Course Set for San Blas

April 9, 2025 

On the third day of our journey north we were up and out of the anchorage one last time before sunrise.  It was the third day of not having any north winds and the sea state was one of the calmest that we have had on an open coast passage.  For a motor trip it was about as perfect as it gets and we even had a little bit of west wind in the afternoon to push us onwards.  It was actually quite a spectacular day. 

As we travelled northwards the weather had gotten a lot more idyllic.  The cool night chill and crisp air that we had become accustomed to in March in Tenacatita was replaced by warmth.  It did not take long for it to warm up in the morning and with little wind it was almost too warm.   

After we rounded the point of Punta Mita and set our course for Bahia Matanchen and San Blas it was not long before we spotted the first turtle of the day, and we ended up seeing so so many. 

I wish that we had started counting them early on because there must have been dozens.  At times we were seeing three at once and several times we had to alter course so as not to hit one.  We also saw something funny that we had never seen before, apparently birds take advantage of the backs of the sleeping turtles like they would floating driftwood in BC.  We saw many turtles with birds on their backs, and we even saw one turtle that had two birds on it.  As we would come along the birds would fly away and then eventually the turtle would lift up its head, see us, and quickly dive under.  The water was beautifully clear and we were often able to see them diving down.   

We had a small pod of dolphins come over and swim at our bow at one point and through the crystal clear water it was beautiful to watch them swim beside us.   

We also saw quite a few whales while underway, especially as we were nearing San Blas and we saw four out of a group of five whales dive in unison. 

 The journey along the coastline from Punta Mita to San Blas was along a very shallow part of the coast.  At one point while we were three nautical miles out from land we were only in 150 feet of water.  Even when anchored 1/2 nautical mile away from land, a long ways out in a normal anchorage, we were only in 16 feet of water.   

On our way in towards the anchorage we were seeing quite a few whales around and a lot of fish surface-action, with a lot of feeding birds taking advantage of the feast.  At one point we passed through a very large area of very densely packed jellyfish.  There had to have been thousands of them, it was a sea of jellyfish.  They were about two inches in diameter across the top and probably about 6-8 inches long with the tentacles, and they were nearly touching each other and appeared be quite deeply packed.  Once we came out of the jellyfish-filled area we turned off our engine and checked our raw-water sea strainer.  Sure enough we had sucked up a few jellyfish.  After we cleaned the sea strainer out we started the engine again and carried on into the anchorage. 

We anchored in Bahia Matanchen and it was amazing how green the shore was.  It was quite mountainous, and definitely the greenest that we had seen in Mexico. The air was so lovely and warm when we arrived that we all jumped into the water for a wonderful swim.  The water was actually warm; it felt like Mexico once again.  The cool water that had moved in to the southern areas where we had been anchored in March were definitely not here.  It was quite nice, with it being cool enough to be refreshing, but warm enough that we could stay in for quite a while without getting cold. 

It was a beautiful place to spend our last few days of the season at anchor.