Puerto Vallarta, deep into Banderas Bay, was our first stop in the Mexican mainland, as we left La Paz in the Baja Peninsula. George and Annie, of KELORAN, accompanied us of the trip, and later returned to La Paz by ferry, via Mazatlán. The weather was predicted to be good for the crossing. We did encounter some rolly seas as we separated from the Baja Peninsula and headed towards Isla Isabela, an isolated island, with abundant wild life. Isabela was once the subject of a documentary by Jacques Cousteau. We traveled 432 miles in 56 hours non-stop, and all the systems aboard SIESTA worked well, except the alternator on the main engine. We ran the auxiliary generator several times a day to charge our batteries and run the refrigerator-freezer.

Note: In the chart below, white is water and grey is land. This graphic was taken right out of our navigation software, which shows our boat (in green) on land. This is because the electronic navigation charts for the Mexican waters have up to a mile and half of error in lat/lon in them. We are very careful when navigating these waters using our computer!

When we got close to Isla Isabela, we heard the Capitanía del Puerto in San Blás, Mazatlán, and PV all announce a forecast for heavier winds the next day. So, we decided not to stop in Isabela, and proceed full speed to Bahía de Banderas and Puerto Vallarta. As it turned out, we arrived there at 10:30pm. We took a longer distance and a longer path to go south of the Marieta Islands at the entrance to Banderas Bay. We were not about to turn into Punta de Mita, the north headland bordering Banderas Bay at night. It is known for its many reefs, some of them unchartered. 

We used the GPS coordinates of the harbor, which is located all the way East into the bay, to get in. There were so many lights in the bustling city of Puerto Vallarta that we could not tell were the lights for the entrance to the port were. Just as we were coming in, a huge cruise ship, light up like a Christmas tree, came out of the harbor we were searching for, which confirmed our decision. 

The nautical charts available for many parts of the world, and certainly for Mexico, have an error. In the case of Puerto Vallarta, and the Mexican West Coast, there is a one and a half mile error between the actual latitude and longitude and where the charts show the land to be! The GPS waypoints, when obtained from a modern cruising guide are good. However, any lat/lon computed from a chart will have this error. And our computer uses these digitized chart to plot our position on the chart. In Puerto Vallarta, the coordinates of the port entrance were plotted to be on land!!! We decided not to look at the computer when we are near land, but use the GPS waypoints and our visual skills to figure out where we really were! Take a look at a copy of our navigation chart, below, and see where our slip at Marina Vallarta is plotted to be: ON LAND!!! You can also see our track, as we sailed into Banderas Bay in the night, south of the Tres Marieta Islands at the entrance to the bay.

Having really enjoyed our stay in Baja, and, in particular, our stay in La Paz, we were not prepared for the beauty and variety we found in Puerto Vallarta. After spending four days there, finally Daisy agreed that we needed to leave the boat here in Mexico for another year before we crossed the Canal. There is just so much to see!

Not being familiar with the marina, we opted to tie to the public PEMEX fuel dock for the night. There was nobody there, and we figured we would be the first to fuel up early the next morning. So it was, and after fueling, we contacted the Marina Vallarta dockmaster who assigned us a slip right next to Volker and Mai Dolch's residence, per their instructions.

We were in for a very special treat, as Mai and Volker spent three days showing us the night life on the Malecón, a trip on their SUV to see the surrounding coast by land, and finally a trip on their beautiful sport-fishing boat to see some beautiful spots in Banderas Bay and to see some whales. Wow! What a wonderful time we had!

Finally, we gathered at their home to watch the Superbowl (what a game that was!), and have a Skipper's Meeting of sorts, to plan our flotilla trip south along the Mexican Gold Coast.