Sail Cutthroat

11 December 2006

Well I haven’t sent out an update in awhile and believe it or not, I’ve had requests for another. That cracks me up! Actually, I wrote one and published it on the website but failed to put it out via sailmail, so many of you probably didn’t see it. I’ll remedy that in the future.

In any case, I love to share these adventures and I understand that for many of you our newfound reality will forever be your dream. Either way, we can both enjoy it. We anticipated doing nothing for the couple of weeks prior to flying to Florida for the holidays. In reality, some San Diego friends were just happening to spend a week in their timeshare at the Mayan Palace just down the road. Joe and Nemira (who keep their boat, Queen’s B, at Sunroad Marina in San Diego), along with her Chicago sister, Grace and her buddy Lou, and friends Mokie and Jerry spent a good deal of their week in Paradise dragging us along…or were we dragging them along. I lose track. Anyway, it was a great opportunity to do more Banderas Bay things and a little sailing on the side.

We went to Los Arcos for a little snorkeling between the rocks. Since it is a natural preserve area we couldn’t anchor there. Nemira being the adventuresome one went overboard and snorkeled the area while we kept the boat just far enough away from the rocks (and the tourist boats) to be safe. We did fetch her from the water after a bit and then cruised up the coast for a lunchtime anchorage someplace safer. We also spent a day at the Mayan Palace.

That was a lot of fun with swimming, kayaking, and taking the train around the area. It was a relaxing and enjoyable day followed by a lovely beachside dinner.

Friday we invited them back to take the boat over to the main Puerto Vallarta harbor to take on some fuel. Reading the cruising guide, the fuel dock (surprised there’s only one to begin with as there are so many yachts not to mention fishing boats) is a little bit of a challenge to access – in a very narrow part of the channel with lots of current, wind on the beam, and very limited in space. The cruising guide even suggests if the boat is over 12 feet in beam (width) that you would have to drape over two fingers…that would be a real treat. So having more people aboard to help with lines would be prudent. Yes, it’s in a very narrow part of the channel, but they put in a larger dock in (not that we could access it at the time). All in all, it was a pretty easy – especially with Nemira’s fluency in Spanish. The most time was spent with the excruciatingly painful paperwork drill in completing the transaction. Mexico is a lot like Italy – they major in administration. It takes three guys to each do their part of filling in the blocks so you could finally pay them and leave. Pretty funny in all. We also experienced our first “weather” on this day trip. We were enjoying a beautiful sail enroute to the north side of the bay after the fuel drill. Cutthroat was clipping along a close reach at almost 7 knots is a 10-12 knot breeze when we started to hear thunder from behind us. There was a significant storm brewing in the mountains. I really didn’t think it would come into the bay, but not being familiar with the local weather except for the sunshine and puffy clouds we had so far experienced, but didn’t want to get caught in a squall with the Chicago group. Except for Nemira and Joe, the others might not have “appreciated” the experience of a squall. So being the cautious sailors we are, we headed back to the marina hoping not to have to dock in very high winds, and planning to start happy hour slightly ahead of schedule.

Needless to say, we were pooped by the time this group headed home. We truly enjoyed meeting everyone, and would enjoy another visit from them on one of their future trips. This week is our clean-up week. Before we head to Florida on Friday, we are busy cleaning up the boat, defrosting freezers and refrigerators, and doing some basic maintenance throughout our numerous systems – fuel, watermaker, air conditioning, engine, etc. While we have someone scheduled to oversee the boat while we’re gone, we want everything in great shape before we depart. This includes having some of the local boys wax the hull and topsides and work on the stainless steel. I know, we’re lazy…but the cost to have this done is far less expensive than to have it done in San Diego, and frees us up for more important things (well that’s a stretch – we ‘re just lazy and don’t want to do that stuff). After all, we did do all the varnish before we left California… This is the last update until we return in mid-January. Then we should be doing some traveling again. Can’t wait for that! We did a Christmas update that will also be posted on the website and I suppose I should send it out as a separate sailmail. We don’t plan on a significant Christmas card dump this year but we do wish all our friends and family a joyous holiday season. We also want to remember and pray for all the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines stationed throughout the world and particularly in the Middle East defending our freedoms. Without them and their ongoing commitment and sacrifice our lives would be significantly different and far less safe. We pray for them and wish them all the best and a safe return.

Wishing you all a joyous holiday season,

Elise and Roger