12. PV through Loreto

April 26th - May 8th: Time to leave Puerto Vallarta and get up north! After only two days to prep the boat, we headed out of the marina into Banderas Bay about 10:00 am on Thursday, with our first stop being Punta Mita, at the entrance to Banderas Bay. We made Punta Mita by 1:00 pm where we anchored and began cleaning the bottom. It seems the La Cruz area is so bad that you need to clean your bottom every week or so. We spent about 2 hours working on the bottom then took off.

Our first stop was Isla Isabela, a small island that is a bird conservancy and fishing camp and is about 65 miles north of Punta Mita. We arrived off the island about 1:00 am and simply did circles offshore until the sun came up enough to allow us to safely approach the island. We hiked, kayaked, snorkeled and finished the bottom cleaning before setting out again at 5:00 pm that evening for Mazatlan. We have Isla Isabela on our list of "must stop again" and will do so next year.

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We made Mazatlan by 7:00 am that next (Sat) morning but couldn't enter the harbor due to dredging. We anchored off Deer Island and slept for a couple of hours. Turns out that the harbor would only open at noon for a short period of time. We scooted into El Cid marina, fueled up (our reason for being in there), pulled in some internet weather and emails, then took off again!

There was no wind ... absolutely no wind for 80 percent of the crossing, so we set a rhumb line for Aqua Verde, 300 miles away, and motored. It was wonderful, calm, and except for the dash-blasted frigate birds ruining our windex's, was perfect! We arrived into Aqua Verde mid-day on Monday. We anchored and relaxed a good bit. We had 30 miles to Puerto Escondido (45 to Loreto) and 3 days to do it in.

We joined the other cruisers for a great potluck on the beach, snorkeled off the point (cold ... 70 degrees), went for a couple of runs and relaxed. Wednesday, we sailed on to Puerto Escondido, picking up a mooring (yep, that's how it's done now) and met the LoretoFest organizers.

Thursday, Gary and Sandy arrived in Loreto so we sailed just off the town shore, where Diane took the dinghy in to pick them up from the airport. Like clockwork!

After two days of LoretoFest, we were itching to do some exploring so went south to Isla Monserrat (SW anchorage) ... gorgeous. Possibly our best snorkel on the west coast of Mexico, and then from there, Isla Carmen. Wow!

We had to drop Sandy and Gary off for their return flight out of Loreto and transact some business. While Diane was taking them to shore, Bill was trying to pick up an internet signal to make a bank transaction (money from savings to checking), pay a bill and leave money for Diane to take a withdrawal out of an ATM in Loreto. It worked! Cruising has changed in the last 10 years!