Sailing on Midnight Blue: Back *Home* in Banderas Bay, Mexico

After two nights offshore crossing from the Baja, we anchored in Mazatlan for a night on June 7th, then made our way down the mainland coast, stopping in San Blas and La Penita along the way before landing in Punta Mita (our home anchorage). The big excitement on the passage was using the autopilot the whole way across. We weren’t sure what would happen if we turned it off, so we opted to wait until we were almost there to try turning it off. If it wouldn’t turn off, we would have been pulling out fuses and we weren’t sure if that would lock the steering….. Luckily, we didn’t have to find out, because the button decided to function at the end of our trip, so we were able to turn off ‘Autodude’ and switch to hand steering to get in to the anchorage 😉

Happy to be able to hand steer again after Autodude fixed itself!

We had some nice winds for sailing during our crossing and along the coast here. Even got out my favorite sail – the mizzen staysail (aka ‘the Buddah’ for its fat little belly) for our last leg in to the La Cruz Marina the other day! We’d been lamenting the lack of good sailing winds on the Baja side, and so from Mazatlan to Banderas Bay we made the most of the daily thermal winds trying to sail on and off our anchor each day. We were briefly happily anchored in Punta Mita – but within a few hours the winds piped up from the wrong direction and we had a really rolly, rough night at anchor. The comfort factor, combined with the forecast of thunderstorms the next night, helped us decide we’d better get in to the marina, so here we are back in the slip at the La Cruz Marina. Full Circle once again!

Flying along using our Jib and Mizzen Staysail

The warmth of the waters on this side was really surprising after the cool waters of the Baja– it is 84 degrees F in the water here! Surfing in just a bathing suit—Yay! Been doing a little surfing here and there – while in Mantachen Bay there were tiny tiny waves, so I braved it to try to surf on the standup paddleboard, and actually caught a couple of fun rides. Even when that wave is 6 inches high, you can ride it a looooooong way, so it was fun! Today I caught some ankle biters out at my favorite Punta Mita break, El Anclote. And Tim had some fun little waves (somewhat larger than mine) at one of his go to breaks.

Punta Mita Sunset

Since we’ve been back we have been busy catching up with friends and trying to surf most days. The weather is changing, and we had the first big rain/thunderstorm here the other night, with more predicted later this week. Still hoping for a good southwest swell to hit while I am here so I can catch some real waves at El Anclote. Making our plans for the rest of the summer….. I will stop in Seattle and New York before heading back to St. John – planning those travels sometime in July.

Below I’ll include a couple pics from along the way. From one of our last Baja anchorages …. Close up encounters with the sea lions and what we think were baby seagulls and roosting Great Blue Herons at Caleta Lobo near La Paz.

At the little island of Jaltemba off La Penita where we anchored on our last night before reaching Punta Mita it was super hazy over the mainland, and at night you could see the wildfire burning in the hills above the town.