Chamela

When we arrived in Chamela I basically crashed till the next day. I was only able to get 3 hrs sleep the prior night and was just beat. Guess what? This is also a very rolly anchorage. I think all west coast anchorages are rolly. We are tucked behind a large finger of land but some how the northwest swell finds it's way around the corner only to make my nights miserable and restless. No wonder so many boats stay in Marinas. The next day we put up the sun shade and set out the flopper stopper. The first helped a lot, but the second just dampened the effects of the constant swell and waves. There is very large swell running out side so I think that is a big factor. Speaking of swell and crashing waves, we have a close encounter with these turbulent waters just to get to shore. There is only one small corner of the bay where there is small enough surf that you can make a beach landing. Coming to shore usually means surfing your dingy ( yeh dingy surfing, my New Years Eve desire)through 2 to 3 ft breakers. The hard part is you have to go back through those waters when you want to get back to the boat. Timing is everything. On our first attempt everyone thought we were going to flip over backwards as we climbed the largest wave in the set and came crashing down the back side. Bad Timing!!! With all our weight forward we were able fly over the top and slide down the back of a big breaking wave. This departure was after us helping 3 other boats make it successfully through the waves The next time we only got soaked waiting in shallow water for some calm to go through the surf. Good thing it is 85' and warm water.
There are about 6 beach front palapas that all have their specialities. We eat at the Corona tent for 50($5.00) peso chicken fajitas for two and 10 ($1.00) peso beers. I still get bad headaches form beer some mine are $1.50 Cokes. Go figure this is beer country. Water cost more than beer! As I sit hear tonight with visions of dingy surfing still in my head. I hear the non stop crashing waves just 150 yds from the boat and the constant rolling back and forth and think it is time to move on. Tomorrow we will head to Bahia Tenacatita. From what we understand it should be more protected and less rolly. This has been a fun beach front town, but I need some rest. Happy February and we are looking forward to seeing our friends from Canada Gary and Sandy who have rented a house down here for the whole month.

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Losing Track Of Time.

After about a five minute discussion and finally turning on the computer I found out it is January 31 the end of the month. That makes it almost 3 weeks since I have updated our blog and written most of our friends. After leaving Chacala we headed to La Cruz. On the way we stop for overnight at Punta Mita. It was a very open anchorage with not much going on for us to even take the dingy down. The town itself is most a resort and a golf course. It was an 8 mile run to La Cruz the next day. La Cruz is a great little town with all the ambience that Mexico can offer. The streets are paved with round stone. They all have a pattern that we have become accustom to. Being made with round rock and not flat cobblestone it is very difficult to walk for any distance with out hurting some part of your foot. The stones are simply laid in sand and dirt. The homes in the town range from million dollar beach front homes to shambles that look similar to deer camp on a bad day. The most troublesome part of all of this old world town is that a brand new large marina is being built right on old beach front land. Docks and shops now stand where once beautiful beaches once settled behind some million dollar homes. No longer are they beach front properties, and their only view is parking lots and store fronts. What a shame because I can only imagine the whole town will slowly change from a small Mexican community to a commercial tourist town. Starting at the waterfront then moving back towards the hills surrounding this nice Mexican town. The highlights of La Cruz for us during our stay was open mic at both Philo's and Britiania, and a 6 hour Mexican Train domino game aboard Rosebud from Portland. Philo's is the local cruisers hangout with $2 beers and $7.50 hamburgers. Not exactly old world Mexico food or pricing. The local talent in La Cruz was well worth the price. After 6 days we got tired of the rolly anchorage so we followed Hiatus over to Nuevo Vallarta. Nothing was available at the docks so we tied between two old dock pilings for $9.00 a night. It wasn't great but at least we weren't rolling, and Helen appreciated the showers. We spent 5 nights tied to the pilings mostly just exploring Puerto Vallarta and re provisioning. We didn't make it to old town but everything else we saw was just big city tourist town. I was glad to leave, but we had one last fantastic adventure that we did no expect. On our last night we snuck onto the beach in front of some very exclusive resorts. Walked about 200yrds down the beach and had a very moving experience. We were able to take part in the release of about 250 one day old indangered sea turtles. The eggs had been collect about 45 to 60 days prior and buried in a protected makeshift nest. They had just hatched that morning and were waiting for us to help coax them towards the sea. They didn't need any coaxing the turned straight for the sea and made their move. Our job was to help those wayward turtles that either were taking a side trip or just needed a little extra push so they could make it to the water with still enough energy to maybe survive the first couple of hours let alone days. They estimate that only one in a hundred survive to come back and either breed or lay eggs. It was totally cool. I have some great pictures and film footage to put on the blog when I get a chance.
The next day we left headed for Chamela after a short rest stop in La Cruz. The trip to Chamela was an all night trip and because of strong currents and sloppy waves it took us 21 hrs to travel the 100 miles. The trip was filled with whale sittings, dolphins playing at our bow, but no fish took my hook. We are finally in tropical weather. 85' and water temperature of 80. WOW

