The sail trip to Puerto Vallarta with Larry and Betti….Merry Christamas!

When I got back to Mazatlan, Trevor had already been visiting with his Dad and Betti for about a week.  I hear they went to a movie, christmas singing, plenty of dinning experiences, etc.

When I got there…Betti said and I quote: “We want to show you how wonderful Mazatlan is so you all come back…” and that is what they did: They took us out to dinner, showed us around town and the malecon, and shared their privileges at other resorts so that we could enjoy pools and wonderful lunches.

 

It had been decided that the 4 of us would venture into the blue aboard Slow Flight to sail to Puerto Vallarta (PV) where they would take a bus back to Mazatlan.

We left a day 1/2 after I landed back from the states so trevor had to do most of provisioning and getting the boat ready for the trip.  We set sail to Isla Isabel, the “Galapagos” of the Mexico where it is of sorts, a national park.  It was an overnight trip so Trevor and I took turns at the helm. Betti got a little sea sick but we quickly remedied it with medication.  We ended up staying  2 nights at Isla Isabel.

We then headed off to Matanchen for 1 night.  On our way there, Trevor caught a Blue Footed Boobie on his fishing line.  Unfortunately we had to reel him all the way to the boat but we did get the hook out of his wing.

We had a wonderful dinner despite the “jeje’s”…which are little noseemum that itch like crazy…worse than mosquitoes!!!  To say the least…after visiting this town, we had a slight infestation of biting bugs.  Both Larry and Betti had MANY bites and we debated what type of bugs we had aboard.  We came to the consensus that it was not bed bugs but the “jejes”.

Anchor up and we headed to the town Chacala and stayed 1 night.  We met fellow sailors, Hal and Nancy, aboard SV Shakedown.  They told us we could take our dinghy to the dock where the fishermen were.  We did but Trevor didn’t feel good leaving the dinghy there so we dropped off Larry and Betti and took the dinghy to shore in front of the beach palapa for dinner.  Well….we had a FIRST….We swamped the dinghy!!!!  I was soaked from head to toe…Trevor hopped off just in time to NOT flip the dinghy.  We were the evenings entertainment as it was right in the middle of dinner time.  We still enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the beach : )

We then headed to La Cruz on December 24th,  which is a smaller and more local town in Banderas Bay, just 12 miles away from Puerto Vallarta. On our way to La Cruz we had a serious wildlife adventure!  We saw 8 whales: most of them flapping their fins and some with a full breech out of the water.  We had dolphins at the bow and we even had mating turtles!  We also had long lines and we caught one on the prop.  The fisherman quickly came over and had to cut the line….no damage to our boat or propeller.

We docked at the marina rather than anchoring out in the bay for ease.  We stayed in La Cruz over the Christmas weekend and had a blast, minus the clock Trevor broke : )

After a few nights enjoying the holidays at La Cruz, we needed to get Larry and Betti to Puerto Vallarta (PV) to catch their bus back to Mazatlan. We actually sailed most of the 12 miles to PV.  Betti wasnot feeling well that day and slept.  We were not sure what it was and when we reached the dock at Marina Vallarta, it was decided to take her to the hospital to get her checked out.  After a few nervous hours, she was discharged and feeling a little better knowing it was not Denge Fever.  Back at the boat, Trevor and I slipped out to have dinner while they packed and got ready to leave the next morning.

We loved having Larry and Betti aboard Slow Flight….it was a chance for Trevor, and I, to show them what life is really like for us because it is so hard to explain all the small details that we live by and why we do what we do aboard.

Larry and Betti, thank you for enduring us and our silly ways! We hope our 5 star rating still stands even after the experience has had a time to settle in : )