2005-2006 season Repairs and Mistakes

We began the season with Cat coming to PV again for a week. It is always fun to have her with us, and we all enjoyed the beach and the great restaurants and other sights of the area. Cat and I dove the Tres Mariettas, although the water was unusually cold ( I started with a shorty and changed to a full wet suit for the second dive). We went to the Rhythms of the Night show with Cat and our friends Dick and Carol, at Las Caletas, the private area operated by Vallarta Adventure. The show is a special experience in an outdoor amphitheater surrounded by the jungle and featuring Aztec and Mayan era dances, fire dancers, and exotic sounds, followed by dinner and a night cruise back along the bay. After coming down in October, we decided we needed air conditioning on the boat, so I bought an Aqua Cool portable a/c that we decided to have our friend John of Scarlett O'Hara install. John had done a lot of the electrical on the boat with our original contractor, and was great to work with. He invited me to race on Bright Star, a Jenneau fast 40, a full-on race boat with Mylar sails and several spinnakers. It was a real learning experience . Bright Star is owned by Dorr Anderson of Seattle, and he has raced boats for may years in Washington, California and Mexico. I was only trusted to handle the traveler and the main initially although I have since moved up to sometime spinnaker trimmer. It takes a surprising number of people to handle the boat, especially when setting or jibing the spinnaker when rounding a mark. 8 or so is the ideal number with everyone very active for several minutes before moving back to the weather (windward) rail. I met Bruce of the red trimaran Migration, while racing on Bright Star. After we had the boat essentially repaired from the flood damage and collected the insurance proceeds (dealing with a female Russian Lawyer who knew nothing about boats in settling the claim)we were ready to go around the beginning of March. Unfortunately, I spilled a small amount of water out of a portable bilge pump onto the bench in the engine room, it leaked onto and put the inverter/charger out of commission. We purchased an overpriced battery charger to keep the batteries up while we awaited shipment of the new inverter/charger. Besides getting held up in Customs in Guadalajara, the new inverter failed on installation. Rather than hassle with the customs folks again, I purchased another inverter/charger and flew home to pick it up and return it to PV. Meanwhile, we had the old inverter repaired so we have it as back-up. We left for Punta Mita on April 6th. We hosted a celebration dinner on board with Pat and Gene of Chalet Mer, Dick and Carol of Tanoshii, and Bruce and Ailene of Migration. We left Chacala on the 8th for Chacala, arriving after a nice 5 hour sail. Jim and Lois Ann of White Star, and Roy and Marlene of Jelly Bean were anchored when we arrived. Chacala is the cove you dream about when you think of cruising the tropics. White sand beach backed by a large palm grove and surrounded by mountains, with cute little palapa restaurants on the beach. Migration arrived the following day. Along with Bruce and Ailene, we hiked up to the Guayaberra Grove overlooking the bay and visited the cladera (an extinct volcano area). That evening we had cocktails onboard Migration with all the other cruisers in the bay (about 12) and Bruce showed "Don Juan Demarco" on the sail of Migration using his projection tv and dvd player. We had a problem with the genset and the alternator which delayed our departure, but I got the latter working and we left for Matanchen bay next to San Blas. We were pleased to see Migration was still there. Usually when we arrive, I dive the anchor. On arrival at Matanchen Bay, I noticed a large dorsal fin and big black shadow approaching the boat. We were in only 12 feet of water. As It got closer, I could see it was a whale shark, the largest fish in the sea (true wales are mammals). Unfortunately, I did not have a camera, so no photo but I estimate it was around 25 feet long We hosted Bruce and Ailene for dinner and the next day we visited the historic town of San Blas, made famous by Longfellow's last poem, "the Bells of San Blas". We visited the new art gallery and a beautifully restored hotel. San Blas is infamous for no-seeums, tiny biting insects that can penetrate all but the smallest screens. We anchored a mile off shore and put up our no=seeum screen around the cockpit, and no one except Bruce was attacked. We left the following morning for Isla Isabela, the Galapagos of Mexico. We had a great sail over, and anchored along with Migration at Los Moanes (the Manikins) on the east side of the island. The next morning, we all took the dingys to the main landing at the fishing village. What an incredible place. The frigate birds breed there and despite being beautiful fliers in the air, have the ugliest progeny I have ever seen. The "babies" are bald, about the size of a vulture (they are related) and perched in a large nest