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Chacala chickens, palapas and civilization

We just pulled into a idyllic beach community. Palm trees are swaying, surf is softly kissing the shore, and the sounds of roosters and chickens rises above it all. There are palm roofed palapas within swimming distance and the promise of a $5.00 dinner made in the home of a local tonight; the meal choices are enchiladas or chilli rellanos. We may stay here for more than one day...the photos will be posed later and I hope you can see how peaceful it appears. Over the roosters I can now here music from the shore--if it is a club we may be hearing the music until 3-5 AM as it is Friday night and they party that late on weekends...oh well, even paradise has its downside. It is finally warm and sunny. We had fog till mid afternoon the last few days and cool temperatures. The no-see-um bites are itching now, 3 days later, but ammonia helps a lot with the itch. I don't think we will be going back to San Blas!!! As we were leafing we were treted towhales leaping out of he water only a short distance awy

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Back on the water again

After spending the new Years week back in Mazatlan with family and friends it is nice to be back on the water again. Meaning we are away from docks and crowds and high costs. We had a great time with Mike and Laura who flew home on Jan 2. We were invited to a fantastic Lobster and Shrimp New Years diner aboard Triple Star with Beyond Reason and Hiatus also being there. New Years Eve ended with a midnight surfing trip outside the harbor with the dingy. Probably not the smartest thing but it seemed right at the time. Then we spent the rest of the week with other long time friends Craig , Deborah Huntington, Johnny ,and Sharon Jordan. Great time was had, and it was fun to share our life style with them. Once we left Mazatlan we spent a day anchored just south of town in an area called Stone Island. We were anchored off the beach in front of about a dozen palapas (palm covered eating areas) just like Mexico is suppose to be. We spent the afternoon sitting at a table with our feet playing in the sand watching our boats just bob in the swell. What a way of life this has become. We walked on the beach for a short distance then back to our place at the palapa. After our ten minute walk we had worked up a appetite and had fish and shrimp on the beach watching the sunset thinking about what all of you were doing at home on this Sunday afternoon. The next morning we left for Chacala a small bay just short of Puerto Vallarta. It was a 24 hr trip which we cut short because of fog and went into San Blas, Matanchen Bay, I had been here before so I felt comfortable in the fog. Last night at about 4:30 am I had just come on watch and had one of the most wonderful and chilling experiences I have had. I was staring out into the darkness when I heard this god awful noise come from what I thought was the boat. It sounded like my entire sail had just been ripped from the mast. Right along side the boat I missed two large whales by just feet. They had bellowed and sprayed the side of the boat as I sailed past. I could see the whales underwater by the full outline of the blue Phosphorus. They blew again making that horrible sound all within about 50 ft or less from the boat. It amazed and shook me up just how close I had come to silently running over these huge animals on a dark moonless night. We are sitting at anchor getting ready for another magical sunset in 80 degree weather thinking of all you at home. Tomorrow we are off to head a little further south.

