All Tangled Up in Banderas Bay

With our generator finally fixed with the correct capacitors we left Cabo San Lucas bound for Puerta Vallarta, which is located in Banderas Bay, a 26 mile wide bay ringed with small towns and anchored at the back with the large port of Puerto Vallarta. Our trip down was uneventful, and with less wind than we would have wished. But motoring and motor sailing brought us close to our destination without incident, while we shared many close encounters with whales and dolphins dancing along the boat.

Upon our approach to Banderas Bay we enjoyed a lovely sunset and just as we were settling in for the evening watch we were brought to a jarring halt. Chris pushed the throttle to neutral and I jumped for the engine shutoff switch, leaving us drifting in the darkness and wondering what the heck happened. Grabbing a flashlight we each circled the boat looking for clues. It took only a minute to confirm our suspicion that we had become entangled in net or fishing line. Streaming from the stern was what appeared to be a bright yellow rope of some sort, no doubt the other end of it was wrapped around our prop, shaft, and possibly the rudder. Moving the wheel and watching the movement of the rope confirmed that the rudder was not entangled, so we could still steer, but we would need to dive on the boat to clear the rest before turning on the engine or we could do damage to the prop or engine itself.

Lacking an underwater dive light, we tried a few others things since we had the whole night to kill. Not much wind meant not much sailing, which meant we were pretty much drifting until sunrise ten hours away. First we used a line and hook to snag the rope and pull it up for a better look. Turns that the line was saw was actually a cluster of smaller lines, drift lines used to catch fish with smaller filament lines and hooks attached to it. We dragged up and cut off as much as we could, carefully removing hooks as we went. No floats or markers or lights marked the setup, and no fishing boats were anywhere nearby, and the hooks were empty of bait or catch, so apparently this was just a lost line and a hazard to navigation. We pulled and cut away a great deal, but a quick test of the engine proved that the shaft and prop were still well entangled, so we hove to and waited for morning and light to dive on the boat.

Dawn found Chris strapping on his dive gear and headed into the water with a sharp knife to hack away the offending lines. He worked on it for half an hour and said the prop looked like a giant cocoon encased in yellow line! But eventually all was cleared away and we started up the engine without further delay and headed in to La Cruz, a small town that seems to be a favorite of cruising boats. We dropped anchor in the anchorage just outside the marina and have been here for a week now. More updates to follow!