Sailing across Banderas Bay
Exploring with Lynn and Sue
Remember Lynn and Sue? They were the cool couple who crewed with us on the Baja Ha Ha from San Diego 881 miles to Cabo San Lucas in November 2021. We met them while socializing at the South Beach Yacht Club when we were living in San Francisco and before we bought Salacia. Lynn captained a boat owned by our friends Steve and Risa called Vitamin Sea that we raced during the Red Bra Regatta, an all women sailboat race that is organized by members of our club.
Sue and Lynn met us in La Cruz in January this year and we decided to sail across Banderas Bay to explore a small remote old fishing village called Yelapa! Yelapa’s name comes from an indigenous saying "where two rivers meet the sea".
On our way, we shared a beautiful sail south across Banderas Bay to the furthest cove to Point Cabo Corrientes. It’s a great bay to sail with the air temperature a perfect 77 degrees and the wind blowing 10 to 15 knots just forward of our beam. We didn’t get enough days like this in San Francisco and we were reminded of why we made the leap to sail in warmer climates.
Yelapa is a quaint fishing village that you can only arrive to by boat. There are no cars on the streets. There are catamarans that bring tourists from Puerta Vallarta every day, but they are only day excursions which enabled us to enjoy the quiet at night. When we arrived there was a panga who called us on the radio to bring us to the mooring we rented. Boaters can anchor in Yelapa but the sea bed is very steep which makes it difficult to secure a solid ground. These conditions keep the number of yachts in the anchorage to a minimum since there are also a limited number of moorings for rent.
After we arrived we celebrated with a glass of wine and brought some cheese and crackers on deck to enjoy the beautiful sunset casting a golden, pink hue against the mountains surrounding us. Then to top it off, Peter made us Shrimp Scampi for dinner which was something I had been asking him to make for a while.
After dinner, we pulled out a card game called Jaipur which we played together before along the coast of Baja. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, India. The cards represent different goods that can be bought or sold in the market: gold, silver, diamonds, textiles, leather, grain and camels. The object of the game is to see who becomes the richest and also gains the privilege of being invited to Maharaja’s court. I think Peter won, but we all said we wanted the game to be continued. So off to bed we went for an early wake up to explore the town and discover what Yelapa’s own markets had to offer!
We took a water taxi to shore and began our tour of the town the next morning. Our first discovery was a water fall. It was a beautiful walk up the path into the jungle and we enjoyed all the beautiful arts and crafts being peddled to us along the way.
After our time at the water fall we walked down through Yelepa’s streets to get a feel for the village and to take in all the views, homes, restaurants and shops. The streets were either stone or dirt, and we loved the murals that colored the way. The village felt like it was frozen in time, separated from the tourists who mostly were enjoying the beaches. There are no big hotels or chain restaurants to be found in Yelapa.
We ended our walking tour of Yelepa with lunch on the beach at a very nice but not too expensive restaurant. We gorged on fresh tuna sashimi and seafood ceviche while we slowly sipped our margaritas and unwound from the long walk through the town and across the rivers onto the other side where we walked to the beach closer to where Salacia was moored. We had a wonderful day and we wanted to savor every minute we had left there.
We departed the following morning to sail back to La Cruz. We had another perfect sail with the wind on our beam but this time we had visitors! It’s always a joy to see dolphins on the water, especially when they swim over to the boat to frolic in our wake. There was a large pod of them and they were very spirited!
Our time with Lynn and Sue on our boat was short but very fun. They rented a villa in Sayulita which was about a 30 minute cab ride up the coast from La Cruz. We planned to meet them there with our friends, Steve and Risa, whom we also met at South Beach Yacht Club. We invited them to sail with us south around Cabo Corrientes and ultimately down the peaceful Costalegre coast with stops towards our final destination in Barra de Navidad.
Sayulita is a colorful and very popular surf town nestled between mountains and sea with lots of artists, entertainers, musicians, shops, spas and warm sandy beaches. I was surprised by how big the town center was and how much cultural diversity it had to offer. No wonder so many foreigners want to retire here!
We love hosting friends or family on our boat in exotic places! It enhances our experience and we love the help on long passages. If you’re interested in joining our adventure drop us a line! We ask that you be flexible with where we meet up and where we can drop you off, and if it involves a passage that you know how to sail! Happy Trails!
Very stark contrast between Yelepa and Sayulita!
Looks amazing out there! Miss you guys! - Sam and Keegs