We added some pictures to out blog at http://svjammin.blogspot.com/
Our postion on google earth is at http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=kd7txh

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San Blas is a Blast

First, I have to add a comment about Isla Isabella. I forgot to mention we were amazed with the acrobatics of the Humpback whale for the first time. Some only got their heads out of the water, but many times just 100 yrds out we saw their entire underbellies as they would spin when they came completely, all 35+ feet of them, out of the water and make a huge splash. More were further out but all day we saw the whale acrobatics. As well as sang goodnight to by whale songs as we drifted off to sleep.

Today in anticipation for our poor perfomance thus far in the Emerald Bowl, I sported my OSU Beaver Football T-shirt (the luckiest one of the season). The information "God" here scared us to leave the dingy on shore as we would venture out for the day. He told us to leave it at this one Palapa, that was hard to see initially, but after realizing that is is just a string of palapa's together that people can park their cars under it is directly towards the shore from a big Blue building and the 3rd one from the left with the green poles is the guy who will watch your dingy for a fee. No Problem, but he wasn't there, so we found a sturdy tree and chained to it. Up a dirt road we walk, then at the blue beer distributors, we chose to walk rt (the wrong direction) for a mile to the crocodile rd. Only to be informed that the Jungle cruise center is about 100 yrds straight instead of rt. Oh well, we were on a boat and needed the exercies. For those who haven't been on the jungle cruise this boat ride was great. Mangroves, forming tunnels as we travel through, sometimes getting swatted in the face, dense ferns and other shrubbery around. We shared the boat (about the size of a pirates of the Caribbean, but with a 50 horsepower motor)with 8 other people from texas. We started the trip turning and banking getting water coming over the sides and a sudden stop to observe what looked like a plastic 18" crocodile, but as the trip continued we saw many different fish eating birds, lots of other crocodiles, one being over 6' in length on the shore (they were real0 Just basking in the sun teasing to you to put your hand out into their open mouths as our boats sat a very short distance away. At the end of the jungle cruise for 40 pesos per boat (4 us dollars), we went into the crocodile farm where they are reintroducing them into the lagoons. They also had javellinas, white tailed deer,and some funky marsupials thingies that climbed all over one of the texan ladies. It was funny to watch. They had many pens with crocs in them, some of them only had the small babies and others had huge 8-10 footers. I actually got a picture of Laura touching one's back legs. Then after the farm they took us to a fenced in and protected spring that had a cool restraunt on it too. Unfortunately I was the only one with a swim suit so I did not go in. The cruise back, we bobed and weaved threw other boats caring more tourists in, it was crazier than Mr. Toads Wild ride.

Next we walked 4 miles into San Blas. Upon entering this typical Mexican town were many open aired restaurants with cinderblock BBQs smoking fillet whole fish covered in hot sauce, or whole fish, or lobster. Oh it smelled so good and looked great, but we passed on them for another absolutely wonderful restaurant (La Familia). The town was ok, the plaza was cute centered around the catholic church can only imagine how great of a Christmas party we missed. Bht for those traveling this restaurant is definitely a can't miss! Best 4.50 margaritas my dad has ever had with fresh limes, stiff tequila, and ohhh so good after a 4 mile stroll. The seafood fillet was covered with clams, oysters (both not cooked), shrimp, and onions and butter cooked in a foil bag. Mom's dinner was great, it was the longest fillet of fish name, it was covered in lots of veggies, some bacon, ham, cheese, it was pretty good. I got a Laura's Fillet or something like that, it was in the middle of the names. it ended up being a bacon on the bottom with fillet of fish, layer of ham, then a layr of cheese wrapped, grilled, and smothered in a spicy cream sauce.......OMG SO GOOD!!!! Then laura got beef fajitas that were better than great with ham, shrimp, and cheese melted on top along with an assortment of veggies. The first taxi offered us a price of 40 pesos (4 bucks) to take us back to the dingy and we were all over that. Luckily we got back and it was there and our shoes and everything, making our view of San Blas and this bay that much better.

The jungle cruise and the palm trees alone are worth the stop. The bitting no se ems are not too bad, but bad on the shore during a full moon.

Sorry for the length and many spelling errors, but thanks for reading

Cheers,
Mike Peoples

PS GO Beavers time to get the 4th qtr update or end of the game......please oh god please have let us win!

