Chamela to La Cruz, once again!

In Chamela, we met up with our friends Tom and MaryEllen on Equinox once again.  They were headed in our direction, towards La Cruz, and we all decided to stick together during the passage around Cabo Corrientes.  This passage north is talked about endlessly on the morning nets, as it can be extremely rough, with high winds of 20+ and large swells.  I thought, no big deal, we have 20+ winds all the time in Long Beach, and how bad can a 6' swell be?  Anyway, we left at 6 p.m. headed for a night sail that should be calmer than afternoon if the wind decided to pick up.  The swell immediately filled in as we rounded the point at Chamela headed for the ocean, but the wind stayed calm (5-10) until around midnight when it picked up to maybe 15 knots.  Our passage wasn't too bad, but the seas were pounding into the bow, sending green water over the bow into the dodger, and lifting our bow into the air, only to drop into the following trough with a bang.  Not exactly sleepworthy.  I tried to sleep when off watch, but the noise and feeling of weightlessness as the boat dropped was a bit much. 

La Cruz beach

   We rounded Cabo Corrientes around 7 a.m. and then things smoothed out inside the Banderas Bay, it felt good to be home.  This place is a jumping off point for many cruisers, south to the Marquesas or El Salvador, out to the Pacific islands, or northward back into the Sea of Cortez, so, many, many boats are grouped here.  We pulled into the anchorage around noon, and the wind picked up to 20 knots just as we wanted to anchor, making it a bit more fun.  But, after dropping the hook, we both took a long nap to catch up on lost sleep.  Usually this is all I need to recoup after an overnighter, but this time, it was two days before I felt more normal.  The bashing was harder than I had expected, and fortunately harder than we'll see in the future.  Some folks we talked to had 20+ winds and the waves were breaking, we hit the right weather window.
   So, here we are, back in Marina Nayarit, in La Cruz, enjoying a slip, dock water, easy access to daily walking, and Philo's restaurant and bar.  When we are in the marina, life speeds up and we are constantly involved in social events, happy hour here, dinner there, listening to the live bands at Ana Banana's or Philo's.  Leif also is tuning the rig for the boat he's crewing on in the races.  Then there's the Sunday market in the square, and trips to the Mega for supplies of canned foods.  We also went to Nuevo Vallarta, and Puerto Vallarta yacht club to have lunch and pick up regatta tee shirts.  For being at our leisure, life is extremely busy.  I can't figure out how I managed to fit in "working" into this scheme. 
   In two weeks we will leave for points north, leaving our favorite area, perhaps for a new favorite area.  I hear the water is clearer in the Sea, and we are looking forward to some swimming off the boat.