in trees that are only about 4 or 5 feet off the ground, so the babies are at eye level with you. We hiked up to the top of the island where the blue footed, yellow footed and red footed boobies breed. There are thousands of them, along with several species of gull. The boobies do an amazing dance during courtship, and the males feet turn bright blue. Although there are so many it is hard to walk, the mothers are very protective of their young, squawking away if you get closer than a couple of feet. The view from atop the island is spectacular. Deep blue water. Later that afternoon, I went free diving and saw my first free swimming tuna (about a 20 pounder) in only 15 feet of water! The visibility was nearly 80 feet and there were scores of schools of different species with over a thousand fish in some schools. Quite an unusual place and the best diving we have had since leaving Baja. I made 3 more dives and saw another tuna in about the same spot. After the last great dive, we left along with Migration and the Catamaran At Last for Mazatlan around sunset. The wind and seas were totally calm, so we motored all night, arriving in Mazatlan at dawn as planned. We got a slip in Marina Mazatlan and were promptly invited to a pot luck barbecue on the dock with several other 2004 Ha ha vets, including, Chalet Mer, Effie, Jellybean, Tea Leaves, Savannah, At Last, and the big catamaran La Dolce Vita. The next week was regatta week in Mazatlan and we enjoyed meeting new and old friends in the club above the marina offices at the various events throuhout the week, including, tacos by local cooks, a huge tuna cook out and pot luck and the final night a caterer dinner with entertainment by the Carnival dancers of Mazatlan. all for only 250 pesos for the whole week. We hired Rick to fix the problems with our gen set and make a new mount for the alternator. We found him to be very efficient and reasonable. While awaiting the new parts to be made, we decided to take the ferry to La Paz to obtain additional copies of our ten year import permit (which customs erroneously kept in PV). The ferry was an interesting experience, We paid for a cabina, about the size of the old pullman compartments, with en suite head and shower. The bar was very nice, similar to an old cruise ship with nice ocean views all around. The ship leaves Mazatlan at 5;30 and arrives in La Paz the following morning. We went up on deck before sunset and enjoyed watching the booby birds dive for fish that apparently the ship stirs up. They fly along each side of the ship and when they spot a fish, they pull up into almost a loop and dive 40 to 50 feet into the water, sometimes getting the fish. We learned later that they die from starvation due to blindness after years of diving . Arriving in La Paz, we stayed at the Los Arcos Hotel on the malecon, and enjoyed getting reacquainted with one of our favorite Mexican cities. The guy who gave us our import permit in 2004 (a University of Arizona grad) remebered us and we got two certified copies in 15 minutes! A record in Mexico. We picked up some boat parts, including several fans. We got a suite on the ferry for the trip back as no cabinas were available. It came with a king sized bed, dvds and tv and a large bathroom. We enjoyed the rest of our stay in Mazatlan, and "watched" the Suns playoff games on the computer and sometimes on cable at a local sports bar. We visited one of the Caliente sports books for the first time and discovered we could watch the Diamondbacks and the Suns at the same time, along with several other games and horse races. Our friends Pinky and Danny of the Cal Dulce Sueno arrived the last night of our stay and joined us for dinner and game seven of the Suns Laker series at a local restaurant. We left early the next morning and arrived at Matanchen Bay after a 21 hour sail. Linda went to bed, while I rigged the flopper stopper. I must have tied a poor knot as it immediately sunk to the bottom. As we were only in 10 feet, I put on my wet suit and dove in. The visibility was so poor, I hit the face plate of my mask on the bottom. I searched for several minutes before finding it on the opposite side of the boat from where it dropped. We sailed to Chacala the next morning, staying a couple of days before leaving for Punta de Mita. On the sail in from Punta de Mita, we put up our recut spinnaker (now a gennaker) and we were able to do 3.5 knots in a 4 to 5 knot wind. Not bad for a 44,000 lb boat. We returned to our slip in Paradise Village and got back into the routine of working out at the spa 3 or 4 days a week. Linda does pilates and yoga for 3 hours and I do weights and ride my bike to Bucerias (about 12 miles) and then relax in the sauna, steam and jacuzzi. We tried severalrestaurants with our friends and attended the Altruism festival again, and discovered some new places to try. We flew home on June 1, bidding farewell to our friends Bob and Terry who have purchased a Hylas 52 on the east coast so they will be selling Shearwater and cruising Maine and the Caribean.

