Di swimming and playing with dolphins in the wild!!!!

Hola from Bahia Tenacatita

Hola from Bahia Tenacatita

This past week we've been out at our favourite kind of anchorages which are too remote for internet access. This week's text update is coming to you via our Ham Radio. How cool is this technology????
After leaving the marina at Puerto Vallarta, we sailed over and spent a couple of nights at the La Cruz anchorage. This was still within civilization as we went out with our friends Jake and Sharon to a late afternoon jam session and dinner at Anna Banana's. We were the first to arrive and about the last to leave. Another great sail across the Bay of Banderas brought us to a mooring ball at the isolated anchorage of Yelapa. I fell in love with this funky little town, which has no roads and just got electricity four years ago. It is full of old hippies, draft dodgers from the 60's, a reputed few that have escaped from the law and local Mexicans, which makes it a colourful and interesting community to wander through. The first day we went horseback (okay, mine was a mule) riding right from the beach, up the riverbank and past many local palapas (basic homes). A popular sport here is paragliding where the certified participants leave from the bluffs above the town. The infamous saying here is "A palapa in Yelapa is better than a condo in Redondo" and we would certainly concur. The next few days we headed down what is known as the "Gold Coast". Each day was a long motorsail as the initial anchorages along this coast are far apart. Each of them was also VERY rolly as they are not very protected from the mighty Pacific and that made for uncomfortable sleeping conditions. Last night in Chamela it felt like we were anchored in the middle of the ocean, with each pounding wave sounding like the boat was crashing into the bottom and bursting apart. We left early again, not because we had another long sail, but just to get out of Dodge. We arrived in the beautiful and serene Bahia Tenacatita this afternoon and are looking forward to spending a few days here exploring the jungle lagoon (complete with crocodiles) and doing some snorkeling.
Until next time..Kylie have a safe journey on your summer adventures.

Mazatlan to Puerto Vallarta

Hola. We continued to work madly on boat projects in Mazatlan - not realizing that we were there during the Easter week, which is the busiest time of the year. Lots going on. We cast off the lines at 3:00 a.m. under a dazzling full moon to head over to Isabella Island, which is a national park with blue footed boobies and nesting frigates, happily cohabitating. Our departure from this remote island was our first adventure. At midnight we left (the full moon now clouded over). The seas had started to pick up and the boat was pounding up and down while we tried to up anchor. No luck...completely stuck! (sounds like something out of a Dr. Seuss book).

Peter remained calm in spite of the dark, the pounding seas, our brand new electric windlass (the mechanism that brings up the anchor) not doing its job AND a boat at anchor fairly close by. He had to take off the new windlass and put back on the old one and then he had me drive around to "unhook" us from whatever we were stuck on in this anchorage which is reputedly known as an "anchor eater". Success.....and we were off and sailing towards Puerto Vallarta.

We've spent about five days here at the marina. We only stay in marinas when we have work to do, (i.e. fixing heads) since we far prefer to be out at anchor. The highlight was spending a day with Jodi/Melissa and their family at a local resort, although Peter,Jodi and Melissa's drinking competition resulted in a non-productive next day. We did take advantage of Peter feeling under the weather to go out in our dinghy in the canal in search of crocodiles. We were very lucky to see two of them....how very cool.




This is where we are heading....

While here we also picked up the 13 foreign country courtesy flags we had sewn by Anni on SunSeeker. See if you can guess which ones they are - hint we will be sailing to these countries this year and next. I'll put the answers in the next blog update I do next week. (P.S. This is mostly for Kieran and Shelby to figure out). Anyone that wants to guess can send me an email at svquickstar@gmail.com.

As soon as we finish a few odds and sods we will be sailing over to La Cruz and anchorages further south. We will have most of the anchorages to ourselves as everyone who is still in Mexico is heading north to the Sea of Cortez to be well out of the hurricane zone which officially kicks in on June 1st. Those that have crossed to the South Pacific have already done so. We will be leaving a few months behind the "crowd", but this is because we are going to the Galapagos and also will be spending more than one season in the South Pacific, so we don't need to rush there. Besides we don't want to worry any of our friends or family by doing anything the normal way.


We will be out of internet range for the next 10 days or so.

Until next time....hug someone special and enjoy spring!

Our Itinerary for this cruising season

Arrival in Mazatlan...check out our new inflatable kayaks (two black bags) ...can't wait to try them out! (Dee recognize our duffle bag from Nepal?)

We were sad to say goodbye to our friends and family when we left Silver Star on April 3rd. We had a fabulous winter - enjoyed the bridge club, the Scrabble club, lots of cross country and downhill skiing, snowshoeing, the gym, Yoga (so much to do, so much to do!) and visits with family. Peter had a short snowmobiling season as he drove into a hole and hit the wall. His shoulder/chest have been bugging him for the whole season and it is still sore, although definitely on the mend.

Peter boarding QuickStar

During this winter, Peter and a couple of friends came down to Mazatlan and worked for a week - methinks from the stories that they also had lots of fun. We put the boat on the hard (out of the water) at the boatyard and had many repairs/improvements done. This whole first week back has been finishing off boat projects and getting ready for our big season.

What's the plan? We leave here hopefully on Friday, spend a few nights sailing to Puerto Vallarta where we will meet up with Jodi from the office and her family as they are on holidays there. We will be picking up the courtesy flags (boat flags of other countries) that we've had made and getting a bit more stainless work done, and then VOILA, we are on our way.

Launching QuickStar we moved over to the marina for the final touches!

Until the end of May we will be cruising down the coast of Mexico, ending in Huatulco around May 27th. Peter will stay on s/v QuickStar and be joined by his high school friend Don Hall - the two of them will be sailing across the Equator and to the Galapagos. This should be an approximate 10 day crossing so lots of time for weeny-welding and telling tall tales. I will fly to Lima, where I will be meeting up with Martha (Don's wife), and then we continue on to Cuzco. We will be hiking Manchu Picchu, one of my lifelong dreams! After 10 days we will fly over to the Galapagos to meet up with the guys and QuickStar.

Our itinerary is to spend 10 days touring around this magical area. Another lifelong dream coming true! When Don and Martha leave, we will have about 4 days by ourselves when we will do some diving. Our friend and competent sailor, Doug will be joining us along with his delightful 12 year old daughter Shelby. They have both sailed with us before and are ideal guests. After about a week when they will explore the Galapagos, we begin the biggest challenge of our trip so far.

The crossing from the Galapagos to the Marquesas's could be anywhere from 21 to 30 days. Yes, that means we sail 24/7 in the middle of the ocean. Hopefully the voyage will be neither too exciting nor too boring. I admit to being nervous, but I try to do something that scares me at least once a week - this will go a long way in fulfilling that goal!

Doug and Shelby will stay with us until the middle of August when they will fly home from Tahiti. Kylie will be flying in and visiting with us for two weeks - it will be so great to see her again. Peter & I will spend the next three months cruising through the South Pacific. Life is tough...I know!

As we do each year, we will fly home to Silver Star in mid-November to get our fix of this fabulous winter wonderland. We have yet to decide where we will leave the boat..either Fiji, New Zealand or the Marshall Islands. Time yet to make that final decision.

As always, I'll try to do a post at least once a week, so we invite you to join us on our adventure. Wishing you all a wonderful Easter weekend and all the promise of the Spring Season.

Until next time......Enjoy your visit by the Easter Bunny! (Danny - please stay safe at the rodeo - your cracked ribs are telling you to just say no to riding bucking broncos!)