Our last sunrise in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. on Tuesday, December 17

Eric checked out with the port captain and the marina office. We did all of the last-minute things to get Kosmos ready for sea, and we untied at noon for our 22-hour passage. 

We are happy to report that the seas were mostly calm. In Bahia de Banderas we had some small head seas. When we went around Cabo Corrientes, we were braced for bad conditions since that patch of water was notorious for being confused and turbulent, but it was actually pretty good conditions. Beyond Cabo Corrientes, the swell was from the rear at long intervals and there was little wind chop.  

The skies had scattered clouds. When dark first set in, we could see stars in between the clouds. But then we went into a fogbank, and the stars were completely blocked. The moon was nearly full and shone brightly, even through the fog. 

On Tuesday afternoon, we saw a couple of whales swimming. Both of them fluked. From their small tail size, we were certain that one was a baby; maybe both of them were babies. 

Close to midnight, the odometer rolled up to 43,000 nautical miles (a nautical mile is 1.15 of a mile) on this passage, so our Nordhavn 43 now has 43,000 nautical miles!

Sunrise on Wednesday was very red, thanks to the fog. It went from red to gold as it lifted out of the fog. 

We approached the channel to enter Bahia de Navidad at around 1000. The channel was narrow, and Eric was careful as he navigated us in.

The town was immediately visible to the left. 

We passed the town, and made a right turn into the marina complex. This was the first time the resort was visible, and Keith was stunned by how big the resort complex was. Eric and Christi had been here 15-years ago; it was one of the stops on our circumnavigation. It looked exactly as they remembered it.

We tied up and went to the marina office to check in. Along the marina waterfront was a series of small houses. It looked like most of them were rentals for guests, but one of the houses had the marina office. 

It was unlikely we’d make it to the port captain’s office in town before it closed, so we decided to skip going into town and stay at the resort for the rest of the day. We had lunch at the poolside café, which was mediocre and expensive. 

Eric and Keith went to the pool after lunch. The pool was built across three-levels, in a lazy-river style. There were small waterslides connecting the levels. Keith had a blast on the waterslides. 

The sunset was blocked by the mountain, but the sky turned pretty colors at sunset.

We went to the resort’s main restaurant for dinner. The dining room was beautiful. The food was good, but the portions were small and it was expensive for what it was.