San Blas

We left Isla Isablea Island at dawn to get to San Blas 42 miles away at a decent time. Had no wind, sailed only 2 or 3 miles. Winds generally alot lighter down here. Arrived off entrance channel to the estuary and marina at low tide with a big swell running and saw large swells right across entrance almost breaking and there is no chart and we had no info on entrance so we kept going another 2 miles and anchored in Mantanchen Bay about a mile offshore in 15 feet of water. Even out here a few no-see-ums found us and were biting. We are far enough south to be geting real heat now during the days. The Baja had perfect air temperatures but the water was a bit chilly. The water temp down here is now up to 79 degrees so it makes my nightly dip off the stern (when at anchor) more pleasant.

The next morning we were suprised to here a cruisers 8am morning net on chan 22 so we got some info on entering the channel and some waypoints. Charlies Charts for Mexico, which has been our main cruising guide, had a waypoint for San Blas but it was not anywhere near the entrance so was not help for navigating channel and it did not mention you can anchor inside or that there was a cruisers net. So we headed back for the entrance just before high tide and cruised right in on calm seas, no problemo. We are now at the dock which is very cheap here and they even threw in a free night. Dorothy is happy, we got fantastic showers here compared to Mazatlan, internet and easy access to fresh veggies.

In the evening had to put bug screens on windows as this is the first buggy place we have been.

Last night we had some excitment as about 1030pm an unforcast blow of about 40 to 50 knots come through along with heavy rain. My wind vane shaft got bent before I could get the vane off. Apparently this was a big unforecast blow that was right up and down the coast and Puerto Vallarta got 70 knots.
People in are marina recorded 45 to 50 knots. Every one was out tighting up dock lines and tieing down loose gear. It rained for almost 2 days straight some times very heavy so we did not get all the sight seeing done we wanted to and missed out on the jungle tour.

Plan to head down to Puerto Vallarta over next few days with one or two stops in between.