Saturday, November 26, 2005

Still in La Paz - Going to San Diego next week

We are still at the dock at Marina de La Paz. Yesterday was Cindy's birthday and the day before was a tremendous Thanksgiving Day. The local cruisers' "Club Cruceros" yacht club, along with Marina Palmira, sponsored a Thanksgiving potluck dinner for about 250 cruisers. It was a great success, witness our bloated tummies that night. The gravy was late but right on time for us in the middle of the line. We made old-fashioned cornbread dressing with lots of sage and onion. Yum!!

Planning the trip to San Diego to pick up boat parts has been a real challenge but we think we have it nailed down now. We plan to rent a car here from Budget rental and drive the 900 miles up in two days and back in two days with four days there. It is slightly cheaper by car than a special rate on airfare, not counting getting a rental car in San Diego to run around in. Ditto for bus, although the bus would have gone straight through and we could sleep and relax more. We will see more in our own car, but will have to play dodge-em with the free range cows along the way. We plan to get a hotel to avoid too much night time driving.

It will be another adventure for sure. The yacht club manager back in PV says he has a buyer for the little car we bought earlier in the year which we could have brought over here at great hassle. We are hoping all goes well with that.

The plan for tonight is for Boys Night Out to shoot pool. John on S/V Nakia is the ring leader for this outing. Hope that goes well too. Otherwise we are just laying back and doing the occasional boat project (at least I am - the princess has been reading, surfing and napping a lot). The weather has been great for that - sunny and warm with cool nights.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

In La Paz on the east coast of Baja Sur

Hi all,
We left Punta de Mita where we anchored in Banderas Bay. Along the way we decided not to go to Mazatlan until after La Paz so we set a course for there. One of our options was to go to Isla Isabella which we skipped last year, but we decided to motor on (no wind or wind on our nose). It took 48 hours to get to just off Muertos bay where we were going to anchor and leave the next day for La Paz. We were tired and looking forward to a good sleep but the forecast was for strong winds out of the north (the direction we were going) so we decided to keep going the 50 miles to La Paz. Our biggest concern was whether we could get there before dark as it is a very difficult place to get into after dark. Luckily we made good time and came in a half hour before sunset. The marina was still open and we got a slip right between two boats we knew from our Ha-Ha - S/V Sea Angel and S/V Po'o ino aroa (say that three times - even slow!).

We are now moored at Marina de La Paz where we stayed several days last year after the Ha-Ha. We love La Paz. The people are friendly, the town has everything you need and we have lots of old and new friends here. Several boats from this year's Ha-Ha have come in and we have met many of them.

It is nice here in the marina with really cool breezes during the day almost always from the north. Mornings are very cool and Cindy is sleeping with blankets now. Quite a change from the summer in PV, although we have been told that it got to 105 degrees here, but with lower humidity than in PV.

Kim and Linda on S/V Endeavor from Canada were here but left the day before we got in, headed for Mazatlan. Unfortunately for them their steering cable parted from the chain that goes on the gear on their steering wheel eight hours out of La Paz. At night, in a good breeze. The boat immediately rounded up into the wind and they ran around trying to figure out what happened. They found out right away that the steering was gone so they put on the emergency steering tiller. It is short (no leverage) and only on the aft deck, so Kim had to hand steer in the dark all the way back to La Paz. We helped them fix the gear with a tool I had on board. They are now in Mazatlan enjoying the good life again.

It has been a whirl of socializing here, getting together with friends. Tonight we are having dinner with Jan and Rich on S/V Slip Away who are leaving on Monday, and John and Linda on S/V Nakia at the famous Rancho Viejo for arrachera. Arrachera is a marinated beef flank steak and they make the best. Kind of like fajitas, chased with cervezas, sodas (cocas) or margaritas. Last night we walked the 3 miles to and from Marina Palmira on the other side of town to go to a Cruiser Appreciation party sponsored by the marinas and the Baja California Sur Board of Tourism. They had some free cervezas and fresh clams right out of the shell with lime and salsa. Yum!

Our biggest problem right now is how to get some new electronics (radar, chart plotter, GPS and wind instruments) down here. We may have to drive to San Diego (a 2 day car trip) to pick it up and bring it down. Shipping is a hit or miss thing here.

Have to go shower up at the heads on the shore, then off to dinner.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Leaving Puerto Vallarta and Headed for La Paz

March - October, 2005
We have been at Paradise Village Marina from March - October, 2005 to sit
out hurricane season. Paradise Village is located inNuevo Vallarta which is north of Puerto Vallarta in Banderas Bay. It is right at the state line between Nayarit and Jalisco.

Cindy went to Denver for a few months to work (April - June) while Joe stayed on the boat and worked on other peoples' boats at the marina doing electrical and electronic repairs and upgrades. Joe came to Denver for the month of July to escape the heat and visit friends and family. We had a chance to visit with all of our dear friends in Denver which was great.

We bought a little Mexican car to make our lives easier - the Mexican buses make you fear for your life each time you ride them. It is interesting driving here (Joe did all of the driving). There are stop signs (ALTO in Spanish) which nobody (and I repeat nobody) stops for. To make a left hand turn you actually exit the road to the right, wait for the turn signal and then turn in front of everyone. It is very strange. You have to drive aggressively or else be run over.

