I would say that as long as the weather and sea conditions are calm-to-very-light, the anchorage at Punta de Mita is less rolly than Tenacatita. It would seem, then, that if winds are northerly a forecast of less than 5 knots would be a good opportunity to visit Punta de Mita, Jaltemba, and other open and roadsteady anchorages in the area. The night we spent anchored at Punta de Mita was very comfortable. February 22, 2015, dawned calm, partly cloudy, and warm with a heavy haze, but the morning's VHF cruisers' net called for increasing wind-driven swell entering all parts of Banderas Bay. Ergo, it was off we took.
Our departure and rounding of the point were uneventful. Because, protip: we stood well offshore. All sides of the point of Punta de Mita are surrounded with rocky reefs out to more than a quarter mile. Boats that hug the shore come to grief, and then the rest of us have to listen to their rationalization that crashing into that rock wasn't their fault because they are excellent sailors and excellent sailors never hit rocks, it's just that they hit that rock because that particular rock was "uncharted." (This is actually the excuse one guy gave in real life to explain why he trashed his sailboat on a rock at Punta de Mita, INSIDE THE SURF LINE. Hitting that rock was the only thing that stopped him from driving his boat right up onto the beach.) So, uh, no. These people hit rocks that are one part of an extensive, well known, charted reef; and mad boating skillz mean bupkis if you refuse to pay attention as to exactly where you are and what you are doing with your boat. Remember, kids: Be like Billy – behave yourselves!
Protip #2: If you use Navionics charts? You will find that they are ridiculously off in this area – all the depths are wrong, the charts show land where there is none, and they show hazards where none exist. All the more reason to give reefy Punta de Mita plenty of sea room.
Proceeding to Matanchen Bay, we stayed about 8-1/2 miles offshore. At 20 deg. 59.903N/105 deg. 29.089W we snagged a semi-floating 5/8" yellow line. We did not wrap the propeller and once The Fox stopped it fell away on its own, but we were unable to see whether it was a loose length of line or attached to a fish trap or lobster pot. So even at this late date there may still be some active fishing in this area and/or fishing debris. FYI.
Critter count: several whale and turtle sightings near and far. It was good to see that there was still some sea life hereabouts.
The morning's forecast of NW breeze 10-14 knots came true in the afternoon. We anchored in Matanchen Bay without incident on the 20' depth contour, far enough offshore that the local swarms of bobos and jejenes were no large problem. The night was calm and quiet. Stats: 52 miles traveled, 9.5 hours underway.
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