Vagari's Cruise: January 2006

Monday, January 30, 2006

Pictures of the kids

Here are some smile shots of Molly, and Emily in the snow. Hope you enjoy.

Joe

Monday, January 23, 2006

Entering Puerto Vallarta Harbor

Cruise ship at the entrance to the Puerto Vallarta harbor. Note the small red buoy in the water on the right side of the ship. That is the right side of the channel into the harbor. Vagari is hugging the left side of the channel but I was still nervous being this close to such a large ship even though it is securely tied to the dock. At night when at sea these things look like the City of Tucson is coming at you. This vessel is the Sapphire Princess. Perhaps this is another intimate ship the Cottons should consider.

Vagari’s GPS’s map view

Vagari’s GPS’s map view of our 10-mile trip From La Cruz Huanacaxtle (waypoint 044) to the Puerto Vallarta Harbor entrance. Looks like we are spending the day at the beach when in fact we are at the junction of the deep blue and lighter blue (Vagari is represented by the black triangle on the route line). How can that be? GPS’s are accurate to 30 feet; I have found that usually the error is less than 15 feet. The answer of course is that the charts are wrong. The charts are based on surveys made in the 1870’s. They contain lots of notes that make statements like “ this island has been reported to be 3 miles West of the position shown”. Or my favorite, “exposed rock reported in this area in 1910, position unknown”.

To make it more interesting, there is a river close to the entrance to Puerto Vallarta Harbor that doesn’t show but sends a lot of silt into the bay. So the water is very shallow around this river and out into the bay for almost a mile. This river runs next to the P.V. airport, which is right on the coast but doesn’t show on the chart either. After all it was almost certainly built after the 1870’s.

When cruising in the States I felt that GPS eliminated any navigation challenge. In Mexico you still need to be an accurate, alert and conservative navigator.

To deal with these issues cruisers have written books that give accurate GPS positions and commentary about the shortcoming of the charts in a particular place. Cruisers also give advice to those who ask. A seven-year vet of cruising Mexico drew us a great chart of the anchorages at Isla Isabela on the back of a place mat. I will keep it as long as we cruise.

Waypoint 047 is ½ kt. mi. off the entrance to the Paradise Village Marina.

These are some Isla Isabela pictures that didn’t make it to the blog before for some reason.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Cruising

We spent a day in the busy Mazatlan commercial harbor. I walked up to the lighthouse at the harbor mouth, which is almost 500 feet above sea level. The view was worth the climb.

Lots of ships coming and going, container ships, oil tankers, ferries, a cruise ship and all types of fishing and tourist boats.

Our next stop was Isla Isabel, which has been a Mexican nature preserve for 25 years. The island is about 30 miles off the mainland coast and an overnight sail southeast from Mazatlan.

The pictures tell the story.

We anchored on the east side of the island. We were exposed to any winds/seas except from the Southwest thru Northwest. Cruisers call this a “fools anchorage” because it’s really not protected. On top of that the bottom was a rock self with a few inches of sand on top of the rock plus large rocks all around just waiting to seize you anchor. The water was warm and clear. We could see our anchor sitting on top of the sand when snorkeling. The snorkeling was almost as interesting as the hiking on the island.

The lack of a protected anchorage reduces the number of visitors. We listened to the weather forecast morning and evening to make sure we didn’t get caught in a situation where the wind could blow us onto the rock cliffs or beach. We left after two days knowing we might never be lucky enough to catch such a favorable weather window again.

San Blas, our next stop, was founded in 1535 but not developed as a port until 1768. Some of the ships that were used to explore the North American West Coast were built here. The infamous pirate Clipperton was captured and hung in San Blas.

We took a commercial two-hour boat ride up a jungle river just outside town. The pictures tell that story.

We wanted to take a bus from our anchorage into town, but learned that they only run on the weekend. So we started walking. Six kilometers from town a gentlemen offered us a ride in the back of his pickup. Yes kids, your mom was happy to jump into the back of the pickup and away we went.

The trip from San Blas to Banderas Bay (Puerto Vallarta area) took almost nine hours. We caught and ate a hefty Dorado and saw countless whales. One time we saw three huge Humpback whales leaping out of the water. At different times at night both of us heard but could not see, because of the darkness, whales breathing. There was a heavy overcast that day caused by clouds going northeast from the Inter Tropical Convergent Zone near the equator to cooler northern areas. We often get high clouds from that process but heavy overcast is unusual.