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Passage to San Blas

The Next day after exploring the island we decided to stay and enjoy the beautiful tropical views. Its vacation, where do we have to be? We tried fishing in the morning with no success, so it was true fishing. Shortly after the morning coffee in the cockpit listening to the birds, we are joined by Pepe, a wonderful couple that is traveling with their adorable 18 month old daughter. They were very friendly and invited us to share some drinks in the early afternoon. I am jealous of these younger couples taking a year to 5 off. In the afternoon, a few beers down, we went snorkeling around the Dr. Seus rocks. The fish were amazing, so dense, so many varieties, even with 3-5'breakers going through there occasionally, we really enjoyed it. Not much coral, but the fish were worth every gulp of saltwater. The next morning we left to make our way to San Blas and anchor in the bay just south. Right off the bat, I hook into a little tuna, unfortunately he got off at the boat. We let the lines back out and get another bite within minutes. Then nothing the rest of the day. With nice rolling seas it was a beautiful trip across. We saw dolphins playing around us and at our bow, then there were these little ones that were so cute that loved to play even more! We saw a sea turtle that was floating VERY high out of the water, so we assume he was dead. Almost ran into a line of fishing nets only marked by a green pop bottle every 150 yrds. Luckily we didn't cross the set that was almost 2 miles long. Entering San Blas was pretty as we passed the river and decided to go to mantanchen bay. It is different down here, Reminds me of Cains with tall green peaks of a mountain ridge as steep as Hawaii but taler, tropical palm trees everywhere, the succulent smell of real grills going. Upon entering we all see our first shark in the water, over 8' it was and I thought I saw a couple times an elongated head poke out of the water like a hammer head. But it is beautiful here, no no-see em's yet tonight. No clue where to park the dingy, the resident and "certified" dictator of a greeter was helpful but is very intimidating and doesn't make the place sound pleasant. Almost scaring people to just stay on their boats. We will explore tomorrow. Laura and I are very excited to try a jungle cruise which we will fully update everyone with.

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Christmas Palm Trees

By Mike Peoples For the Peoples

Couldn't ask for a better Christmas present, we did an all night passage during Christmas eve to Isla Isabella. Off in the Horixon we saw a glowing red light that we swore was santa making his way down to South America about 2:50 in the morning. Mom and I's watch was from 12:00-5:00. Laura and Dad had the first watch, she did a great job of staying awake and keeping everyone awake. As it was too rocky and she didn't want to dare going gown stairs, the cockpit was the perfect place to snuggle up. Shortly after I took a nap in the morning I awake just in time to see the greatest present. Dawn awaking, the sky painted in the reds and pinks so familiar to the boaters here, a tropical island off the bow. As we enter two humpbacks clear the way for us and hundreds of birds float above this small island. We sneak behind a Dr. Seus island/rock and set anchor. Tuna jumping threw the air, whales off in the distance, and boobies everywhere (the birds) what more of a christmas morning could we ask for.

Later that day we tried jigging with NW jigs. Within minutes my orange worm wearing a dress was eaten up and snapped the 20 lb test as it got wrapped around the tip. We lost many plastic jibs to hookless nibbles, we tricked one opa to bite the hook and made an excellent dinner (firm flesh) After the success we had to go to shore and explore this "Lost" island. Reminding us of visions of jurassic park, we enter an abandoned fishing camp. There huge marine iguanas are sunning on the rocks around the shanties, off to the left is an abandoned cement complex slightly overgrown by the jungle that was a bird observatory. Up the cliffs we climb filing past nested blue and yellow footed boobies, their feathers as smooth as leather and dumbfounded smiles on each. At the top we looked over the "other" crater lake. Nested in the trees Frigets and other large birds were teasing the opposite sex with their large red throats blown like balloons. About 40 birds were floating overhead, then another 50+ came in and just floated there, arms reach away we were surrounded by these magnificent birds (and not one speck of poop on us). As we looked over the Southern anchorage, we noticed many rocks not marked on the maps and big 4-7' rollers going threw. It was the best Christmas day I could ask for!

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