February 23 – March 11, 2014
Introduction
Before leaving Banderas Bay to cruise south a bit we had tentatively agreed with our buddy boats (Lady Carolina, Chara, and True Blue V) that we would be ready for a 1 March departure for the South Pacific. So, we would have about a week once we returned from our little cruising trip south to Costelegre to tackle final provisioning and all the straggling items left on our to-do lists. Tim and I made an extensive list, assigned one of our names next to each item, and then made a calendar of what we were going to try to complete each day. We stayed on task, for the most part, but various factors kept us there a little longer than expected, and our final weeks in Mexico are a bit of a blur.
Quick Recap of our Final Stay in Mexico
We arrived back in the La Cruz anchorage on 22 Feb, and after a couple days we went into the marina again by way of the fuel dock (fuel – check that one off the to-do list). To be honest, my daily log gets pretty sparse at this point, because we were so busy working off our to do items. On 27 Feb we went back to Paradise Village Marina for a couple days to rent a car and do a 24-hour flurry of provisioning. On 1 March we were ready to go, but it was not yet time to leave. Lady Carolina was a bit delayed because they had to order new glasses for Kyle from Costco, and plus, the beautiful weather window that seemed to be there for the past few days shut closed and the wind was basically non-existent. So, we headed back to the La Cruz anchorage and waited it out.
On 3 March we decided to get away for a few days and headed to Punta de Mita to do some surfing, and we had a 4-hour passage to go 8 miles, because apparently that day, no matter where you went, the wind always blew from Punta de Mita. Lady Carolina left a little after us, and they ended up turning back to La Cruz because they were beating into a head wind and didn’t think they would make it before dark. We had a good time there, and the boys really started getting the hang of surfing. It was here that we said our good-byes to Dazzler Dan as he departed to make his way back north to California.
On 6 March we headed back to La Cruz so the boys could play with all the kids until that weather window opened back up, and they had so much fun. I bussed twice to Paradise Village from La Cruz: once with everyone for the PPJ send-off party at the Yacht Club and once by myself to retrieve my forgotten credit card (oops!). The weather was looking good, so we made our arrangements for final clearance out of Mexico, and we stayed one final night in the La Cruz marina to charge batteries, wash down Exodus, and hang out at our final dock party. On 10 March we left La Cruz for the final time, and it was such a sad moment to wave good-bye to Kenta Anae and Fluenta as we pulled away from the dock. We took care of all of the formalities in Nuevo Vallarta and then spent one final night at Punta de Mita.
Then on Tuesday, 11 March at about noon, we raised anchor and said our final good-byes to Mexico. We also had a little pre-passage toast for Neptune to keep us safe on the journey we had in front of us.
Gresham Family Exodus 