Planes and boat problems

We returned to Banderas Bay in time for the Altruism festival, where all of the major restaurants in the area donate their time, food, booze and entertainment to 25 local area charities. You get to sample a signature dish from all of the great restaurants on the bay and enjoy great entertainment for only 250 pesos ($25.00). We flew home on the 1st of June after a final going away lunch with all of our cruising friends from the Ha ha. When we decided to go cruising, I did not want to give up our airplane so I asked my friend Bill Cross to fly it while we are in Mexico. Bill took the Bonanza Pilot Proficiency Class with me and really got into flying again. He and his wife Landra were taking the Bonanza on a Pacific Bonanza Society tour of hotels across the country, when the engine quit near Apple Valley, California. Linda and I were in Tucson at the time at the Bar Convention. Bill did a good job of handling the emergency and landed the airplane on a dirt road and he and Landra were not injured. Sadly, at the end of the roll-out, the right wing struck a pole, skewing the aircraft around and damaging the prop as well as the wing. I agonized the next few days over whether to replace it with another Bonanza, and after some research on Trade-a-Plane, decided to go ahead and get another plane. I identified 4 that I wanted to see and was making reservations on Southwest Airlines to go to Albany, NY, Akron, Ohio and Orlando, Florida, when Teapot Tony, our boat watcher called and said " we came within an hour of losing the boat!" I had flown down to PV to deliver some new zincs for the prop and when the diver installed them the next day, the PSS (permanent shaft seal) came loose from the prop shaft like a nut on a bolt, and let 2 feet of water into the boat. David, one of the marina employees heard the smoke alarm going off (the large cables on the starter had been blown off and set off the alarm). I had committed to buy another airplane and now it seemed even more important in order to fly parts down to the boat. Linda flew down to inspect and clean up the damage, staying on board Tanoshii with our friends Dick and Carol, while I flew to the east to try out some other planes. I selected N671vc in Albany, New York, and we hired an electrician to rewire the boat, rebuild the starter motor, replace several pump motors, and rebuild the generator. Needless to say all of this took much longer and cost more than anticipated resulting in a shortened cruise in 2005 2006

Mexican Gold Coast

In late March, our friends Dave and Darlene Mecke arrived for our first trip south of Banderas Bay to the Mexican Gold Coast. We had spirited sailing to Ipala the first stop, where we remembered that it was Semana Sante (Holy Week) the biggest Mexican Holiday, and two different bands played most of the night. Next stop was Chamela where we stayed a couple of days and visited one of the islands in Chamela bay that is a national environmental site. Its also a great small beach for swimming. Once in Chamela, the rest of the anchorages on the Gold Coast are only a day sail apart. We went in to Careyes, the site of the first Club Med in Mexico, but we did not stop as the surge was pretty uncomfortable. Instead, we went another 10 miles to Tenacatita , which is famous for its jungle river. We took Dave and Darlene up the jungle river with it's low hanging mangroves and tropical birds. We docked the dingy and had lunch at a palapa restaurant on the beach overlooking the other anchorage in Tenacatita bay. This area has a supposedly good snorkeling area called the aquarium, although visibility was not that good on this day. We stayed another day in Tenacatita, walking to the resort hotel on the beach, before leaving for Barra de Navidad. We were able to sail most of the 20 miles to Barra. We went into the marina at Barra which is part of a spectacular 5 star hotel and resort. We met our friends Jerry and Sandy of Romancin' the Zeas, and they introduced us to the pleasures of mango margaritas. Barra is an interesting place. There is a large somewhat shallow lagoon where up to 100 cruisers can anchor, and an expensive marina (10 days cost the same as a month) attached to a great hotel with a large pool and private beach. The hotel never seemed to have that many guests. You reach the town of Barra de Navidad by water taxi from the hotel. There are a number of interesting restaurants in Barra which also is known for the surf break just outside the entrance to the marina. The French Baker delivers fresh baked pastries to the marina and the Lagoon each morning. We stayed for the month of April. Near the end of the month our fellow Cal owners Pinky and Danny Gardner arrived in Barra and we enjoyed playing tennis with them on palm tree shaded courts, overlooking the sea. The 4 of us left Barra and traveled back up the Gold Coast to Banderas Bay, after a mostly perfect first season for us. Dave Mecke remarked "this is the first boat I've been on where everything worked". We sailed back into BanderasBay with big smiles to be back in Paradise Marina.

