Cabo to LaCruz

            What a wonderful excursion.  We started with a beautiful day snorkeling in a bay just east of Cabo.  On the way there was an adolescent whale that kept breeching.  He appeared to be trying to nurse at times, then would go back to breeching.  A large whale then provided us with some breaches creating an absolutely huge splash.  These whales were right off our bow! 

     We headed out in the evening with our sights set on Isla Isabel – a nature preserve for breeding Boobie and Frigat birds.  There were minimal to no winds and somewhat confused seas.  We drifted for awhile and occasionally motored with the idea that it appeared there was wind just on the horizon.  Turns out that these we just zephyrs and we really didn’t catch any wind until well into that night.  This was somewhat unexpected because the last two times that Courage made this crossing there were tremendous winds.  We had to stay well north of the 3 sister islands – the Tres Marias, as these are a penal colony and travel near the islands is restricted.

   
    We arrived in the morning to the sight of Isla Isabel.  Masses of birds were circling the island, fish were jumping, the sun was shining and life was good.  We anchored in the bay of the sharks and headed into shore.  In Charlie’s Charts they indicate that for decades this is where fishermen bring the sharks that they catch to slaughter them.




       There is a cute little camp just on shore with makeshift structures from random building materials.  Each structure seems to have an outhouse behind it.  There are two freshwater lakes on the island.  Iguanas were everywhere sunning themselves and were only minimally concerned about the human presence.  The birds were ridiculously thick in the trees with 10-20 large birds, nests, and their young per moderate sized tree.  They appear to be flourishing here. 

          The weather was beautiful, but the sun was hot so after a short hike with the children it became obvious that they would not tolerate much more of that.  I stayed with them at the shore while the other big people went for a real hike across the island.  We had an excellent time catching lizards, then found a beautiful beach in a small bay.  There was a nice cave that we could climb into, get some shade and cool down significantly.  We had a nice swim and some tide pool exploration also.

The next few days were preoccupied with holding a lizard as our number one goal of the day.  We watched the birds, but they were so protective of their babies that we couldn’t get too close.  We snorkeled on a gorgeous reef with a strong current.  You had to swim in order to hold your location.  We saw a moray eel, puffer fish, a parrot fish along with many other tropical fish.

Another boat in the anchorage gave us some of his wahoo fish he’d caught the day before and gave us the advice that we troll off the point of the island with a squid lure.  Courage and the boys headed out in the dinghy.  They weren’t out long before the dinghy headed back to the boat.  They swung by our friend boat for a quick check-in and fish ID session.  Intrepid had landed a Sierra.  Supposed to be very good eating!  He was quite excited and had a story to tell.  He told it over and over that evening.

   
While loving Isla Isabel, it was time to go.  On April 5^th, we headed out for the Banderas Bay with a stop at the Tres Mariettas along the way.  The Tres Mariettas are really cute little islands at the entrance to Banderas Bay with many arches, caves, and small remote beaches.  We watched a large blowhole spraying with loud crashing noise.  Unfortunately the surge was too much for us to land on the shore, but a contingency went snorkeling and saw some great sea life.  The dinghy exploration also came across a sea turtle.

After this nice morning stop, we headed to La Cruz, east of Punta Mita and north of Puerto Vallarta.  The marina is new since 2008 and is large enough to haul us out – a rarity since we are 30 feet 9 inches wide.  Our sister ship Prophlegate was hauled out here while we were here.  There were strong winds in the bay and a large number of boats anchored out.  After having taken on water and waves and a week on our water supply, we decided to check into the marina for a night, wash the stainless, refill our tanks, and resupply some fresh fruits/veggies.  The marina was lovely and accommodating, we had a nice shower, washed some laundry, bought some fruits/veggies, did some internetting from a local café. There is a cute little town square just inland from the marina where they seemed to have a traveling fair.  The kids went twice into a jumpy tent with trampolines and balls.  Innocence even got to hold a very new baby bunny rabbit, he didn’t even have hair yet.  Courage and I had a great dinner date at a local restaurant.   In that evening, I laid on the back deck and listened to a live band playing familiar English songs.  Very relaxing.  Would love to spend more time in this cute little town, but we had places to be, exploring to do and things to see.