Crossing, Christmas and Carrizale

I have to say that one of my least favourite parts of this sailing lifestyle is being woken up in the middle of the night to all sorts of strange sounds and wondering where the heck your boat is moving to in the dark. This is one of those times, granted we saw it coming on the weather, but it’s still always a shock when you’re woken in the middle of the night to 20 knot winds. 

During the next 36 hours, we saw constant wind with gusts sometimes over 30 knots, even though we were in a very well protected bay. The nice part about the bay is that the waves have no chance to build up so even though it was windy, and the boat would dance on the anchor chain, the boat wouldn’t rock up and down like it does on waves.

After riding that out for almost 2 days, we were grateful for our solid anchor and a ton of chain. These somewhat controlled situations help us build confidence in our boats stability and our skills, but we were sure glad when it was over and we could visit with boat friends and move on with life.

We did soon move onto a really cool bay called Isla San Francisco and you should really look it up on the map because it has the most unique hook shape and crystal clear turquoise waters. It reminds me of what Neverland might look like if you asked a kid to draw it.

There are some really beautiful islands surrounding the La Paz area and there was no way for us to visit them all but we certainly enjoyed the Espiritu Santo and Parita Islands. It was around this point as well that we made the firm decision that we were gonna make our way south instead of north for Christmas. It mostly came down to having other kid boats further south, though we had to say goodbye to some good friends up north. That part is also one of my least favourite parts of this cruising lifestyle: you’re always saying goodbye to someone.

Before we made the trek across the sea of Cortez and towards Puerto Vallarta, we were able to swim in a bay that was literally teaming with turtles. Every time you looked out and in every direction, there was a turtle head and a turtle shell poking up. We were able to get in the water with them and have some really close encounters. They are probably our favourite sea creature ever.

Soon enough, it was time to prep for another overnight passage, as we made our way across the sea of Cortez. We’d all been hoping for some redemptive passages as the rough passages have really concreted themselves in our memories. It’s always a bit discouraging to be broken down by a rough passage, knowing you’ll just have to do it again another time. Luckily, on this track from a Espiritu Santo to Isla Isabel we had some really dreamy moments on the boat as a family: imagine wing on wing sailing with the sun out in deep blue seas. Everyone is in the cockpit either reading or playing a game or taking a nap and we were all comfortable. If our sail across the Pacific could be anything like that, I think we’ll be OK.

Our next stop was in an island chain that is sometimes called the Galapagos islands of Mexico. It was also a convenient stop on our way towards Banderas Bay that gave us a little break and some sightseeing to boot. 

This natural bird sanctuary is quite a sight to behold. The rocks are so craggy and wild looking, and the island is covered in all sorts of birds. There are no natural predators for the birds on the island so they really take over. We spent a day hiking around the island spotting all sorts of iguanas and lizards (we even spotted a brightly coloured snake!) But mostly we would see frigate-birds and blue footed boobies every direction you looked. They really do own that island.

Isla Isabel also had the best snorkelling we’ve experienced so far. Clear water everywhere you looked and colourful fish of all sorts of varieties everywhere else. We were really grateful we had the chance to explore there as it’s not an easy location to access even by boat, but it was well worth it.

As it is a small group of islands, there isn’t much protection from the open sea, so we had a few rolling nights at anchor and we were ready to make our way towards Banderas Bay.

This was one more overnight towards Banderas Bay, and we could already feel the temperature in the air changing. As land came into site, we could see the lushness of the mainland of Mexico. We have been on the Peninsula for so long that we forgot that not all of Mexico as a desert. The mainland is so green and alive with vegetation - it was really refreshing to see that as we came into Banderas Bay and set our anchor in the la Cruz Anchorage.

We’ve heard lots about La Cruz and the kids were really excited to meet other family boats (so were we). There’s a great marina on shore and all the amenities you could ever need, and lots of organized activities for kids as well. We were able to connect with some friends we’ve made along the way, and hear about their various journeys. We were so grateful to have one friend reach out and ask if we could do Christmas dinner together: it definitely filled our buckets. Neither of us had family nearby and it felt right to stick together.

We were grateful we made the long trek across the sea of Cortez into the mainland of Mexico for the holidays. Everything we’ve heard so far was true, and it was so nice to be surrounded by other families and lots of things to do.

It’s always tough to be away from home at Christmas and this year was no exception. I actually struggled the most with getting into the Christmas spirit as it was too sweaty hot to feel like Christmas at all. I tried my best to crank the Christmas music, the days leading up to it, but it just felt strange to celebrate Christmas in a hot and perpetually sunny spot.

