Ocean Echo 1: Ensenada to Banderas Bay, Mexico

Dear Friends

It has been a while, since my last blog entry. I had some family medical emergency occurring last couple of months. My stay in Mexico has been good with a few interesting developments. Mexican people are quite helpful in many ways, since my spanish is still very limited.
Sailing down the Baha peninsula requires some planning ahead of time and watching the weather in December. Lows coming up to California can make a lot of trouble, since there is only a few bays to hide. Large low was approaching fast, so I had to leave Esnsenada before the port was closed again for a few days. My first stop after Ensenada was a San Quintin, which is a large bay opened to south. There was nobody around except breaching Whales and sea life. Next overnighter was to Turtle Bay village in central Baha. I managed to get some diesel fuel here and fount Internet cafe to check emails and contact family via Skype. Turtle Bay had some dolphins feeding near the shore while I was paddling my kayak. They came by to say "Hi":-).
My next destination was a Magdalena Bay, which is a large bay with commercial harbour deep inside. Mag. Bay village is known to cruisers by display of large Whale bones and parts of skeleton. It is a good shelter, however it can have choppy sea due to large area of the bay - 25 miles across. Beaches are spectacular in Mag. Bay. I have started New Year 2011 on one of these beautiful beaches. Some parts of the beach had a few dead Giant Squid lying in the sand well over 1 meter long.
Leg to Cabo San Lucas went well. Good wind from behind allowed for comfortable steering of my windvane (wind self steering). I have arrived to Cabo S. Lucas early in the morning. Anchorage is very scenic, but very busy with jetskis, panga water taxis and other small watercrafts. Marina in Cabo cost approx. $US 180 - 200 per night (for 40 - 42 foot boat). There is even charge for anchoring in the bay using own anchor. I have spent quite a bit of time in the past driving around Baha and Cabo S.L., so I was interested to see the changes over the last few years. It is a nice resort city with clear ocean water and a lot of different attractions.
Reports from La Paz and Mazatlan about cooler weather this winter made me decide to sail from Cabo S.L. straight down to Banderas Bay - La Cruz, Puerto Vallarta area. It took approx. 2.5 days to sail to La Cruz - Banderas Bay. La Cruz is a friendly town with comfortable anchorage just outside of the marina. Bus to Puerto Vallarta takes about an hour. Bus drivers in Mexico are good and they will stop for pick up or drop of anywhere. I have explored Banderas Bay during a few weeks of visiting. Yelapa cove is definitely interesting trip with waterfalls above very old village in the jungle.
Family medical emergency made me to park the boat in La Cruz marina and fly to Europe for a few days.
Trip from Banderas Bay - La Cruz to San Blas and Isla Isabel was against the wind, but it was well worth the effort. Jungle river trip in San Blas was very interesting with a lot of different birds, turtles, alligators and crocodiles (imported). Panga took us travelling along mangrove alleys and other spectacular formations to the end of the river.
Isla Isabel has been a high light of my Mexican visit. Next entry in this blog will cover this beautiful island.

Maintaining this blog could by complicated time to time, because Internet signal/connection for uploading pictures, will not be as good/fast as it is in large cities/communities. Please, excuse my poor writing skills and grammar. Google translate does good job converting text to other languages.
I hope, that you will find something interesting in this blog – enjoy.

Jara (JJ) Holcman       sv. Ocean Echo 1