Sunrise at La Cruz Anchorage, Mexico

Beautiful sinrise in the bay . There are 50- 60 yachts at anchorage.

Sunday market in La Cruz

Today and every sunday there is a market on the Malecon ( the Breakwater ) in La Cruz, and all the local artists and artisans are there in force with their beautiful produce. This lady in native costume is selling beat-work in many colours and shapes.

Sunday Market in La Cruz

This lady at the Sunday market sells her t-shirts.

I was tempted to recruit this young Mexican as foredeck gorilla as he was keen to sail along to the Polynesian Islands!

Anotther happy Mexican!

My bounty at the market. Dinghy catamaran on the beach.

Across the bay to Yelapa

We are having a great time with Jane, David's sister. Yesterday we sailed across the bay of Bandaras to a very small settlement, Yelapa, which is a small village reached by boat, only.

Here you see the entrance to Yelapa. A mile out we were met by a panga (small boat with outboard motor). The man on board, Richardo, offered us a mooring, which we picked up when inside the bay. The shelving was very steep and sudden with a lee shore and pacific swell open from the north-west, which made it dangerous to anchor. Several other pangas came out to meet us with the same offer of moorings.

Jane enjoying life on board and the sunshine.

Richardo introduced us to two of his nephews, and these two little boys on ten and twelve came out in a panga and brought us in to the village where we were guided up to the family cafe through a narrow dirt track. Here we had the most delicious dinner of fish and scrimp fresh out of the sea. We were ferried back to the boat afterwards in the dark. Those two boys handled the panga to perfection and very impressively. The Pacific swell was giving us a very roly poly night!

Gitte and Jane on the jetty in Yelapa.

Narrow path/ street with room for quad-bikes only.

Gitte and Jane waiting for dinner.

Yelapa from the bay in morning light.

David's sister, Jane, arrived.

On January 5th Jane arrived from British Columbia, Canada to be cruising with us for a couple of weeks. It is great to have her on boat and for David and her to chat about the good old days.

Sailing souht to La Cruz.

Setting sail in the evening of January 1st we made it to Isla Isabella in 20 hours and anchored north -east of this very small island, very like St. Kilda in the North Atlanticwith a large colony of frigate birds, not gannets.
Unfortunately we had to leave early the next morning, so we did not manage a landing on this lovely bird sanctuary.










Stacks at Isla Isabella.

























Pacific sunset.
















Floating seaweed.








Suddenly I saw this monster motion out of the moving in slow motion out of the sea about 1/2 Mile away. I grapped my camere and got several shots of this huge hump-back Whale.












Hump-back whale broaching !
Very exciting.












































Aros Mear under sail.













We arrived in La Cruz in the evening of January 4t. All afternoon I was very excited whale watching and speaking to family on Skype using my modem , called Banda Ancha, which works on mobile phone net.Best birthday in a long time!











La Cruz is a lovely small village and heaven for for cruisers with a big new marina.
Here you see the club house.









Coconut palms grow along the marina promenade.















Fishermen and their boats on the pier.








View from the restaurant where we had lunch.


















Lunch of Avocado and scrimp salad.









Fisherman minding his own business.



















Fishmonger at the fish market.

Frigate bird souring high above.

Sent-off from Marina Mazatlan.

Today, December 31 st 2011, we let go of our warps and left the slip in Marina Mazzatlan, which we had occupied all the time. It was quite exciting and also emotional.All our fellow cruisers were seeing us off in style.












Rick and his crew were making sure of no last minute problems.
Sergio is holding the warps and Julio to the right. Our cruiser friends are looking on.






Rick with Mexican wife, Margo.
Margo presented me with a beautiful crystal necklace with a cruisifix and a picture of the holy virgin to bring us happy sailing. I was very moved by her kind thought.








He, Rick is very happy and pleased to have completed all the jobs on Aros Mear and ready to turn to projects on other boats. Rick has looked after the boat for many years and knows every corner of her. He has always been there for us with help and advise. Can we manage without him?




Life is good on the ocean wave!
















Mazatlan Light house is the second highest in the world.











Balmy sea and sky.