots of puffer fish, banana trees, and birds.

Puffer fish abound in La Cruz

 

Just don’t eat the puffer fish. As this poor fish found out, it is poisonous, and so it was its final meal (the tail of the puffer fish is still sticking out of the larger fish’s mouth)

 

Bird in La Cruz. We honestly don’t know what kind of bird it is, but it has a great punk look with the grey, white and yellow ‘faux-hawk’ feathers.

 

Banana trees abound here in La Cruz

 

 

Finally, we want to send best wishes to our friend Lou, who crewed with us from Half Moon Bay to Santa Barbara, and from San Diego to Cabo.  The week after he flew out of Cabo he suffered a catastrophic skiing accident in Tahoe, and has just recently been released from ICU and will have a long road to recovery.  But Lou is one tough dude, and is making great progress.  Lou — we wish you the best, and will look forward to sailing with you again in some place warm and sunny!

 

Lou at the helm on Sonamara, his and Patrice’s Island Packet