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The Cruiser's Christmas Party VenueWhoa!!! What a wonderful time we have been having lately!!! I have to work on the writing because the last few days have been awesome... and I am still alive!!!
We are in Barra de Navidad for Christmas (I mean how perfect is that... we are in Christmas for Christmas) and you could not ask for a more magical and wondrous place!!! If cruising were any more inspiring it would hurt to be this fun!!! Let's not dwell on the fact that we got stuck in the MUD bottom twice coming in and once getting anchored because the rest of this has been so far toward the other end of the scale of stress (i.e.: not stress is what I have in mind here) that you can't get better than this!!!
Others might say that this is hot here... not so this Arizona boy. It is comfortably warm and (I'm aware this may be too much information but...) I don't wear much clothing these days. Of course it doesn't hurt that I am a lot less rotund than I used to be and paradise is a great place to figure out who you always wanted to be.
Anyway, if I can download some pictures in the next few days I will try to add more flavor to this descriptive of a life style that I am in love with!!!
No picture at the moment so I will have to start a fresh entry after I put this ever so short one in.
Today was one of those exercises in extreme parts searching. Never mind that in any boating oriented community in the U.S. of A. I could have gotten everything I needed within an hour or so of running around. Today was an hour bus ride to find out that not one of the six places I stopped at had the most significant part that I needed. All told it was about 4 1/2 hours of trying to find the thing and coming up empty. A few days earlier I had gone into PV with Sandy so that we could buy a generator and had a similar chase to even find the Honda store!!
The "capper" was that when I got back to the boat I found out that (probably me, myself or I) had left the tops off of one of the house batteries in the course of checking it last time and it was totally gone - history - done in - trashed!! Ah well, that meant another chase to find batteries that could be delivered. Fortunately there is a wonderful lady here at the marina working as a Concierge!!! What a great thing to have a translator with the use of the phone to speed the search when the going gets tough. Even though there wasn't much she could for the part I couldn't locate (period) she was able to call and find batteries of the specified type and size in a matter of minutes THEN negotiate the purchase and delivery!!! As we say around here,"how cool is that?"
I have needed this level of service all my life, I think.
The Not-As-Expected flat seas going north.
So, the catamaran left La Cruz in the afternoon and we were soon out in Banderas Bay headed for the open ocean. There was suddenly the smell of burning oil and the skipper, Chuck, ran to the front of the boat and opened the “hood” where the genset was throwing oil all over the front of the boat! It seems in our haste to get away the skipper had forgotten to put the cap back on the valve cover after adding oil. What a mess. Chuck signaled for me to shut off the diesel generator and we drifted while we cleaned up, added fresh oil and finally started the genset back up. You see, the electric motors that provide propulsion (other than the sails) will only work if the generator is running!!
As we reached the end of the bay at Punta de Mita we were met with increased seas and a bit more wind. This continued as we saw the sun lower itself into the sea ahead and to the left (port) of the boat. There was no moon and the night was extremely dark; with only stars and a bit of phosphoressence we had our first night at sea passing almost immediately. Our watches were three hours on and three hours off. This schedule meant that we were to see each other almost exclusively at watch change for the coming week. The first leg to Cab San Lucas was lumpy and we needed fuel by the time we got there a couple of days later just at sunset. This lumpy sea was what I had expected for the whole of this trip. The catamaran was fairly noisy because the waves would slam the bridge deck under foot and you would literally jump with the force of each slam. It was chaotic and sleep was fitful at best. We arrived on a Sunday and anchored at about 20:00 after first snagging a chain that was likely left over from the old mooring ball system that used to be in the bay outside of Cabo. It took considerable effort and a broken boat hook to untangle that chain from our hook so we could not raise a water taxi by the time we were ready to go ashore. Hmmm, dinner on the boat and quickly to sleep to catch up on the sleep missed so far and be ready for an early departure.
