Hurricane season is June 15 – October 31 in Pacific Mexico. But hurricanes rarely get very far north into the Sea of Cortez, so that’s where we plan to spend the next several months. After dropping Rob and Taya off in Manzanillo, the next day we motored to Barra and went into the same slip in the marina that we had been in a week earlier. We met Annie and Eric from El Gato, a Catana 47. I had met them in 2015 in Kefalonia, Greece when I was crewing on a Catana 41. They run a charter business out of San Diego and keep El Gato in the same slip that our boat was in for 10 years at the San Diego Yacht Club.
From Barra we motored to Cayres, stayed one night and then to Chamela, dropping the anchor in just about the same place as on the trip down. After a slightly rolly night, we pulled anchor and were on the way by 7:30am April 23. We motor-sailed for a while, then the winds decreased and we put the sails away. So then the wind came back and we put up the jib. The winds got progressively stronger, with sustained winds over 20 by late in the afternoon as we arrived at Ipala. We furled the jib and dropped anchor in about 30 ft, our deepest anchorage so far, putting out about 180 ft of chain.
Up early again and headed north for Banderas Bay. When we unfurled the jib we found that there was a tear in the sail, at least 8 ft long running vertically about 10 inches in front of the leech sunguard. Ugh! So we furled the sail and sailed on a reefed main around Cabo Corrientes (which is well known for high winds and difficult seas) into Banderas Bay. That night we were back in Paradise Village Marina, looking forward to a few days of a slower pace.