The summer here was extremely hot and humid. We bought a portable air conditioner for the boat which helped a ton, but it also made you not want to leave the boat. There is a Yacht Club a short distance from where we were docked. It has a pool, hot tub, book exchange, bar, restaurant, etc. It is where everyone congregates to visit, play cards, use the computer or just hang out because it was air conditioned.

We took a road trip to the interior of Mexico for 2 weeks to Tequila, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende. We took a tour of the Jose Cuervo factory to see how tequila is made. It was fascinating! They let you taste the aguave after it was baked but before it was ground up and the juice squeezed out for the fermentation step. After it is fermented and distilled we had another taste. This was like white lightning - 110 proof! They add water to it to make it 80 proof and then it is either bottled as silver tequila or put in barrels and aged to make Reposado or Anejo. Both of these turn a gold or darker color from the oak barrels. Joe likes the Anejo best. We bought a bottle of the "Reserva de la Familia" which is the very best that Cuervo makes. It has only been sold a for a few years. Before that it truly was reserved for the family members only.

Guanajuato was once one of the most productive silver mining areas of the world. It was founded in the 1500's by the Spanish and the town became very, very wealthy. It is an amazing town of underground tunnels that crisscross the old town since the original streets are extremely narrow and crooked. We met up with another gringo boater and his Mexican girlfriend who were there for a few months. We went to the Diego Rivera museum, Don Quixote museum, an incredible museum of real mummified dead people from a cemetery they dug up. Guanajuato is a college town so there is a lot of night life and kids around. We toured some beautiful churches that were like nothing we have every seen before. Unfortunately, Joe picked up something the last night we were there and carried it to San Miguel.

San Miguel de Allende is where Joe continued his first case of tourista sickness (salmonella poisoning probably) and spent most of the time in the hotel room close to the toilet. I went out and had dinner the first night by myself with a map in my hand down some dark deserted streets. But I found the pizza place I was looking for and was happy, happy, happy. The first morning after we arrived Joe said - I think I need to see a Dr. and I knew it was bad. So I took off to look for someone who spoke English to find out the name of a Dr. They suggested we call the free ambulance and head to the hospital. But instead of calling the ambulance we walked to the hospital and decided the line was too long so we went back to the hotel and found a Dr. that would see Joe asap (by cab). Needless to say - the Dr. put Joe on an IV in the clinic emergency room for 4 hours. He slowly recovered over the next few days. We happened to be there during the biggest festival of the year. Fireworks started at 4:00 a.m. and there was a huge parade that went by our hotel later that day with the most amazing costumes. It is a great city and a book called 'On Mexican Time' is a wonderful depiction of life in that town.

The drive back to Puerto Vallarta was uneventful except that we had a leak in the radiator and the car overheated out on the highway. Checking it out after we stopped, the radiator cap blew off into the weeds and we never found it. We pulled into a small, isolated car parts store a few kilometers down the road and got a new cap (hurray!) and filled the radiator with the dirtiest water you have ever seen, but it worked.

We have now left the marina and are anchored at the northern most entrance to Banderas Bay, at Punta de Mita. We spent three nights anchored off of the small village of La Cruz before that. La Cruz is a favorite of the cruisers. It is very small but has some interesting places to hang out, including what everyone calls "tacos on the street" which is a Mexican house that only opens on weekends and has cheap tacos that they serve on tables on the street. Mostly gringos go there and lots of them. La Cruz also has Philo's which is a bar/restaurant hangout owned by Philo (who else?) who used to cruise but now has a really friendly small place with live music.

Punta de Mita is just off the Four Seasons resort on the point. It is very exclusive and cruisers, or any non-guest, are NOT welcome. Lots of movie stars are rumored to hang out there. But lots of cruisers anchor in the little bay because it has great breezes, good holding (for the anchor) and there is surfing right in front. From here we plan to go to La Paz which is up and across the Sea of Cortez. We may or may not got to Mazatlan along the way.

More to follow soon. We will try to be better in keeping the website/blog up to date. Thanks for bearing with us. We are still having fun but miss our friends back in the states. Adios for now.

P.S. Many thanks to Dave on M/V Megabyte, and John on S/V Nakia for their help with the blog.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Under way in Mexico


Joe and Cindy underway in Mexico...

Leaving Puerto Vallarta tomorrow

Hola de Mexico,
We are preparing to leave beautiful Puerto Vallarta. It was
a delightful time here, except for the brutal heat/humidity
of the summer which just changed just a week ago. We have a
great car trip in the little car we bought here in
Guadalajara to the town of Tequila where Cuervo and Suaza
tequilas are made, then to the strange and interesting city
of Guanajuato and then on to the famous ex-pat artist town
of San Miquel de Allende during their annual saint's day
festivities.

Tomorrow we depart for points/ports north. First we will
anchor out in Banderas Bay for a few days and then take off
for Mazatlan where we may stay for a month or more. La Paz
on the other side of Bahia de California (the Sea of Cortez)
will be next. We are not sure how long we will stay there
but there are several interesting anchorages and islands to
explore just north of there. Beyond that we are still
thinking about different options, but the South Pacific is
still calling us for a spring departure.

Dave Lenarz from the M/V Megabyte, now berthed in Seattle,
is helping us with the blog and website. Thanks Dave! We
miss you and Debbie and our great times down the coast of
California, to Cabo on the Baja Ha-Ha, and then in
Zihuatanejo and other spots.

My list of pre-departure items is long, so this is it for
now from Cindy (the Admiral and Princess) and Joe (the
Captain and Bilge Slave)

_________________________________________

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