At about 04:30 we got up and headed for the fuel dock after a quick breakfast and coffee. Arriving before it opened we waited until 07:00 to get our fuel and get out of Cabo before we were caught and had to check in. It would have been a huge hassle to have to check in and there really was no purpose to it. It all meant that we were back at sea within an hour. Our goal was to bash north to Bahia Santa Maria but we had almost no swell and very little wind. A couple of days later we just agreed that we should not stop in order to take advantage of the great weather window we had stumbled onto!! We didn’t need to catch up on sleep at this point, so why stop? What amazed me the most was the glassy smooth ride we were experiencing. After the first leg was so noisy this leg was relatively calm. The wind we did have was less than 15 knots (mostly on the nose) and it would periodically go down to near 2 or 3 knots. The fishing was great. We caught Dorado, Wahoo, Bonito and the like. It turned out that Chuck is a really good cook and he experimented with the fish with great results. The boat is somewhat underpowered, more on that in a minute, but we managed a steady 5.5 knot average speed going to windward. When the wind kicked up at all we slowed to 3 knots until we pushed the throttle up a few notches. It was a fine ride as we pulled into Turtle Bay four long days later to refuel and attend to some minor maintenance issues that had arisen. A day spent in Turtle Bay was a small slice of heaven, really. The weather had turned noticeably cooler and we were ready for showers. A walk around town and a visit on another catamaran had us ready for the next leg. We didn’t have blankets on board!!! It was so much cooler at night that we broke out the long underwear and sweaters.
That brings us to the last leg into San Diego. Another three days of little or no wind!! I couldn’t believe our luck. This turned out to be the non-bash north!!! As we came into S.D. there was a regatta going on and we crossed the fleet on our way to the police dock to check in with Customs and do the formalities. For Chuck it meant coming into the country again after four months and nine countries from the British Virgin Islands through Panama Canal and up west coast of Central America and Mexico. He could more easily find crew again and the owner had decided to meet him in Marina Del Rey for the last slog up to San Francisco. Life is sweet sometimes to be sure.
The boat: A Leopard 43 with propulsion provided by a one off system designed by Glacier Bay (the refrigeration company). It has a 25 Kw generator driving twin electric motors. We had an issue with the fuel pump and had to replace it for our final assault but it worked very well burning just over a gallon an hour of diesel for most of the trip. We did manage to sail occasionally, but for the most part we motor sailed. The thing that the system needed most was a much friendlier user interface. It had a touch screen that was WAY too complex. It has hidden screens and the descriptions of what the commands are were a puzzle. It really needed and larger screen that could be toned down for night time visibility.
Oh, and the picture is a deceased sea lion about ready to explode... not far from there we caught a great wahoo for dinner!!!
So, momentarily I have accepted a paid position on a boat being delivered north. Hmmm, I might be crazy but it should take about two weeks then I will fly back to paradise!! It's a different kind of boat or I wouldn't have gone for this deal. It's an electrically motored catamaran with all sorts of innovative technology on board so I will have a chance to see how this works out. In any event, it will be a way to see how a long term cruise might be on a cat!!! The Electric Leopard has been in charter service in the Caribbean and is being taken home to San Francisco... my part in this is only to San Diego then jump off. Sweet!!
The picture will have to wait because after 3 very long tries at getting the picture in I am giving up until I can get a better connection. Oooops, spoke too soon... so here's the picture.
So, today I needed to get into Puerto Vallarta from La Cruz. It is easy to get there. You would need only to walk up the small hill from the marina (if you are in the marina), a distance of less than a mile and catch the ATM bus for NP$14.00 (about a dollar at the current exchange rate). Then sit patiently for a span of about an hour (less on an E-ticket ride) and you are there. Well, you are at the out skirts of P.V. anyway. You then look for a bus that says it’s going to Centro and hop on that for another NP$5.50 and the next thing you know you are there!
This trip had multiple stops that I needed to make so was a bit disjointed because I kept paying for more than the distance from place to place because I didn’t correctly recall which place came first. Oh well, at the end of it all I made all the stops I set out to make and probably paid a few pennies more than I would have if I had been more organized. No big deal. You almost never find what you are looking for at the place you think you should find it… but that’s just fine with me. It usually means that I end up with a little more adventure than I otherwise would have. This particular trip was solo so I wasn’t trying to help a group get on and off at the needed stops and I was following only my own agenda. It definitely gets more complicated if there are multiple drivers for where “we” should be going next. Especially if the destinations change as the day progresses!!
For all that this was a great if exhaustive day. Despite all the bus riding I probably hoofed it about four miles. That’s very healthy although I am now very stiff and will wind this up and go in search of appropriate refreshment.
I ended up writing this from Philo's (file-oh's) in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and the beer is cold the ribs are on the grill and life is sooo good!!
The Cruiser's Christmas Party Venue
