11/17/2009, Puerto Vallarta
A bus leaves Nuevo Vallarta for Puerto Vallarta every 15 minutes. It routes around the many condo developments and golf resorts, past the airport and into the city. My first impression on driving in was 'this is like a number of other cities I have driven though; Guadalajara, Morelia, even the outskirts of Mexico City' with a sprawl of mixed businesses in sometimes decrepit looking and unfinished buildings and a frantic traffic system. But the ciudad viejo is a pleasant surprise. There is a promenade overlooking a beautiful beach, some stylish older buildings stretching up the hillsides and a cathedral that would bear further exploration, restaurants and the promise of a vibrant night life and the inevitable shops serving the tourist.
We ate lunch at a Cuban restaurant called La Bordelito Medio, which apparently has roots in old Havana, walked the promenade to El Centro Plaza and the Naval History Museum and then headed back on a very hot and crowded bus to Wal-Mart and the mundane business of food shopping.
So ends Leg 03 and for me the first part of the Odyssey as I fly back to Sequim tomorrow and give my wife, Anne, a big hug for doing the posts. Hopefully someone will carry this blog on while ever there is crew on Wind Child and adventures to be had.
| Leg 03: Cabo San Lucas to Banderos Bay |
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11/16/2009, Nuevo Vallarta
We made one more anchorage stop at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, a place Rudy and Jean had visited some years ago. He wanted to take us to the old town, but alas it was not to be found - a victim of rapacious growth in the area - stunted recently, it seems, by economic conditions since we noticed many incomplete condos and numerous Se Renta and Se Vende signs.
This morning we left for the final 7 miles to Wind Child's winter abode - Paradise Village Marina in Nuevo Vallarta. Insufficient wind lead us to abandon sail and motor in - an inglorious end to a great sailing adventure.
After washing the boat down and setting up the sun awnings we checked out the 'village mall', a collection of beachwear, jewelry and souvenir shops, as well as the inevitable MacDonalds and Starbucks, on the ground level and mostly unoccupied on the upper level. There is also a supermarket with very American Tourist prices.
Like all good cruisers are supposed to, we lost track of time, what with the HaHa organisers keeping us on HaHa time, even though there was a time zone change and a Daylight to Standard time change, then we saw a clock in a restaurant that they had forgotten to change. Michael called home and Darleen read time from a clock she had not altered. Michael's cell phone read a time that we knew we could not trust since we were close to a zone change, our two GPS's read times one hour apart, finally Nuevo Vallarta should be in Mountain time, but they follow Puerto Vallarta for convenience. OK Got all of that?
Tomorrow we plan to take the bus to Puerto Vallarta to do a little shopping.
| Leg 03: Cabo San Lucas to Banderos Bay |
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11/14/2009, Punte de Mita
We've seen some mighty beautiful anchorages in our southerly tour so far, but Punta de Mita may be the most scenic yet. The islands that were a terror for our entry last night are, today, a lovely offshore presence.
We came ashore to see what the locals had done with their town. Rudy reports that the growth has been startling. We landed in a small boat harbor and immediately met a fishing boat captain who was a roofer for 12 years in Friday Harbor, WA. After a pleasant conversation with him we met Antonio who looked like a surfer from anywhere else in the world. I was glad to see someone was using the awesome surf breaking on the entire beach.
Looking for an internet connection, and a few beers, we picked a place with a Mediterranean flavor. It's all more or less outdoors with a veranda-covered interior and a large "beach scene" with umbrellas in the open. A large sandy area is surrounded by decking and cabanas and is set off from the beach by a railing with tables all along the edge.
I'm struck by the international flavor of our luncheon:
We're sitting in an Italian restorante in Punte Mita, Mexico in a covered cabania overlooking the most lovely beach scene I remember seeing, ever. We are drinking Mexican beer and picking at a home-cured antipasto plate and waiting for our wood-fired-oven pizza to arrive. In a word, we're enjoying ourselves.
| Leg 03: Cabo San Lucas to Banderos Bay |
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11/13/2009, Isla Isabella
11/11 After leaving Los Frailes we sailed most of the first day and night but motored for a good portion of the second day awaiting the arrival of wind. By mid afternoon we had enough to raise the spinnaker and as the day progressed switched to the jib. By evening we were seeing 15-18 knots and 4ft swells.
We arrived at Isabela Island at about 2100. The chart on the Garmin showed the island to be a couple of miles out of position and was useless as a guide to finding a good anchorage. The coordinates from Charlie's Charts for an anchorage by the stacks on the east side proved to be reasonably accurate. But radar and Rudy's knowledge of the island guided us in. We finally dropped hook at 2200 and rewarded ourselves with a cool beer.
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11/12 This morning we moved to the anchorage in Bahia Tiberoneros on the southern end of the island. Rudy donned mask and snorkel to check out the bottom and guide us to his chosen position for the hook. We talked with the crew of another yacht that apparently arrived at about the same time we did. They chose to circle around until daylight so that they could better find an anchorage.
Isabela is home for thousands of frigate, blue and yellow footed boobies, pelicans, and numerous other birds. It is a delight to watch them soaring the thermals, We circumnavigated (love that word, sounds much more of an accomplishment than merely 'going round') the island in the dinghy. Interesting rock formations and eroded caves, speckled white wherever there was a perch. There seems to be an abundance of fish, a necessary food source for the huge bird population.
We went ashore - you can walk right up to the bird nests - they don't seem to be bothered. We bought a dorado from a pangero. Guess what is for dinner!
| Leg 03: Cabo San Lucas to Banderos Bay |
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11/08/2009
The Awards Party was lots of fun with results for each division being interspersed with awards for such achievements as who received the biggest bruise or caught the largest fish or snored the loudest. Rudy was a clear runner up in the category of dinghy disasters.
In our division, Wind Child got sustained applause for having sailed all three legs. The extent of this accomplishment was made even clearer as the evening unfolded and boats were given special recognition for having sailed just one of the three legs. I believe the seven who sailed leg one went on, as we did, to complete all three legs under sail. There was no overall result.
The skipper of the sunken J gave us a brief review of the event surrounding her loss. By all accounts she did everything to the book and was recognized with a standing ovation.
Although we knew that the Baja HaHa was considered a rally, we were surprised at the very small minority of boats that appeared to also value the competitive component. Absent close starts and other racing maneuvers, we found ourselves "racing" to achieve our most optimum performance in the wide range of conditions we encountered, and came away satisfied that we had given it our best.
Farewell Cabo. Long Live cruising.
| Leg 02: Baja HaHa |
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11/07/2009
to quote the grand poohbah
"winner of desperado division by a 'million miles ' - Wind Child"
| Leg 02: Baja HaHa |
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