This was a very quiet day, we slept in a bit, read our books, played our games, did our daily bible reading and basically just hung out, enjoying the quiet of being at anchor. I called my sister to wish her a happy birthday, she is 60 today.
I was asked on Facebook about our life raft. This shows where it is mounted.The model is RescYou and it is rated for 6 people. The reason for that is we had figured on occasionally having 4 people on board and the 4 person life raft is setup with everyone with their knees up and very tight, we wanted a bit more room.The Brand is Viking, so far all of this is a good thing, in that we have not had to use it. Now the bad news, it is coming up on 3 years old, and needs to be re-certified. The cost is about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of a new life raft. $$$
Up and about breakfast and the net. Plan to get underway and head over to Punta de Mita. We will just anchor there or may go to Chacala around the point.
We left the marina around 9:30.There was very little wind but with ~6 kts we put up the sails.The wind speed increased gradually with speeds averaging 20 kts most of the afternoon.We were traveling slowly, just enjoying the quiet sail when we watched a sailboat pass us.It continued to circle us (at a fair distance) with speeds doubling ours.By the time we’d reached >6 kts of speed while heeling, the other sailboat turned away.😀.We dropped anchor at around 4:30 at the Punta De Mita anchorage.
We have decided to not go to Chacala, we will hang out here until Saturday morning.
So, here in Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta), we will have a high of around 85 degree F. The overnight low is probably 68 or so. So, No we won’t have jackets on!
Today we left the boat at 9 to go to church at La Fuente in Bucerias. We made a much needed stop at the bank. It was wonderful to see familiar faces at church, Valerie and Larry Ball, Bob and Iris Ranger, Connie and Dave Gemmer-Allen, the Krahn family (George and Helen and their daughters). The sermon was on the difference the Resurrection makes.
After church we went out to lunch with the church friends at Delicioso in Bucerias. Then we hitched a ride with the Krahn’s to see the home they bought. It needs a lot of remodeling but it has potential.
Then we caught another bus headed for Puerto Vallarta. It took two to get to Zaragoza and we were unhappy to find it closed. Another bus to Home Depot and they didn’t carry the tool we were looking for. A fifth bus for the day took us back to La Cruz. We got about 7000 steps in.
Telephone wires.building codes are not quite the same in Mexico as the states. Seriously, I really could reach out and grab the wire on the insulator from the rooftop terrace. The wires on the top of the pole were not that far away either.
We got up and checked in on the net and found out that the cruisers were headed over to Yelapa for the weekend, we elected to not join them. As in Been There Done That (yesterday!)
We went to the Swap meet and Reneé went shopping and to take in some more laundry. Again a pretty quiet day. Reneé got all of the laundry back, and made coleslaw and taco soup. We took a walk out to the end of the breakwater and then turned in.
We got up had breakfast and got underway. At least that was the plan. We got up, and tried to get underway, but the dock line that we were tied to the mooring ball with, had gotten tangled and did not want to let go. Normally, I deal with the anchor, and Reneé steers the boat, when we tie to a mooring ball, typically we swap places and she deals with the mooring ball. Well she could not get the knot undone, so I went up to the bow and she took the wheel. We moved the boat up a bit to take some of the tension off the knot and then I could drag the float up out of the water and work on the knot. A few minutes later we were underway, about 9 am.
We motored across as there was virtually no wind. Which was true until we got to the channel of the marina and suddenly the winds were up to 18 knots. Ok, we got this…..
We head in and have to turn to port down a channel to get to the dock that we have a slip on. A first glimpse, there is no one in it. As soon as we commit to the turn though, a very large power boat (80 foot?) turns into the same channel from the other end. So, we back out of his way, (remember the winds at 18 knots?) we manage to avoid hitting anyone here. After he gets around the corner we head back in to our slip on Dock 3 A14.
Well, we thought the A side was the far side and we overshot the fairway to our slip and had to turn around, by this time the winds were up to about 20 knots. We started down the correct fairway and only bumped one other boat as we backed into our slip. That was rough, but the only damage to either boat was a broken fishing pole holder on our boat. (West Marine $70/pair).
We got shore power on and Reneé headed off to the laundry and I went and checked us in. Then went to talk to the people on the boat that we hit. A very pleasant conversation, maybe not required but certainly made me feel better checking in with them. They double checked for damage and let me know the next day that all was ok.
That was enough for one day, and we really didn’t do anything else.