Fun in Bandaras Bay!

We have been enjoying our time in Bandaras Bay. After all the work, we are finally getting some decompression time. Some of us have been sick from physical exhaustion but all of us have been soaking up the extra sleep and enjoying the simpler schedule. We met Chris and his Dad in La Cruz and had a great afternoon sail on Sophia. It was great to see Joe and his best friend together in Mexico!

One of our internet spots in La Cruz has a Huichol Indian gift shop. This rattler is made of beads set into wax. Very time consuming but very beautiful.

We met new friends in La Cruz. Chandro (6) and Matero (3) from the boat, Kenta Anae.
Legos, legos, legos!

Stephan caught this 2.5 foot snake eel jigging at night in La Cruz. Cool creature but aggressive and creepy with his blue eyes and fangs.

Finn and I celebrated Easter at the small, local Catholic Church. No plastic eggs or chocolate to buy so we had Easter ice cream!

The winds start to blow in La Cruz every afternoon. We took the kite to shore to practice for future kite boarding. Joe "surfed" bare foot on the sand!

Stephan and Joe with full bellies!

Finn turned 9 years old in Punta Mita. As he said, "This is my last year to be one digit!" He spent a nice day on the boat, enjoying building the new Lego sets and looking at all the goodies.

The evil alien ships from the Mars Mission sets!

Photographed by Finn

Of course, new Bionicles!

We also met new friends in Punta Mita, Niall (almost 10) and Mairen (6) from the boat, Totem. Finn and Niall became immediate friends, trading Legos and sneaking in a sleepover.

Siobhan (4) was loving Joe's finger tricks. I loved having some girl time and our families enjoyed dinners and beach time together.

Stephan has enjoyed the fishing in Punta Mita, supplying us with several rosy rock fish fries.

He is getting a lot better at cleaning fish!

We love to hang out at Mita's Pizza, with homemade pizzas and great friends. Dolphina is 18 months, walking now but still just as cute as last year!

We spent one night at a slip in Nuevo Vallarta to get some much needed water. We all enjoyed revisiting the crocodile slides at Paradise Village Resort. Stephan scoped the girls and Finn wore out another bathing suit on the slides!

That is a snapshot of our last few weeks. Though we have made reeds, studied in school and worked on boat projects, we also have been resting and catching up with friends. We have another week in the Bay and some day trips planned before we must start heading north.

More soon from the crew on Wildflower!

Sailing to Bandaras Bay

Our first stop after leaving Guaymas was Playa Algodones (Cotton Beach), a nice anchorage north of San Carlos. We spent five days there getting our sea legs, finishing small projects on the boat and enjoying the tourist scene. The beach was fine sand, Finn and I enjoyed a small hike and we all watched many kite boarders catching the wind. Stephan especially enjoyed the social scene at the Soggy Peso Bar!

Finn and I at the top of our hike. Yes, that's Wildflower.

Enjoyed a day with our good friends, Helen, Oscar,
and Millie (the dog!)

Playita Algodones

Our first day out of Playa Algodones was very pleasant. However, by the end of the second day, not only had our auxilliary rudder bent in two but we realized a gale was catching up to us. At its worst, we experienced 30 knot winds and a 12-15 foot swell. Instead of trying to hand-steer through it, we decided to heave to. This means putting the boat into the wind with just the mizzen sail up, beam on to the swell. We "drifted" for the next 40 hours, going SW about 1 knot/hour and enduring severe sideways rolling. Though we felt like corks rolling around in a washing machine, we managed to watch Lord of the Rings 2 the second afternoon.

IPOD's are a great tool on passage!

When it was comfortable again, we headed to Isla San Fransisco (Baja side) to regroup. We spent a nice day and a half on this island; fishing, hiking, fixing the broken auxiliary rudder and getting much needed showers. Stephan was the winner on this fishing trip, pulling in two Pargos, the bigger of which we enjoyed for dinner. The water was the turquoise blue we remembered from last year and we all enjoyed a refreshing swim after an amazing hike along the cliffs.

Isla San Fransisco

After two nights of good rest, we set sail again for Bandaras Bay. The rudder rebroke on the first afternoon, so we took three hour watches and resigned ourselves to hand-steering again. After complaints of tired legs, Joe rigged our bucket hammock from the mizzen boom. Steph and I got good at steering with our feet! Joe rebuilt the rudder again on the third day and it held through the night-halleluiah! It took us full three days (450 miles) to sail from Isla SF to Bandaras Bay, though this part of the trip was very comfortable. We all felt like we had gained our sea legs in the storm and were able to enjoy normal activities like reading, eating and playing games to wile away the time. Joe and Stephan were disappointed to not hook anything more substantial than a few bonita on this passage.

Aren't they cute?

We saw several beautiful sunsets!

Steph's Pargo


The good ship Wildflower!

Someone's found their sea legs!

We were greeted by a humpback whale and bow-surfing dolphins on our approach to Punta Mita (the NW tip of Bandaras Bay). We are looking forward to resting the boat and ourselves, finding friends and surfing. We truly feel like our vacation can start now!