Up at 6 am, breakfast, bible reading then get the dinghy down to go ashore. Getting the dinghy down and ashore was pretty uneventful. Very calm water. Then Reneé watched the dinghy while I went into town, I tried for an Uber and an InDriver, but failed. Then noticed I forgot my mask, and had to come back and borrow hers. Then back up to the bus stop and while waiting for the bus, with two propane tanks, I tried for an InDriver again. This time I got one, but I had to wait about 10 minutes. She was one of the fastest drivers I have had in Mexico, cruising at 100-105 km (about 60-65 mph). We stopped at two banks, the propane station, and finally back to the La Cruz Marina office to get a deposit back (we forgot). Then back to the beach where Reneé and I had to get the dinghy back out to the boat.
While we were waiting, the tide had come in a bit, so the dinghy was almost in the water. We were fairly successful, it would have been better if I had remembered to put the emergency stop key back in before we were trying to get the boat in the water. In any case, we got out and only a little wet.
Then underway, and headed out, wind speed was low, 5-8 knots, so no sails at first. Then as we continued out and Reneé was below working on lunch, a whale jumped within 100 feet of our boat. I missed the jump but saw the tail flip afterwards. We saw a bunch of whales today, Reneé saw a tail flip behind the boat about 100 yards, and later we missed a jump at about 100 feet (again) but saw the tail flip afterwards.
As we continued across the bay, winds hung around the high teens, and we had the sails out, but we were still running the engine, we would rather not anchor in the dark. As we neared Cabo Corrientes (this is the south West Point of the bay, and wind around it is pretty intense. It gets discussed on the morning net in Banderas Bay, and on the Panama Posse, which covers the weather from San Diego to Panama and up to Miami. As we approached the point about 5 miles off, we saw wind speeds of 20-25 knots, gradually rising to 35-40 knots. We eventually got the Jib down and then we brought the main into the center position. About this time we noticed the buckling at the bottom of the main, so I had to go out on deck and tighten the halyard to haul the mainsail up a bit.
We arrived in range of Ipala, and there was a fishing boat with a net right in the way, so we had to wait until he stopped and go around him. Then we figured out where to anchor and dropped anchor, and then Reneé saw something that might be rocks and up the anchor came and we moved. (Once bitten, twice shy). This is where we found the rocks last time. Finally anchored in about 34 feet of water with about 175 feet of chain out. Then inside for dinner, showers and bed. Tomorrow an early start (no really!) and we will head to Chamela about 55 miles south.