Guadalajara

In February of 2005 we traveled to the historic city of Guadalajara. The church and several of the buildings on the square were built in the 1500s. The hotel Frances, must be one of the oldest in the Americas, it opened in 1603 and is still going. We toured the lovely square which has theTeatro Diana (theater) built in 1560, the government buildings which has several famous murals by Clemete Orozco, which satirize both Mexican and world history. We received a different explanation of who the various characters were from and ex-pat American with whom we did a walking tour, and a Mexican Guide, with whom we toured several of the historic buildings and Telaquepaque . Orozco was famous for creating optical illusions in his murals. The finger of Hidalgo (the priest who freed the Indian slaves) in the painting appears to move as you ascend the stairs in the legislature building. In the former orphanage building, now a school for architects, a figure appears to be on both sides of a door depending on where you are standing. His most famous mural, Man on Fire, painted on the dome of the architecture building appears to change in several respects as you change positions under the dome. We did the hop on hop off bus tour of the famous sights (similar to the London tour) on a double decker bus. We enjoyed some of the best Mariachi music (which originated in Guadalajara) at Bariachi, a large restaurant and night club. We arrived at 8 for what would normally be a late dinner for us, and discovered that the performance did not start until nearly 10, when the place suddenly filled up with large families, many with small children. The last night we went to a soccer game between Atlas and Chivas at the Guadalajara stadium, which was used in two world cups and the 1968 Olympics. Both teams have a lot of local support and the place was truly sold out with many people sitting on the stairs and the aisles. Earlier in the week we went to a performance of Carmen, although not the opera as written by Bizet, it was modern dance with a rock flavor, with the occasional use of the great arias from Bizet's masterpiece. We enjoyed the bus ride to and from Puerto Vallarta, the seats are comparable to first class seats on an aircraft, and the bus has restroom facilities and movies are shown through-out the trip.

San Carlos La Paz Puerto Vallarta

After thanksgiving, we decided to wait until Monday to leave San Carlos for La Paz. Unfortunately, another Norther blew in and we did not leave until the following Friday. We did enjoy riding our bikes around the area and the many nice coves within walking distance. When we left, instead of stopping at all of the great spots on Baja, we went non stop to Isla San Francisco, which we made in 30 hours, averaging around 7 knots with 25 knot winds. We arrived in La Paz the following day after a windy night in Isla San Francisco, and spent a couple of days relaxing before leaving for Puerto Vallarta. We met our friends Bob and Terry of Shearwater in Los Muertos cove and traveled with them to Los Frailles and then across the Sea of Cortez (for the 3d time in a month) to Paradise Marina in Nuevo Vallarta, arriving on the morning of the 12th after a 48 hour sail. What a beautiful place. We flew home as scheduled on the following day. We now know not to schedule departure times in other places. The weather does not always cooperate. We had a great Christmas holiday with both of our children and all of our grandkids as well as Chad's parents and his sister. After crossing the sea 3 times in a month and not having time to stop and enjoy any anchorage for long, Linda announced that we were not going anywhere for a while. This is a great spot with world class facilities, 4 pools, a short walk to the beach and several beach restaurants, in addition to the great spots in Puerto Vallarta. It is also one of the most convenient places to have guest fly in for a visit. Cathy joined us for a week in March and we did the zip line tour and rode horses to a beautiful waterfall. We celebrated Linda's birthday at Vista Grill, a spectacular restaurant on the side of the hills overlooking the entire Banderas Bay.