Matt and I were able to do a bit of last-minute shopping at a big box store, which helped fill some gaps in our Christmas needs. This Christmas was definitely one of our most simple ones. Everyone got one gift and then all the other gifts were mostly things we could eat: chocolates or cookies or special spreads. There’s just no extra room on the boat for big new books or shoes or toys. But I’ll admit that it felt really great to not have new junk floating around, but I’ll also admit that something didn’t feel quite right as well.

Don’t get me wrong, we still had a really lovely Christmas morning together with cinnamon buns, and endless coffee and mimosas and then a big Mediterranean feast with our friends for dinner (on catamaran!). But, we all missed our home a little bit.

We were able to catch up with various friends and family over the phone or video chat the next couple days, and that really filled our buckets too. 

La Cruz truly is a great spot to land and we’ve been warned that it’s easy to get stuck there. We totally understand how and why. As a Christmas gift to ourselves, we booked four nights in the marina, and that was the best Christmas gift of all! We don’t check into marina’s very often, but this one was well worth it, it felt a little bit like a holiday.

Before La Cruz could sink its teeth in any further, we made our way to another popular Bay called Tenacatita. Luckily we were able to buddy boat with another family boat and we could keep an eye on each other for the overnight sail there. We arrived a day before New Year’s Eve and had lots of time to settle in. Tenacatita is great for families as it’s a nice open bay with decent protection and the sweet little surf spot that consistently makes nice little waves for the kids to surf or boogie board on without any fear of getting in trouble. Digory surfed those waves for hours and hours every day. He was in heaven.

New Year’s Eve there was a lovely gathering on the beach. Everyone brought something to share and there was even some fireworks. Luckily there was a plan for “cruisers midnight“, which happened at about 9:30 PM - no complaints over here! Someone had brought lanterns to send into the sky and we sang auld lang syne together and wished everyone a happy new year. It was a great way to shut down one year and greet the next.

The next day, with another couple family boats, we went to explore the mangroves nearby and that was a spectacular adventure. It took about an hour meandering through the mangroves, and it was so beautiful. 

Another day we took the dinghy across the bay to Manzanilla for their Friday market, full of fruits and veggies, and all sorts of Mexican wares. But soon enough it was time to go explore another bay.

Luckily, the stops here are all nearby so it wasn’t too far to make our way to Barra de Navidad. This town is so cute and has some really beautiful high-end resorts as you enter. We loved walking around town seeing what they had to offer and just getting lost in the colourful streets.

Friends that we had made along the way encouraged us to come check out a small anchorage just a little further south called Carrizale and we couldn’t resist. Carrizale was a really nice place to wash the city off and to just relax for a few days. It actually reminded me a little bit of Desolation Sound back at home, as it’s a closed-in bay surrounded by big rocks, and there is no sand at the beach. But the similarities end there as there are cactuses growing out of the greenery instead of conifers. It was easy to spend a few days here, snorkeling, and fishing, and having dinners with friends on various boats.

Our last leg south brought us to Bahia Santiago, just around the corner from Carrizale, and just north of Manzanillo. This is another tourist location, but for Mexican tourists. The beach is lined with hundreds of different umbrellas set up by different little vendors and plastic chairs that go right up to the high tide line. There are times when you could be sipping your margarita and have the waves lapping at your feet.

It was an easy spot to drop the anchor and go and see what we needed in town. We took a cab to Manzanillo for a day to explore that colourful town and pick up a few groceries. The next day, we did another grocery run, but this time to Walmart, which is as much fun as it sounds. If you think Walmart shopping is exhausting at home, try to imagine taking a tiny cab there, doing all your shopping, and then packing all your groceries Into various backpacks, dry bags, and any other bag you have just to shove it back in the tiny cab to drive it to the sandy beach to schlep it into the dinghy, to drag the dinghy down the beach, to ride the dinghy back to the boat. 

We earned our cerveza that day for sure, but we are also really grateful to have blocks of cheese in our fridge and coffee creamer, and some other delicious food things that are sometimes hard to find in the little Mexican shops.

Now that we’ve gone as far south on the Mexican mainland, as we can, we will slowly start making our way back north towards Puerto Vallarta in the next few weeks. We have dear friends visiting near the end of the month and we wanna be back to La Cruz by then. 

After that will be in full Pacific crossing prep mode. We have already signed up for the Pacific puddle jump, and are really starting to think about how to make that passage swift and safe and how the best navigate the weather routing there. We are still making connections with various boats who are planning a similar trip and we’ll keep in touch with them as the date gets nearer. It’s always nice to have a buddy boat when you’re doing any crossing, but this one in particular would be really great to have at least one other boat leaving at the same time as us.

Our biggest conundrum lately is whether we leave from Puerto Vallarta area or head back north towards Cabo. We’re currently gathering all the data and input we can on this so we can make the best decision for us. We’re aiming to set sail west probably at the end of February or early March, but we’ll see what the weather has to say.