When my alarm woke me this morning, it was to the sight of a blazing sunrise on our port side, while to starboard a full moon still hung in the morning sky. And accompanying Raven through the sea a pod of porpoises leaping and playing in their graceful arcs, their wet bodies reflecting the red rays of the sunrise. Better than a cup of coffee for a nice way start to the day!
Actually that was my second wake-up call of the morning. We had intended to pull out at 4 a.m. so had set alarms for 3:30. However the time zones have been jumping all over the place. We have been on Pacific and Mountain time zones a couple of times apiece so far this trip, and by the end of today we expect to be on Central Standard time. On passage our normally dormant cellphones periodically wake up, catch a stray signal, and update their internal clocks to the latest time zone unbeknownst to us – and since we also use the cellphones as our alarm clocks, we have had a few surprises.
Therefore we left an hour earlier than planned for today’s voyage from Isla Isabel to Paradise Village Marina in Banderas Bay near Puerto Vallarta. Although we had a full moon, the local fishermen had been setting out lobster pots nearby, so I took the flashlight to the bow and played the role of boat headlight so that we could make our way safely out to deep water without tangling a float and line in our prop.
We have fond memories of Puerto Vallarta from a few winters ago when we did the Mexican Riviera cruise ship thing – one night in every destination. We’re looking forwards to a more thorough exploration of this charming city this time around.