Barra de Navidad

After arriving in Puerto Vallarta in late June, we spent the summer in PV getting the boat maintenance done to prepare for the next cruising season.  We hauled out and had new bottom paint applied at the La Cruz haul out yard. Word to the wise… the prices in PV exceed San Diego prices.  I wouldn’t have guessed that.

New Pro-Line commercial anti-fouling paint and a new stripe

Volare departed PV in early November headed south.  For the sail we brought along our good friend Heather.  She really enjoys the water and the ‘at sea’ feeling.  Plus she’s a free spirit and agreed to go last minute.

Heather looking offshore

We had an amazing over night sail with an average 15kt winds the whole way.

Overnight passage to Chamela

As the sun arose outside Chamela, the wind died and we slowly motored in, taking advantage of the beautiful weather and temperature.

I didn’t want the spectacular cruise to end so I throttled back and we took advantage of a few hours of sun tanning before anchoring.

Day sail and making water

Arriving in Chamela, we were gifted with only a few boats, wonderful scenery, clear water, warm temps and what looked like thriving beach bar/restaurants.  The swell was light and we enjoyed three days here.  It’s hard to believe that it’s snowing in places in the US.

Departing Chamela, we motor sailed the next 30 miles to Tenacatita and upon arriving, found ourselves the only boat here! It’s always amazing when you’re the only boat in an anchorage.  Especially one as special as this.  Tenacatita is one of the most beautiful anchorages we’ve stayed in so far.  Some boats will spend the whole cruising season here.

Volare at anchor in Tenacatita

We stayed in Tenacatita for a few nights and only leaving to sail 15nm south to Barra de Navidad and then to sadly, drop Heather off.

Barra Marina and Resort Isla Grande

Barra Lagoon Anchorage

Barra de Navidad is a very special place.  Who knew we would find a resort along the Mexican coast with a marina, a large anchorage and an awesome little city.  We planned to stay in Barra for a month, leaving our Christmas plans up in the air.  We were lucky to have Jess’s parents visit us for Christmas.

Christmas in Barra

Turns out, we needed to fix some boat issues.  Our mast head anchor light just stopped working.  Corrosion on a plug at the top.  Some of our older solar panels just stopped putting out much amperage.  Replaced them with 2 new Sunpower panels.  We also felt that our new Firefly Carbon Foam batteries were working well… but that we just didn’t have enough capacity so we added a 6th, Group 31 battery.

Additional Firefly Carbon Foam battery

Our goal is to make sure that even though the battery can be used to 80% depth of discharge, that we never went below 50%.  All batteries have a life and we want to maximize ours.  We have a lot of load considering the lights- 25+, Fans- 12, and refrigeration units- 3.  We’ve always planned for very sparse provisioning but we’ve found on the Mexican mainland coast… plenty of places to provision.  We plan to get one of our refrigeration units shut off soon.  Even our 1000 watts of solar power cant keep up with the demand during the short winter days.

Alcatraz on the mast head

Morning walk in Barra

Foxy enjoying some exercise

So… departing Barra de Navidad in January… next stop, Manzanillo and then Ixtapa/ Zihuatenjo for Guitar fest in March.

Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out the rest of our website and follow along with our travels at CruisingVolare.