Los Frailles to San Carlos

We left Cabo and its Scottsdale-like atmosphere and prices, for Los Frailles (the Friars) if you look closely the mountains resemble 4 friars in their garb (sorry no photo) We beat into the wind and seas for several hours, leaving around 7 and arriving around 4. We anchored with several other cruisers from the Ha ha including 2 other Cals. We arrived on the 9th and a "Blue Norther" (strong Northerly winds) started to blow that night and for the next several days. We arrived on the 9th of November and left on the 12th for La Paz with Snowgoose and Relax. We stopped overnight at Los Muertos arrived in La Paz on the 13th. This is still one of our favorite Mexican cities. Little tourism, no time share or condo sales people, great diving and friendly people, with 4 marinas and a large cruising community. We enjoyed riding our bikes from Marina Palmira down the newly finished Malecon along the ocean, and rediscovering the area. We were meeting Jon, Carey, Hamilton, Edwin and my sister Carol and her boys Matt and Jim in San Carlos, Mexico for Thanksgiving. I had hoped to spend more time at the great anchorages along the east coast of Baja and the islands, unfortunately we had 400 miles to go and only a few days to make the passage. We stopped in Isla (island) San Francisco the first night. It is a classic island with a comma shaped cove and white sand beach. We caught 2 large dorado leaving La Paz so I quit fishing (we still had several tuna and dorado in the freezer). We stopped the 2d night at Bahia Agua Verde, a favorite with most cruisers. It reminds me of Lake Powell, with a large solitary rock island inside the entrance and large mountains forming the cove. We had dolphins surf the bow wake on the dingy here, the only time that has happened. We used our new Ham licenses to get weather and talk to old and new friends on the Sonrisa Net. We stopped the 3d night in beautiful San Juanico, where I lost my second pair of glasses when I rigged the flopper stopper. Linda was mad. No problem, I said, I'll get them in the morning when I dive the anchor. "I'll kiss your ass if you do!" she said. The next morning I dove and moved the anchor and chain and just as I was finishing the dive I saw a glint of sun on the glasses! I am still waiting for the kiss. We left San Juanico earlier than planned as the wind was up although it died around 20 miles off shore and we motored most of the day with too little wind to even motor sail. A small breeze came up around sunset but before we could decide whether to sail, a full on Norther with 45 knot gusts and steep 15 foot seas began, throwing Linda to the opposite side of the cockpit. This uncomfortable motion continued until our arrival in San Carlos at 2 am. We anchored in complete darkness, and had to re- anchor as we were only in 7 feet of water. We crashed for the rest of the night. The anchorage was quite beautiful the next day with new green desert grasses contrasting with the red rocks on the surrounding mountains. We could not get a slip in San Carlos Marina so we arranged to go to Marina Real a few miles away. We enjoyed diving with Jon and Carol and took everyone out to sail, unfortunately the wind was mostly nonexistent. We enjoyed thanksgiving dinner with 9 of us on board.

2004 Baja Haha

With our crew of Larry and Sandy Arvidson, we departed San Diego at 1:30 PM on October 26,2004 in a light rain. We arrived in Bahia de Tortugas (turtle bay) at around 7 pm on October 29th during a full lunar eclipse, which blocked our light from the full moon. We picked up a nice yellow fin tuna as we passed the north end of Cedros Island. We spent 3 nights in Turtle (3 more than on any previous trip) culminating with the beach party on the last night with around 500 sailors at a pot luck. Sandy climbed the mountain overlooking the bay. We departed Turtle on the morning following the beach party with the new iron rose spinnaker up, making 8.2 knots Most of the boats in the ha ha (about 150) had a colorful spinnaker up so the departure was spectacular. Larry got some shots of the other boats (attached) The wind got to be too strong for the chute so we doused it and made 6 knots under the main alone in 25 knots of wind. We sailed about half the way to Santa Maria Bay and Sandy caught a nice dorado. We arrived on the evening of October 31 to this usually isolated bay with a 20 mile long beach. The last time we were the only boat in the bay. Now there are another 150 boats. We stayed for a couple of days with the fleet and partied with the other cruisers. Larry and Sandy swam ashore with the inflatable kayak and climbed to the top of the mountain that forms Cabo San Lazaro and got a great shot of all the boats in the bay. We left for Cabo on the following morning with the spinnakers up again, a really colorful sight. The wind moderated and then died so back to motor sailing until sundown when the wind piped up to 20 knots or more. We arrived in Cabo the morning of November 4th. Bill Cross flew our Bonanza down with my sister Carol and met us and flew Larry and Sandy back to Phoenix for their flight home. We all went to the beach party which featured drunks doing back flips off the elevated stage. I ferried everyone 3 at a time to the beach party from the marina. Cabo is still the most expensive place we have ever stayed, 125 dollars a night for a slip. We partied with our crew, Bill and my sister, our friends on Liberty Tom and Nancy, Frank and Dayna of Snowgoose, and Dick and Carol of Tanoshii. In hindsight, we did the Ha ha to meet more cruisers en route (we had done 3 previous trips solo) but mainly hung out with folks we knew from the Cal club, Ham class etc.