After the Ha-Ha, boats generally head off to one of three main destinations: La Paz, Mazatlan or Puerto Vallarta. We on Profligate joined about six other boats last Sunday morning in fleeing the tourist chaos that is Cabo to make the 270-mile passage to Puerto Vallarta. Although we didn’t see any of our fellow travellers, we could sometimes hear them over the radio. Curiously, this was because a number of them — Bruce Anderson’s Alaska-based Perry 59 Free Range Chicken, Bob Smith’s Victoria-based 44-ft custom cat Pantera, and Barritt Neal and Renee Blaul’s San Diego-based Peterson 44 Serendipity — were buzzed and inspected by a French military helicopter. Exactly what a French military chopper was doing flying around on the layline between Cabo and P.V. remains a mystery to all of us.

We made the passage in 36 hours, often motoring economically with one engine, but also getting three or four nice hours under the chute on the first day. A small cat that arrived in Banderas Bay just last night was luckier, having been able to sail all but the last two hours of the passage. But don’t feel too badly for us, as things are quite nice in the Punta Mita, La Cruz, Nuevo Vallarta, and Puerto Vallarta areas. For one thing, the incredible humidity of summer suddenly ‘broke’ on Tuesday. Even hardened locals had been suffering. But in just that one day, people started to pull out sheets instead of sleeping naked, naked, naked. On our crossing, for example, it was well over 80° even in the middle of the night. Nonetheless, we’ve had nothing but cloudless blue skies ever since.

Another nice thing about hitting the mainland in mid-November is that the jungle is in full bloom. We took a 10-mile ride from Punta Mita up to Sayulita, and were blown away by how the vegetation had seemingly run riot over the summer and fall wet season. The vegetation was vivid green — except for the red, yellow, blue and other colored flowers — and thick. In fact, if the vegetation was any thicker, it would have been a solid. And there were butterflies everywhere, most noticeable among them being the 747-sized white ones. The jungle in full bloom is excuse enough to get to the mainland in a hurry. In a matter of weeks, it will no longer be in peak form.

As if the warm weather and jungle weren’t enough, there’s been decent surf, both at Sayulita on the coast and on the north shore of Banderas Bay. Of course, there’s nothing that makes surfing more pleasurable than warm water. Here in the bay, the water had been in the low 80s. Last night we dinghied down to La Lancha to catch a few sundowner waves. Even at the end of the warm day the ocean felt like bathtub water. We surfed for 40 minutes after sundown — until a monster full moon came up over the mountains — and never felt a chill.

To top off a great day, we stopped by ex-cruiser Philo’s Bar and Restaurant in La Cruz for a taste of his live music. It still a little early in the season, so the crowd was still a little thin, but there were lots of old friends to say hello to. And Philo vets will be delighted to learn that Leon, well into his seventh decade, is still knocking it out of the park with his washboard, bells, horn and slide whistle. Some of you probably think the last line was a joke. Once you see Leon do his thing, you’ll know it’s the truth. So the cruising season on the mainland is getting off to a ding-dong start. We’d love to hear how it’s going for those of you who opted to sail up to La Paz.

Although they ultimately were not seriously injured, we’ve received yet another disturbing report of cruisers being attacked while at anchor, this time in Ecuador, where we don’t remember there being any problems in the past. The couple attacked were from a Seattle-based boat. They are the authors of online cruising guides to Central America and Costa Rica, and have been cruising for the last four years.

Here’s the report from one of the people aboard: “I’m reluctant to write about our being attacked on our boat at Punta Perdernales, Ecuador, on November 7, for two reasons. First, as foreign travelers, we look forward to and rely on the kindness of strangers. Many of these wonderful people in Ecuador live an existence that is unimaginable to Americans, yet they still smile and offer what help they can. By telling our story, I don’t want the acts of a few bad people to destroy goodwill and openness towards strangers.

“Secondly, I’m reluctant because of the tendencies for humans to be in denial. ‘They must have done something wrong — that could never happen to me,’ some might say, trying to point out faults on our part. I kindly request that readers put aside that kind of thinking, as no amount of second guessing would have changed what happened to us. Sometimes other people can simply take control of your life. Despite our hesitations, we feel it’s important to get this message out in hopes that it won’t happen to anyone else.

“On November 7, we anchored behind Punta Pedernales, Ecuador, along with John Gratton and Linda Hill aboard their Redwood City-based Hans Christian 33 Nakia. Unfortunately, the anchorage offered poor protection in the rough conditions. We were awoken about midnight by a panga bumping into our port side. I assumed it was just a fisherman who hadn’t seen us on that very dark night. But when I got to the top of the companionway ladder, I saw two guys with guns entering the cockpit followed by two more large men, one with a big knife. A fifth man was waiting in the panga. Two of the men pinned me down in the cockpit, shoving a gun in my mouth and holding a knife at my throat. Meanwhile, one of the big guys pulled [my wife] into the cockpit and began smothering her by putting his hand over her nose and mouth.

“My wife thought, as did I, that they were about to kill me. As I could only hear her muffled screams, I thought she was being raped. Our assailants were extremely jumpy and erratic, presumably jacked on adrenaline and/or drugs, which made them very unpredictable and dangerous. Curiously, they made no demands. I repeatedly asked them to stay calm. When my wife’s attacker finally lifted his hand from her mouth so she could breath, she pleaded with them to stop. Meanwhile, I continued to struggle with the guys who had me pinned down. We frantically did what we could to protect each other.

“My wife continued yelling eventually woke John and Linda on Nakia. When they saw what was happening, they sounded their air horn, shone a spotlight on our boat, and shot off two rocket flares. This seemed to panic the attackers, as they headed back toward their panga. But apparently realizing they hadn’t taken anything yet, they grabbed our GPS and a backpack that contained about $40. We were very lucky to have Nakia close by, and they responded very effectively. We shudder to think what might have happened had they not be there. After there was no response by the Pedernales Port Captain’s office to our mayday calls, we weighed anchor and headed 50+ miles up the coast to Punta Galera.

“We’ve been regrouping here for the last two days among friendly fishermen. We’re getting our paper charts in order as our GPS had our electronic charts, and rigging up a temporary GPS. As a result of John contacting the U.S. Coast Guard in Alameda via SSB, the Ecuadorian Coast Guard came to our boat in Punta Galera and filled out a detailed report. We can only hope they can track down the guys who did this. That being said, we recommend that no one stops in Punta Pedernales for the foreseeable future, as we believe it is too dangerous.”