Leaving Puerto Vallarta

We left Puerto Vallarta on Wednesday, January 9.  Getting out of our slip was tight as we eeked our way around the multi million dollar yachts being careful not to get too close.  We made our way to the fuel dock to fill up as well as fill our jerry jugs with diesel.  What a busy place!  Three cruise ships were in the harbor which means that every charter and party boat were operating to show the cruisers a good time.  Many of them needed fuel.  We eased our way in, and were fortunate that a boat on the main dock left.  Slowly we made our way in and threw a line to an attendant.  He stood there holding it…..what???  Another attendant, a girl, ran to catch our back line and t
ied us up before we floated away.  Whew! We filled everything up and off we went, past the three huge cruise ships.  We were like a tiny row boat in comparison.  Out into the bay and we were on our way!

We had heard that the point leaving Bahia Banderas, Cabo Corrientes, had notoriously strong winds and currents.  Most advice was to travel around this point during the night.  We checked the weather reports and decided to go ahead with our afternoon rounding.  We were joined by whales and dolphins and thoroughly enjoyed our quiet afternoon.  Evening came and we motored along with no wind.  As Ken was enjoying his first nap of the passage, Dale noticed a cruise ship in the distance behind Slow Dancer.  She watched the GPS and saw that it was on a close path, but figured that it would turn out.  No such luck!  It came closer and closer until the GPS told us that it was 8 minutes before it would overtake us.  The Coral Princess was set to come close.  Yikes….wake up Ken!  We decided to alter course, even though it took us into a bit shallower water than we wanted to be in and on a trajectory toward land.  This thing was lit up like a city on water and passed us with room to spare!  Whew!

No more instances during the night. We arrived at our first anchorage, Chamela at 9:45 the next morning.  



Three cruise ships in the harbor

Up close and personal



The Coral Princess passing us at night


Sunrise

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